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Saturday morning Bill and I attended a session of Fresh-grounded Faith to hear Jennifer Rothschild. Bill was probably one of a half-dozen men among hundreds of women, but he was not concerned. He’d told me when I invited him to join me that it might be fun.

Jennifer spoke of her need for contentment, and I connected with that need. However, I didn’t hear how to develop that character trait. So Sunday afternoon I did a brief study of Bible verses related to contentment. I first found that “the righteous eat to their hearts’ content” (Prov. 13:25a), and I concluded that provision is made to delight the hearts of the righteous.

Paul in his letter to the Philippian church gave testimony: “I have learned to be content [how did he learn?] whatever the circumstances” [that’s an added advantage] . . . . He expanded that: “I have learned the secret [oh, it’s not obvious] of being content in any and every situation” [there’s that seemingly impossible expansion again] . . . . And he concluded: “I can do all this through Him who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:11, 12, 13). There’s the can-do and reasonable resource.

Contentment is a learned process and the situation doesn’t matter, for the strength to obtain this comes from the Lord. I need to learn Paul’s secret. “If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Tim. 4:8). It takes little to be satisfied with the good way of life. I can transfer that satisfaction about earthly possessions to being content about our present situation – responding well to Bill’s dementia. I have recently found victory as I change my tone of voice addressing Bill as if I’m responding to Jesus.

An added advantage: “Be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5). I turn my trust onto God, not fearing how life’s been dished out – mental or physical disabilities. God is always with us. “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6). Contentment goes along with godliness. To gain one I must have the other. It’s a matter of being Christ-like, centering my affections on Jesus.

More than putting something in the bulletin, Bill put thought in his sermon titles as he developed the sermon outline. Thumbing through his sermon notebooks to find references for quotes on the subject of the church, I noticed some unique titles. It was like being in a pew at WGC again. A friend has mentioned one title and sermon as her favorite: “The Man Behind the Shadows,” a Christmas message on Joseph. In that series Bill also preached on “The Irreverence of His Coming.” For Pentecost Sunday, Bill gave teaching on the Holy Spirit: “Putting a Face with the Name” (Acts 19:2), along with “Not Home Alone” from John 14. I like the sermon title “After Easter, What?” and a similar one, “Monday’s Coming.”

Note these titles with Scripture references:

Living East of Eden – Galatians 5:19-21; There’s a Hole in the Bucket – Romans 3:9-25; Hitting the Window (started with a military illustration) – Matthew 7:13-14; Testing the Teachers – Matthew 7:15-20; Dare to Be Average – 1Timothy 1:12-17; What Pulls Your String? – Romans 7:13-20; Let’s Have a Party! (for Easter) – 1 Corinthians 5:8; and Warm Fuzzies and Cold Reality – Romans 6:1-14 and Amos 5:14-24.

During Sunday school recently one member said he had not heard a sermon on the book of Ezra. I spoke up: Bill preached a series on Ezra and Nehemiah and you can hear it on Sermon Cloud. That series had the title: “Where Do You Go from Failure?”

For Philemon, an interesting choice for a series, Bill gave the title “Ripples of Real Faith.” He said: thank God for people who make waves. Do you have a faith that makes waves, or at least causes ripples? One sermon in the series asked: What if the story played out differently? 1) Onesimus refuses to return, 2) Philemon refuses to forgive, 3) Onesimus cannot forgive himself, and 4) Onesimus repents but doesn’t change. To these he gave present-day applications. Bill closed with: Facing facts does not mean forfeiting love.

In the last several years, especially since my 80^th birthday, the don’ts in my life have increased, but there are still a good number of do’s. The big one is I don’t drive on Interstates now. That’s limited how far I drive, but I do get around the southeast part of Indianapolis and Greenwood fairly well. One addition to that, but not new to me, is that I do get lost on occasion, probably not paying attention to the directions given me when I venture into new territory. Not doing Interstates means I find new (yet longer) ways to get somewhere, such as to a movie theater. So when Becky or Paul give me directions, they know my limitations. When we had to see a doctor on the north side, Becky drove. Now that doctor is not in our loop. All other doctors are on the south side and therefore, no problem.

