In Other Words: Knowing My Place

Posted on by under The Stories

In Other Words

I am writing another bit here at “In Other Words” from this week’s awesome quote from Patricia

“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth.
We are all crew.”
Marshall McLuhan

~~~Spaceship Earth~~~

Please check out Patricia’s place HERE and after you have read a bit consider adding your own two cents into the mix.

Here is my piece entitled:

Photo Credit: flickr.com

Guided

by JE Lillie

When I awoke here I couldn’t move. My arms and legs were like lead weights in the ship’s heavy gravity. After months floating in the juice I had all I could do to breathe and eat never mind move.

Everything about the ship was different and scary. Gravity, light, breathing air instead of liquid and the complex language of the crew. I spent months orienting myself to the point where I could walk, feed myself again and understand what was going on.

The Captain assigned me two guides to help me train for my position on the crew. I count that fortunate. Some of my fellow newbies only got one guide assignment. Theirs was the greater learning curve. Even so guides are just that, guides. Though they start telling you everything like: when to eat, when to sleep, when to get up, by the time it comes to the really big questions like how to live out your purpose on the ship and what your position is on the ship, they can only really make suggestions.

One of my guides manages one of the ship’s many commissaries. He started training me for the work. At first I thought it would be easy. What I found out is that feeding the ship’s hungry is no small task and managing and organizing supplies is a bigger job than I am skilled for.

My other guide is a healer. She is a no nonsense woman who could push dead people back to health given the time and proper equipment. I can’t put bandages on right.

While I am not skilled in either of their professions what I have learned from them in my time aboard ship is that guidance is not so much about similarity with another person as it is about sympathy for another person. In that I have found my purpose. Soon I am to be commissioned as a ship’s counsellor.

This is a link to another great story from Josie Twoshoes http://www.josie2shoes.com/2016/01/no-free-rides.html

Color My World: Banana?

Posted on by under Photography

So apparently this is called banana mania in Crayola’s color palette. I would not… repeat would not….. eat a banana this color but I think I may have taken some pictures that are a little banana-maniaish.

This might be a bit bright
This is pretty close
I never thought I was taking this picture for the value of the back drop color

Check out other BANANA-COLORED PHOTOS HERE.

Braided:Weekly Writing Prompt 18

Posted on by under The Stories

This week THE SECRET KEEPER  has given us these five words to help us in our creative process:

| WAIT | MEET | TEAR | ACCEPT | CEASE |

Based on these themes, I have chosen to write a a short story this week entitled:

“Braided”

by JE Lillie

I  gazed into the mirror hardly recognizing the man staring back. My beard had gotten long and gray.The hair that lay over my shoulder in that long braid was threaded with the same silver that speckled my chin. I looked so tired and old. When had that happened?

The answer flew to mind immediately…no delays there. Life had changed a year-and-a-half before when she left to “find herself”. I wept. I shouted. I begged. I threatened. Nothing worked. She packed and was gone.

That’s when I began the fast. I made a Nazirite vow that day. Maybe it was a little extreme. Maybe it was a little Old Testament. Maybe I couldn’t do the sacrifice part with the lamb, but the rest I was determined to accomplish. I was going to show God I was serious about wanting her back.

In those first months I sent flowers and cards. I called her cell and texted when she wouldn’t answer. I spent my mornings and evenings begging God for her return.

About month five, I began to hear that Inner Voice repeat again and again “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.” I studied the verse from Isaiah; Ruminated on it. I learned that the word “wait” meant to be braided together with God, intertwined completely with His will.The day I learned that, was the first day I braided my hair symbolically to embrace God’s will whatever it was.

Somewhere in the journey the fast stopped being about my marriage and started being about me. In the braiding and unbraiding of my hair a hundred times I learned I was not the man I should have been. I stopped crying for her return and started crying for my own return to the true Lover of My Soul.

She was getting remarried to a good friend of ours even as I looked into that mirror and saw the old man before me. That hurt, but I knew one thing. I no longer needed the braid. God’s will had been done and in spite of my pain I was at peace with it. And that was worth waiting for.

I took the scissors and cut through the braid. It was time to move on.

The Road Through Romans: It Ends At The Beginning

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

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We are still moving through the book of Romans bit by bit. Once again, we are looking at Romans 1:16, 17. Yesterday we mentioned that the gospel reveals the only acceptable path to God. Today we are going to discuss what that pathway is.

If you have missed any of the previous posts in this series they can all be found on THE ROAD THROUGH ROMANS PAGE. 

Here are the verses we are looking at today,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

We are looking specifically at the bold-faced words.

I don’t think it can be said enough that true righteousness comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. Everything in our world is geared towards getting that wrong. Humanism has taught us…ingrained in us…that righteousness comes through men trying really hard and beyond that salvation is earned when trying really hard meets with a bit of good fortune and man’s natural goodness. That is just sooooooooo wrong.

The truth is men are not by nature righteous. We are by nature evil (sorry folks that’s proven true by Scripture and if you’ve actually lived in the world by experience as well). We are not basically good people who sometimes make mistakes. We are basically evil people who sometimes do things properly. Most times when we end up doing the right thing it is because we overcome the temptation to do the wrong thing which first comes to our minds. Much of our current situation comedy entertainment extends from the battle to make the right choice in the midst of the temptation to do the wrong thing, while much of our dramatic entertainment  involves stories of what happens when that battle is not won.

Righteousness will never come because of man’s solo triumph over evil. True righteousness can only be obtained AND maintained by placing faith in the power of Jesus Christ to help us overcome ourselves.

“just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’.”

We have much more to say on this subject but we have sixteen more chapters of study to say it in so for now I am…signing off!

 

Share Your World 2016 Week 1

Posted on by under For Family & Fun, Uncategorized

It is 2016 and time once again to SHARE OUR WORLDS. This is week one of the sharing and you can find out all about folks in the New Year by clicking on the underlined link. OK maybe you won’t learn everything but you will learn something and as they say “that is something at least!” 🙂

share-your-world2

Ready? Set? HERE WE GO……

As a child, who was your favorite relative?

My favorite relative as a child was my cousin Michael. He was imminently cool. He was closest to my age among the cousins (at least the ones I knew well) and I saw him quite often. I don’t think he felt the same. I was four years his junior definitely not cool and his mother had to baby sit me and my sister. So I guess looking back there were times he didn’t appreciate me as much as I appreciated him but that has changed over the years. He and his wife are now members of the church where I pastor and his daughter is one of our church pianists.

If you could be a tree or plant, what would you be?

I would be a date palm. Big and sweet.

What would be your preference, awake before dawn or awake before noon?

Oh gosh I am usually awake before dawn now and that is most definitely not my favorite…. but awake before noon? 😦 I guess if that could include waking up between 8 and 9 A.M. I would choose that. Sleeping until like 11 feels like such a waste of day light.

Would you like to sleep in a human size nest in a tree or be snuggled in a burrowed spot underground?

Oh underground please. I have always wanted to live in a Hobbit Hole!

photo by: http://www.backpackingearth

 

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful that I got the 20 pages of back story done for my publisher!

This week I am looking forward to helping at Special Touch REACH New England’s outreach service and I am also looking forward to helping my friend Deb Maciorowski from http://debbestillandlisten.com/ move into her new apartment. Hopefully she will be back writing again soon.