Monday, August 23, 2021

Reflection - Number Our Days - Paying Attention

Source (book): "Teach Us to Number Our Days", Chapter 23, "Paying Attention", Page 109.
By David Roper, Pastor, and regular and popular writer for Our Daily Bread.


Hark! Hark! The dogs do bark,
PHOTO: Hark! Hark! The dogs do bark,
The beggars are coming to town.
Some in rags and some in tags,
And one in a velvet gown.
- Nursery Rhyme

David wrote: "How blessed is he who considers the helpless [the poor]." His beatitude (blessedness) set me to thinking.

The poor we'll always have with us, Jesus said. Some are poor in possessions and appearance; others are poor in faith, hope, and love. Even if I can't alleviate the poverty of those I meet along the way, I can "consider" them - a verb that means "to pay attention." (Psalm 41:1 NASB)

G. K. Chesterton defines a saint as one who exaggerates what the world neglects, and what is neglected today is the art of paying attention. Few seem to be aware of the pain around them, they go their way inattentive and unmoved.

In such a world it's not difficult to find some want to supply, some misery to alleviate. A divorcée or widow, grief-stricken in her loneliness. A weary parent kept awake at night by the struggles of a hurting child. A frightened man awaiting cancer surgery in the morning. A care-worn checker in a grocery store working a second or third job to make ends meet. A young boy who has never had enough father. A single mother whose flood of worries has washed her hope away. A lonely old man who has outlived his usefulness, or so he believes. A hurting heart behind your own front door. Perhaps we don't have much to give, but we can pay attention. We can see beyond what others see to the possibilities of mercy, compassion, and understanding.

This past summer I came across a book entitled The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow which contains the diary of a semi-literate twelve-year-old child who lived at the turn of the century in lumber camps in western Oregon. As I read Opal's diary I was awed by her simple compassion and sensitivity. Though often abused, she was not swallowed up in self-pity, but hid herself in God (as her poems indicate) and freely gave herself away. She was a happy child who teaches us what it means to "pay attention."

Here's a brief excerpt from her diary. I've included it as it is, though her vernacular (language) may sound strange to our ears.

The mama did send me in a hurry to the wood-shed. It was for two loads of wood she wanted. I did bring in the first load in a hurry. The second load I brought not so. I did pick up all the sticks my arms could hold. While I was picking them up, I looked long looks at them. I went not to the kitchen with them in a quick way. I was meditating. I did have thinks about the tree they all were before they got chopped up. I did wonder how I would feel if I was a very little piece of wood that got chopped out of a big tree. I did think that it would have hurt my feelings. I felt the feelings of the wood. They did have a very sad feel.

Just when I was getting that topmost stick a bit wet with sympathy tears - then the mama did come up behind me with a switch. She said while she did switch, "Stop your meditations," and while she did switch, I did drop the wood. I felt the feels the sticks of wood felt when they hit the floor. Then I did pick them up with care and I put them all in the wood-box back of the cook stove . . . But all the time I was churning (the butter) I did hum a little song. It was a good-bye song to the sticks in the wood-box back of the kitchen stove.

When the churning was done and the butter was come, the mama did lift all the little lumps of butter out of the churn. Then she did pat them together in a big lump, and this she put away in the butterbox in the wood-shed. When she went to lay herself down to rest on the bed, she did call me to rub her head. I like to rub the mama's head, for it does help the worry lines to go away. Often I rub her head, for it is often she does have longings to have it so. And I do think it is very nice to help people have what they do have longings for.

So I, too, should be willing to bear the pain that brings me to Jesus who feels our feelings and rubs our worry lines away. So I, too, should take long looks at others.

I can let people know that I care. I can ask them to tell their stories and listen patiently while they do. I can treat them with courtesy and respect, though they may be testy or tiresome. I can encourage those with aching hearts with a word of God's mercy and love. I can follow up with an e-mail, a card, or a call. And I can pray with them, the most helpful and healing act of all, for in prayer I bring others to the throne of mercy where they may find grace to help in their time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Even when I cannot help them, I can bring them to the One who can. And here's where David's beatitude comes into play, for in the oldest and oddest paradox of all, paying attention pays off, for we're happiest when we give our lives away. (Psalm 41:4-9)

And for those who think only for themselves? The life they save is the life they lose. In the end it's worth nothing to anyone including themselves - a featureless, lifeless parody (imitation) of those who have lived and cared for others. "Only a life given away for love's sake is worth living," says Fredrick Buechner.

