Wednesday, August 26,
if anyone was unwilling to work, neither
should that one eat.
Sunrise at Pleasant Hill Preserve
Picture by Richard Sawyer
The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
We instruct you, brothers and sisters,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to shun any brother
who walks in a disorderly way
and not according to the tradition they received from us.
For you know how one must imitate us.
For we did not act in a disorderly way among you,
nor did we eat food received free from anyone.
On the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked,
so as not to burden any of you.
Not that we do not have the right.
Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you,
so that you might imitate us.
In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that
if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.
May the Lord of peace himself
give you peace at all times and in every way.
The Lord be with all of you.
This greeting is in my own hand, Paul’s.
This is the sign in every letter; this is how I write.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you.
Bolding and Underlining mine 2 Thessalonians 3:6-10, 16-18
Well it’s back to our traditional way of writing our blog, and I must admit I read the readings and groaned until the Holy Spirit pointed out the Bolded area.
Gail and I work at a food pantry, and we do help a lot of families who are having a tough time of it. I, yes I, do have some concerns though.
The biggest is, are we helping people who are unable or who are unwilling to work? I believe it’s a combination of both, or the third category is they have no concept of prudent spending.
I can talk about this because when I got out of the Navy at age 25 I had never owned a car. We didn’t have the money! The first thing I did after finding a job that paid $75 a week was buy a 1965 Ford Mustang (SWEEEET) which I am guessing the car payment was about $70 a month then add in Gas, and Insurance, and since I was a young single male the rates were higher, and you have in front of you a very stupid decision. I lived at home, and couldn’t move out because of Social Security and income taxes, I was locked into my living situation.
God took care of me.
I was fired about 8 months into the job, but Procter & Gamble hired me with a Company Car. Dad said he would sell the car that had been lovingly washed and waxed every week and I lost $250.
My love of cars vanished!
Gail and I were married 9 months later, and I made the best decision of my life. I asked Gail to run the finances, and she was unbelievable.
Twice we almost went belly up, and Gail pulled us though and as you all know we are now happily retired.
Why are we writing about this?
Back in the 60s and early 70s we didn’t have food pantries, we didn’t have all of the help that is available today; we had to gut it out, and we did. It wasn’t pretty, but we did.
Years ago I looked at what God, Gail and I went through and how we succeeded. I give thanks to God that we had to go through these hard times, but the hard times helped to build our relationship with God.
And,
Each Other.
And,
If we had had a hand up I’m not so sure the Joy we both felt by achieving what the 5 (Triune God) of us did would have had the deep meaning it has even today.
I have learned nothing in life comes easy. It takes effort and gradually I learned to let God take care of us and God did and still does.
Wow, I say this every week, but I truly didn’t see this blog coming.
Prayer:
If you want to grow in Love, Joy, Peace this is a result of growth in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
We went to the V/A to hold a Communion Service and it was a very interesting day.
Only 5 people showed up and two of them were family members. At the desk they told me two people had COVID, and there was a reduction in help and Volunteers.
I went to give the homily, and knew instantly this wasn’t what The Holy Spirit wanted. I was at a loss for words. This had happened in the Jail and at a Communion Service in our Church, and both times The Holy Spirit let me know I had sinned.
Today was different. I waited for what seemed like fifteen minutes – it was only 10 seconds – and the words came to me and off we went, and Joy came over me.
I forgot to bring my portable Bose speaker, and my voice was breaking down, in short it was an interesting service, and I asked the Holy Spirit why?
Well the answer came quickly.
As we were cleaning up a wife of a vet mentioned she had a boat load of problems, could I help?
We, The Holy Spirit and I sat down with her for five to ten minutes and told her about the prayers we have discussed in our blog. She said she would pray Thanking God for the difficulties God has allowed in her life.
She said she believed in the power of prayer, and told me a story which we will quickly recap to prove her belief.
They had a Kerosene heater which acted as a back-up to their main heating system. There was a bad snow storm, and she (he was sick) had to go out every six hours to refill it. As she went out during the storm, she asked God, “Why did she have to have this difficulty now?” After the storm they bought a Gas fired electric generator with automatic starting. When the electrician came out to wire the generator up, he called the homeowner and said call the power company immediately, because the wire leading to the house was very badly frayed and if it touched the house the house would be burned down
She told me that she thanked God for the Kerosene heater.
If we had had our normal sized group, I am not sure, no I am sure, we wouldn’t have spent the time with her that she needed, and I know this because two weeks before today’s service she was at our service, and I didn’t have the time.
Thank you Father.
Psalm 91: Friday Gail and I went for our first bike ride in two or three years. The new trail we took was challenging, and rough in places. We completed the ride, put away the bikes, and the next day decided to go for a different ride. I started to blow up my front tire and it was flat. The tire repair mechanic told me it was a pinch flat which could only have happened on the new trail. If it had happened on the trail, I would have had to push the bike a mile plus to get home. It didn’t – I believe the pinch happened on the trail, and God got us home safely. Thank you Father, and I am filled with Joy that I had prayed Psalm 91 earlier that day, and will do so every day for the rest of my life. To not pray Psalm 91 everyday would be STUPID., and in this respect I am not stupid.
Picture:
Sunrise at Pleasant Hill Preserve Picture by Richard Sawyer
Please keep Snapping!
And if you want the ten calling cards shown above, email me and I will send you my address, send me a STAMPED self-addressed envelope and I will send you ten cards.
The offer for the cards is sadly for American readers only. The Post office won’t accept foreign stamps.
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed.
Send an email to: fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
Disclaimer:
We decided to share with you that I do use Google AI for spelling, punctuation, and helping me find a Bible verse. BUT we go to the Bible to print out the verse we find. If we do use Google AI it will be noted. I believe in a while this type of disclaimer will be needed on all created works.
