Niceties

As I dig through boxes and bags - things I just can't let go of - I often find journals or scraps I have written on to remind me of lovely things that people have done for me or said to me. At some point it would be nice if I could get them all in one place, but getting that organized in the Counterman household is not something I can even imagine happening. I try to console myself that many great thinkers are/were not very organized, but if you ask me for a name, I could not produce one. If I remember correctly, Einstein had a hard time tying his shoes and could get lost walking around the block, but I don't know that his actual organizational skills were lacking. {do any of you know?} I realize that this might make you wonder if we qualify for that show Hoarders, but I can assure you that we are nowhere close to being that bad. We can see all of our floors and although the house is not "company clean" right now, I would not be embarrassed by it if you showed up to visit today.

Five Minute Friday - Grow

On Fridays around these parts we stop, drop, and write.

For fun, for love of the sound of words, for play, for delight, for joy and celebration at the art of communication.

For only five short, bold, beautiful minutes. Unscripted and unedited. We just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.

Won’t you join us?

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in.

3. Most importantly: leave a comment for the person who linked up before you – encouraging them in their writing!

OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes on:

Grow…

GO

I remember... it has been eighteen years now, but I hear her voice just like it was yesterday: "Pain is growth and we should be happy about that." I remember smarting off to her that I thought pain was simply pain and nothing more. I got "the look" for that.

I know that God uses pain to teach me, to GROW me, but I am a sissy and I like to tell people that I am allergic to pain. Which makes it awfully hard to grow, I suppose.

There are plenty of opportunities to grow in my life right now. Not that that means I am in constant pain. It just means that there are many things that don't need to stay as they are. There are many things that I know God is telling me to work through to get to what He has for me on the other side. Good thing He plans to be there to walk me through it. I would not dare do this alone.

That reminds me of one of my favorite gospel songs:

Be with me Lord, I cannot live without Thee. I dare not try to take one step alone. I cannot bear the loads of life unaided. I need Thy strength to lean myself upon.

I love that song. Maybe I need to be singing it more through these present growth opportunities.

STOP

So there is my five minutes. Let's go over to the Gypsy Mama's place and see who is linking up over there.

There and Back Again - Grab Bag

Things are not as they should be with me. Things are not as they should be in my marriage. Things are not as they should be in my family. I am worn down from it all and filled with sorrow. Below is what I prepared last night, but I am adding this beginning paragraph this morning in order to tell you that I covet your prayers. I would beg for them if I had the energy. Big or small - any prayer would be greatly appreciated. And please still go and visit the bloggers I've listed in this post. I think you will like them.

***

I am under the weather and without much energy. I almost cried at the thought of having to write a post, which is odd for me. But I so did not want to miss out on "There and Back Again". So instead of writing coherently about the blog posts of others, I am simply going to direct you to those blog posts.

***

Second Chance Wednesdays - Part 12

Welcome back to Second Chance Wednesdays! It is once again time to turn to the People of the Second Chance's poster series, Never Beyond. If you are new to this campaign, you can read more about it and find links to all of my Never Beyond posts here.

***

So let's jump in. This week we have for your viewing pleasure Joe Paterno, formerly the head coach of the Penn State football team and more recently an out-of-work old guy who has been accused of following the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law when it comes to protecting children from pedophiles, specifically an alleged pedophile that worked for Coach Paterno.

There are others involved in the scandal alleging that several people covered up the child-molesting activities of one of the Penn State assistant coaches. However, Paterno is the most famous of all involved and therefore has become the face of the matter. Being the poster child (or poster grandfather) for bad decisions is never the way one wants to be remembered, but it looks as if that will be a large part of Joe Paterno's legacy. The administration at Penn State has already decided that Joe will not be getting a second chance to be a leader at their university.

My Prayer

I humbly confess that I am often perplexed by the problems of life. 

Sometimes I do not seem to know which way to turn next. 

I pray Thee, therefore, to enlighten me by Thy Holy Spirit 

that I may recognize what is Thy will in every situation; 

give me the courage to decide every issue accordingly 

and to leave the final outcome to Thy direction.

From the prayer "For the Grace to Make the Right Decisions", 

My Prayer Book, Concordia Publising, 1957

I bought the prayer book for one dollar at Martha's garage sale. It had belonged to her late husband. I did not need it, but I really wanted to buy something just to encourage Martha, who was going through hard times. Indeed, months later Martha thanked me for driving Mama all that way to be at the garage sale and for buying a few things. I had put the book in a little basket that is next to my bed and rarely thought of it. I did not read anything in it until today.

