Life – Page 12 – Pathway Journey

September 13, 2022September 13, 2022

Goodbye Ole Okra

My old lover of hot summers is about to fade as the sunny hours grow fewer and the hot begins to turn toward cold. I am a son of the South, so I love okra, that odd vegetable that fills our summer plates and occasionally takes some space in our soups. Our Louisiana cousins put it in gumbo, and we love it too.

Our regional preferred dish is breaded and fried. I am one of the odd ones who also loves it boiled, leaving it slimy and slick. It chews easy and goes down quick.

September 1, 2022September 1, 2022

Yesterday’s Door is Shut!

Regret is a bad dream on a never-ending replay loop. I think most of us have some of those past events or choices of which we regret. “I wish I hadn’t done that!” or “I wish I would have made a better choice there!”

I know this is a rhetorical question, but I must ask it anyway, “Can we go back and change it?” Of course, the answer is an emphatic, “NO!” There is nothing we can do to change the decision or the action of the past. That door is shut and cannot be opened.

August 16, 2022August 15, 2022

I Shine My Own Shoes

I recall as a small boy from the age of six or seven knowing how to shine my own shoes. Since that time, the only time I remember paying for a shoeshine was in Haiti and then only to help an industrious village youth trying to make a few gourdes.

Independence is probably a fault of mine. I had rather do something myself than to ask someone to do it. This has been one of my faults in life, not delegating tasks.

August 9, 2022August 9, 2022

Mindset of Jesus

Why do you think like that? We all have a pattern or direction of thought. Our minds are directed from something and directed to something. We all have a worldview, meaning our thinking is based on a set of principles or from a certain standpoint.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippian Church, he encouraged them to have the “mind of Christ”. If we think that having the mind of Christ is a far jump for us, consider that the Greek word in Philippians is a verb meaning to be minded in a certain way. It is like having our thinking oriented like Jesus or the direction of our thoughts and life is like Him.

July 14, 2022July 13, 2022

True Conversion

If I remember the story correctly, a man in conversation with the famous evangelist D. L. Moody, pointed to a drunken man on the street and said, “Moody, isn’t that one of your converts?” Moody replied, “Yes, that looks like one of my converts.” Implying that the work of man does not change an individual but only a true work of grace by Christ can convert.

July 7, 2022July 6, 2022

Words With Action

The words that a person speaks does not really define who they are but what they do is a true indicator of who they are.

Many in our present culture are under the illusion they can change the world by posting a Tweet in 280 characters or a Facebook meme while sipping on a mocha latte. It takes a little more action than that!

June 16, 2022June 16, 2022

For the Men in Grubby Ole Caps

NOTE: Happy Father’s Day! This post is about hardworking men with dirty fingernails because it is Father’s Day, but we love and appreciate hard working women too!

I have an old grubby cap they I usually wear when I’m working outside. It has never been washed and probably never will be. At this point it has its own history. It was promotional cap from a business, so I got it for free. The ole cap is well broke in about like me. There are some frayed threads, stains, and the dark color has faded from the sun and rain. When I eventually throw it away, I will revisit a few memories.

June 9, 2022June 9, 2022

Pain Hurts!!!

We have a skillet with a removeable rubber grip on the handle so you can use the skillet in the oven. This week we cooked some garden fresh yellow squash with slices of onion sprinkled in olive oil in that skillet. Shortly after it was removed from the oven, I was going to move it and without thinking I grabbed the hot handle without a pot holder. Ouch! It took a nano-second for me to let go. I put my hand under tap water and I was fine. Pain hurts but it helped me to let go!

June 3, 2022June 3, 2022

Disappointment

I suppose disappointment is a human condition that affects us all. We often wallow in the disappointment in ourselves and boil over our emotions in the disappointment of others.

There is a portion of scripture I often default to in times of disappointment that shakes me back into reality. It is in Proverbs 13:12a (NKJV), “Hope deferred makes the heart sick…” My paraphrase is, “Expectations not met, breaks the heart.”

May 26, 2022May 26, 2022

Where Do We Go From Here?

PRAY FOR THE FAMILIES OF UVALDE, TEXAS!

It is horrible thing when two neighbors have a quarrel, and one kills the other. It is so unthinkable when an evil person kills at random one or more who are innocent and vulnerable with whom he had no quarrel. It is unthinkable because normal, descent folks just cannot imagine why anyone would do such a thing—it is unthinkable.

There is the usual rush to put a “why” on the “what”. Most of us who have an ounce of compassion first think about those in our lives who approximate the same age as the victims, then a deep sick feeling wells up in our souls to the point we quickly change the channel in our mind to something less painful. We whisper a prayer for the hurting while our souls scream, “WHY?”