How Old?

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."
~ John Barrymore

How Old?

So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
~ Psalms 90:12 (NKJV)

I rarely mention when it's my birthday. I'll make an exception this year, especially since it falls on a casual Saturday when not so many people stop by here.

I tend to forget how old I am, and figure it by subtracting 1962 from the current year. With a December birthday, the number is a year high most of the year, so I simply say, "I'll be xx this year."

For whatever reason, the subject of my age came up frequently in 2009. I must have spoken of being 47 too many times, because by autumn, I believed I was turning 48.

So for nearly a year I’ve been 46 while mentioning 47 and then 48. When I figured out I'm younger than I thought, a friend suggested that I still have a year of 46 coming to me.

All of which is irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. Eternal life began for me at age 25, when death became inconsequential and aging ceased to matter.

In Jesus Christ, I'll be forever young.

Lord, I thank You for the life You've given me that I might glorify You. To Your grace I'm a debtor forever, wherever and whenever You plant me. Thank You for all my loved ones. Please enable me to bless them with every contact.

Contrasting points-of-view, questions and feedback are invited. Post to BuildingHisBody.com "Comments" or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2009, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Photo from uwstopia.nl

Friday Freelance: FICTION

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."
~ E.L. Doctorow

(my writing desk)

Friday Freelance: FICTION

Note: This is not about my publishing journey (an unfinished story presently in the hands of the Lord and my agent of excellence), but about the writing experience, through which I’ve discovered a surprising affinity with my Creator.

If I have an obsession, it is God’s Word. As my blog sidebar says, I am a "writer of all things biblical." For many years, that was strictly non-fiction.

A couple of years back I unsuspectingly ventured into biblical fiction. I’d become thoroughly captivated by the biblical characters I studied—their culture and land, their history and genealogy, and a million other details of Scripture uncovered by the compulsive student. I continually pondered their lives, made reasonable conjectures, and my imagination filled in missing details. The whole process got the better of me and I put the mess down in writing.

Historical fiction presents time's chronicles in a dramatic setting—an effort to make the account captivating. I don't like that one fiction writing manual mentions "telling lies for profit." I’ve remained truthful, not only in scrupulous attention to scriptural and historical accuracy, but also in portraying fiction with credibility, as I’ve seen it played out by God’s hand in the lives of real people.

My method? Unlike non-historical novels, the outline is already written, taken from the pages of the Bible. I study exhaustively and bathe the process in prayer. I shape my characters’ personalities based on their known actions and the meanings of their names. Then I drop them into the story to discover how they act it out. Literally.

I step from my chair to play out scenes. I speak dialogue to taste and hear it. I get into my characters’ minds and emotions to think and feel as they do—weeping with their agony or heart pounding with their anger. I know in advance what they will attain or suffer, yet I am still exhilarated or saddened to experience it with them.

Their destiny is foreordained. I create who they are and direct their lives as I will, yet allow freedom for my characters to do things that I've not planned. More than once, they've done things to surprise me.

For who knows what is good for man in life ...?
Who can tell a man what will happen after him ...?
~ Ecclesiastes 6:12 (NKJV)

Twice in Jeremiah, the Lord says of certain sins, "nor did it come into My mind." At least twice in the Gospels, Jesus marvels at faith or lack of faith. And Peter speaks in his second epistle of us "hastening the day of God."

This has all been very curious to me. Just how much does human free will shape events within God’s sovereignty? What does the Lord fully put in our hands? To what extent does our ability to unite our wills to the will of God, and see things through His perspective, enable us to move His hand in prayer?

The answers do not cease to fascinate me. I’m most anxious to hear your own thoughts on such questions.

(And if you think me quite mad as the novelist I never expected to be, you're absolutely correct.)

Contrasting points-of-view, questions and feedback are invited. Post to BuildingHisBody.com "Comments" or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2009, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Heavenly Places

"Love is that condition in which
another's happiness is essential to your own."
~ Robert Heimlich

Heavenly Places

Who is like the LORD our God,
Who dwells on high,
Who humbles Himself to behold
The things that are in the heavens and in the earth?
He raises the poor out of the dust,
And lifts the needy out of the ash heap,
That He may seat him with princes.
~ Psalms 113:5-8 (NKJV)

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us ... made us alive together with Christ ... and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
~ Ephesians 2:4-6 (NKJV)

We sing songs of amazing grace and amazing love. We are rightly awed that Almighty God, the Maker of the universe, should have humbled Himself so much that He put on human flesh, knelt before mortals to wash their feet, then submitted Himself to a horrific death on our behalf.

The psalmist says the Lord humbles Himself to even look upon His creation. The Hebrew verb for humble, shâphêl, means to be brought low, to sink down, to be humiliated. The greatness of God, far above and beyond human comprehension, stoops low to simply be able to see and hear us. (Our corruption and lowliness is that bad.)

Then He does the unthinkable. Having stooped down to us, He raises us up to sit with Him. He seats us in the heavenly places, together with His Son, the Prince of Peace and King of kings.

