Monday, January 13, 2020

Hermitage Notes - Stinkbugs, Heart Stuff, And A High Calling

Stinkbugs.

For weeks now. 

Not a day goes by that we do not discover at least one stinkbug in our little hermitage-like cabin. The big house next door isn’t having problems with them. Perhaps it is the color that we chose to paint our little domicile in the woods that invites them to seek refuge within these close and comfortable walls. 

Every time I see a stinkbug, I cannot help but to think of the time [Autumn of 1984 on the NW Kansas prairie.] when I bit down on one. It, unbeknown to me, had landed on my sandwich. 

Though experiencing the taste of a stinkbug is in a class all its own [It takes three days for the taste to finally turn loose of your taste buds.], when it comes to the “memorable” department, I put it right there beside my encounter with that mountain lion stalking my tent on the Cumberland Plateau and my way-too-close encounter with that huge rattlesnake over in the Florida panhandle. 

We are dealing with stuff on the backside of the heart cath that they did on me Friday. 

It is amazing what they can do these days. I have confidence in this team of women [beginning first with this one I’m married to] that are tending to my healthcare. 

I know this world is not my home. I do, however, want to hang around a while yet. There is a lot of love yet to be shared with loved ones. [I can think of no other good reason to want to stay on this rock that is overrun by sorrows and evils of every imaginable sort.] I get the sense, too, that there is yet a calling for me to fulfill. For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. [Romans 11:29] Fluid? Yes. Irrevocable? No.

We are all called; each one with differing degrees of calling, each one spiritually gifted to live out the dimensions of their high calling in Christ to exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. [Hebrews 3:13] 

I do not mind the rain. The gentle rain and the sound that it makes on the cabin roof makes for a very pleasant atmosphere.


2 comments:

  1. I'm glad you're in no hurry and want to hang around, funny how love causes that.
    As for stink bugs...
    Brenda and I would find one in our old Kentucky home prior to being on the road. Then in nearly every state we've had the occasion to find one traveling with us. I began to consider them to be messengers, like the crows that seem to follow me.
    Hope to see y'all this trip around the sun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Messengers? I prefer to consider them intrusive little boogers; sort of the skunk of the insect world. Looking forward to seeing you and Brenda when you are close. Peace.

    ReplyDelete

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