WAITING FOR GOD

 

Waiting for God

by David L Lewis

Original blog on Brazil Times website posted 2013,  updated March 2023

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee,      and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.” (John 21.18, ASV)

.

“Waiting for God” was a British sitcom seen on PBS from 1990 to 1994. The show portrayed two 70’s something residents of a retirement home who spent their time running rings around their families and the home's oppressive management. Now that I’m nearing the big 8-0 “Waiting for God” is probably excellent preparation for last step in life known euphemistically as ‘good as it gets’

As it comes to all loved and loving children, our kids are plotting these days to send us to one of those ‘retirement’ homes! After our most recent go-arounds with heart, health, and happiness, said kids may well have good reason in conspiring to consign me and Kay to “waiting for God” status.

Truth is that the hardest thing to do is waiting for God.

It turns out that with God most things are a matter of a lot of waiting. And, as we wait it often seems like His (and our) enemies are triumphing, while God seems to be taking His own sweet time in getting things done. Christians are left holding on to Romans 8.28: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

If God has only me to deal with, that purpose can be worked out a bit more quickly. If, to fulfill His purposes, He really does want me to stop beating my wife with wet spaghetti, I’m pretty sure I can. Getting my life in line with His requirements is a bore, but very effective in finding His purposes.

The delay usually comes about because there are other people, circumstances, and conflicts to be considered. When others must first align with His purposes, solution to our problem takes a while.

As Americans, though, we’ve come to expect a certain level of instantaneous co-operation by the Almighty, saying: “By the way, Lord, I’m more interested in my purposes than in Yours, anyway.”

For those who learn to wait, it usually all works out well. Most Christians really do find “all things work together for good”. Problem is that it took some considerable amount of time to do so. When God was finally able to work it out with all those people, circumstances, and conflicts, the proffered prayers had long since been forgotten. Lost, too, is how bad it was. how fervently was prayed for His solution. By time we no longer need to wait for God, we’ve already gone on to next request.

We used to sing a chorus based on Isaiah 40.31 which went:

    They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength

    They shall mount up on wings as eagles
    They shall run and not be weary
    They shall walk and shall not faint
    Wait, wait I say, on the Lord

Must try to remember those lyrics as it gets as good as it gets
and I, too, begin waiting for God.

WARNINGS I MIGHT IMPART

 

WARNINGS I MIGHT IMPART

(as if any future generation might listen)

One prime warning readily applied to all generations comes from Judges 2.10, “And there grew up a new generation which knew not...”

Turns out humans don’t often know what they don’t know, and are most often adverse to leaning what they don’t want to learn from old folk. New generations seem always to require learning most of what they learn from their own mistakes. I know how they feel. Almost everything I learned in life was learned by mistake, and not from some novel willingness to listen to forefathers. Mostly my own mistakes, occasionally from observing mistakes of others. Mostly, though, warned of the consequences, I was young and “did it my way”.

Knowing few, if any, listen to lessons learned by old men, I herewith dare proclaim these warnings to any who would learn. Warnings I would give some future generation in forlorn hope they may learn from some old generation.

Beware the ‘Law of Unintended Consequences’

In 1974 Billy Graham said words which have evidenced to be valid many times, in many circumstances, by many people: “Every problem we solve creates two problems which we would not have had if we had not solved the first problem. The result is that now the problems are so complex there is no solution.” To best of my knowledge ‘Law of Unintended Consequences” has not been appealed since.

Beware What Has Been “Carefully Taught”

You've got to be taught to hate and fear
You've got to be taught from year to year
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught

This comes from 1950 Broadway musical South Pacific and was quite controversial when written. While ostensibly directed to what has been ‘carefully taught’ to us as children, it is my observation it applies to what we learn throughout life – by mistake perhaps – about religion, politics, and our place is the human experience. Beware what you know that had to be very carefully taught.

Beware the Dunning-Kruger Effect

Never heard of it? Not to worry, once you understand it you may well see it in a lot of folks. Not yourself, of course, but others. If you can’t understand the Effect, well, we need to talk.

