Off the hook?, a history talk, & outrage

The most important thing I did today was go to meet the store owner dying of pancreatic cancer, the man I mentioned in last Saturday’s blog posting.

Deliberately going back to meet him was very hard for me; I had to steel myself to do it. Christian witnessing does not come easy for me. I really lack boldness and I loath intruding on people with my personal religious beliefs.

It is much easier for me to write about Christianity than to actually live for Christ.

I think we can follow God’s will in two ways:

Passive , that is we respond to something God is already doing, we react to something or someone that God brings into our path. I think that’s what I did Saturday, just react to the man’s fear and pain. In this type of following Jesus, God initiates the situation and we respond.

Or not.

Active, that is when we initiate the action. We decide to do something for the love of God. This is the tough one for me. Today I was not responding to an existing situation. I’d deliberately made an appointment with this man specifically to talk with him about preparing his soul for Eternity.

Thank God, when I got to the meeting place, the guy was not there; he’d gone off to another meeting and would not be back for hours.

I felt so relieved.

Obviously God does not want me to talk with this dying man about Jesus rising from the dead and the guy’s soul salvation. I’m obviously not qualified to deal with such deep matters…

Or, damn it! Do I need to make another appointment and try again?

I hope not, but I think I know I know the answer to that one.

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The other thing I did today was give a speech on Jacksonville history to a group of 47 people at the Westbrook Library. It was a show-and-tell thing in that I took in Indian arrowheads, a pioneer ax, an ox shoe and Great-great-great Grandfather Barr’s shotgun which he bought new ten days after the 1901 Great Fire of Jacksonville. The folks were very gracious about listening to my talk.

Jacksonville City Councilman Reggie Fullwood gave the opening address talking about the importance of books in his own life, and especially about biographies have influenced his career.

The library made quite a todo over the affair. There were balloons decorating the place, face-painting for the kids, lavish cakes and cookies, door prizes -- they really went all out.

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Ginny’s discouraged.

At her work, they just hired another new boss over her (I think this is the ninth one in the past two years) instead of promoting her. Yet the administration keeps wanting her to train the new people. I suspect that Ginny’s being deaf and over 50 blocks her chance at promotion. They keep giving her superior efficiency ratings, yet no promotion.

God knows about this too. But I'm outraged to see her neglected so..