Just a thought by coppi

Just a thought by coppi – written in 2015

A light house does not blow fog horns but it only shines.  

When I read the above I thought of our walk as Christians.  Does our life reflect the light  of Jesus.  St Mark 4:21: and he said unto them, is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? And not to be set on a candlestick?  A candle beams its flickering light so we may find our way in the dark as does the Lighthouse.  As Christians we should let our light shine & walk in the light of Christ.  We need not blow fog horns but just shine & let the Holy Spirit beam through us.  Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord……i grew up in a very legalistic religion & if we did have a little light, it was totally blown out with dos & don’ts & lots of fear. 1 John 4:7: Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God….10: herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us & sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4 is filled with scriptures of love.  The pendulum swings both ways but should be in balance.  I guess my desire is not to be a fog horn but a flickering light for our Lord.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven……

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”

I read the above statement over many times, and asked myself “Are there really ?”  Yesterday I was sitting in a row of seats at the Cancer Center-waiting for blood work results. I have Multiple Myeloma of the bone.  All the seats were taken by patients, except one next to me, waiting to see their doctor regarding their disease.  In walked a young lady dressed in a yellow outfit that sparkled with life, I thought.  She sat next to me, and as usual a conversation starts with “What kind of cancer do you have”.  She looked at me with sorrowful eyes and said “I have never been sick until I was diagnosed with cancer last year.  Cancer of the uterus.  I have had seven operations thus far, and I am here to see my doctor to find out if I need another.  She crossed herself with the sign of the cross, and said “I might not have to”.  I thought “Yes, a flower she has not seen yet”.  I was called for my blood-work results.  I got up from my seat, and took her hand, asked her name, and said you will be in my prayers.  She is on my prayer list.  Yes, I have missed seeing flowers.  I guess I was so focused on my concerns, I never thought to look for the unseen brightness glowing under all of them, a flower unseen.  

I am a cancer patient, but am blessed that I am in remission.  Grateful does not cover my emotions of joy and happiness for this blessing.  However, I have to go every 3 months to the cancer center to be checked to see if any reoccurrence has developed.  As I sit in the waiting room, I am aware of the many ones who come in who are fighting the big “C”.  Their skin reflects a grayish color, and are usually pushed in by a family member.  I wish I had a magic wand to wave the big “C” out-of-space, but I don’t- my wand is prayer, and so I pray to committing all the pain and suffering to Jesus.  I am only His ambassador of prayer, and at the Cancer Center prayer is a tool of needed use to all who enter with the hope of healing, and freedom from the big “C”.   I know, because I am one of them. 

I am a cancer patient, but am blessed that I am in remission.  Grateful does not cover my emotions of joy and happiness for this blessing.  However, I have to go every 3 months to the cancer center to be checked to see if any reoccurrence has developed.  As I sit in the waiting room, I am aware of the many ones who come in who are fighting the big “C”.  Their skin reflects a grayish color, and are usually pushed in by a family member.  I wish I had a magic wand to wave the big “C” out-of-space, but I don’t- my wand is prayer, and so I pray to committing all the pain and suffering to Jesus.  I am only His ambassador of prayer, and at the Cancer Center prayer is a tool of needed use to all who enter with the hope of healing, and freedom from the big “C”.   I know, because I am one of them. 

“Leave the irreparable past in His hands, and step out into the irresistible future with Him.” – Oswald Chambers.

18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 

19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland”.  Isaiah 43:18-19

“I will make your crooked path straight” – I heard that expression very clearly when I awakened yesterday morning.   I  got out of bed, knelt beside the bed, and repeated what I heard, and said “I will to do thy will”.   I am not a theologian, nor am I without  “crooked paths”, I am just a sojourner following Jesus.  In these crooked paths there are lots of rocks and debris that cause pain , but the lush-green meadows quickly become an antibiotic for healing my wounds of anxiety.   

“Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God”.

For the LORD my God is living in me.    He is a Mighty God. He rejoices over me with gladness, He calms all my fears with his love, and He will rejoice over me with glad songs.   And, He will make my crooked paths crossable – He does things that way, and I trust him with my heart and soul. 

“If you lack the courage to fail, you will lack the courage to succeed. It is from our worst mistakes that we grow. We learn humility. We discover that you cannot please everyone.” — Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.  Henri Nouwen

I am tired of fighting all the “self-rejections” of me. I awakened this morning from a dream on this very thing.   When we self-reject, we talk ourselves out of taking action before we even get a chance to try. Usually, self-rejection happens when we’re afraid of failing or afraid of being rejected by someone else. To avoid that pain or embarrassment, we take ourselves out of the situation before it can happen.     Have you been guilty of this?  I have. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you self-reject you and bury yourself  under “fear” and “your existence”, you have given yourself over to the enemy of self-destruction.  In Mt 25:14-18 Jesus speaks of this very thing – “The one who had received the five talents  went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.”  When the master returned he was angry with the one who buried his talent because of fear.  We are God’s beloved – fearfully and wonderfully made. Ps 139:14, then why do I bury myself under rubble?  “Self-rejection cripples talent and speaking for myself, I have dug many holes and buried the talent God gave me.  

When all is not, God is—“I AM WHO I AM.” When all is lost, God remains— “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE.” The LORD, alone, is God.

Kethoser (Aniu) Kevichusa September 3,2020

“Unhappy is he who depends on success to be happy. For such a person, the end of a successful career is the end of the line. His destiny is to die of bitterness or to search for more success in other careers and to go on living from success to success until he falls dead.” — Alex Dias Ribeiro

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C. S. Lewis 

Enough said.  

Great thoughts by great people…..just a thought by coppi

Choices – just a thought by coppi

This is the voice to listen to. And that listening requires a real choice, not just once in a while but every moment of every day and night. It is you who decides what you think, say, and do. You can think yourself into a depression, you can talk yourself into low self-esteem, you can act in a self-rejecting way. But you always have a choice to think, speak, and act in the name of God and so move toward the Light, the Truth, and the Life.  (Henri Nouwen)

Choices are always circling around for me to make.  I have lived a long time, and have made good and bad ones. One of my grateful prayers is “Jesus, thank you for letting me live long enough to look back on my life, and correct some of the ones that were wrong.”  In my former life, I belonged to four Country Clubs at one time. I have always been a person that wanted to walk with God thus spending time being still and searching truth in His word. That all ended when golf took over my life.  I was going in all directions doing and being what everyone thought I should be doing. I was a people pleaser and was drained of energy to do anything but please the world. When that life ended, I was thrown out in a world of survival.  It was a very difficult time in my life.  I returned and leaned heavily on prayer and seeking guidance from Jesus.  He brought me through that horrible time in life.  Today, I pray I can re-evaluate choices I have to make – make ones that are pleasing in God’s eyes.  

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Mt 5:4)

When I read the above scripture this morning, I seem to always relate it to death as I have heard this scripture quoted many times at funeral’s.  This morning, I looked at it differently.  When I am fighting health issues, I am mourning the loss of good health & mourning an attitude I took for granted.  Health is a precious gift, & it is only when one loses that gift, do they realize how precious it is.  Years ago, I worked for Gulf Oil Company & I will always remember this one man who would come into my office & sit & talk to me. He was very wealthy & had all the money to buy anything but he could not buy his health.  Doctors could not help his condition.  He would say to me, “I would give all I have to have my health as without it, i really have nothing”.  When all is going well in life, it’s hard to relate to issues that we are not experiencing, it’s only when we are walking through them that we mourn for the loss.  “Mourning an attitude I took for granted” – Jesus, help me to always be grateful for good health as without it, I will truly not be able to enjoy all this beautiful creation, you created.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Mt 5:4)

When I read the above scripture this morning, I seem to always relate it to death as I have heard this scripture quoted many times at funeral’s.  This morning, I looked at it differently.  When I am fighting health issues, I am mourning the loss of good health & mourning an attitude I took for granted.  Health is a precious gift, & it is only when one loses that gift, do they realize how precious it is.  Years ago, I worked for Gulf Oil Company & I will always remember this one man who would come into my office & sit & talk to me. He was very wealthy & had all the money to buy anything but he could not buy his health.  Doctors could not help his condition.  He would say to me, “I would give all I have to have my health as without it, i really have nothing”.  When all is going well in life, it’s hard to relate to issues that we are not experiencing, it’s only when we are walking through them that we mourn for the loss.  “Mourning an attitude I took for granted” – Jesus, help me to always be grateful for good health as without it, I will truly not be able to enjoy all this beautiful creation, you created.

Just a thought by coppi

“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”  John Milton

“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” – Mark Twain

Gratitude and anger.  Two words – one will brighten your life and one will eventually destroy it.  I am fully aware that it is hard to be grateful when everything around you seems to be crushing, but I also know if you can muster enough energy to fine one thing that you are grateful for and dwell on it, you will experience a twinkle of light.  Anger on the other hand eats away at any joy you have.  It is like acid to your body and will eventually destroy you.  I remember years ago when I was taking a course in ‘A Way Out”, my counselor put boxing gloves on me and made me punch a pillow.  She said to me “coppi, you do have anger but you don’t know how to express it”.  Truly, anger to me was fear.  I was frightened of anger – mine and others so I squelched it.  I did feel silly standing there with boxing gloves on looking at a pillow to start expressing built-up anger on it, but with my counselor’s continuing coaxing, I finally beat it to sunder.  She said some anger is good and needs to be expressed.  Jesus express anger over the money changers in the temple (John 2:13-16).  There is also anger that hurts people. Kills people.  We have a lot of that in our world today.  The anger I am speaking of is the anger we have tucked way down inside our ‘temple’ because we are afraid to express ourselves because of fear.  I still deal with it, but being aware of what it does to my soul, I will journalize my feelings and ask Jesus to help me sort through it in a healthy way.  I have not purchased any boxing gloves – journalizing is the way for me.