Keeping the Holmes Fires Burning: February 2013

Monday, February 25, 2013

The Wide Road vs the Narrow Path

The Narrow and Wide Gates

Matthew

13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Another version uses constricted and spacious

I am really enjoying the Sunday School classs that I lead. I dont say teach because in this case I love the conversation and perspectives that come up. One of my group is the first person I ever met who truly was a member of the Peace Corps. As we were studying this passage she told us a story about when she was leaving for her 2 years in the Peace Corps. Each young person going was allowed to take 50 lb of items with them for their 2 years, in a backpack. She told us that many of the people involved thought that the literature they were given to prepare was just a recommendation, you know, because we are Americans and all. But when they were not allowed to board the plane until their baggage met the weight and she watched others sitting and crying as they decided what they could throw away and live with out for that two years, it was heartwrenching. This really gave us a picture of what Jesus was talking about in this passage. He tells us to look for the narrow gate.. or in another translation, the gate that is constricted. the wide gate and the broad road leads to destruction because you can carry all of your baggage with you down that road. You can get through the gate with everything you are carrying with you; all of the things we as human beings tend to worship. We can carry those people who are harmful to us along. We can get through THAT gate with the whole wagon we are pulling along and we dont have to leave anything behind. However, do you see where this is going? the other road, that narrow one, the one with the small gate, we cant get through that gate with anything but ourselves. Thats what Jesus wants us to bring along, nothing but ourselves.
I have such a picture in my mind now of people sitting outside that gate, myself included, going through my backpack, showing each of the things in it to Him. With each thing that comes out of my pack, I can see Him now, telling me, its OK, my child, leave that behind, I will give you all the things you could imagine on this side of the gate. I see people who are reluctant to leave items behind. Somtimes, it is very difficult to let go of pleasureable things in our lives. Sometimes, it is even difficult to let go of items that we KNOW are not good for us. And sometimes, we didnt even see how certain things were not in our best interest until we tried to fit through the gate with them.

I am going to work much harder in the future to clean my backpack of all the things that just wont fit through the gate.

I also want to share my favorite poem in literature as I have figured out that I live the image of looking down the road. I like that image in photography, I like it in literature and I love this passage of scrpture. The image in this Robert Frost poem is very much the same. You can only travel on road, look carefully because you cant come back and expect to find the same beginning point.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Home, is where my heart wants to be.

Winter has been a very hard time for me for a variety of reasons that I wont go in to here. Spring is coming and is going to be a season of renewal for me if it kills me. haha.
There will be a point when I am able to do more of "what I want to do" if only by virtue of the sun being up longer each day.
I have some of those around me rather confused, or making assumptions about me that are not me.
Its not that I ever say much when anyone asks me what I want in life because then I have to deal with anything from funny looks to out right denial of possibly wanting those things. So here, on my very own blog that my friends who blog keep telling me, should be a blog by me for me about me, I plan to keep a running list of those things that I want to have happen when life is a little freer or slower or I dont have to carry the whole world on my shoulders or something.

The expectation for that time SEEMS to be that I should want to get the heck out of dodge. That ISNT what I want. I want to be able to live in the world I live in. So here goes:

OUTSIDE:
1. Finish painting the out side of my house.
2. clean up the front yard and carport
3. fix the faucet in the front yard by digging out and replacing the water line to it so that I can have water in the front yard to HAVE a nice yard.
4. fill in the hole on the carport.
5. Clean out the garage and organize it into a useable space.
6. fix door on the shed for the water softner
7. replace the watersoftner
8. clean out storage room behind the garage to begin building a craft room for me
9. clean up and level back yard
10. design and work on a private patio area with my garden around the edge of it.
11. prepare my garden
12. build privacy fence around yard
13. expand garden area over the next couple years to encompass much of the back yard.
14. plant fruit/shade trees in back yard
15. Build turtle habitat in back yard.
16 plant perennial flowers in planter in front yard.

INSIDE:
1. New front door
2. refinish livingroom diningroom and halway floor
3. paint paneling in livingroom and replace all trimwork
4. New curtains
5. new pictures and frames in livingroom
6. new ceiling fan and light in diningroom
7. finish trimwork in diningroom and hallway
8. sand and refinish floor in boys rooms
9. new screens on bedroom windows
10. New counter tops in kitchen,
11. sandblast and repaint kitchen cabinets
12. fix door on cabinet
13. Install new brighter lighting in kitchen.
14. replace flooring in kitchen
15. new door to laundryroom
16. paint shelf in laundryroom
17. have piano tuned
18 replace flooring in laundry room
19. replace light in laundry room
20. replace door to bedroom
21. Curtain on window in the laundry room
22. fix hole in ceiling in laundry room
23. replace flooring in back bathroom
24. Paint the plywood over the windows a nice color.
25. New back door
26. fix lighting in bathroom and hallway
27. clean out back closet and organize it
28. build a headboard
29. Get a new chair for bedroom sitting area.

THEN... I might just might want to go somewhere on vacation. Because then, I would have a wonderful place to come home to so I would love the feeling of being gone long enough to come HOME>>>>>

Things that make me go hummmmmm.

There are a lot of things going on in my head the last few days. Things that are making me go hummmmmm.