Named after psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the Dunning-Kruger Effect is a view of life that causes some to overestimate their knowledge, level of skill, or ability – particularly in areas with which they have little to no experience. People with such a worldview can be recognized by:

• failure to accept others can do the task a lot better

• failure to realize or to admit they haven’t got a clue

• failure to learn from their own mistakes and failures

• failure to accept responsibility when all goes to hell

Sound like anyone you know? Just asking for a friend.

Bad news is that people demonstrating the Effect aren’t smart enough to know they aren’t smart enough to know they demonstrate it. So, as said above, if you still don’t understand the Effect, well, we need to talk.

Good news is that, like both pride and humility, once you know you demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger Effect, it’s gone.

Just warnings put forward in forlorn hopes some future generation may learn from this old generation.

theDaddy!

Where is God in This Mess

 

From my Brazil Times blog of September 24, 2014

Where is God in all this mess?

If you have not been watching the news lately, don’t.

About once a week there is a report about a forest fire which has broken out and caused massive damage. Then, almost incidentally, it might be noted that this fire is just one of 30 or so burning across the nation.

Turns out this fire phenomena is illustrative of what’s going on from one end of the earth to the other. The whole world seems to be burning, with no limit to the number of fires demanding attention, and no shortage of break-outs to report.

Someone has said that the world stands at the greatest moment of calamity in human history – even more dangerous than Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when thermonuclear war was at stake. In that crisis at least there was some one reasonable, logical person with whom to negotiate.

None of the world’s fires now faced seem to have any reasonable, logical person with whom to negotiate.

Someone once told me that if a Christian wants to know where God is in all this mess they ought to have an understanding of what might be called a “Christian philosophy of history” of what He has been and is doing through history.

Now, any philosophy should not be thought of as a doctrine of the church. Rather, philosophy is best thought of as a search for truth; a search with which anyone is free to disagree, or misunderstand.

An overview of Christian thought over 2,000 years seems to indicate that Christianity says history goes in a straight line and can be summed up with: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Rev. 22.13, KJV). That is, all history began with: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Gen 1.1, KJV). And, that all human history will end with: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed (I Cor 15.51, KJV)

Christians generally have held that all human history from Alpha to Omega is in the hands of an all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present loving heavenly Father who has a plan and is in control of the final outcome; that nothing happens to His children which does not first pass through His permissive will.

No one is obligated to accept that history teaches that we are going from point A to point B, nor to think that God is in control of it all, or even to take hope that He wins in the end.

But, if this Christian approach to reading history is not true we are in big trouble.

We are not going back to America as we imagined it being in the 1950’s. The world is getting darker and darker, fires are burning from one end of the earth to the other, and there is no reasonable person with whom to negotiate.

If a Beginning-to-End Christian philosophy of history is not correct, then don’t watch the news.

David L Lewis is an observer of and sometimes commentator on life who may be reached at thedaddy1776.gmail,com.

WHO IS A CHRISTIAN

 

WHO IS A CHRISTIAN?

Following is condensed from three blogs originally posted August 2010 on Brazil Times website. Years of observation led me to create my own ‘Types of Christian’. It must be noted that to the best of my knowledge this is original to me and presented as ‘open source’ for any other. My list is not known to be a teaching of any church or denomination; and I am not prepared or willing to defend it on any Biblical or theological basis. It’s simply the observation of one old man.

Level One: Politically Christian

There is an interesting phenomenon in our culture which allows anyone to be what I would term a “Political Christian”. That is, one can be a Christian because they are nothing else.

It is commonplace, and certainly a legal right, to be a “Christian” simply by being nothing else: Do not have an Islamic sounding name, must not be Muslim. Do not look like parents were from Asia, so not Buddhist or Hindu. No apparent Israel heritage, can’t be a Jew. Born and bred in America and doing right as seeing right to be in own eyes, so must be Christian.

In this opinion being “Politically Christian” requires no special knowledge of the Bible, no well defined belief system, cost nothing – not even membership in any particular church. It does allow, even demands, religious tolerance for anything and everything passing under the banner of faith. The “Politically Christian” blithely says, “You have your religion and I have mine.”

