(wild trukeys caught on our trail cam / Gregory Cook / 2019)
From our turkeys to yours…..
A most blessed and peace-filled Thanksgiving!
The Mayor and the Sheriff wish you all happiness…
Monthly Archives: November 2019
Thankful
As seen on a rural church sign:
It’s not happy people who are thankful…
It’s thankful people who are happy
(painting by Henry A. Bacon 1877 of Mary Chilton stepping onto “Plymouth Rock” /
Mary Chilton is my long ago relative)
Back in the early 1950s my grandmother, my dad’s mother, did extensive genealogy work.
She had her reasons and I confess that I am so grateful she did
It is because of her exhausting work that both my family, my cousins and I,
have a valuable gift of our lineage.
Lineage, that being the line from whence we come.
Even the Bible offers us the extensive lineage of Jesus—
We are also all a part of that same extensive lineage, yet that story is for another day.
Today’s tale is about a single family’s lineage and the gratitude for that lineage.
Now if you’ve read my posts regarding my adoption,
you know I actually have two family trees.
I have a biological tree that I know very little about.
And I also have an adopted tree, a tree and a people that have each embraced me
as their own.
It is a most extensive tree.
What my grandmother started almost 70 ago was no easy task.
She had to do a lot of leg work on her own as well as seek the help of many others.
She had to write a myriad of letters and make many personal phone calls to various state
record departments as well as to state historians in order to enlist their help in
researching her family’s past.
This was long before there were computers, databases, DNA Genealogy companies—
as archaic landlines were the standard norm.
Most calls were considered long distance…meaning you paid extra for long-distance calls.
But my grandmother was determined.
What she didn’t realize then, in her seemingly very personal quest, was
that she was giving her lineage, her grandchildren
one of the greatest gifts she could give.
That of a collective uniting history.
In those days there were no immediate connections, so her quest took time.
She had to request birth, death and marriage certificates.
She had to scour family bibles and records.
She had to have documents notarized and verified.
She traveled to courthouses.
She had to get the assistance of others in other states to visit distant courthouses
and churches and cemeteries in order to do a large portion of the digging.
For you see, my grandmother knew she had come from a line of people who
were important to the founding of this now great nation and she needed the proper
validation to be able to be granted the acknowledgment by such organizations as
The Daughters of The American Revolution, The Daughters of the Mayflower, The Pilgrims Society,
The Colonist Society, The Huguenot Society, etc.
This woman, who was born in 1896 in a small country town in the middle of the state
of Georgia, had actually come to be there by way England.
But from England, it was first to Plymouth…and from Plymouth, Massachusettes it was
to various towns in the colony of Massachusetts then to the city of Bristol in the colony
of Rhode Island, next, it was to the city of Savannah in the colony of Georgia
and finally to the tiny town of Molena in the state of Georgia…
but the final resting place was to be Atlanta, Georgia.
Her 10th great grandmother was Pricilla Mullins of London, England.
Pricilla Mullins was married to John Alden of Essex, England.
John was a cooper aka, a barrell maker.
John had a dream and Pricilla shared her husband’s dream.
They were on that fateful ship that we tend to remember each Thanksgiving,
just as we remember that first colony of Plymouth and of that first
celebration of not only survival but the beginning of thriving in a new land.
The Alden’s first daughter born on this new mysterious land was named Elizabeth–
the purported first white European girl born to the Plymouth Colony.
So yes, Thanksgiving is important to me on a family’s historical level…
but it is more important to me as a grateful American.
For it matters not how we came…be it those who were first here on the continent,
or if we came via Plymouth, a slave ship, Ellis Island or came with a visa in our
hand seeking citizenship…we have come…
We also have come in various shades of color.
Red, White, Brown, Black, Yellow…
We fought and died creating a new nation just as we’ve fought and died keeping her free.
It troubles me terribly that our society has developed a tendency to gloss over Thanksgiving…
basically jumping from Halloween to Christmas in one fell swoop…
But we can blame that on our obsession with materialism…
which is in actuality a loss of thankfulness.
Yet what is most troubling is that we now have many voices crying out that we rename this
day of thanks.
Some smugly stated that this is only a day of overindulgence and eating.
They claim Thanksgiving is not a day this Nation should recall let alone recognize.
One of our fellow bloggers, Citizen Tom, offered the following post regarding
our Nation’s Thanksgiving observation and celebration.
I highly recommend taking the time to read his post as it is a beautiful reminder
as to why Thanksgiving matters.
AN AMERICAN FIRST THANKSGIVING
This from President Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next
to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being,
who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is,
or that will be–
That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–
for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming
a Nation–for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions
of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war–
for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty,
which we have since enjoyed–for the peaceable and rational manner,
in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government
for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted–
for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed;
and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;
and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath
been pleased to confer upon us
senses put in order
“I go to nature to be soothed and healed,
and to have my senses put in order.”