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans the past, above and beyond all transitory pleasures of life, there leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to those around you, things too trifling to speak about, but which you feel have entered into your eternal life. I have seen almost all the beautiful things that God has made; I have enjoyed almost every pleasure that [God] has planned for [people]; and yet as I look back I see standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short experiences when the love of God reflected itself in some poor imitation, some small act of love of mine, and these seen to be things which alone of all one's life abide (endure). Everything else in all our lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. But the acts of love which no [one] knows about, or can ever know about, they never fail.

The greatest thing in the world is love. It's our best gift to God and to others. Perhaps you and I can do nothing more than love one soul, but it is enough.

But what is left for the cold gray soul,
That moans like a wounded dove?
One wine is left in the broken bowl! -
'Tis - to love, and love, and love.
- George MacDonald, Phantastes
Picture posted by Heidi Zak, co-founder and co-CEO of ThirdLove on 2019 at 05:38 pm - Emotional empathy
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAYp5ECCzd-_bds_cBGXijd0aY6QZ4LpeVZa0ChWNRtb8_O3sex98o7ttvJ1ThlV5NW2tNzq3GeR7KFM6jjXui6jp8_ZEfX6rn3Q6F587wY67Sly9nmP8cOQ_m6o28xxhsNIYcaz69SIM/s1265/emotional-empathy-for-leaders.png
https://minutes.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/emotional-empathy-for-leaders.png
https://minutes.co/emotional-empathy-is-a-leaders-greatest-strength/


Hark! Hark! The dogs do bark,
The beggars are coming to town.
Some in rags and some in tags,
And one in a velvet gown.
- Nursery Rhyme

David wrote: "How blessed is he who considers the helpless [the poor]." His beatitude (blessedness) set me to thinking.


David wrote: 'How blessed is he who considers the helpless [the poor].'
PHOTO: David wrote: "How blessed is he who considers the helpless [the poor]."
Painting by Edward Coley Burne Jones(1833-1898) - King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
Picture posted by See British Art
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlrtOFtFXgUesQuzP5CYaCynNfJH3hK5R4wkoe43ESJcBi6QmdKcGmylxl7Bu7opqsmy4DVtfkXd3SvB0saiiDtBtHBNZq_lkUJLlx190vbb52wOoiAeYqrAvccYUMBwvMkjeQwKgOvgw/s2629/Edward-Burne-Jones---King-Cophetua-and-the-Beggar-Maid---Google-Art-Project_1.png
https://seebritish.art/images/2020/04/19/Edward-Burne-Jones---King-Cophetua-and-the-Beggar-Maid---Google-Art-Project.jpg
https://seebritish.art/category/national-gallery-london/?list=images&sort=views_desc&page=5&peek=53.qCi2H&lang=ar


The poor we'll always have with us, Jesus said. Some are poor in possessions and appearance; others are poor in faith, hope, and love. Even if I can't alleviate the poverty of those I meet along the way, I can "consider" them - a verb that means "to pay attention." (Psalm 41:1 NASB) [111]

G. K. Chesterton defines a saint as one who exaggerates what the world neglects, and what is neglected today is the art of paying attention. Few seem to be aware of the pain around them, they go their way inattentive and unmoved.


What is neglected today is the art of paying attention.
PHOTO: What is neglected today is the art of paying attention. Few seem to be aware of the pain around them, they go their way inattentive and unmoved.
Picture posted by sabbathbible.com
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ZQc56m7w3oyie6QDstbiHoV3iXeY_6EBNP1okQJhOHQTOd-l1wTBFzQLDFZuWMs2ZHXUR9RvDrsvyUTqbCD389-LhQ4dax3Qjc_syPysSdHfG3CcuNVdSkn5KmdqzlBticGMPozXUUA/s800/19-Psa041001.jpg
http://www.sabbathbible.com/web/19-Psa/images/19-Psa041001.jpg
http://www.sabbathbible.com/web/19-Psa/psalms.html


In such a world it's not difficult to find some want to supply, some misery to alleviate. A divorcée or widow, grief-stricken in her loneliness. A weary parent kept awake at night by the struggles of a hurting child. A frightened man awaiting cancer surgery in the morning. A care-worn checker in a grocery store working a second or third job to make ends meet. A young boy who has never had enough father. A single mother whose flood of worries has washed her hope away. A lonely old man who has outlived his usefulness, or so he believes. A hurting heart behind your own front door. Perhaps we don't have much to give, but we can pay attention. We can see beyond what others see to the possibilities of mercy, compassion, and understanding. [112]