Level Two: Philosophically Christian

It is my observation it is possible to be what I would term “Philosophically Christian” – that is, because I somehow identify with a certain church that is what I am. My stepfather Bill Maddox put it this way, “I’m a trunk Baptist. Joined the Baptist Church when I was a kid and got a membership certificate. Put the darn thing in a trunk and have been a Baptist ever since.”

People identify with one church or another for a lot of reasons: They love the liturgy (every church has one, know it or not); or it’s where they grew up; or there’s a really nice preacher. All good reasons I suppose. To be a Christian because of with whom you identify is certainly an American right.

Any American church can embrace any teachings or traditions it wishes, which makes for a very interesting diversity. As long as you say, “these are our traditions, the way we choose to ‘do’ church”, you can get away with a lot of intriguing dichotomies. Only things that cannot be done in the name of Christ’s Church is what clearly contravenes civil law or the rights of another.

Level Three: Theologically Christian

To be “Theologically Christian” one must be willing to go beyond “this is what our church teaches”. Now you must enter into the sum total of the revelations of God, His history in dealing with mankind, and what direction He has given to scholarship for these 2,000 years. Now begins a search for something to die for; and, more the difficult, something to live by. This particular search is best thought a journey, not a destination.

The Guideposts on this journey are questions, rarely accompanied with easy answers.

• Where is God in all this mess, anyway?

• What think you of about Jesus of Nazareth, called The Christ? Who is He?

• Is the Bible – as it has come down to us through Judaeo-Christian history – what it claims? Is it what others claim for it?

• The overwhelming weight of statistical evidence indicates all that lives dies. What then?

• Most important of all, if we seek to be Theologically Christian, how shall we then live?

I am somewhere on this search to be a Theological Christian, not sure where. Worry about those certain of where they are in the journey. Worry more about them than about my own uncertainty in this regard. Where are you?

^“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (the Apostle Paul, Philippians 3.11-14, NIV)

SCREWTAPE

 

BREAKING NEWS!

Screwtape Post-Xmas

dispatch intercepted

In Case You Missed It:

Long before anyone had even heard of any Grinch the famed English scholar C. S. Lewis leaked thirty-one dispatches sent from Hades by senior demon Screwtape. They were designated as for his nephew Wormwood, an apprentice demon. This dossier came to be known as The Screwtape Letters. C. S. Lewis (being an Oxford professor) had translated this correspondence from the original demonic languages, or so the story goes.

Painstaking reading of those texts revealed Screwtape was a senior demon with uncontrollable control over Wormwood. Wormwood receives in the letters detailed instructions on how to deviate mortals away from Heaven and lead them into Hell. Specifically, Wormwood was to do this by emphasizing the distraction, discouragement, and dread common to humankind which so often take their minds away from depending on God.

Exclusive Update:

Recently this writer came into possession of a current Screwtape letter written to an apprentice demon known only as ‘Dimwood’. Source of this acquisition cannot be revealed, a decision for which there is ample precedent: to quote C. S. Lewis, “I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands”.

With the coming of Google Translate this new letter can be revealed herewith in the human vernacular. For whatever it is worth, this translation revealed the letter centers on 2021 skirmishes of this writer.

**********************************************************************************************************

The Disgraceful Lowest Domain

office of Screwtape, senior demon

2021 year-end review

To apprentice demon Dimwood,

It is time for your year-end, with-malicious-intent review. Thus I find myself with the gleeful task of pointing out your recent incompetency and unmitigated failures in regard to the assigned task of depressing one David Lewis, a would-be (forgive the expression) Christian.

#1) We are disappointed his heart odyssey did nothing to make his life unbearable. It was bad enough he had better than we wanted medical care. But, added to this our-Enemy-Above sent His angels, disguised as humans, whenever they were needed to comfort and encourage, to wit:

• To your demonic discredit you allowed you-know-Who to inspire that unbearably goodhearted first born son, Kenneth, to drop everything come 200 miles at exactly right time just because he was needed.