John Burroughs
(shelf fungus / Julie Cook / 2019)
That quote by John Burroughs is so true is it not?
After any walk outside, out in nature…be it in the woods, through a meadow,
a ragged shoreline or a challenging mountain top…I always find myself at peace…
All worry and fret subsides…as that which is so much bigger, so much grander
than my mere self, has an enormous way of healing that which currently ailes my soul.
God is good like that.
Offering me the vast glory of His creation…
So it is no surprise that I love wandering in the woods especially this time of year…
It’s a time when I am not bothered by such things as spiders, snakes, or ticks.
No fears, no immediate worry as I can walk unimpeded—not fretting about where
I put my foot, as long as I avoid any and all stump holes—
those rotted out places in the ground, holes left gaping which are the remains of a dead tree…
such holes can be readily covered by the freshly fallen leaves and not immediately detected
by a mere glance downward.
Many a sprained ankle or even a break can happen when falling into such a hole.
I should know…thankful nothing ever broken…just usually sore and bruised.
And so I can hunt for those small wonders that still wait to be uncovered…
wonders that are not hibernating or buried deep within the ground waiting for Spring.
Shelf fungus and mushrooms are always a favorite to find as their shape, size, and colors
are usually most eye-catching.
Here are just a few from the other day…
(mildewed shelf fungus / Julie Cook / 2019)
(shelf fungus / Julie Cook / 2019)
(shelf fungus / Julie Cook / 2019)
(mushrooms, mushrooming out from under the crevis of a wooden bridge/ Julie Cook / 2019)
Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully,
he can learn more than what is in books,
for they speak with the voice of God.
George Washington Carver
reflecting on love and beauty
Love does not make unnecessary the fulfillment of God’s commandments,
but is their deepest form of fulfillment.
The commandments are not external prescriptions,
which promise reward to those who fulfill them and threaten punishment to those who
fail to observe them.
Instead, they are the revelation of God’s salvific design,
indicating to us the way of his love.
Gerhard Cardinal Müller
from The Power of Truth
(a late November reflection offered by a creek—doesn’t it look as if the trees are
upsdie down reflected by the deep blue sky? / Julie Cook/ 2019)
Only a few colorful leaves remain dangling in the trees,
the majority of the multitudes have turned brown, or more aptly turned
loose, providing a freshly muted carpet covering the forest floor.
There is a vast quietness once the leaves fall and are damp underfoot.
No rustling of the wind through the trees and no crinkling underfoot.
But that doesn’t mean that beauty is now hidden…quite the contrary…
her reflection waits for the lucky ones who pass by…
(a late November reflection offerd by a creek/ Julie Cook / 2019)
(a late November reflection found in a creek / Julie Cook / 2019)
Who has not heard Dostoyevsky’s oft-quoted remark: ‘Beauty will save us’?
Usually people forget to mention, however, that by redeeming beauty Dostoyevsky
means Christ. He it is whom we must learn to see.
If we cease to know him only through words but are struck by the arrow of his paradoxical beauty,
then we will truly come to know him and will no longer merely know about him secondhand.
Then we will have encountered the beauty of truth, of redeeming truth.
Nothing can bring us into contact with the beauty of Christ himself more than
the world of beauty created by faith and the light that shines upon
the faces of the saints, through which his own light becomes visible.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
from On the Way to Jesus Christ
which came first, the chicken or the news…
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself.
The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point
that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him,
and so loses all respect for himself and for others.
And having no respect he ceases to love.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
Well, I knew it would be coming…and come it did.
It came yesterday with a new post by our favorite,
formerly from across the pond and now from down under, pastor David Roberston.
David has waded into the proverbial Chicken war.
And no that is not the war between Popeye’s and Chick-fil-A as to who has
the better chicken sandwich…
It is rather the war of words regarding Chick-fil-A and the news over
whether or not the Chicken sandwich giant is distancing themselves from their
Christian charities…
those being The Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Chrisitan of Athletes.
The question raised on this little blog the other day was whether or not the news
was correct in their reporting over such or was Chick-fil-A still very much a contributor
to those particular Christian organizations.
Some say an adamant yes while others continue with their doubts.
Firstly, I should clarify that David is not new to this issue as he wrote a post a
few weeks back regarding the closing of the first Chick-fil-A franchise in the UK—
closing due to the mounting protests of the LGBTQ community as they perceive
the chicken sandwich franchise as being hostile to their varying communities.
That hostility being found in the fact that CFA stands by the Godly principle that
marriage is between one man and one woman–
a Biblical principle that the LBGTQ community finds both repugnant and offensive.
And they will not rest until all businesses and individuals abide by their view
and their view only.
David began yesterday’s post much like I did…
“But this is no joke.
It is an important and revealing issue.