In such a world it's not difficult to find some want to supply, some misery to alleviate.
PHOTO: In such a world it's not difficult to find some want to supply, some misery to alleviate. Perhaps we don't have much to give, but we can pay attention. We can see beyond what others see to the possibilities of mercy, compassion, and understanding.
Picture saved by Antonio Lucas to Historias e Livros para aumentar a sua Fé! - Jesus and John the apostle
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgn0kdBXNXtviQzio3SKCpSeMWZw2HeVs9y8Q1QHoTQ7dkpBOaPqCGw4Bges4iu-jkmKYmdFyhGygFNMmi13bH85z3X0isi2gjEnZHPFHff1gsn4DoYzIvcJ-ZA7Bp7QX0jvqvxMirkHs/s703/4504ceecd8437779d4efb2b14ca0dd5a.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/45/04/ce/4504ceecd8437779d4efb2b14ca0dd5a.jpg
https://br.pinterest.com/pin/430727151834946585/


This past summer I came across a book entitled The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow which contains the diary of a semi-literate twelve-year-old child who lived at the turn of the century in lumber camps in western Oregon. As I read Opal's diary I was awed by her simple compassion and sensitivity. Though often abused, she was not swallowed up in self-pity, but hid herself in God (as her poems indicate) and freely gave herself away. She was a happy child who teaches us what it means to "pay attention."


Cover picture of a book entitled The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow
PHOTO: Cover picture of a book entitled The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow which contains the diary of a semi-literate twelve-year-old child who lived at the turn of the century in lumber camps in western Oregon. Reading Opal's diary, one can be awed by her simple compassion and sensitivity. Though often abused, she was not swallowed up in self-pity, but hid herself in God (as her poems indicate) and freely gave herself away. She was a happy child who teaches us what it means to "pay attention."
Painting by William Adolphe Bouguereau - The brook
Picture posed by wikioo.org
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-981ObyoTHSJyip-C5EEOnWo-smRZ99pWfhVVS05iaNzVcHKCSuWjOtv4K4WKr_XpQQWlXIxw5iY14Mw5PuydCOS5-S2id2wq9WScQ4TZLTLkYS6vhSAIvPMsGd-UodoZbWUyRC8YDIg/s1808/William-adolphe-bouguereau-the-brook.Jpg
https://img.wikioo.org/ADC/Art-ImgScreen-1.nsf/O/A-5ZKB4L/$FILE/William-adolphe-bouguereau-the-brook.Jpg
https://wikioo.org/tr/paintings.php?refarticle=5ZKB4L&titlepainting=The+brook&artistname=William+Adolphe+Bouguereau&order=buyimg&cur=rub


Here's a brief excerpt from her diary. I've included it as it is, though her vernacular (language) may sound strange to our ears.

The mama did send me in a hurry to the wood-shed. It was for two loads of wood she wanted. I did bring in the first load in a hurry. The second load I brought not so. I did pick up all the sticks my arms could hold. While I was picking them up, I looked long looks at them. I went not to the kitchen with them in a quick way. I was meditating. I did have thinks about the tree they all were before they got chopped up. I did wonder how I would feel if I was a very little piece of wood that got chopped out of a big tree. I did think that it would have hurt my feelings. I felt the feelings of the wood. They did have a very sad feel.


Opal Whiteley, author of The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow
PHOTO: Opal Whiteley, author of The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow
Picture posted by moonandmothmagic.com
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5buiJCQxPKPahT7NkUAcYyctUhpvJy6agBy1rG6rzHkak2A4P9b_1tV3ixrWAcYYRfZ_LiJdFxScwbz_mzpDOUn9XFywHwyBYvibFqBOYtyjYn4gv3wGI3KI9TRKGFp83yGgOcnE8d4/s835/opal4.png
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2391/3741/files/opal4.png?v=1517513815
https://moonandmothmagic.com/blogs/moon-and-moth-magic-blog/magical-books-for-children-the-singing-creek-where-the-willows-grow


Just when I was getting that topmost stick a bit wet with sympathy tears - then the mama did come up behind me with a switch. She said while she did switch, "Stop your meditations," and while she did switch, I did drop the wood. I felt the feels the sticks of wood felt when they hit the floor. Then I did pick them up with care and I put them all in the wood-box back of the cook stove . . . But all the time I was churning (the butter) I did hum a little song. It was a good-bye song to the sticks in the wood-box back of the kitchen stove.