Topics:
Negative people who dont think they are.
Positive people who think they are negative and arent.
People who do things that think no one else knows why they are doing those things.
People who think you should change even though they tell you they dont want that.
People who think its all about getting their turn.
People who think they know you and dont but should.
People who surprise you with things you never knew were there so you wonder where YOU didnt pay attention.

Any thoughts?

Things to get done.

A while back, I decided that it was very important to pull the carpet out of my bedroom. There were several reasons for doing this. One reason was that the carpet was original to this room from the mid 1970's and this room was used primarily for storage for many years so the carpet had more dirt and dust in it than could be gotten out. It was also very dated. The biggest reason however is that it has been imperative is to get the dust and dirt out of my bedroom for my husbands health. Getting the carpet out was a large task for me and I was happy to have the help of several family members to get it done. However, we have lived with bare plywood for the floor for a while now.
I am not good with deciding for instance, what color and what type of flooring to put in this room as I am not good at visualizing things like this. What if my husband doesn't like it, what if I don't like it. It is a big room, the cost is a major factor. Decisions like this tend to paralyze me. But I closed my eyes, and pointed.

We have slowly begun the process of replacing the flooring. It is going slow going as my husband works shift work and right now we are on opposite shifts and his days of have been, well, not days off. As the job progresses, I hopefully will continue to add photographs. Once the two closets get done, I believe it will go faster especially if we can move the furniture out to the back yard and just slam in to it for a day. Wish us luck.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Parable of the Talents

Tonight, we were at Bible Quiz practice and part of the chapter of Matthew we were reading was Matthew 25: 14-30 the Parable of the Talents. For anyone who needs a reminder of the story, I add that now.

14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
¹⁵And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

¹⁶Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.

¹⁷And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.

¹⁸But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.

¹⁹After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.

²⁰And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.

²¹His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

²²He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.

²³His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

²⁴Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:

²⁵And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.

²⁶His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

²⁷Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

²⁸Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.

²⁹For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

³⁰And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

     As I looked out at the room of 6 teens who have been studying the book of Matthew to one degree or another since August, I began to really think about this story. I have said for many years that my biggest goal in life is to hear my Lord say to me "Well done, good and faithful servant". I have thought over and over again what have I done that would garner those words at the point I am before Him.
     I have always read this passage from the vantage point of making money to return to further Gods Kingdom. I have to admit that being the product of the ERA Generation, yet someone who never felt driven to have a high powered corporate job, I have never made much money. I have never felt that what I had to return even really mattered in the scheme of things.
     But tonight, I saw something in this passage, from a different perspective. The servant who was given 5 talents took his talents out in to the world and used those talents to bring in 5 more.. likewise the servant who was given the two talents. For some reason, tonight, I saw those talents as my children and myself. I saw that when I married my husband, he had been to church, he had studied some, but he will tell you that I was instrumental in leading him to a saving relationship with Christ. I personally, never thought I DID anything, I was just there when he asked questions and I have tried to live my life in a way that would make Jesus proud to know me.  But tonight? Did I take the one talent my Lord gave me and multiply it? Hummmm, Talent number 1 being multiplied into two talents?
     I, also, remember a student of mine when I was teaching, knew that I was a Christian and she came from a family who did not particularly attend church. Her mother was willing to allow her to go, so she had been attending the same church I went to but because of the "laws" I had not really made any effort to actively share with her. She, however saw the light of Christ shining through my cracks and told me in class one day that she wanted to "go forward" in church the next Sunday and commit her life to Jesus, but she was scared to do it alone, and asked if I would hold her hand and walk her down to the front of the church. You bet I would. I was also there when she was baptized. However, as things happen in public school, we pretty much lost touch when she moved on to a higher level school so I really didn't see much of her anymore. One day, I found out that she had been accidentally killed when a gun near by discharged. That made a huge impact on me. Lord? Could that possibly be another talent that I was able to return to you?
     I have been there when each of my children and several nieces and nephews were brought in to the sheepfold. I pray that by watching the way I try to live my life and love those who need it, I can be counted as gathering a few more talents for my Master, while He is away.
I, then, thought about sending my two daughters out in the world.   I have always understood that my children were gifts from God. They belong to Him, but he gave me the charge of raising them and training them for The Kingdom. But, each of my daughters has gone out, and returned with a wonderful, Godly husband. Lord, could that be another example of multiplying your talents?
     Now, my oldest daughter is beginning the task of raising her own charges in life and my second daughter is finishing up her training this semester to become a teacher. Each of them has a whole new mission field opening up before their eyes.
     My two sons are just beginning their own voyages in life. It is funny because my oldest son is a tough nut to crack on the idea of faith and reliance on God. But from Sunday to Sunday, I am seen with not only the big red-head following me in to church to participate in my Bible Study for young adults class, but there is usually a pretty rag tag entourage following us. I pray for this band of gypsies every time I think of them, which is pretty often. They don't know that when I wake in the morning to find a carpet of young adults on my living room floor, that before I wake them, I say prayers for them. Maybe at some point in time, they will also be talents I can return to my Master.
     My youngest son, he has a bright future in front of him as he finds out just exactly where and when God wants to set him on his journey, but I believe that there are many talents in his future for him to decide what to do with.
     I wonder, almost on a daily basis, if the job I have done and continue to do as a wife and mother is barely adequate, much less good. Tonight, though; maybe, just maybe, I can see a part of my life through the eyes of my Master.