Little did I realise that when I wrote about the intolerance faced by Chick-Fil-A recently –
praising their heroic stance –
that a month later I would be writing about their capitulation to that same intolerance.”
David goes on…
Although Chick-Fil-A have stated that their decision has nothing to do with giving
into political correctness, very few people believe that.
I suppose it could just be a ‘coincidence’ that they have dropped the charities
they have been condemned for supporting, and ended up supporting charities that
their critics endorse – but is it likely? It’s disappointing to watch a Christian company
not only give in to the bullies, but then seek to spin their way out of the criticism.
I wrote David to let him know that a fellow blogger,
whose husband owns and operates a Chick-fil-A here in the states,
wanted to set the record straight and reported that the news outlets had gotten
it all wrong.
David responded that it was not the news agencies who first offered the story but rather
Chick-fil-A itself by announcing their shift in charitable giving—the news merely reported
the story after the fact.
So now we have more confusion.
A conundrum of sorts.
I had later offered up a bit of a retraction to my original post after being informed that
I had perhaps had the wrong information and thus hoped to quell what was now
believed to be misinformation.
I wrote about the issue of truth and false news…but it seems
that we are still searching for the elusive facts.
I personally hope that Chick-fil-A will decide to address this mounting criticism
and questioning by setting the record straight as this issue has now taken
on a global slant.
Hoping to lay low and staying under the radar is comfortable but
we must be mindful and constantly aware that the progressive left is quick to smell
doubt and waffling…they will readily pounce when given any opportunity.
Are we, therefore, willing to take a stand for our Biblical principles or do we prefer to
keep the status quo of safety while choosing the path of least
resistance toward appeasement?
A path that lessens our faith, whittling it away until it is no longer the
faith of the Great I AM but something else entirely?
Here is the link to David’s post:
ailments, maladies and anomalies
Do you suppose there is any living man so unreasonable that if he found himself
stricken with a dangerous ailment he would not anxiously desire to regain
the blessing of health?
Petrarch
Ailments–illness, typically minor.
Maladies– a disease or ailment.
Anomalies–a deviation from the expected or standard
If we live, we will live to experience all three…
be it an ailment, a malady or even an anomaly…
Perhaps we will experience all three.
Some of us will have more than others.
And if fortunate, some of us will have them less and very few.
Ailments are more or less just aggravating…
a sore shoulder, a bruised knee, a cut, a slight headache…
things that don’t bring us to our knees but rather just slow us down.
Maladies, however, usually show up at some point or other, unannounced and
tend to be a bit fierce.
They may sneak up on us in the middle of the night or while on vacation.
They most often cause a disruption to our life’s flow and rhythm…
They come in as a cold, the chickenpox, a sore throat, a broken bone, the flu, a stomach bug…
They are annoyances to health and our time but they are things that are usually
rectified with some attention, a few meds and rest.
At other times, maladies can become a full-blown crisis…
They can come on quickly and out of the blue…
be it something like the physical results from an accident, a case of acute appendicitis,
a heart attack or some ruptured or blocked this or that or the dreaded “C” word…
Perhaps it’s a spiked and dangerously high fever for no apparent reason.
A signal from within that something is terribly wrong.
We tend to worry most when these things happen to children.
Often times their systems just aren’t old enough, immune enough, or tough enough
to fight for themselves.
We tend to go into crisis mode when the malady is within a child.
Yet maladies, be they minute or major, more times than not, happen to all of us
and most need our immediate attention…
or either we may suffer from the consequences of the ‘or elses’ in life.
Some maladies are things we have to learn to live with as it seems that our bodies
and/ or our systems are just the lucky bodies and systems that have inherited something
via DNA or just because we’ve become the lucky recipient of whatever has come our way.
Various long term maladies come to mind such as diabetes, chronic pain issues,
glaucoma, arthritis, and even some cancers…
They are annoying, somewhat debilitating, but we learn to carry on.
That is when many of these issues move from being a malady to the
category of an anomaly.
I know about all of these issues…but no more so than that of anomalies.
I have written before about having to live with IBS…
Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
When I was young, they told my mom I had a nervous stomach.
Today it’s more of a case that I hate my guts because my guts hate me.
It’s a great relationship.
I’ve also written about living with a bum thyroid as I have Hashimoto’s disease–
It steals your eyebrows along with your energy and gives you weight,
whether you wanted the weight or not…
and just as suddenly, it takes that weight away but it will not give back eyebrows.
It is a living yo-yo.
I’ve also written about living with hemochromatosis—living with a body
and a liver that absorbs iron and seems to store it as if the Apocolypse is coming…
as in holding on to it till it builds up to a dangerous level and then
you become known as Ironman or Ironwoman—not so bad if you’re into Marvel comics.
All of which are maladies, but if the truth be told, they are seemingly more like odd
anomalies…deviations from the expected and venturing off into the surreal.
