An Occasional Word

It is no secret that I am a word person.  I have no words to describe how words intrigue me, draw me, inspire, entertain, and confuse me.  I love to investigate all kinds of wordage--their meanings, both their denotations and their connotations. 

My word! The word word speaks broad meaning.  You can give your word as a promise, to assure someone. Or you can speak a word of caution or advice. You should keep your word, in the first case, and you should limit your word in the second. People will depend on your word if you don’t break it, but they will ignore you if your outpouring of words is too numerous, too critical or bossy, or too insignificant. You must be a man or woman of your word, standing on that word, and be as good as your word. You must never break your word.

If you are quoting an expert, be sure to do it word for word rather than in so many words, or you’ll mislead somebody. If you take the words right out of someone’s mouth, your relationship might be very close and understanding. If you hang on somebody’s words, you could be in an unbalanced relationship. 

You could be a wordsmith who enjoys subtle wordplay, arranges wording in word processing, or plays word square or does crossword puzzles. You could read the wonderful words of Wordsworth. You could be wordless, which I am not. You could have a brain-lesion problem called alexia that makes you word blind, so you can’t read, and that would be torture. You could look up the 100 most beautiful words in the English language at this linked site.

You could read the word of God. You could see that it is the living word, and in the book of John, you could learn how the Word became flesh in the person of Jesus.

Words have great power, and that’s why the pen is mightier than the sword. But in a word, all this utterance is just so many words.

*For much of this word, I had the help of Webster. And the picture comes from this site: www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2009/10/

An Occasional Word

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/occasional-word.html

A Semi-Serious Meditation on Scavengers

The ocean floor is home to one of the world’s largest clean-up crews. Imagine all the leavings of carelessness, death, and destruction that sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Scientists in oceanography have discovered that thousands of scavengers and decomposers, as well as exotic and beautiful creatures, live in total darkness below 656 feet in the ocean, according to this linked Associated Press article on Yahoo.

The AP article says “Thousands of marine species eke out an existence in the ocean's pitch-black depths by feeding on the snowlike decaying matter that cascades down — even sunken whale bones. Oil and methane also are an energy source for the bottom-dwellers. . . .”

The deepest ocean floor is the domicile of giant tubeworms. In the upper areas of the ocean, an Extreme Science site says, tubeworms commonly grow to about the size of your hand, but the deep sea variety of tubeworm often reaches eight feet in length around warm-water vents.

 

According to the site of the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment at the University of Delaware, tubeworms are structurally very simple in that they do not have the internal organs most creatures have--mouth, eyes, and stomach--that aid in finding nourishment and eating.  It was discovered recently that they do have mouths and stomachs in their earliest stages to help them take in the bacteria on which they live. But as they grow, these organs disappear.

The Extreme Science site says

Scientists were at a loss to explain how these tube-worms were getting nutrients to survive and grow. It turns out their insides are lined with bacteria that oxidize the H2S (hydrogen sulfide gas released by the hydrothermal vents), turning it into usable nutrients for the worms. The bacteria, in turn, benefit from the relationship because the worms deliver blood-containing hemoglobin, which helps the bacteria to break down the sulfides.

It is all a cycle whose parts mesh perfectly.

The deep-sea tubeworm is something amazing (among many things) that God has created as part of  the ocean’s janitorial team.  Even nasty oil spill messes can be scoured up and turned into nutrients. The earth is full of highly efficient scavengers and decomposers like buzzards, hyenas, and cockroaches, not to mention fungi, microbes, and bacteria.

Afterthought: A cockroach can live a week without its head! (It only dies then because it can't drink water.)  --A Good Grief! Moment from NatureWorks 

A Semi-Serious Meditation on Scavengers

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/semi-serious-meditation-on-scavengers.html

Speaking of Reading...

Here are some great Christian books that I've read:

• The Bible
• Bread for the Journey--Henri Nouwen, or anything by Nouwen
• Fearless: Imagine Your Life without Fear, or anything by Max Lucado
• Life of the Beloved--Henri Nouwen
• Mere Christianity--C.S. Lewis, or anything by Lewis
• Rumors of Another World--Philip Yancy, or anything by Yancy
• Same Kind of Different as Me--Ron Hall
• The Irresistible Revolution--Shane Claiborne
• My Utmost for His Highest—Oswald Chambers
• Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana--Anne Rice, and NOT just anything by Rice! I have Called Out of Darkness by Rice, the story of how she came to the decision to follow Christ, to read soon.

Speaking of Reading...

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/speaking-of-reading.html

Thoughts on Reading

You can't read and drive at the same time. Well, you could, I suppose, but you might run into a bridge or something worse. I like to listen to audio books as I drive--makes the driving more interesting. I confess that I am an intense bookworm, even the audio kind. Reading is the best entertainment of the world, and listening to books is an excellent substitute.

That’s usually true. However, a recent one I heard was Emma, an unabridged (every last word) Victorian novel by Jane Austen. This book was almost interminable, as the characters conversed on and on about every possible subject, not many of much consequence, mostly relationships. One day as I was agonizing with Emma and her friend Harriet, I thought, This would make a good play, but as a book, it is hard to take. But I was determined, so I gritted my teeth and stayed with it to the long-suffering, happily-ever-after end.

Then I rented the movie, and it was delightful. I was right about it making a good play. Gwyneth Paltrow was perfect in the role of Emma. It was considerably abridged. I even cried at the end.

After that one, I checked out the audio book of Pride and Prejudice, another novel by Jane Austen. Why did I do that? I still don’t know. But after one fifty-mile trip with it, I couldn’t take it any more, and I returned it to the library. I will rent the movie.

I generally love huge, long novels. Last year, when I was going on a three-hundred-mile trip, I bought the unabridged audio version of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. It had over twenty CDs, and I was completely engrossed in that story. I adored Gone with the Wind and Les Miserables and the Mark of the Lion series of three long novels. James Michener’s 900-page The Source and John Irving’s gigantic A Prayer for Owen Meany held me enchanted.

But Emma. Please….no!

The picture was borrowed from Life magazine: http://images.google.com/hosted/life/

Thoughts on Reading

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/thoughts-on-reading.html

Peace for Rosie

Rosie* is a ball of raw emotion. She reacts too quickly in anger when her supervisor at work asks her questions that, to most people, would not be seen as threatening. The extreme feelings she has about current situations in her life overwhelm her. She thinks about what someone did or said until it becomes different and hurtful, in her mind. She cries easily and says things she doesn’t mean; she has diarrhea.

Stress is a health-wrecker--frustration, worrying, fretting, being obsessive. And besides that, it makes life chaotic and hellish. Here are some telling statistics, according to this linked article on Web MD:

Forty-three percent of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress.

Seventy-five to 90% of all doctor's office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints.

Stress can play a part in problems such as headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, skin conditions, asthma, or arthritis in addition to depression and anxiety.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) declared stress a hazard of the workplace. Stress costs American industry more than $300 billion annually.

The lifetime prevalence of an emotional disorder is more than 50%, often due to chronic, untreated stress reactions.

I hope Rosie will be able to find peace. Many people search for it today and don’t find it. Where can you find it? The answer is simple, and maybe that’s why some distrust it, but it is true. Deep, lasting, inner-core quietness is found by trusting in God and looking to him for that peace. A sense of calm fulfillment is possible--IS possible--and this is an absolute truth.

In the Old Testament, Isaiah says if we trust in God, his peace will fill us:

You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3, NIV)

In the New Testament, Jesus beckons to the stressed, the tired, the overwhelmed:

²⁸If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take the yoke I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest. ³⁰This yoke is easy to bear, and this burden is light. (Matthew 11, CEV)

The Message translation says it another way:

^28-30"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

That's my prayer for peace.

*This is not really her name; she’s a composite of several stressed-out people I know.

Peace for Rosie

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/peace-for-rosie.html

Chris Craig and Questions

Looking through my journal this morning, I saw that in 2002, I heard a thought-provoking message by Chris Craig. It was based on the book of Jonah, the rebellious guy who was swallowed by a whale in his efforts to get away from God, who told him to go warn Ninevah that they had better turn to him.

Jonah boarded a ship, hoping it would take him far away from God, but God caused a ferocious storm. The men who formed the crew of the ship were disturbed, of course, as they tried to save themselves. They decided it must be Jonah’s fault, and they asked him some questions:

"How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish."

Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?"

He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land."

This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)

The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?"

(Eventually, they threw him into the sea where a giant fish swallowed him. Jonah was, of course, in deep despair, sure he would die. He realized that he could not go anywhere to escape God. He prayed in repentance; after three days, the fish cast him up on the shore, and he went to Ninevah to do God’s bidding.)

Chris asked whether unbelievers today (the sailors) have the right to ask Christians these questions:

“Why don’t you pray?”

“Why don’t you shine?” (Why has evil come upon us?)

“Why don’t you serve?” (And whom do you serve?)

“Why don’t you testify?” (Tell us.)

“Why have you departed from God?”

“What shall we do with you that we might have peace?”

The answer is yes, they do have the right to ask believers these questions. Providing answers is one of the responsibilities of a Christian. Thank God, Chris added, for not giving up on us.

The picture is found at this site:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photos/whales.html

Chris Craig and Questions

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/10/chris-craig-and-questions.html

Mountain Lion Encounter

Hunters sometimes find themselves among the hunted. My son B learned this lesson recently.

B went to a valley a few miles from his home in a northwest mountainous state to bow-hunt deer. He stalked quietly through a wooded area on the edge of a large open meadow, just to take the lay of the land and decide where to put his pop-up deer blind.

Suddenly, he was looking into the eyes of a large mountain lion about 25 yards away. He realized his bow and arrows lay on the ground in a clearing behind him. He reached for his bear pepper spray, but the belt was empty; he usually carries it only when he goes up into the mountains. He had not brought a pistol. He opened his pocket knife, which has a three-inch blade, and thought about its insignificance.

He and the lion stared at each other for a moment, and then the lion glided away into the trees and brush. Quite relieved, B went on with his setting up, about twenty yards out of the woods in the edge of the meadow. Before long, a group of deer wandered into the meadow to graze. B watched them, hoping they would come his direction, and readied his bow.

Mountain lions are an endangered, protected species that range mostly throughout the western United States and parts of Florida, according to an Internet search. An adult lion can grow to seven-eight feet long, from nose to tail, and weigh between 120 and 180 pounds. Mountain lions are said to be highly effective predators that consistently kill larger animals, such as deer and elk, and unprotected livestock.

They are territorial; a male lion may rule over as much as 100 square miles. They often attack people or other animals that come too close to their food stashes. Silently stalking their prey, mountain lions usually attack from behind after a short, fast sprint.

Two yearling deer, too young to shoot, meandered past B’s blind, about fifteen feet away. One stopped to graze, and the other walked into the edge of the woods behind B. After a few seconds, the young deer burst out of the woods with the mountain lion in hot pursuit. The two young deer and the others outran the lion. It sank onto its haunches and watched them disappear into the distance.

Then the lion turned and stalked back toward the edge of the woods, passing close to B’s blind. It stopped to stare at him; this time he had the bow ready. Then B yelled, “Git! Go on, cat! Get out of here!” But the tawny animal just lowered to its haunches and continued to watch him, unafraid. Then it rose and disappeared into the woods.

A few minutes later, B had a sudden realization that the mountain lion was frustrated and hungry, probably even then watching him from the cover of the brush, waiting for the right moment to attack him. He would not have known the lion was still there if the yearling deer had not wandered into the woods.

He thought about his family and his life and his chances of fighting off a full-grown mountain lion, and it was not worth the risk. So he took out his sharp, long-bladed skinning knife for defense if needed, and rolled up stakes and ropes and deer blind; he put on his backpack, hoping to look very large and frightening, and made his way to his pickup.

On his way home, he thought about the beauty of the animal, its rippling muscles and fearless grace. And he understood a little better the fear of the hunted. He realized how unusual it is for a human to be a close witness to such an encounter. Next time, he would take a gun--and a camera.

Picture and information borrowed from National Geographic website.

Mountain Lion Encounter

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/10/mountain-lion-encounter.html

Birthday Celebration

Today is October first, my father’s birthday. If he were still alive, he would be ninety-eight today. He died in 1988. My mother is younger; she’s only ninety-three.

A couple of days ago, my mother and I talked about his upcoming birthday. We used to always ask him what kind of cake he wanted. He answered, “Oh, I think I’d like to have either an applesauce cake or a banana nut cake--you decide.” We knew he’d say that, and we made one or the other for him.

After I got married and moved away, I still asked, and if we weren’t going to be together, I would make a loaf cake--applesauce or banana nut--and mail it to him. Once the banana nut cake I made collapsed in the middle, for some unknown reason, into a gooey mess. My husband and I ate the outside edges, and I mailed my dad an applesauce cake, which he said he liked.

When we talked about these things the other day, I said, “Let’s have a cake in remembrance of him.” And we did. This morning while I cooked breakfast, I made a banana nut cake, in cupcake form. I bought some cream cheese frosting to go on top. Mother and I had hamburgers for lunch, and then we iced up the cupcakes.

I was about ready to take a bite, when Mother lifted one slightly gnarled index finger, ready to direct. She had a mischievous smile, and I understood. We sang the birthday song--a loud version. And then we laughed, remembered him, and ate our cupcakes. He would have liked the walnuts.

Birthday Celebration

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2009/10/birthday-celebration.html