Have you given yourself to Jesus Christ? Understand how low you have been. Understand how high you have been raised.

And never, ever doubt His love and favor for you.

Lord, how can You do so much for us and ask only our love in return? How can we ever love You enough?

Contrasting points-of-view, questions and feedback are invited. Post to BuildingHisBody.com "Comments" or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2009, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Photo from comment.myspace.com

Days Ahead

"Fear does not exist anywhere except in the mind."
~ Dale Carnegie

Days Ahead
#secondcoming

Upon the upright rises light in the darkness—
gracious, compassionate, and righteous...
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings
His heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.
~ Psalms 112:4,7 (author)

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
~ James 4:12-14 (NKJV)

Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
~ Psalms 119:105 (NKJV)

Our pastor is preaching from Revelation, linking recent events to prophecies going back 2500 years with spine-chilling accuracy.

Countless prayer requests come to me for those without a job in an economy which continues to falter—and for loved ones struggling with illnesses which have ominous implications.

I often speak with people for whom I care, who face decisions with long-range impact.

At every turn are situations shadowed by uncertainty and anxiety for the future. If we only knew what awaits us in days ahead, we might better know how act today. But our Maker reserves to Himself knowledge of what tomorrow holds.

It’s one thing to say we must trust the Lord for the days ahead. It’s quite another to rest in that trust. The psalmist says of the upright (Hebrew yâshâr, meaning "straight" or "erect") that his heart is fixed. He stands tall, without fear, in the face of the storm. Rather than veer away from being gracious, compassionate, and righteous, the upright resolutely stays the course.

We have surely entered the days when darkness will not recede before the Son appears on the horizon. The one who fears God need not fear darkness or whatever may lie there, because the risen Lord is our Light. Amid darkness, sufficient is the Light for the next step.

Heavenly Father, Your Word is living and powerful and reliable. You are all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. You bid us fear not, be not anxious, have no worry for the morrow. Please make us unmovable and unwavering in faith amid the perils which threaten. Ever open our eyes to Who You are.

Contrasting points-of-view, questions and feedback are invited. Post to BuildingHisBody.com "Comments" or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2009, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
sjbrown58.wordpress.com

Tears in Your Bottle

"A friend sees the first tear,
catches the second,
and stops the third."
~ Justice R.A.E.

(Today's post is part of the
Blog Carnival hosted
by Peter Pollock on "Grief")

Tears in Your Bottle

The LORD is gracious
and full of compassion.
~ Psalms 111:4 (NKJV)

The LORD is good to those
who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope
and wait quietly
For the salvation of the LORD...
Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion ...
~ Lamentations 3:25-26;32 (NKJV)

You have stored my tears in your bottle and counted each of them.
~ Psalms 56:8 (CEV)

For several days I've considered that grief goes beyond sorrow as the ocean exceeds a pond. And I've pondered these two things: what causes grief, and what grief feels like.

My mind takes the first thought and analyzes that grief is caused by things such as unrealized expectations, loss, and rejection. My reasoning goes on to offer answers like trusting in God's will, giving thanks for what has been before it was lost, and forgiveness.

My heart does not care about where grief comes from or how it shall depart, for my heart does not think grief. My heart feels grief more profoundly than my mind shall ever begin to comprehend it.

When grief calls, its fingertips first stroke my heart stealthily, gliding along the surface until it finds an opening. Grief then slips through vacant cavities, probing for a resting place. When grief at last settles in, the embrace of its tentacles becomes firm—not so as to choke me, but to prevent my escape as it begins its work.

Grief now begins to draw life from me, feeding upon my spirit to nourish itself, depositing death in life's stead. Loss of spirit and life rob me of hunger, of movement, of my very breath. I lie faint as my years multiply, in weariness of the aged.

Having sufficiently weakened me, grief now tightens its grip to choke from me my spirit's last ebb. Shall I passively succumb?

The Lord Jesus knew profound grief. He created goodness, bestowed grace, and put on flesh to pour out Himself for His beloved people. He was then scorned, injured and rejected by those to whom He'd given His best. The final blow came in being forsaken by His Father.

Did scourges and nails take His life any more than grief? Our Lord shed His first drops of blood at the hands of neither Roman guards nor minions of Jewish elders, but in Gethsemane. He did not passively succumb to death, but actively entrusted His spirit to His Father.

This must likewise be my choice when grief holds me in its clutches. I must actively commit my spirit to my Father in Heaven. If I am a prisoner to grief, I must entrust my captive heart to the One powerful enough to set it free—to the One Who has promised to wipe away my every tear, for He collects every one.

And He calls each one who is His, "Friend."

Peace I leave with you,
My peace I give to you;
not as the world gives do I give to you.
Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid.
~ John 14:27 (NKJV)

Contrasting points-of-view, questions and feedback are invited. Post to BuildingHisBody.com "Comments" or e-mail to BuildingHisBody@gmail.com. Copyright 2009, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
Artwork titled COLLECT MY TEARS IN THY BOTTLE; Artist: Sandra Perini
From amariahart.com