DISAPPOINTED

 "To live is to be disappointed."

The other day my five year old grandson was so proud of himself being able to bounce a basket ball 20 times in a row.  He declared that he wanted to be a basketball player when he grows up.

Children see everything as potentiality while 20 year olds suffer the illusion that will open up to many possibilities, however, as I get older, I realize that many potentialities are illusions.  Life has a way of drifting in and out of disappointments.  This broken world is full of disappointments.

A statement recently struck me, "Look guys, we need to manage our expectations."  We all have dreams and expectations, and when they fail, disappointment fills our puny minds because God knows the bigger picture.

The thing is we are all born into a broken world and in the context of a bigger picture and "Hope is the anticipated reality."  Many times we arrive at weeks end  by our selfish prayers and expectations of them being answered with an out come we would prefer, however, not knowing the bigger picture puts us at a disadvantage of not knowing what is best, even when God says, it's time to come home.

You never know where life will take us.  We never know when life will be taken.

There are a few precious things that no one can take away from me and these have been a comfort through out my years:

>My access to God has never been denied. (Heb. 4:16)

>The Word of God has always been available to me and nobody can take it out of my mind.

>The hope of heaven, everlasting life, peace, joy, and love.

When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psa 34:17-18)

GOLDEN RAIN

THE NOSEY NEIGHBOR, here reporting on her late morning photo walk.  Oct. 8, 2021

Gorgeous Autumn Spectacle

And what to my wandering eyes did appear on Lemay Street, a block full of Golden Rain Trees, aka Chinese Flame trees on a street awash of autumn spectacle, in the color of fall, I must've missed on previous adventures.  All that glitters is not gold.

I stood there amazed capturing the scene.  A man walking his dog, stopped wondering what had captured my attention as I stood in the middle of the street in awe.

 I explained to him how could I have missed this block.  We chatted for awhile.  He turned around and walked the other way as I continued to capture the endless golden litter left.

The Chinese flame tree puts on these outstanding shows several times a year in my back yard but to have a whole street dedicated to that tree excited me.

Big heads of tiny fragrant yellow flowers are followed by festive, eye-catching, reddish pink to salmon-rose papery miniature Chinese lantern-like seed capsules that stand out against the green foliage, and some hang on the tree for months or even until the next bloom.

Rose-colored Chinese lanterns dangling from branches

One cannot ignore the beauty of such a spectacular specimen of God's creation.  My head was still spinning as I headed for home.  So the thing about SoCal is that the leaves and flowers on the trees just keep hanging on and don't loose their grip easily, making  "hanging on for dear life" a new meaning.

"Hang on for dear life" took on a whole new meaning when riding in the car with my Dad at the wheel.  What would be considered driving like a maniac here in the US, would be considered normal in Mexico.  No seat belts and packing in as many people in one car.  The roundabouts, well that took driving to the next level.

I made two more stops to chat with neighbors that were out and about. So there's this thing I'll call subtle warnings, seasonal changes, not only about fall but hints of what might be in the future.  Summer seems to hang on not wanting to release its foliage as if resisting change.

 The last vestiges of spring and summer are visible here and there.  How like us not wanting to divest ourselves of wrongful thinking. The disciplines of the mind and emotions is an ongoing thing. That thinking should be to fit "every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ." ~Eugene Peterson

 

Leaving an endless path of litter.

Not all was golden.  The bougainvillea are still in bloom everywhere.

 

A Page in My History

GOOD MORNING! GOOD EVENING! Oct.6, 2021

Make today, your day in history count. This is a day that the Lord has made, it is part of His story.

All right, let's go, let's do it, here we go.

Nothing is going on. Lot's is going on. Each page begs to be filled.

Day after day we are presented with another day, another day of what? Does the "past prove future" or does the "future prove past"?

These are just my thoughts as we plough through the book of Genesis.  

Today, my sisters and I have been exploring together the amazing, the inspiring, and tragic events transpiring in history past. This morning we considered chapter 3. Our pastor considers this chapter:

"the most vitally important chapter in all the Bible. It is the foundation of everything that comes after it (past proves future). Without it, little else in Scripture or in life would make sense. It explains the condition of the universe and the state of humanity.

It explains why the world has so many problems. I

It explains the human dilemma.

It explains why we need a Savior.

It explains what God is doing in history." (future proves past)

~The Battle for the Beginning: the Bible on Creation and the Fall of Adam, p.195

Our prayer focus:

To consider the fall of mankind and the effects of sin in that first family and beyond, spend time thanking God for His provision of forgiveness sin...and praising God for the work of redemption in Gen.3:15.

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." ~George Orwell quote

However, in a spiritual context, we would say that God controls the past and the present. We call it Sovereignty.

I would never want to go back to the past of my teen years, however if past proves the future it has made me what I am today.

Those were some agonizing seasons in life. 

I would not have classified myself as a "normal" teenager. I generally heeded wisdom and instruction, however, emotional pain existed. You might have called me Puritanical, as I did not indulge in what my peers were into. If truth be told, I was very intimidated by them.

I had never been to a movie theater or seen a movie until I moved to SoCal. after graduating from collage, made my own clothes, or wore donated ones, and of all horrors, more interested in listening to Mexican music.

I believe God had placed it into my heart a desire to do what was right. Well most of the time. The seeds of past proved that earlier lessons in life future proved God's intention in my life was to bring me through many seasons of future events to stretch my faith and to accentuate his presence.

I went (past proved) through many seasons, some short, others long.

So back to the Genesis His Story, the highlight of "past proves future" is to learn about our universe, its beginnings and about those who live/lived in it, what God is doing/has done in history, and why.

"God relishes surprise. We want lives of simple, predictable ease, smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see, but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance,comprehension, and yet don't. By his love & grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap & stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith & grant measures of wisdom & joy we would not experience otherwise..."Tony Snow's essay.

THE DAY WE DIDN'T HAVE FB

It was a day that unfolded differently than would be expected. ~Oct.4,2021

Oct.4, 2021, FB, WhatsApp, Instagram down worldwide for 5 hours.

The early morning skies bore the signs of a calm, too calm of a day.

It was an extremely peaceful, sunny day with blue skies with brush strokes of white.  The neighborhood was quiet.

 Later in the day the atmosphere became eerily calmer followed by a tremendous force of energy scaring a flock of crows. Violent gusts of wind tore through the air as dark clouds rolled in followed by thunder, lightening, and rain.

FLASH BACK: The thunderstorms were frightening at night prompting me to snuggle and cuddle my doll a little closer under the blankets while listening to the rain fall into the huge steel drums that were placed to catch the rain.   I was around 8 and at missionary boarding school during many fierce storms.