Yet be they maladies or anomalies, they are most often things one learns to live with—
because as we age, we seem to acquire more and more anomalies—
anomalies that we just learn to live with.
Aggravating but we know the only choice is to carry on.
Remember what Churchill said…”If you’re going through hell, keep going!!!”
Yet within the recent past year, my anomalies have spiked.
I was left feeling simply bad, all the time.
Achy, tired and just almost flu-like constantly.
But who had time for such?
If you looked at me, you knew no difference…but I did…hence the anomaly.
I am the type of person who likes to have definitive answers in my neat and
tidy little world.
I like to know why certain things are and if I don’t like those certain things,
I want to know what can I do, on my end, to fix them or at least alleviate them.
I’m a doer and a fixer.
I was simply prewired as such.
It seems that my general practitioner, internal med doctor, feels much the same.
Let’s get all the answers and then determine what we need to do.
What is our plan of attack?
I like that, it’s like a good general in battle.
So with a spike in anomalies, which has only lead to exacerbating the current maladies,
I’ve had a bunch of blood work.
I’ve had a few ultrasounds as well.
And the call for a few other tests that I just let pass as time has not been on my side.
My doctor was left with more questions rather than conclusions…
So what does a doctor do when they have more questions than answers???
They send you to another doctor.
I was referred to a rheumatologist.
I was pretty certain I had Lupus.
I just knew it!
I was sure of my answer because finally, I would have some vindication.
I could look a few former doctors, who thought that I was nuts, in the face
and let then know I was not nuts after all!
I’ve thought I’ve had Lupus for most of my adult life.
Too many quirks that couldn’t be readily answered and many of those quirks were
immune-deficient related.
It made perfect sense in my non-medical practicing brain.
Heck, I was adopted, I had no history markers.
I was pulling rabbits out of hats!
It took me two months to get into see this new doctor.
She was backed up that long.
Two months of waiting and feeling like crap but living on…
Then it took almost as long to get the labs and bloodwork back…
One round would come back sketchy so she’d call for more and more vials of blood—
I was beginning to wonder if I wasn’t visiting a vampire or the good old fashion
leech loving doctor.
Heck, why don’t we just chop a hole in my head and let the bad vapors pour on out!
So Wednesday, when we finally met again face to face, she was very apologetic about the length
for which we’ve had to wait…the bloodwork was sent to both California and Michigan.
Am I sure I want to trust what conclusions come out of California and Michigan?!
“Good news,” she tells me, “it is not lupus.”
“Hummmmm” I muse in my head.
“But it is Sjögren’s,” she announces—“another type of immune disease but
the better of the two out of Lupus.”
“Yes well, at least I could pronounce Lupus” I inwardly grumble.
“Sjögren’s can accompany Lupus or stand on its own—
for now; it seems yours is standing on its own.”
“It does much the same as Lupus…it affects your joints, your muscles,
it causes fatigue, causes Reynauds in your fingers and it can affect your organs—
but it primarily attacks your salivary glands and tear ducts as in it affects
the teeth, gums, swallowing, and the eyes.
Oh, and it can lead to Lymphoma so we will need to do regular labs”
I’m going to prescribe an immunosuppressant drug that has been around since WWII.
It was a drug used to treat Malaria in soldiers but then the disease grew resistant so they
discovered that it aided in joint pain…so…
Huh???
I thought she said this was the better of the two autoimmune diseases???!!!
And so now I am a mosquito repellant…sigh.
However, she added, your liver enzymes are just way too high and your
ferritin is way too high plus your kidney functions are way off…
so…..”
And so now it’s off to the Gastrointeroligist for a liver biopsy and to the
Urologists to check on perhaps kidney stones or something else.
I’m the type of person who is a one-stop-shop kind of person.
I don’t like a hodgepodge of the unknown nor a hodgepodge of doctors.
Yet hence the life of an anomaly.
So I’ll keep you posted on this life of an anomaly, malady, and ailment.
Sorting out the three and figuring out which is what.
But in the long run of all of this random mess, I know that God
is well aware of what is what, which is which and why it all is.
It is that knowledge that helps to lead a malady to a mere anomaly…
something perhaps aggravating, yet tolerable…
because all things are used for His glory…
sometimes we don’t see or understand that glory…
but never the less, that Glory remains…
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Isaiah 60:1 ESV
And today’s irony…
the Verse of the Day:
Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you,
even as your soul is getting along well.
3 John 1:2
What is truth? or more aptly…where can we find it
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
Mark Twain
(the 2200 year old mouth of Truth found in the portico of Santa Maria Cosmedin Church
in Rome, Itlay.
Legend has it that if you are a truthful person and place your hand in the mouth,
you will be fine but if you are a liar, the stone will bite off your hand / Julie Cook / 2018)
So yesterday, I wrote a post about the local (as in Atlanta home-based) fast-food chain,
Chick-fil-A.
