Poems, Personal Stories, and Observations

Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category

Christ is My Hope

I love cemeteries. They are quiet and peaceful. I think of the people resting there and hopefully they are completely at peace.

So Christmas day, my kids and I took a walk to Maple Leaf Cemetery in Oak Harbor, Washington. The walk itself was brisk, both in speed and in the weather. After a few meanderings we found the cemetery. One grave I saw was of a three-and-a-half month old child, which brought me to tears. Then, a young man of 28, obviously well loved. More tears. As I walked, a group of people across the cemetery seemed to be having a party. They had their car door open, and Christmas music came from its radio. Perhaps celebrating Christmas as they remembered a life well lived.

The final grave I looked at is pictured here. “Christ is My Hope” was the epitaph. I can honestly say that is true for me.

I just now noticed that there is no date of death, and that the birth date was in 1915, which means the person is now 98 years of age. I am glad the person has faced the reality of death and has the hope of resurrection.

Just a few days later, we visited my uncle by marriage, who is now 100 years old. He still walks an hour a day using his walker. His mind is still pretty sharp. What an amazing man.

Still, we never know when we might go.

131225 Maple Leaf Cemetery 002x

Category:

Christian, Commentary

Tagged with:

Our Purpose in Life?

In recent years, I believe my purpose is to show the love of Jesus to others. And yet, lately I thought, “If I’m lying unconscious in a hospital bed, how do I show the love of Jesus to others?” Perhaps sometimes, our purpose is to receive the love of Jesus or let others love us.

I really believe each person is loved by God and was put on earth for a purpose. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) A blind, deaf, and dumb person may have a purpose — perhaps he or she is used by God to teach others compassion.

I would love to hear people’s thoughts on this.

Category:

Christian, Commentary, Jesus

Tagged with:

False Enemy

[I thought I should explain how this poem was inspired. I watched a documentary about the real story that the book “The Hunt for Red October” is based on. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh0N3iG-7Uc . In the true story, a Russian naval officer is disillusioned by the way Communism had played out in reality (although he was still a Communist). He tried to start a revolution to bring back Communism to it’s ideal (helping the common people). The documentary also portrayed the Cold War in an interesting way. I thought about all the hopes and dreams of people from very different backgrounds. Then my mind jumped to other differences, like Protestant and Catholic, “conservative” and “liberal”, etc., and I thought, “I wonder if we are all wrong about each other?” Not too say there are not good reasons for the differences and conflicts, only that each person in his heart has a dream that we need to listen to.]

I thought you were my enemy
But someone had told me lies about you,
And so it seems,
Someone had told you lies about me.

We went around in a fog of falsehood
That seemed so normal
Because the fog was constantly around us.

Then the light
Began to break through
For me, for you.

The mist still mystifies
But it’s getting thinner.
Slowly the sun’s light
Is burning through.

Are we just relating
To ideas of each other
Or who we really are?

If I could see
With eyes divine
I would not believe a lie.

Category:

Commentary, Poems

Tagged with:

Quote on Suffering

“A hunter sometimes makes his dog suffer — for instance when the dog is caught in a trap, the hunter has to push the dog further into the trap, to lessen the tension on it, before he can get him out. That hurts, and [the dog] can’t understand what we can: the mechanism of a trap requires this push further in that causes such pain because this is the way out. God does the same to us sometimes, and we can’t understand why he does it any more than the dog can understand us.” Peter Kreeft in “Making Sense Out of Suffering”.

Category:

Christian, Commentary

Tagged with:

“Re: “ is for “response”

Wow, I really love getting responses to emails. If I write to people, I sometimes absolutely crave getting a response, anything to show that it meant something to them.

I guess we are made to communicate, but we all communicate in different ways. Sometimes it seems much easier for me to write to someone than to call them on the phone. I don’t fear their rejection as much when I write. Go figure!

But, I think as humans we all need to be responded to, so much so that as children at least, we would rather receive negative attention than no attention at all.

On pondering all this, I wondered what it is like for God when I don’t respond to Him. How many times a day is He telling me He loves me (through nature, other people, His word, etc.)? When I feel hurt by someone’s non-response (and usually they have a very good reason – I am NOT the center of the world, after all 🙂 ), perhaps I need to reflect on the times I have not responded to God or to others.

Just something to ponder.

Category:

Christian, Commentary

Tagged with:

Since all have sinned …

I recall that as a teenager, I happened to watch a documentary in which a Jewish survivor of the World War II concentration camps was narrating his experience at the Nuremberg trials, which were held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. The Jewish survivor, while listening to one of those on trial speak, suddenly fainted. When he regained consciousness, he was able to recall why he had fainted — he had suddenly realized as he listened to the man on trial, that he himself, given certain circumstances, would be just as capable of committing the same crimes.

How much do we need God’s mercy, “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God … ” (Romans 3:23). Lord, help us to allow you to change our hearts.

Category:

Commentary

Tagged with:

Communism’s Seven Wonders

A Hungarian relative sent me this. I don’t know who wrote it and I hope I translated it correctly!

————————————————————————————–

COMMUNISM’S SEVEN WONDERS

1) Everyone had work.
2) Although everyone had work, nobody did anything.
3) Although no one did anything, production exceeded 100%.
4) Although production exceeded 100%, it was still impossible to get anything.
5) Although it was impossible to get anything, everyone had everything.
6) Although everyone had everything, nevertheless everyone was stealing.
7) Although everyone was stealing, no ever missed anything

Category:

Commentary

Tagged with:

Missing Men

Missing men and absent abbas,
Deadbeat dads and passive papas,
Men who have gone off to fight,
Men who seem to be off site,
Men who sit and read the news,
While their kids are so confused.

Men who don’t know how to be men,
‘Cause their dad was missing when …
As they grew up, there was an absence
In body, spirit, or emotional lapses.

God, our Father, we pray to thee:
Fill the gaps we cannot see.
Help the men who never learned
For family, wife, to be concerned.

Who might not know to show respect
To women — sometimes they in fact reject
The ones who dare to have a mind;
Some men have not learned to be kind.

Don’t get me wrong, the ones who fight —
The rough guys, tough guys, they’re all right.
I only hope they will include
Some kindness in the interlude.

Yes, dear men, you have a role
To care for wife and children’s soul.
And like us women who too have flaws,
To see God’s plan we must give pause.

Category:

Christian, Commentary, family, Poems

Tagged with:

The Twelve Steps Of Idiots Anonymous

Just in case people are not aware of the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, (for example, see
http://www.silkworth.net/aa/12steps.html ), this is a parody of that. I recently “joined” Idiots Anonymous, due to my mistakes regarding God’s love for me.

1) We admitted we were powerless over our blindness to God’s love — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2) Came to believe that His love could restore our sight.
3) Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4) Made a searching and fearless inventory of our blind spots.
5) Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our unbelief.
6) Were entirely ready to have God remove all the aspects of our blindness.
7) Humbly asked Him to remove our blindness.
8) Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9) Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10) Continued to take inventory, and when we were blind or myopic, asked God for the grace to confess it.
11) Sought, through prayer and meditating on God’s word, to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to everyone we know, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Category:

Christian, Commentary, Hope, Spiritual

Tagged with:

Paradise

The Hungarians (my ancestors) must think very highly of tomatoes. They use the same word (paradicsom) for tomato and paradise.

Category:

Commentary

Tagged with: