A Small Thought or Two

I don’t think I will ever get this right. I read John Cowart’s blog and know I will never be able to do that.

So I wrote for a living for almost 25 years. That doesn’t mean I’m a writer. It just means I knew how to keep the editors from finding out!

I thought of myself more as a messenger than a writer. If someone gave me something to say, I could do that. I could even do that fairly well. I could communicate their thoughts so others could understand them.

For example, and I am very proud of this, I interviewed a social science type person one time about a program he headed that was supposed to do good to a certain group of people. He spoke jargon – that is he used the vocabulary he and others of his trade used to speak to each other. And it was totally incomprehensible to me.

So I asked him to give me an example. And a little way into the example, I asked him to put what he was saying into simpler words. And so on and so on for about two hours.

In the end I wrote an article and it was published. The next day, he called me. I waited for him to tell me what I had gotten wrong. Instead he thanked me for clarifying his message so the non-professional could understand it. I was amazed and grateful.

Occasionally I have a thought or two of my own. Often these are about an inch long, or maybe two and a half inches long. But they don’t go far or say much.

While I was writing a weekly column, I relied HEAVILY on the Lord to give me something to write about. AND HE DID! That was how I knew I was to write a column.

The day came when He no longer did. I struggled on for a while, meeting deadlines. And then, fortunately, retired.

Since then my writing has been short and, well, I don’t know. Unsatisfactory to me.

I have reused a few of the earlier columns. I have 15 years worth to draw upon. But it doesn’t seem right somehow. They had their 15 minutes of exposure.

Today, I have a little thought to share, so I will. On Wednesday, after her second session of in this round of chemo, Mary, my daughter, was able to make the bed and prepare the coffee pot. She was able to say a few words together without gasping for breath or coughing. These are things she had not been able to do for several weeks.

This is actually her third round of chemo, the first one was back in the fall of 2005. Three rounds of radiation and one brain surgery have come in between.

But I’m happy today with today’s progress. And I don’t mind her bristly hair. I think she’s beautiful almost bald.

Hail, Fellows, Well Met

THOUGHTS ON FELLOWSHIP


I was supposed to say a few words on fellowship recently at the last gathering of a group at my church. Instead I was at home recovering from a colonoscopy – or rather the preparation-from-hell for the event itself.

I had jotted down a few notes ahead of time, so I expanded briefly on these and sent along a copy to the meeting. It said:

One of the things I have really loved about this mentoring program has been becoming part of a fellowship.

I’m a fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Tolkein. I read the books long before the movies came out. The first book is called The Fellowship of the Ring. It’s about a band of people – including a dwarf, an elf, a wizard, several hobbits and a few men – who came together to try to destroy a ring that could ruin their world.

They did not know each other when they started on the task. Some of them didn’t even like each other much. But as they journeyed together, through rough, even dangerous times and ways, they grew to love each other.

We are a fellowship, too, a fellowship of those seeking to know the Lord better and to follow Him more closely. We have come together to share with each other some of the exciting and even maybe dangerous ways our journey with the Lord.

I have loved it. Nothing thrills me more than this kind of sharing. It speaks of Truth and what it means to live within it.

The one-to-one sharing has been especially wonderful, but the fellowship of the larger group has also been very meaningful to me. As I walk through the halls now I know more of you than I did before – and I know you as companions on the same journey.

Thank you all for being this fellowship of the Lord and letting me be part of it.