Possessions...

I was up late last night after getting off from work and had some thoughts running through my mind that I had thought about recently, but didn't focus much on before. For some reason, since they popped up in my mind again last night, I thought it might make a good post.

I'm writing about the topic of possessions...ya' know, those things we all hold dear and love to think about, purchase, hold onto, and even plan for in the future? A few weeks ago, my family and I was over at my late grandmother's condo trying to sort through her many belongings and decide which family member would inherit various items that had belonged to my grandmother. I remember saying to my mom that old adage, "When you die, you sure can't take these things with you". There were so many collectibles and items that my grandmother had accumulated over her 83 years of living on this earth! I actually didn't realize until a few weeks ago exactly how much my grandmother had an obvious passion for collecting interesting pieces of glass, crystal and china, among other collectibles. My cousins and I were all fortunate enough to have been able to inherit some wonderful pieces of antique furniture and jewelry from my grandmother, after my mom and aunt sorted through their respective inherited items. Since Scott & I clearly have not been able to purchase a larger home as we had hoped a few years ago, we've been trying to make room for some of these newly inherited items at our current home. My grandmother's condo was officially sold and the deal was closed just yesterday.

"Out with the old, in with the new", is a phrase that comes to mind. We've managed to make room for the new furniture and I am happy to see the positive changes that some rearranging and creativity have brought to our home since adding Nanny's furniture. I was going through a mental list in my mind the other day of some of the items that we ended up with and how, coincidentally...or maybe NOT so coincidentally, we've managed to inherit the very items we've had on our wish list for quite some time now. We've been needing a new toaster oven, since ours has been with us since the first year we were married (12 years ago) and was on the fritz...voila! We inherited Nanny's excellent toaster oven which was only a couple of years old since it was purchased brand new for her after having her condo remodeled due to damage from Hurricane Charley in 2004. I've been wanting a nice smooth-top oven range for several years since the one we bought with our house has the older style burners on it...voila! My mom gave us her smooth-top range that's in great shape since she recently purchased some new appliances for herself and no longer needed this particular oven. We've been wanting for quite some time to turn our living room into a cozier setting with some pieces of furniture and a coffee table that would create a more inviting atmosphere...voila! We inherited Nanny's beautiful Italian marble & wood coffee table, along with a great wingback chair that has a lazy-boy recliner in it! We also inherited a very comfortable brown, microfiber/suede-type fabric loveseat that was also a recent purchase of Nanny's to replace some damaged furniture in her condo after the hurricanes in 2004. The list goes on and on of the various items that I've been wanting for a while but have not had the money to justify making any new purchases of them. It is interesting to me that God has provided a way for us to acquire some of these items through my grandmother's passing away.

But, these are just things...possessions. I have always been the type of person who would rather have brand new items than something that's been passed down, mainly because I don't always share the same style or taste that someone else may have. Plus, I just love brand new and unused stuff. Since inherting some of these treasures, it has reminded me that these are all just things. They will not be traveling with me to Heaven in my final home with God. In fact, they can easily be destroyed by disasters and the elements down here on earth. Just think of the latest Hurricane Ike victims in Texas, parts of Louisiana, Ohio and Kentucky. I took a claim over the phone just last night from someone in Texas who literally lost everything in his home due to flooding. Sure, I love to shop for the newest trends and I have no problem spending money...after all, I am a female...LOL!! But, my point is that as humans, we spend so much of our time, thoughts, desires, and resources in pursuit of possessions! While they may seem temporarily gratifying to look at or to have, in the end, they really don't matter at all. I know that is something we already know in our minds. Things don't matter, but people and relationships matter. But, if you take an honest look at yourself, can you identify ways in which many of your everyday stresses, issues, goals and desires for your future revolve around possessions? It takes a lifetime to accumulate all the various, unique items and possessions one can leave to their loved ones once they have passed away. But, when the end of your life arrives and all is said and done, how much is too much? Will my life really be more fulfilled if I make that next bid and purchase on eBay or Craigslist? Sometimes, it is literally just stuff that fills up your house. Don't get me wrong, I love to look at pretty things and I am actually starting to enjoy the idea of acquiring my own collection of antique and vintage items that I find lovely and interesting. But, my heart is truly not at rest or satisfied unless I am pursuing the most precious possession of all...and that is a loving, trusting, peaceful relationship with the One who created me in the first place...my dear Lord, God! It seems that it takes many people an entire lifetime to realize that things don't ultimately satisfy. I admit that pursuing my relationship with God is not always the first priority on my list. But, I am continuing to strive to make it my top priority these days. Only in that will I find real peace and comfort in this ever-changing, unsecure world we live in right now.

Opposites, oxymorons, irony, and all of the above...

I was reading today's devotional from InTouch online, with Charles Stanley. I was struck by the verse...John 12:24..."Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
I have often noticed that so many of the simple, yet profound spiritual lessons throughout the Bible have one basic concept in common...much of God's ways are opposites! This is no earth shattering realization. Many of you probably have already noticed this trend, too, when reading and absorbing many of the spiritual lessons God has laid out for us. I have been wanting to write down a list of examples of the many ideas in the Bible where God's thinking on things is clearly a pattern of opposites from what you'd expect. But, today's devotional sparked me to finally write a blog entry about this phenomenon. At least, to me, it is very interesting!

