Edgar Lee Masters

I've just discovered this poet, and have a new fav that I thought I'd share. My blessing for you: May you have a broken fiddle.

The earth keeps some vibration going
There in your heart, and that is you.
And if the people find you can fiddle,
Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.

What do you see, a harvest of clover?
Or a meadow to walk through to the river?
The wind's in the corn; you rub your hands
For beeves hereafter ready for market;
Or else you hear the rustle of skirts
Like the girls when dancing at Little Grove.

To Cooney Potter a pillar of dust
Or whirling leaves meant ruinous drouth;
They looked to me like Red-Head Sammy
Stepping it off to 'Toor-a-Loor.'
How could I till my forty acres
Not to speak of getting more,
With a medley of horns, bassoons and piccolos
Stirred in my brain by crows and robins
And the creak of a wind-mill--only these?
And I never started to plow in my life
That some one did not stop in the road
And take me away to a dance or picnic.
I ended up with forty acres;
I ended up with a broken fiddle--
And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories,
And not a single regret.

Back to the Kids

So much blogging lately has been about Bible studies and sermons.  Important stuff, but time for a brief change of pace.   On Saturday we were working on "moving in" to the house we've been living in since November.  Why we're still unpacking is a long story and not really cogent.  

So my wife is putting things away and comes across a plastic tub of clothing that belonged to the Older Sister and was saved for the Younger Sister.  It was a nice trip down memory lane to the not-so-distant past of my teenager's childhood.  In the tub were some cute dresses, various outfits, and a jacket that I loved on the Older Sister because it looks like Joseph's "Coat of Many Colors."  

And some training bras.

Of course they needed explanation, which the Younger Sister took in rather stoically.  They went through the box trying various clothes on to see what fit, packing away for later the clothes that were "too big," piling what was "too small," and putting on hangers what was "just right."

Finished at last, her mom starts putting the "save for later" stuff back in the tub and the Younger Sister asks, "When will I need to wear those practice bras?"

Ahh, the Buffet

It’s the all-you-can-eat buffet. Eyes bigger than your stomach, you load up a plate and gorge, consuming substantially more food than you need.

Is it true hunger that drives you? Not likely, because most of us haven’t missed a meal lately.

Is it the need to “get my money’s worth” from the restaurant? That’s not likely either, because if you can afford to eat out you probably don’t truly worry about money.

So what drives us to gorge? Perhaps it’s that at our most basic level of belief there is a fear that there won’t be “enough.”

In Matthew 14 is the account of one of Jesus’ better known miracles – the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist had been executed, so Jesus withdrew to a deserted place, only to have 5,000 or so people follow him for his teachings. It is near dinner time at the end of a long day and the disciples urge Jesus to send everyone home since they are all getting hungry. But Jesus says no, “you feed them.”

The disciples inform Jesus there’s not near enough food to feed the crowd, only five loaves of bread and two fish. I can almost hear Jesus sigh with exasperation and say, “Bring it to me.” You know how the story ends.

Why is this an answer to why we gorge at buffets? Because we see the world the same way that those disciples saw those fish po-boys – from a view of scarcity. We say, “there just isn’t enough.” Jesus says instead, “There’s always room for one more at the table.” God’s provision was more than the people needed to be fed.

Scarcity versus abundance.

It’s a choice that shapes our interactions with the world. A scarcity view causes us to hoard and possess to the exclusion of others’ well-being. An abundance view helps us to be generous and kind with our lives and resources.

We Christians are children of the Father who not only created and “owns” everything in the cosmos, but also freely gives us all that we need. So when God calls us to feed the world our response shouldn’t be “we only have these loaves and fishes” but “with God, we can do that.” Let’s live together out of the view that God is “enough” for all our needs and concerns. He fed 5,000 but it could have just as easily been 5,000,000. That’s the way our God rolls.

Abundantly yours,
Pastor Gary