I had written about the latest news story that the chicken sandwich mega-giant had
cut ties with two of its charitable organizations—
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes and The Salvation Army.
It seems that the LGBTQ communities had loudly complained regarding the Christian based
food chain Chick-fil-A and that of its charitable contributions going to LGBTQ unfriendly
organizations and in turn, they wanted Chick-fil-A to stop—as in ASAP.
And so the latest news, both local and national, was that Chick-fil-A had given into
the loud protests and thus decided to distance themselves from these two
Christian based organizations.
I was so upset because I have long supported Chick-fil-A and was so proud of the Biblical
foundations that founder, Truett Cathy, had built this favorite fast food restaurant upon.
I feared that if an institution such as Chick-fil-A would give into the rabid cries
of a liberal left, then who might remain standing for their Christian based
principles and values?
So I sounded the alarm.
Yet the alarm I sounded need not have been sounded.
A dear friend, who’s husband both owns and operates his own Chick-fil-A,
sorted out the falsehoods that had been found in the narrative of the news reporting.
She offered the truth behind what I was posting and I, in turn, offered a new post
with her clarification.
I had read and seen both local and National news reporting on this story—
and these were all sources that I have always believed to be truthful…as far as
news reporters can be or should be truthful.
But sadly it turns out the real truth was buried deep behind the headlines.
Yes Chick-fil-A continues to contribute to their charities and you can read
about it from Lynn’s comment I posted yesterday as an addendum to my original post.
So naturally, I have felt very badly that I got this one wrong…
That I had read and seen what I had taken as truth and in turn, shared that “truth”–
yet the truth I thought, was not exactly the real truth or the full truth now was it?
I strive to be an accurate person, especially when I write a post.
I am passionate about my posts…otherwise, I wouldn’t write.
I also felt bad that I had let Lynn down by not touching base with her first.
I had my wealth of excuses.
Lynn and I have both been so busy that in turn, we’ve not chatted in quite some time.
I had recently been out of town.
I was tired.
I’ve been dealing with my own health issues.
Blah, blah, blah…
And so yesterday when I’d gotten home, I was mad when I’d seen the latest news stories
regarding our hometown based Atlanta business, Chick-fil-A.
A business built upon Christian principles.
Principles that a now-deceased founder had staked his life’s beliefs upon in order to
build a successful corporation, yet I feared I was now seeing a supposed shift in
those initial guiding principles…
Yet despite my best efforts at setting the record straight, I was still distressed
because I adamantly want to be known for talking about and writing about truths.
So I had to stop and ask myself, what IS truth?
Did Pilate not ask the same question as he stood a battered Christ
before a salivating and angry crowd?
So I looked back to the ancient philosophers who first discussed this notion of
truth.
Plato.
Soccrates
Aristotle…
According to Logic museum regarding truth and Metaphysics—they state that
“Possibly Aristotle’s most well-known definition of truth is in the Metaphysics, (1011b25):
“To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false,
while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true”.
Britanica.com tells us that “Truth is the aim of belief; falsity is a fault.
People need the truth about the world in order to thrive.
Truth is important.
Believing what is not true is apt to spoil a person’s plans and may even cost him his life.
Telling what is not true may result in legal and social penalties.
Conversely, a dedicated pursuit of truth characterizes the good scientist,
the good historian, and the good detective.
Yet I realized that I could philosophize, pontificate and ruminate over this
notion till the cows come home.
However, I fear that the real concern here today is not so much what
truth actually is, but rather that our culture no longer cares much about
that particular ideal—that ideal of truth.
We’ve heard more than our fair share regarding fake news…
so much so that we question almost everyone and everything.
And in turn, there is very little trust in our culture.
But here’s the thing.
I still want to believe that deep down, man longs for truth.
He longs for what is versus what is not.
There are small truths or more aptly exacts…truths such as 2+2=4
or ‘for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction’…
mathematical and scientific exacting truths.
But what of the essential deep meaning of truth for man?
I found the following piece of wisdom on the site exploreGod.com
Philosopher Roger Scruton has argued,
“All discourse and dialogue depend upon the concept of truth.
To agree with another is to accept the truth of what he says;
to disagree is to reject it.”
In other words, we can’t even talk to each other without the notion of truth.
To say that I’m lying is to presuppose there is truth to be told.
To say that I’m wrong or even mistaken assumes the existence of a truth from
which my statement departs.
Truth According to the Bible:
So what, then, does the Bible say about truth?
It might surprise you that the question
“What is truth?” is itself found in the pages of Scripture.
When standing trial before the Roman governor Pilate, Jesus said to Pilate,
“For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.
Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Pilate responded by asking,
“What is truth?”
If only Pilate had known that the truth was standing before him,
looking him in the eye.
You see, the Bible teaches that truth isn’t just an abstract idea or
philosophical puzzle.
Instead, truth is a person—the person of Jesus Christ, to be exact.
Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The Apostle John, reflecting on the whole of Jesus’ life, wrote,
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came
from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
In Jesus, the truth took on human nature.
For the full treatise on a Christian take on truth see the link–
https://www.exploregod.com/what-the-bible-says-about-truth-paper
And so yes, the Truth, a real and lasting deep soul sort of truth,
is found in the One who claimed, and continues to proclaim,
to be the living Truth.
Truth can only be found in Christ Jesus and in Him alone.
Not in or from man…only if man proclaims Christ.
All other truths and false truths will leave us empty and still looking,
seeking and searching for more.
An endless and tiring quest.
Yet from all of this talk, I will say that the one take away that I’ve gotten…
other than the fact the our world now plays fast and loose with the truth,
is that the progressive left will not rest until Christianity is silenced.
Because within Christianity is found the Truth.
So, therefore, lies will continue.
Half-truths will dominate.
Accusations will fly.
Questions will continually be leveled.
Protesters will shout with both anger and resentment.
The Christian fold will be pushed to attack from within…
because the enemy knows that there is success to be found in the divide and conquer mentality.
And thus if we are to find satisfaction in life and in our living,
if we desire to have a real sense of peace..it will only come in knowing who is Truth.
You can choose to live the empty quest…such as Pilate…a forlorn yearning.
An empty unsatisfied existence of seeking while dodging the lies.
Or you can follow the one who came into the world to save the sinner by bringing us the Truth.
Jesus answered,
“You say that I am a king.
In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.
Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate.
With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said,
“I find no basis for a charge against him.
John 18:37-38
an update with clarification to the bending of the cows knees
Here is the most recent comment from our dear friend Lynn Abbott
(https://throughinkandimage.com/)
whose husband just so happens to own and operate a Chick-fil-A!
I just knew we could count of Lynn to help set this record straight!!!
(I apologize Lynn for not touching base with you while putting this post together
but my life has been so upside down as of late that I confess I didn’t think about
emailing you after I initially read all the news here in Atlanta regarding this latest
attack on Chick-fil-A)
And so Lynn is setting straight my day’s post
regarding Chick-fil-A and its supposed disassociation with
Christian charitable organizations such as
The Salvation Army and the Fellowship
of Christian Athletes…
Here is what Lynn has offered us…
Thank you Lynn for shaking the truth out of this latest attack by the
master of falsehoods…
I just wish to let you know that the concerns about Chick-fil-A are unnecessary.
What many are concerned about is simply a matter of the news media giving out mis-information
and that information most likely resulted because a reporter didn’t understand Chick-fil-A’s
organizational structure.
Chick-fil-A runs its charitable contributions through its charitable branches–LifeShape and WinShape.
Both LifeShape and WinShape are Chick-fil-A and both those arms are administered by
Dan Cathy’s (CEO) brother and sister. And in fact, Chick-fil-A is still giving to both
the ministries in question through Chick-fil-A’s charitable branches, LifeShape and WinShape.
Thus, Chick-fil-A has not caved to pressure from special interest political groups as has been suggested.
I know that everyone is listening to the news media so I don’t blame people for not knowing this.
However, I do know because (as you know, dear Julie) my husband owns a Chick-fil-A (CFA) Franchise
and one of his very best friends is a Vice President for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA).
Indeed, my husband has helped cultivate a ministry partnership between FCA and LifeShape
(CFA’s international charitable branch).
And my husband will represent LifeShape in a few weeks on a joint venture with the
Fellowship of Christian Athletes overseas.
So, please, I humbly ask that Christians do not buy into the enemy’s attempts to
tarnish Chick-fil-A through the media’s mis-reporting and mis-information.
Love you! ❤
disappointment found in the bending of the cow’s knees
You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
******Since writing this post, Lynn Abbott, whose husband owns and operates a
Chick-fil-A has reached out to me to set the record straight—
that the recent news regarding Chick-fil-A
is not the full truth…
Chick-fil-A is not cutting ties with The Fellowship of Christian Athletes and
The Salvation Army
Please read Lynn’s comment in the comment section and please see my following post
that includes Lynn’s informative clarification!
I’ve written many a post over the years in support of Atlanta’s local homegrown and crowd
favorite, bovine inspired, chicken sandwich shop–Chick-fil-A.
Those amusing and much beloved illiterate cows, who constantly
encourage folks to “eat mor chikin”, have helped to turn a once lone little restaurant,
on the outskirts of Atlanta, into a national institution.
The creation of the ‘original chicken sandwich, a restaurant,
lovingly dubbed the Drawf House, along with a sound Christian foundation were each
contributing factors that helped to turn one man’s small dream into a booming business.
The late Truett Cathy and his desire for feeding bodies, as well as spirits,
helped turn a dream into a business that is now ranked as one of the nation’s top
fast-food chains.