We do have more doctors’ visits, mainly because of specialists. We do see a primary care physician, but also a neurologist, urologist, eye doctor, back doctor, and dentist. We did visit a podiatrist but found out that the insurance will not cover what we wanted. Okay by me that we don’t add another doctor. For medical questions, we do have our daughter, RN. We’re blessed.

I do fewer chores: laundry is done on Fridays and cleaning our East Wing apartment happens most Saturdays. I don’t prepare the evening meals, except on Thursdays when Becky bakes at the church. Bill is the self-appointed dishwasher for all meals, but I do help with drying dishes for he doesn’t know how nor likes to stack them in the drain rack. Since Bill gets his own breakfast, I eat at my desk while reading. Bill lets me know when it’s noon and asks for lunch, but I try to put him off until 12:30 and then we do lunch together. He likes to go out to eat (lunch or supper), but we don’t do that often.

As to daily routine I do have freedom to choose what I do when and for how long. Most mornings I read and most afternoons I write. Evenings we watch TV or movies, and Bill wants me by his side. Occasionally I do go back to my computer to finish what I’d begun, but I don’t want to infringe on our together time. It’s important to Bill.

These notes show the vast resources Bill used while holding seminars, generally for pastors.

Shaped by the Word:

> Studying the Word > Information (history & theology)

> Interacting with the Word > Formation (personal involvement)

Defining Faith:

“The holding of reasonable convictions beyond the possibility of final demonstration and the casting out on one’s life on those convictions as though they are true” (Harry Emerson Fosdick).

“No man really believes so long as he can help believing. True belief is always belief that is under the constraint of the Object” (John Baillie).

“Faith affects much of what we do: It determines the measure of the strength of the will; and accounts for a great deal of our energy and perseverance” (Thomas Upham, Life in Faith).

“Only the practice of faith, resulting in the habit of faith will gradually defeat the ‘fifth columnist of the soul,’ doubt” (C.S. Lewis, “Religion: Reality or Substitute”).

“It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? . . . Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief” (C.S. Lewis).

“Only those who believe obey; only those who obey believe” (WBC).

“If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. (The idea of the suffering of the cross) has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship).

“In many cases (the saints) were such ordinary, even unpromising people when they began; for the real saint is neither a special creation nor a spiritual freak. He is just a human being in whom has been fulfilled the great aspiration of St. Augustine: ‘My life shall be a real life, being wholly full of Thee.’ And as that real life, that interior union with God grows, so too does the saints’ self-identification with humanity grow. They do not stand aside wrapped in delightful prayers and feeling pure and agreeable to God. They go right down into the mess; and there, right down in the mess, they are able to radiate God because they possess Him. And that, above all else, is the priestly work that wins and heals souls” (Evelyn Underhill, Concerning the Inner Life).

Decisive battlefield for the issues of life (Fosdick)

> Fight out the purposes of life

> Struggle with the desires of the heart

> Hunger and thirst for righteousness

> Strive for power to see and courage to do God’s will

“Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself” (Susannah Wesley to her son John).

“My own plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise” (Reepicheep in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis). “May the mouse speak for us all” (WBC).

      ~ Autumn Carpet ~

I love autumn, the time of year when changes are evident in colorful array. Even as a child, my siblings and I looked forward to the start of another school year. Our children also loved school. Tommy, as a preschooler, would go to each window and watch as his three older siblings went off to school and then wait expectantly for their return. We would play homeschool (before I knew of such), and every activity, even making the bed, became a school assignment.

At Asbury College where Bill taught, we looked forward to students returning, and they looked younger each year. In church, the programs revved up for the fall. At home a more structured routine kept activities in line, connecting members better. In nature, the colors of autumn always delight us with the changes from green to golden hues.

One autumn while driving through town with two young grandsons, I tried to teach them their colors, calling out the various shades. I asked them to look for the yellow, orange, red, and purple leaves. Wes asked me why I did not say brown. “Brown is a color too,” he taught me.

I love autumn, thankful for God’s wisdom in creation. Autumn is necessary between summer and winter, turning the freshness and heat of one season and preparing for the eventual hibernation and cold of the next. Autumn is the chapter before the last one in the cycle.

I awoke with the word imperial on my mind. The best I can recall, my last dream included someone telling me that word imperial did not work in my sentence. I have no idea what the sentence was, nor why I wrote it. So I had to look up the word in the dictionary. Although it’s spelled with an i the usage is connected with emperor and government status. Imperial, both adjective and noun, can also refer to something unusually large or excellent. The imperial nature of things is sovereign.

Now to continue to show how my mind works: it’s foolishness. In my journal, I added an and sign & in a sentence. But how I write, it looks like a plus sign: + with a little loop. It’s similar to a cross: †. My mind went to work on that: and & cross; + and †. How do these connect or relate?

The Cross connects us to God; it’s Christ & us. The Cross is a symbol for connectedness, representing a sacrifice, death for Christ and life for us. Yet, it’s not Christ and/plus + anything else. It’s Christ alone, supreme & sufficient, imperial & sovereign.

This week I’ve updated the family directories I send out. It includes a change in addresses such as Sarah and family moving from Ireland to Pennsylvania, and John’s marriage to Elaine. I’ve kept this directory going for many years, and family members appreciate it. For this update, I added occupations for our immediate family, and some titles are impressive, such as Nathan is an executive chef and Tom is a technical architect. This is one indication of why I find connections invaluable, the theme I chose for my blog.

As summer begins to wane here, there is a new feel in the air as thoughts shift and activities focus on the changing season. The cycle of hot days and storms is slowing, although the cool touch of dew in the evenings through the mornings continues to refresh the ground (and bare feet!). The hum of lawn mowers, kids playing outdoors, and voices of those out and about in various summer activities will also continue for a short while. School has already started back for some teachers and students and buses rumble past in their journey to further the education of their charges.

For some, there is anticipation of cooler temperatures and new beginnings and for others there is perhaps a small sigh and a determination to enjoy the last of this season as long as possible. Isn’t that so like all of our lives?

I am reminded of life’s ebbs and flows, like the seasons of the year and waxing and waning of the moon. Difficult times, changing times, happy times, and growing times are all part of our own experience. The familiar passage in Ecclesiastes 3 says it so well, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…”

What will we do with our own seasons – as we move from warmth to cool, to freshening or to dryness, to relaxation or hard work, or from trials to celebration – in an ever-moving rhythm? For good or bad, we hold on to some things and never fully experience or enjoy other things.

Struggling through the waning of things we hold dear is hard! Waiting, letting go, and wrestling with churning emotions is unsettling, a difficult or uncomfortable place to be!
Will the light grow again? Will happiness come? … But I don’t want to say “good-bye”! Even moving through new and positive seasons can be a challenge. It’s so easy to miss the goodness in the sometimes-mad rush of life!

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve made a resolve to intentionally enjoy those positive times, to catch myself in those moments. It has taken some practice! Perhaps it is a satisfying opportunity to help someone else… a new word spoken by a child I’m working with… encouragement or a positive comment from a friend… time to rest and relax after a long day of work… or moments with my family.

There’s so much to be thankful for, whether the season is ending, beginning, or even in the difficult waiting and changing times between them! We can be assured of God’s presence in them all… as we are looking back, looking forward, and taking time for the now.

My prayer for us today is that we will know God’s presence through all of our seasons and find comfort and joy in Him.

Charlotte-Anne Allen — Still Small Voice – For Just a Weed

*Ecclesiastes 3:1-13, Psalm 23