You'd think that if a grain of wheat falls to the ground, that it would simply wither away and die, right? From a logical perspective, that's what I would think. But, apparently, today's Bible verse states the exact opposite...that a grain of wheat that falls to the ground bears much fruit! How is that possible? The devotional points out that this lesson deals with being broken by God. In other words, if we are to stand alone, upright, as a grain of wheat, we are actually by ourselves and not going to produce anything. But, it is in our brokenness, like a grain of wheat that is broken and falls to the ground, that God can actually produce much fruit. Think about that concept for a few minutes...a grain of wheat that is broken on the ground can produce a rich crop! I guess the concept behind that is the fact that its seeds would then scatter along the ground, which in turn produces more seeds or grains of wheat to grow in the future. That seems like such opposite thinking from what my mind could think of in that situation. But, alas, God is MUCH smarter and wiser than me! And His ways are definitely higher than my ways!

Another quick example that I am thinking of off the top of my head is the parable in the Bible (Luke 19:11-26) about the servants who were each given an equal share of money (10 minas) by their master before he went away. One servant invested his money and doubled the original share (another 10 minas)! You can bet this master was happy with how this servant managed his share of the money! His master was so happy, in fact, that he put him in charge of ten cities! Another servant told the master that he had earned another 5 minas in interest! So, he was put in charge of five cities. But, the most interesting concept in this parable was the lesson about the third servant who simply put his share of the money away in a cloth for safe-keeping. When I first read this story years ago, I thought, that's good. I'd probably do the same. At least he's not spending it! But, the parable goes on to say that the master was VERY angry with this servant and what he had done with his share of the money. Huh? Why would he be angry at all? It was at this point I was already confused! The parable then explains that the servant did not attempt to increase or multiply his share. Instead, he simply did nothing, produced nothing, and basically wasted a chance to multiply the resources he had been given by his master. Because of this, the master gave this man's 10 minas over to the first servant who already had 10 minas and had earned 10 more in interest! To me, this seemed almost like another lesson about opposite thinking. I would never have originally thought that the third servant would actually be in the most trouble with his master simply by putting his money away for safe-keeping. That's my logical thinking at work. But, God says the opposite! It's not enough to just keep the resources He gives us! We need to make an effort to multiply the resources and gain interest on them by putting them to good use. Hmmm...another story about opposite thinking.

There are so many other concepts in the Bible that seem to demonstrate opposites to me. I will continue to post more about this, but I don't want to take up too much space in one blog post. Otherwise, you may not want to read through it all...LOL!

Our Zoo Crew gets even bigger!

Well, it's taken me a while to post this, but I just wanted to share with everyone the news of our newest member of the Williams Zoo Crew! We adopted a dog last week...an Australian Shepherd! We named him "Sydney" because he's Australian and that's a famous city in Australia.

So, how did this happen? Well, we've been debating and talking about getting a puppy or dog for a few years now. We weren't sure when the time would be right, so we thought we'd wait until the mood strikes us and we agree the timing for our family is good. We had seen an Australian Shepherd puppy at a local pet store about 10 months ago. He was adorable and the kids loved him. But, spending $500 was not what we needed to be doing at the time. Scott spent a lot of time researching about that particular breed and felt that he would be interested in this breed if we were to ever get a dog. We wanted a dog that was not small, but not too large either (like a German Shepherd or Labrador Retriever, etc.). I was surfing Craigslist last week and found the picture of Sydney. I showed it to Scott, because the ad said the family was giving him away for free! Scott contacted the owner and had some questions answered and we finally decided to surprise the kids last Friday afternoon by picking up the dog! Sydney was living with a family of five children, so he was used to being around kids and was good with kids...definitely a plus for us! The biggest plus was the fact that he was already housebroken and crate-trained, which means, he had been used to being in a crate if needed should the family need to leave the house. The previous owners said that he was approx. 6 months old and that they needed to find him a family that had a backyard for him to be able to run around in because they had just moved to a brand new home with absolutely no backyard at all for him! Scott went to pick him up on Friday, along with his crate and blanket and other items and he could definitely see that there was no appropriate yard for Sydney, so we felt good about being able to give him a new, loving home environment! I forgot to mention that we had also prayed with the kids during the week that if God wanted our family to be able to adopt him, then He would make it possible for us. Fortunately, it all worked out and we don't have to go through the tough stage of training him to go #1 and #2 outside. That's perhaps a very frustrating stage in raising new puppies. We used to own a small peke-a-poo years ago and I remember the difficulties in training him from the beginning. He also used to chew through all of my shoes! Luckily, Sydney doesn't appear to have these issues so far. We are delighted he has joined our family and I think he is beautiful! He is a tri-colored Aussie. He's mostly black and white, but he also has some areas of tan along his legs, which is what makes him the tri-color. The kids adore him, but our cat, Leo, is still adjusting...LOL!!!