Mr. Cathy, a devout Christian, build his food empire on Biblical principles.
Even stating that the Bible was his “playbook” for operating.
With the foremost operating decision being that his restaurants close on Sundays,
the sabbath day for the Christian church.
With the Sabbath being that proverbial 7th day of Creation, of which is to be a day of
rest and worship, Cathy fought the mounting demands of an ever-growing
secular population to let go of an archaic notion and open his restaurants
7 days a week…
‘Just think of all the business, and in turn revenue, you’re missing out on’
folks would say…
But we know, just as Cathy knew,
that God will bless and honor those who bless and honor Him.
Cathy always refused the demanding pushback to his decision to close on Sundays
as it would allow his employees the opportunity of attending church with
their families should they so choose…
Just as it afforded Cathy the ability to honor God by marking the Sabbath as “holy.”
Since his death in 2014, his sons, who now own and oversee this mega food corporation,
have remained faithful to their father’s original guiding principals…
that is until…this week.
Those original guiding principles, those principles of traditional Christian values,
have been sorely tested over the past couple of years by an ever-increasingly rabid,
post-Christian, liberal society.
With the most recent example being the closing of Chick-fil-A’s first
franchised restaurant in the UK due to mounting protests from the LGBTQ_ _ _
(add in any other letters that you chose that I’ve forgotten)
community and its supporters over the fact that the Christian based foodchain
does not support same-sex marriage while it offers donations to various charitable
organizations that share their same Christian values and beliefs—
organizations such as The Salvation Army.
Really??!!
The Salvation Army???!!
The very organization founded on Methodist Christian principles in 1865
that has grown to be one of the largest global organizations to rush in to offer
aid and comfort to those ravaged by natural disasters or simply by hard times.
As taken from Wikipedia, the Salvation Army was formed as it
“sought to bring salvation to the poor, destitute, and hungry by meeting both
their “physical and spiritual needs.”
And so now Chick-fil-A is painfully discovering that it is no longer acceptable,
or better yet not tolerated, to disagree with something that the “left” readily endorses.
Just as it is no longer acceptable to support any charitable Christian organization that
shares the belief that marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman,
or the desire to honor God’s words…let alone honoring any other Christian value.
Because if you do, you will be marginalized and maligned until you bend.
And so this week, the house that Cathy built, built on the foundation, words,
and promises proclaimed by the God of all Creation, caved in to the pressures
of a maniacal society.
And thus, the cows have been brought to their knees, bending.
Bending the very core ideals once instilled by their founder all in order to appease
an ever-increasingly intolerant society.
Genuflecting to the secular god of sexual perversion as such is now seen as the new normal.
And yet we’ve all known of this bending for quite some time have we not?
We’ve known, as we’ve painfully watched, that if anyone disagrees with a
radicalized society, any and all will be forced to agree or will either be
shut down or better yet, destroyed.
For when one decides to bend in hopes of forging a compromise…
hoping that that bend, that compromise,
will be enough to ward off the ideological demagogues…
it will become deadly and readily apparent that the rabid masses will not be appeased…
not until everyone in opposition not only bends but are more aptly broken.
Shame on Chick-fil-A.
They don’t even realize that their willingness to distance themselves from their
once strong allied charities, that being The Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes—
their willingness to bend away from their once deeply rooted Christian principles will eventually
and most sadly lead to their demise…
becoming but a mere shadow of Truett Cathy’s original desire to honor God.
This is what the Lord has commanded.
If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge,
he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
Numbers 30:2
Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.
Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you;
for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you,
and he will destroy you from the face of the land.
Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah.
Be sure to keep the commands of the LORD your God and the stipulations and
decrees he has given you. 18 Do what is right and good in the LORD’s sight,
so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land
the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors, thrusting out all your enemies before you,
as the LORD said.
In the future, when your son asks you,
“What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?”
tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt,
but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Before our eyes the LORD sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh
and his whole household.
But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the
land he promised on oath to our ancestors.
Deuteronomy 6:13-23
humility as viewed through the lens of football
“As long as you are proud you cannot know God.
A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course,
as long as you are looking down you cannot see something that is above you.”
C.S. Lewis
What is humility?
And why does it matter?
Here are several definitions I found online:
A modest or low view of one’s own importance; humbleness.
A disposition to be humble; a lack of false pride
Freedom from pride or arrogance: the quality or state of being humble
I really like the last definition…
The first definition has a bit of a ring of self-martyrdom to it.
The second one seems to be left to one’s birth personality leanings…
meaning you’re either born with it or not.
But that last one…
that last one speaks of ‘a freedom from’…
There is a great sense of release in that notion for sure.
For there’s almost a sense of ‘a lifting’ or ‘a removing of’
along with a ‘healing from’.
For to be free of something is liberating…it means you are no longer bound,
as in nothing is binding.
And there is certainly tremendous gratitude found in that!
