Sharpening My Axe

"One man challenged another to an all-day wood chopping contest.

The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. 

'I don't get it,' he said. 'Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did.'

'But you didn't notice,' said the winning woodsman, 'that I was sharpening my axe when I sat down to rest.'"

- Author Unknown

Lessons from the Pilgrims, Part 5: 400 Years Later

 

As I keep listening to Bradford's "Of Plimoth Plantation", the following thoughts came together on my Instagram account @chronic.hannah 

"They fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven."
- Pilgrim William Bradford 

It's Thanksgiving! If you think about the important history behind this celebration, you likely picture the Pilgrims dressed in their finest, feasting with their new neighbors - the native American Indians. You remember that they celebrated for days and enjoyed games and competitions.

But I am getting a much clearer picture of the setting for this event as I listen through the history recorded by Pilgrim Governor William Bradford (just search his name on LibriVox.org for the free audiobook.) Within a few months of arrival to their new home (an inhospitable wilderness with insufficient supplies, reached by a perilous journey after years of persecution and exile), half of the Pilgrims had died.

Besides years lacking basic supplies, clothing, and most of all - food, the Pilgrims would now face empty promises, deceit, and betrayal by members of their funding organization back home and from new settlers joining them only in hopes of personal gain.

How did they respond? By seeking God's wisdom, trusting Him for provision, seeking to love and serve their enemies, and, yes, GIVING THANKS!

I think the Pilgrims would be appalled at the tone of Thanksgiving now. Theirs was no vague "feeling" of gratitude for their blessings. They thanked GOD. When they had endless reasons for fear, discouragement, and complaint, they chose to look up and remember God's love and faithfulness.

400 years later, I need to learn from the Pilgrims. And not just on Thanksgiving Day!

Lessons from the Pilgrims, Part 4: "What Could Now Sustain Them?"

Desembarco de los puritanos en América (Antonio Gisbert)

"Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees & blessed y^e God of heaven, who had brought them over y^e vast & furious ocean, and delivered them from all y^e periles & miseries therof, againe to set their feete on y^e firme and stable earth, their proper elemente.

[ Pronounce y^e = the, y^t = that]

"But hear I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amased at this poore peoples presente condition; and so I thinke will the reader too, when he well considers y^e same. Being thus passed y^e vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation... they had now no freinds to wellcome them, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses or much less townes to repaire too, to seeke for succoure.

"What could now sustaine them but the spirite of God & his grace? May not & ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: Our faithers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this willdernes; but they cried unto y^e Lord, and he heard their voyce, and looked on their adversitie, &c. Let them therfore praise y^e Lord, because he is good, & his mercies endure for ever. Yea, let them which have been redeemed of y^e Lord, shew how he hath delivered them from y^e hand of y^e oppressour. When they wandered in y^e deserte willdernes out of y^e way, and found no citie to dwell in, both hungrie, & thirstie, their sowle was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before y^e Lord his loving kindnes, and his wonderfull works before y^e sons of men.

· William Bradford,  Excerpts from Of Plimoth Plantation

[Free e-book, and audiobook with updated English are available through links in previous post.]

Click here for Lessons from the Pilgrims, Part 3

Lessons from the Pilgrims, Part 3: "But They Knew They Were Pilgrims"

Excerpt from manuscript

My current audiobook listening is Bradford's History of the Plymouth Settlement, 1608-1650. (Click here for the free audiobook.) This edition has the English updated to c.1920, but the original with its wide variety of spellings is available as a free e-book on Project Gutenberg at this link. 

William Bradford, one of the Pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower 400 years ago, wrote this history...

"...that their children may see with what difficulties their fathers wrastled in going throug these things in their first begin̅ings, and how God brought them along notwithstanding all their weaknesses & infirmities."

Manuscript cover

"So they lefte y^t goodly & pleasante citie, which had been ther resting place near 12. years; but they knew they were pilgrimes, & looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to y^e heavens, their dearest cuntrie, and quieted their spirits."

· William Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation

[Pronounce  y^t = that, y^e = the]

Click here for Lessons from the Pilgrims, Part 2

The Bay Window

Our west-facing bay window frames so many works of art every day. 

Here are just a couple sights from one day this autumn.

An occasional visit from a pileated woodpecker makes the suet fly. What an amazing, strange-looking creature!



Prairie sunsets are better than ever when the trees have lost their leaves.

God and Winston Churchill

 

Here is another quote I pulled from this book a year ago:

"Churchill understood himself as an instrument of God's intervention, which is why he sensed a mission to save "Christian civilization" from the threat of Nazism. Here, then, is our hope for the cataclysmic time in which we live: The same God who brought forth Winston Churchill (and other deliverers) still rules over history, and he has a deliverer - or deliverers - for our season as well. 

It might even be the ultimate Deliverer."

God and Churchill by Jonathan Sandys (great-grandson of Winston Churchill)

In listening through the book of Daniel in the Old Testament this week, I have been struck by how God works in corrupt and evil times to bless his children and make them shine as lights in the darkness - even when they have to stand alone and make decisions with more-than-daunting consequences. But then, they weren't standing alone... for He was with them!

I'm so glad to be a member of the kingdom of "the ultimate Deliverer!"

Three Months -- Three Seasons

Mid-August rains watered flowers...

...while tree-frogs were drawn to the light in our windows.

Mid-September sunshine dried the crops for harvest.

Mid-October snows put the harvest on hold for a couple weeks.

The last roses saved from the snow still glowed indoors...

...while cats were drawn to our windows looking for warmth.

The Merry, Multiplicity of Stars

"The end of the joyous day had come. The two children were both lying in their beds.

'Oh, Heidi!' Clara exclaimed, "I can see so many glittering stars, and I feel as if we were driving in a high carriage straight into the sky.'

'Yes, and do you know why the stars twinkle so merrily?' inquired Heidi.

'No, but tell me.'

'Because they know that God in heaven looks after us mortals and we never need to fear. See, they twinkle and show us how to be merry, too. But Clara, we must not forget to pray to God and ask Him to think of us and keep us safe.'"

Heidi by Johanna Spyri, Chapter 20

One thing I love about winter is the stars. (I know it's not technically winter yet, but we have had lots of snow already and daytime temps are below freezing.)

The stars seem clearer and brighter in the cold - partly, no doubt, because the trees are bare, so we see more from our bedroom windows. While their merry twinkling may be the main delight for a child, their immensity, distance, and multiplicity put me in greater awe of their (and my) Creator.

Cultivating a Hobby

I've just started sharing quotes from a book I enjoyed reading a year ago: God and Churchill written by Churchill's great-grandson, Jonathan Sandys. Here's another excerpt that caught my eye - even though I then had no idea I would be picking up painting just months later.

Did you know that Winston Churchill "lived to the ripe old age of ninety"?

"One of his secrets was understanding the importance of rest. ...Mary Soames describes her father resting during a 1942 visit to President Franklin Roosevelt's home at Hyde Park, New York.

"'Papa presented a charming sight... flat on his back in a patch of sun. ... I lay near him and we gazed up at the very blue sky & the green leaves dancing against it - flecked with sun.'

Begonias

"Such relaxation eased Churchill's much-burdened mind, and he began to muse about the colors he would use if he were painting the scene: '[He] commented on the wisdom of God in having made the sky blue and the trees green. "It wouldn't have been nearly so good the other way round."'

Pansies

"Churchill believed that cultivating 'a hobby and new forms of interest is ... a policy of first importance to a public man.' He discovered such a hobby at the age of forty in his love for painting. 'Painting came to my rescue in a most trying time.' he said."

Trying wax-resist for hydrangeas

"Who will show us some good?"

I love it when God directs me to the right verses at the right time!

Last week it was Psalm 4.

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!

O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?

But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;
the LORD hears when I call to him.

Be angry, and do not sin;
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.

Offer right sacrifices, 
and put your trust in the LORD.

There are many who say, "Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!"

You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.

In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 4 (ESV)

Forgetting Who We Are

"We, in our time, are raising a new generation of Americans who, to an alarming degree, are historically illiterate. The situation is serious and sad. And it is quite real, let there be no mistake. It has been coming on for a long time, like a creeping disease, eating away at the national memory."



"While the clamorous popular culture races on, the American past is slipping away, out of sight and out of mind. We are losing our story, forgetting who we are and what it's taken to come this far."

  - Historian David McCullough, at a 1995 National Book Awards ceremony

"Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so too does the human soul. As we forget who we are and where we've come from, a great void is being carved out in the soul of the West -- and many other belief systems are seeking to fill the vacuum."

- God and Churchill by Jonathan Sandys

Remember an earlier post (click here to read it again) where I shared some of what God's word warns about "forgetting"?

Choosing Gratitude

It's time to choose gratitude again.

Today I thank God for:

The freedom to vote

That You can direct the hearts of our leaders (Proverbs 21:1)

Sunshine

Strength enough to wash my hair

That You will be the stability of our times (Isaiah 33:6) 

Three students to teach

Music

The call to do everything as unto You

Orchids preparing to bloom

Cats on the deck

...and so much more!