When the churning was done and the butter was come, the mama did lift all the little lumps of butter out of the churn. Then she did pat them together in a big lump, and this she put away in the butterbox in the wood-shed. When she went to lay herself down to rest on the bed, she did call me to rub her head. I like to rub the mama's head, for it does help the worry lines to go away. Often I rub her head, for it is often she does have longings to have it so. And I do think it is very nice to help people have what they do have longings for.


Opal Irene Whiteley
PHOTO: So I, too, should be willing to bear the pain that brings me to Jesus who feels our feelings and rubs our worry lines away. So I, too, should take long looks at others.
Picture saved by Jake Foster to The Girl Who Musical Prop Research - Saint Joan of Arc
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8UYIvjJZmqruRbbXOP9tuoFJB7lifdErzZD4mAkse_VYMJTHVz24vEE4MtteM_uqxegLTZD_kuAow_-NCGoYG6sjremdHBVeLFzdbocZtZlWSbaQPF_eoWZwGo86bkQ4T2QYyFILSevs/s1500/il_fullxfull.570996475_t055_1.jpg
https://img1.etsystatic.com/034/1/5904540/il_fullxfull.570996475_t055.jpg
https://www.pinterest.com.mx/pin/495958977698972137/


I can let people know that I care. I can ask them to tell their stories and listen patiently while they do. I can treat them with courtesy and respect, though they may be testy or tiresome. I can encourage those with aching hearts with a word of God's mercy and love. I can follow up with an e-mail, a card, or a call. And I can pray with them, the most helpful and healing act of all, for in prayer I bring others to the throne of mercy where they may find grace to help in their time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) [113] Even when I cannot help them, I can bring them to the One who can. And here's where David's beatitude comes into play, for in the oldest and oddest paradox of all, paying attention pays off, for we're happiest when we give our lives away. (Psalm 41:4-9) [114]


Let people know that we care.
PHOTO: Let people know that we care. May we be able to ask them to tell their stories and listen patiently while they do. May we treat them with courtesy and respect, though they may be testy or tiresome. May we encourage those with aching hearts with a word of God's mercy and love. May we be able to follow up with an e-mail, a card, or a call. May we be able to pray with them, the most helpful and healing act of all, for in prayer we bring others to the throne of mercy where they may find grace to help in their time of need. Even when we cannot help them, may we be able to bring them to the One who can. May we be the happiest when we give our lives away.
Picture posted by Singing Creek Educational Center
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-JDi3zKuCKfwBTf8la-G9SZY9DcR3hy0mUs8nBTjGBFwxVfuElLHKQreNnTVjApulMdTU64XGrRCRs3eom4UWG3znmpYQD48Hh_CZq0evLrINfkjn3Ly9tjNb0ljsbGhzuUNPvPc9c4k/s667/summer-camp-2020-girl-outside.jpg
https://www.singingcreekcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/summer-camp-2020-girl-outside.jpg
https://www.singingcreekcenter.org/summer-camps/


And for those who think only for themselves? The life they save is the life they lose. In the end it's worth nothing to anyone including themselves - a featureless, lifeless parody (imitation) of those who have lived and cared for others. "Only a life given away for love's sake is worth living," says Fredrick Buechner.


And for those who think only for themselves?
PHOTO: And for those who think only for themselves? The life they save is the life they lose. In the end it's worth nothing to anyone including themselves - a featureless, lifeless parody (imitation) of those who have lived and cared for others. "Only a life given away for love's sake is worth living," says Fredrick Buechner.
Picture posted by The Minds Journal on 15 July 2021
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicq28okA_4D8fqGCzIdY8HGgx9zoSPHGyIEhNf5SkT3a0LemTIDRmAYsncFZBNy2ZbOebn3e7BhFnxRwc__R7mP7jEWxwR_PYx5IuER8pz4w8SkOSkJASpxYjDuFmGvUC_BJ6tpZKKqLE/s450/Caption-This-15-July-2021.jpg.webp
https://themindsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/Caption-This-15-July-2021.jpg.webp
https://themindsjournal.com/caption-this-wisepicks-15-july-2021/


You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. As memory scans the past, above and beyond all transitory pleasures of life, there leap forward those supreme hours when you have been enabled to do unnoticed kindnesses to those around you, things too trifling to speak about, but which you feel have entered into your eternal life. I have seen almost all the beautiful things that God has made; I have enjoyed almost every pleasure that [God] has planned for [people]; and yet as I look back I see standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short experiences when the love of God reflected itself in some poor imitation, some small act of love of mine, and these seen to be things which alone of all one's life abide (endure). Everything else in all our lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. But the acts of love which no [one] knows about, or can ever know about, they never fail. [115]


As we look back we see standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short experiences when the love of God reflected itself in some poor imitation, some small act of love of ours, and these seen to be things which alone of all one's life abide (endure).
PHOTO: As we look back we see standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short experiences when the love of God reflected itself in some poor imitation, some small act of love of ours, and these seen to be things which alone of all one's life abide (endure).
 

Everything else in all our lives is transitory.
PHOTO: Everything else in all our lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. But the acts of love which no [one] knows about, or can ever know about, they never fail.
Photo by JimmyTran/Shutterstock
Picture posted by Carter Dillard on 16 November 2017
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj48prJgAfMYmKTUurfP7iiiJ4WC11Dz5mV-JV6Vw4Li9TN2OA5PdsorK2gAkES5UXx1t-o8iHyOne8x9FWgrSfnnDMdPXbeYAnm31FmbDeD89ygTS5NEgeiIhKsYHbhJMKaXIP6EzB34Q/s1922/shutterstock_420407632_JimmyTran_1.jpg
https://fairstartmovement.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/shutterstock_420407632_JimmyTran.jpg
https://fairstartmovement.org/take-action-now-protect-future-betterfamilyplanning/


The greatest thing in the world is love. It's our best gift to God and to others. Perhaps you and I can do nothing more than love one soul, but it is enough.

But what is left for the cold gray soul,
That moans like a wounded dove?
One wine is left in the broken bowl! -
'Tis - to love, and love, and love.
- George MacDonald, Phantastes


The greatest thing in the world is love.
The greatest thing in the world is love.
PHOTO: The greatest thing in the world is love. It's our best gift to God and to others. Perhaps you and I can do nothing more than love one soul, but it is enough.
Picture posted by WallpaperAccess
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIySqzx91pV9eXLBU3TrPwlXb1WUHuruM7L9pU4icWrNjC5DLpUCl6q7HGaxz4bCH-68duNfge1fMsuZK1xo0OHS4mQidL9dCgGkIzXuV7dhKMZiXwoAqTeUL4F06sVtoNoZRYFq9jg50/s1920/278514.jpg
PHOTO: "Dear Lord, help us to learn from David to considers the helpless [the poor]. We learn from Jesus we'll always have the poor with us, Some are poor in possessions and appearance; others are poor in faith, hope, and love. Even if we can't alleviate the poverty of those we meet along the way, help us to be able to 'consider', which means 'to pay attention' to them.

Lord help us to be aware of the pain around us, and not go our way inattentive and unmoved. Perhaps we don't have much to give, but help us to pay attention. Help us to see beyond what others see to the possibilities of mercy, compassion, and understanding.

May we be not swallowed up in self-pity, but hid ourselves in God and freely gave ourselves away. May we be willing to bear the pain that brings us to Jesus who feels our feelings and rubs our worry lines away. Help us to take long looks at others.

Lord we pray for Your help to have us letting people know that we care. May we be able to ask them to tell their stories and listen patiently while they do. May we treat them with courtesy and respect, though they may be testy or tiresome. May we encourage those with aching hearts with a word of God's mercy and love. May we be able to follow up with an e-mail, a card, or a call. May we be able to pray with them, the most helpful and healing act of all, for in prayer we bring others to the throne of mercy where they may find grace to help in their time of need. Even when we cannot help them, may we be able to bring them to the One who can. May we be the happiest when we give our lives away.

Lord, we pray that we will not just think only for ourselves, because the life that we save is the life that we lose. In the end it's worth nothing to anyone including ourselves - a featureless, lifeless parody of those who have lived and cared for others. Only a life given away for love's sake is worth living.

The greatest thing in the world is love. It's our best gift to God and to others. May we can love at least one soul, which will be enough.