So it seems that no matter how one slices it, humility is a lacking of arrogance
and false pride….it is also very low key.
All of which is both freeing and liberating…
Humble people tend to be low key and quiet.
They tend to shy away from the limelight…as in they have no use for such.
They prefer to stay quiet in the background.
They don’t tout themselves as this or that but rather yield to the others around them.
They eschew the spotlight…or really any sort of attention for that matter.
This notion of humility has come to the front of my thoughts recently
in part because Atlanta’s news has been all abuzz all weekend over the former
NFL football player Colin Kaepernick’s very much publicized staged workout in town…
From all outward appearances, this seems to be a staged last-ditch effort by a
young man and “his people” to draw the attention of the League’s teams,
owners and coaches to the fact that he is still very much ready to play…
playing for anyone who might ask.
He wants everyone to know he’s still viable and marketable.
But is he really?
And is this the true impetus behind this latest media-driven public spectacle?
Is he sincere?
I can’t remember a single player ever going to such extreme efforts
to get teams to reconsider him as a potential player.
And if this media spectacle wasn’t surreal enough, at the last minute,
Kaepernick changed the location just prior to the scheduled event leading
to confusion rather than the simplicity of simply showcasing his physical talents.
Was it just another issue of who is and who is not in control?
There are plenty of disappointed players out there who have been cut,
let go or who have gone undrafted for a myriad of reasons…
Professional sports are a fickled business.
As cutthroat comes to mind.
There are tons of players who continue working out, attending open practices, etc,
all in hopes of getting just one more shot.
Even big-name players such as Tim Tebow and Johnny Manziel obviously come to mind—
Two very different players who were let go and yet did not want to be let go.
Tebow never seemed to get a fair shake…of which I suspect his
very open Christian faith might have had a lot to do with that…
And Manziel, well he simply burned his bridges with his continued drug use and
bad-boy behavior.
Bad-boy behavior becomes a liability in a business dominated by fans.
As in the fans are the ultimate bosses.
When fans pay to come and support a team…money flows.
When fans don’t pay to come and opt not to support a team, the money stops.
Ratings drop, players, opt to leave, as a team then becomes toxic.
No money, no revenue…
No revenue, no pay for salaries.
Maybe if salaries weren’t in the millions, this might not be such a problem.
Liabilities don’t generate revenue.
Arrogant players tend to become liabilities.
Former Steelers and Raiders player Antonio Brown comes to mind.
I just can’t seem to recall any player who has ever created their own media circus
in an attempt to force the hand of the League with the ‘hire me or else’ tactic other
than Colin Kaepernick.
I never cared for Johnny Manziel, even when he was a college player,
all because of his blatant self-destructive arrogance.
He quickly found out that the League didn’t care for it either.
The Canadian League gave him a chance but he still wants back in the NFL.
Tebow, well, he remains a bit of an anomaly regarding his playing.
Once he figured out his football days were seemingly over, as no one really wanted
to give him a real chance, he opted for baseball…
but he didn’t seem to fare any better there.
So yes, there are tons of former players, well known as well as unknown,
who would love to be able to afford their own personal very public media-hyped workouts
in an attempt to strong-arm a League,
but either they can’t or more importantly, won’t.
And maybe humility has something to do with some of that.
Some might argue that tooting one’s own horn is a must in professional sports.
Yet when you’re a sports figure who uses your job (because that’s just what it is, a job)
as a platform for your own personal political views and personal agendas…well then
that is a case of exploitation…
exploiting your work platform for your own personal desires…
Forcing a captive audience, the fans, to endure your selfish antics.
You are no longer a team player but rather a self-centered individual
allowing your on-field antics rather than performance to become an extension to a soapbox
for something so much other than what you are there for…
for athleticism and finesse on a playing field.
A humbled person might see such and reconsider how best to promote a personal agenda…
An arrogant person, on the other hand, is so self-absorbed that they have quickly lost touch.
We see this constantly with our politicians as well as with our entertainers…
just as we now see such in our professional athletes.
No area of our lives seems free of hubris.
It would be so nice to have some places in our lives that remain a-political.
Places of quiet that remain low key.
Places where we can just enjoy a game for the game’s sake… or a concert or even a simple
trip to the mall without being victimized by those who push their envelopes in our faces.
Our souls are so thirsty for the humble.
We hunger for places where there are no spotlights, no news media,
no glaring social media blitzes.
No one screaming “look at me”–
Arrogance and self-absorption dominate our lives.
Yet we readily feed into this very trend every time we feel the need to post our latest images
of ourselves doing whatever it is we do, thinking the world needs to see what we do.
The question however is, does the world really care or is it rather ourselves who are
the ones who care?
It would behoove us to seek the humble, the quiet and the lowly.
Our souls are in dire need of such.
For our souls are parched and need refreshing…
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted.”
Luke 14:11 ESV
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