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.