• Also as an apprentice demon we hold you personally responsible for that do-gooder third son, Matthew. You should have been warned what this kid was like when he drove all night to be there when his daddy went into heart surgery. Then he goes out a buys his parents a 50-inch TV for your would-be (forgive the expression) Christian to enjoy. Just an awful kid!

• Then, while your back must have been turned, people he didn’t even know sent him a handmade comforter to keep him warm. Disgusting!

• Finally, there was that woman whom our-Enemy-Above gave him. You totally failed to make him such a burden on her that she would not continue to love him too much. A Total Failure on your part!

As a result your designated would-be Christian got whole in spirit in spite of all our attempts to scare him into denial of you-know-Who.

#2) Now we come to the matter of that family Christmas gathering, a most horrid occasion indeed.

• Yes, must admit you did an adequate job last year in getting this event canceled due to our virus panic. But, this year you totally failed to scare these people out of expressing their love for each other. Even before the event you couldn’t even scare your assignee and his bride into not getting that darn vaccine thing!

• Were you aware this family has so much of that hideouts thing called ‘love’ that thirty-nine of them would go to so much trouble to get together? They even came from one side of the country to the other! Who would have thought? Nobody fought, nobody got irritated with another. The shame of it!!!

• And, they had such a good time everybody left glad they’d come. Food, games, freedom to tell stories of things done the parents hadn’t ever heard. Doing of bad deeds is okay, but the freedom to talk about it? Awful, just awful.

#3) Now we come to that day which our-Enemy-Above most wants celebrated, the birth of the One who can save so many souls from our domain of evil. With the coming of yet another yukky Xmas, as an apprentice demon you have failed to leave your assigned would-be Christian totally depressed.

• You thought he and that woman our-Enemy-Above gave him being home alone would be a bad thing. Don’t you know it’s only because his children heeded their council? They were content being alone because their children fulfilled their parent’s hopes! Hope for each child to make their own Christmas memories of being at home with their children.

  • This resulted in the worse, for us, possible outcome. Now there are five families enjoying the most hated by hell day, Christmas.

  • Five families who will, forgive the expression, make good memories which will stay with those little urchins forever.

• As an apprentice demon you allowed terrible behavior by those same children in how they (forgive me Satan for using the word) honored their father and mother. Just look at what those diabolically selfless kids did to us!

  • First, David woke up on an adjustable bed purchased for him by their youngest son, Benjamin. Were you not warned that after all our attempts to pull that boy astray when he was young, he had turned out – from our perspective – so bad.

  • Then your assignee sat down in that new easy chair his daughter ordered without telling in advance. Terrible thing this love of a daughter for her father, terrible. And, it’s obvious with all our small victories over the years he doesn’t deserve it; but still she loves him.

After all our efforts this David person still has all those dreadful blessing to be counted as the New Year comes. All of this we here in the lowest realm are blaming on you. Your assigned (forgive the expression) Christian is not discouraged and still loves his wife and children despite all attempts to leave him depressed.

With all appropriate disgust, I remain your taskmaster until you arrive to suffer forever in our lord Satan’s domain! Yeah, well, right, okay, you know, Merry Christmas and all that.

with all due malice intent I remain your dictatorial uncle,

Screwtape

Screwtape

**********************************************************************************************************

ON BEING PRESIDENTIAL

 

PRESIDENTIAL

In this observation of too many years most men coming to the office has to learn how to be President of the United States of America. It is not intuitive knowledge. In my lifetime I have seen only three who came to the game equipped for the contest: Lyndon Johnson, George H W Bush and Joe Biden. And, I have only known of one never learning how to be Presidential.

Now, I do feel compelled to reiterate that since he was introduced by then Senator Obama as his Vice-President candidate in 2008 I have never thought Joe Biden a particularly good choice for President. Nothing personal against the man, and at the time had not had occasion to give it much study. This was just my general impression after seeing Biden only in scattered news reports over the years. And, in interest of full disclosure, President Biden displays a worldview of what is commonly called a ‘progressive’ or ‘liberal’. After voting Republican since Goldwater, this is not a worldview with which I am in complete agreement or comfortable.