Desde el Monte... The Streets

Previous installations of Desde el Monte...

Preface

The Beginning

Joy Bus

***

There is so much that I could write about the time I spent with my fellow missionaries out amongst the citizens of Montevideo. This first story from the streets was very powerful for me. I doubt I can convey in words how much I felt the presence of Jesus that day, but I am going to give it a try. What happened really set the tone for how I approached the people Uruguay on the rest of that journey.

One of the main tasks that had been asked of our mission group was to publicize a Gospel Meeting that would happen at the church towards the end of our stay. "Publicizing" in Montevideo often means walking the streets and handing out flyers. The sidewalks on the main streets of that city are wide and full of pedestrians and street vendors. People there walk much more than in any city in Texas, but I imagine it is similar to places like New York City. Handing out flyers is a very typical means of getting a message out, and it seems as the citizens at least glance at the flyers to see if they are interested before carpeting the sidewalk with papers. The people who are handing out flyers will trade the flyers with each other. All in all, its a LOT of flyers.

Five Minute Friday - Unexpected

On Fridays around these parts we stop, drop, and write.

For fun, for love of the sound of words, for play, for delight, for joy and celebration at the art of communication.

For only five short, bold, beautiful minutes. Unscripted and unedited. We just writewithout worrying if it’s just right or not.

Won’t you join us?

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Most importantly: leave a comment for the person who linked up before you – encouraging them in their writing!

OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes on:

Unexpected…

GO

I'm really wary right now of any word with "expect" in it. Evidently, I have disappointed some of my friends because I have done the unexpected. But what was so truly unexpected?

There and Back Again - Unfinished

It's late in the day to be starting a blog post. I have not felt well and each time I have thought of writing, something in me just recoils. I don't know if I am experiencing rebelliousness or my attitude problems about other things are creeping into my writing. I would have just let it go, but I keep remembering that I had already started the process for There and Back Again, and if I did not write, it would be one more thing unfinished.

I might as well confess: I am royalty amongst The Unfinishers. There is so much that is unfinished in my life. Without even spending much time to inventory, I can think of these unfinished things:

Second Chance Wednesdays - Part 11

Welcome back to Second Chance Wednesdays! It is once again time to turn to the People of the Second Chance's poster series, Never Beyond. If you are new to this campaign, you can read more about it and find links to all of my Never Beyond posts here.

This week's poster is going to be challenging for some people. POTSC decided that we should have a conversation about giving Osama bin Laden a second chance. Obviously, since he is dead, the conversation is more of a metaphor than a reality. But it brings up an interesting question. Many of bin Laden's compatriots are still alive and free. How would we treat any of them?

Don't Whup Me With Your Bible Belt

I would like to say at the outset that this post is probably going nowhere good and at an alarmingly fast rate. I will blame a few people during the course of it and they can call me out for a showdown if'n it will make them feel better. I realize that some of y'all don't cotton to these types of blog posts, so you can just move along. If you haven't yet figured out how to navigate away from an objectionable web page, then you might deserve this. (wink, wink)

***

The first two blame-ees are Jennifer and masked man who goes by the name of Radical Believer (or RB for short). It could very well be that we would not be here having this experience if these two had not crossed my path at about the same time today. And when I say "crossed my path" I do mean on Facebook (or FB for short). You should know by now that it is not in style to actually see people face-to-face these days. 

Many of you might know Jennifer from her blog "Getting Down With Jesus" (which you would think would mean that we have some video of her boogie moves, but alas, I have not seen any). She is also a Contributing Editor at The High Calling. There's also something about Iowa and corn going on in her life, if memory serves.

Now, RB - he may or may not be known to y'all. Depends on what patch of internet real estate you've been hanging out on, I suppose. He has a blog called "Grappling With Grace". You see, "grappling" is not a word that I hear all that often, unless it is followed by the word "hook". However, RB kindly gives us a definition of the word "grappling" in the header of his blog. It means "wrestling" or "coming to terms with". On a day like today, I can't make it much farther than the word "wrestling". And though it is a true story that I was once a body guard at a pro wrestling event (even met Lou Albano), what I first think about when I think of wrestling is this: