Whispers of Truth

Saying what you want to say to someone who might die soon is hard. Although sometimes the moment is expected, that doesn’t make it easier to make sure everything that needs to be said gets said. Often you don’t know that you won’t have another moment, and all those words remain locked inside the grief or drop to the ground near a graveside, never reaching the one you love. Sometimes, there is denial that the end is near, and that makes it impossible to speak because there is no acknowledgement that death is even approaching, the thought unbearable.  The writer of Ecclesiastes broaches death in the last chapter and speaks of the spirit returning to God, urging his audience to remember God: Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. (12:6-7, NASB)  Whether we want t...

 Webster’s 1828 defines booty like this: Spoil taken from an enemy in war; plunder; pillage. That which is seized by violence and robbery. Now, if you are like others of this century, maybe booty isn’t a familiar term, at least in this envisioning of it. If you are like others, you laughed, thinking, “Where in the world is she going with this?” Well, let me tell you how my morning started, and I think you will better understand. Earlier in the week, a nearby friend let me know that the sunflowers she and her husband planted near her farm would be blooming soon. After waiting a few days for them to open, knowing I needed to get up early and get going anyway today, I decided a sunrise picture of the flowers facing the sun would be nice (since I hadn’t been able to get away for a sunset picture). I set my alarm for early (way too early, mind you), jumped up, got dressed, grabbed my camera, and took off out the door.  My eagerness to get in the car and get to the field di...

I just spent two weeks looking at the nuances of the English language as it concerns not only literature but also the language used to create it. Shadows and nuances exist everywhere and create tension that readers try to interpret, yet it is the interpretation that becomes the rub. As I quickly remembered this past week, few of us have the same lens to look through, which results in various interpretations of the same words or event. The thing all of us have in common is that everyone looks through lenses colored by our own worlds.   Thinking about this past week made me think of Pilate. “What is truth?” he asks Jesus, clearly expecting no answer in return as he immediately turns and leaves Him (Jn. 18:38-39). This relativism follows Jesus’ clear statement that He "came into the world to bear witness to the truth” (v. 37). Pilate clearly didn’t “hear” His voice which was the truth, or if he did hear it, he resisted it because receiving it placed him in an untenable political po...