Through Lord Jesus Christ we pray. Amen!"
Picture posted by Derik
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQoIIlHc2Bf_R_VUaOEifRfSSO1XBlaGHXO1rdk3Td225hWX-0J8BQoTSQgXDRJ5FSsI6_RPH8s0I2kkSNhcQBVKTMP13sXfMhJnojcUJ2xDsmZSbeLz3bICvgaCm-tMFbYkagkx07I7Y/s1000/Sad+images+21.jpeg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6O1MDupt_0qY6xUssB3MD_SX-1TYdAEA3k8NNFY8BN2imbVFPFsWqJOZyvzee965uu62lMtQY070jMhTketNbWYpl1Av58LTcPayp2svMgK-yE-om8OKUYRZi-uCTBoUeYhueeVk1Xf0C/s1600/Sad+images+21.jpeg
https://www.pixall.in/2020/02/sad-images.html

Reflection - Number Our Days - Paying Attention
Source (book): "Teach Us to Number Our Days", Chapter 23, "Paying Attention", Page 109.
By David Roper, Pastor, and regular and popular writer for Our Daily Bread.


Other Books

"Faithful to the end", A Preacher's Exposition of 2 Timothy, @ 2014 by Robert M. Solomon

'Faithful to the end', A Preacher's Exposition of 2 Timothy, @ 2014 by Robert M. Solomon<br>
Reflection - Faithful to the end (Links)
https://veryfatoldman.blogspot.com/2017/06/reflection-faithful-to-end-links.html


"Finding rest for the soul" Responding to Jesus' Invitation in Matthew 11:28-29, © 2016 by Robert M. Solomon

Reflection - Finding rest for the soul (Links)
Reflection - Finding rest for the soul (Links)
https://veryfatoldman.blogspot.com/2018/10/reflection-finding-rest-for-soul-links.html


"God in Pursuit" Lessons from the Book of Jonah, © 2016 by Robert M. Solomon

'Reflection - God in Pursuit (Links) - PART I-III, posted on Saturday, 10 August 2019
Reflection - God in Pursuit (Links) - PART I-III, posted on Saturday, 10 August 2019
https://veryfatoldman.blogspot.com/2019/08/reflection-god-in-pursuit-links-part-i.html


"God in Pursuit" Lessons from the Book of Jonah, © 2016 by Robert M. Solomon

'Reflection - God in Pursuit (Links) - PART IV, posted on Saturday, 10 August 2019
Reflection - God in Pursuit (Links) - PART IV, posted on Saturday, 10 August 2019
https://veryfatoldman.blogspot.com/2019/08/reflection-god-in-pursuit-links-part-iv.html 


"Songs of Christmas", The Stories and Significance of 20 Well-Loved Carols, © 2018 by Robert M. Solomon

Reflection - Songs of Christmas (Links), posted on Friday, 24 April 2020
Reflection - Songs of Christmas (Links), posted on Friday, 24 April 2020
https://veryfatoldman.blogspot.com/2020/04/reflection-songs-of-christmas-links.html
 

"Growing Old Gracefully", Following Jesus to the End, © 2019 by Robert M. Solomon

Reflection - Growing Old Gracefully, Part I - III (Links), posted on Wednesday, 09 December 2020
Reflection - Growing Old Gracefully, Part I - III (Links), posted on Wednesday, 09 December 2020
https://veryfatoldman.blogspot.com/2020/12/reflection-growing-old-gracefully-part.html
 

Reflection - Growing Old Gracefully, Part IV - V (Links), posted on Thursday, 22 April 2021
Reflection - Growing Old Gracefully, Part IV - V (Links), posted on Thursday, 22 April 2021
https://veryfatoldman.blogspot.com/2020/12/reflection-growing-old-gracefully-part_9.html
 


Reference
[1] From "Teach Us to Number Our Days", Copyright © 2008 by David Roper, ISBN 978-981-11-7184-0, Chapter 23, "Paying Attention", Page 109-115.

[111] Psalm 41:1 NASB. "The word considers is striking, in that it usually implies giving careful thought to this person's situation, rather than perfunctory help." See Derek Kidner, An introduction and Commentary on Books I and II of the Psalms (Leicester, England: Intervarsity Press.1973), 161.

[112] John Newton wrote on one occasion: "If, as I go home, a child has dropped a halfpenny, and if, by giving another, I can wipe away its tears, I feel I have done something. I should be glad to do greater things, but I will not neglect this."

[113] Hebrews 4:16

[114] It's worth noting that while David showed mercy to the weak, he received none from his enemies, nor even from his close friend (Psalm 41:4-9). We will always receive more mercy from God whom we have wronged than we will from our friends whom we have helped.

[115] Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World.


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