Now that he has been President for a while, and after actually boning-up on the subject, my opinion is not much changed.

It is unlikely any would call him ‘charismatic’. Personally, tend to think of him as ‘uncle Joe’ type. If I may be allowed an opinion, and this is my blog, everything seen and reported about his life of service and personal decorum indicate the world would have been well served if the man had been a priest.

What Joseph R Biden Jr. is is experienced in what government can do when government is needed, and how to get that done. This is what we need from our government and in our President when the hour of need comes.

Now comes such an hour, a natural disaster of the highest magnitude. The type event which can make or break a President’s heritage. No one blames the President for a natural disaster. It is what he does thereafter which is remembered about the man: Did he listen? Did he take command? Did he accept responsibility?

There has been and will continue to be moments of compelling crisis. Which means there will always be instances when calm, knowledgeable, tell-it-like-it-is leadership is needed... 

     When we do not get such leadership America suffers. 
     When we do get such leadership the nation unites and works together through to a better day. Its call being Presidential.

 

FACEBOOK

ZUCHS!

or

The Hydra in the Metadata

It has recently become popular to blame Facebook and/or YouTube for “Censoring” content. In this observation these complaints boil down to: “Right Wing” pundits saying Social Media is “Left Wing” and “Left Wing” pundits intoning the opposite. And, yes, I have literally seen both arguments on Facebook, YouTube, and the TV machine. Each side had some “study” which they’d quoted as authoritative which resulted in censorship. Studies which just incidentally were usually based on undisclosed numbers of people.

Perhaps, though, the root problem is the unimaginable volume of ‘numbers’ that have to be sorted through. According to available sources, as of June 2021 Facebook has 2.85 Billion active users worldwide and is translated into multiple languages. There are an estimated 55,000 Posts per second to Facebook and 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. That’s a lot of the ones & zeros which create those posts.

Also, it might be suggested none of current problems are particularly new. Following is from my Brazil Times article published October 28 2013. For any reader in the know, yes, it was Nathan edited and approved.

The Facebook Slowdown

The single most common complaint we’ve heard in 10+ years at Computer Central in Brazil is that a computer is running “slow”. There are probably as many reasons why this could be as there are complainers. In the past year or so, however, when people come in or call complaining their computer is “slow” what they actually mean is “my Facebook is slow”.

“Social Media” is the politically correct buzzword, but Facebook is the Godzilla in the room. It was once reported that the average “facebooker” returns to their account seven times a day.

Nathan, who is the real geek here, gives a really good explanation why Facebook is always going to run “slow”. Has something to do with the mathematical equations programmers have to do, or some such.

Here’s why Facebook is slow: There’s a whole bunch of stuff for it to do.

When you open to your account your computer is going out somewhere in never-never land looking for Facebook’s servers. Those servers have to figure out who you are and which page you want.

As soon as they do this they need to pull up the advertising which fits your profile and/or scan your computer to find out what things you may have ordered online. If I were to load Facebook on my office computer, for example, I’d get advertising for office supplies. Opening the same account on our home computer gets all kinds of old folks advertising.

Only after finding out who you are and what advertising to load, do they dump all this stuff on your screen. Then, when you scroll down the page the whole process starts over.

All this happens as millions of ones & zeros transfer back and forth every millisecond.

No wonder it is “slow” -- between your computer and Facebook there is a whole bunch of stuff for it to do. It can help if your PC has enough RAM, but that’s another subject...

Whatever you think of “social media” it has changed your life because it has changed the world. And, it is going cause problems and it is going to run “slow”.

2021 Postscript

In ancient Greek mythology the Hydra was a serpent-like monster with many heads. The fable being when one head was cut off, two more would inevitably grow back in its place. May it be herewith respectfully submitted that maybe, just maybe, the more they try to solve the problems of Social Media the more problems social media will ‘grow’. And maybe, just maybe, Mark is doing the best he can to slay the Hydra he somewhat unintentionally incarnated.