Jack LaFountain's Blog, page 22

Lost Crusader # 163 When I Fail

“…there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”

Proverbs 18:24

Failure is a lonely place. Though people of my generation were taught that we ought to be gracious losers, no one really wants to back a loser, gracious or otherwise. That may be one of the reasons the word “sin” has such potential energy. Inject it in most conversations and sparks fly.

The word frequently used for sin in the Bible carries the connotation of missing the mark, akin to the concept of the archer missing his target with his arrow. That is why we call some people straight arrows. The phrase itself is a mispronunciation of the biblical straight and narrow.

Missing the mark is simply another way of expressing failure. When the target is proper (good, right, or decent) human behavior, to miss it is to fail as a human being. No wonder we are offended by the label, sinner. Whether it fits or not, it is a finger pointed at the core of our very being.

Only the most narcissistic among us deny the label ever fits. “Nobody’s perfect” is a salve we apply to soothe the deeper, reasoned ramifications the phrase implies—that we are not as we should be—there is something wrong with the best of us.

Contrary to popular belief, God’s intention in recognition of our sin, and His penchant for pointing it out to us, is not condemnation, but compassion. He has no need to condemn us, if we are honest, we take care of that pretty well all by ourselves. God answers our guilt with grace and failure with forgiveness.

The fly in the ointment is that we must accept God’s compassion, grace, and forgiveness with surrender to His divine sovereignty. Subsequently, when we inevitably fail, God sticks with us. Jesus is described as both the author and finisher of our faith. He neither leaves nor forsakes those who are His friends.

But there’s more to it than that, God uses failure to build success upon. When we stumble and fall, He lifts us up—a little higher, stronger, and wiser, than before.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #162 Presumptive Grace

“And think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

John the Baptist

I am forever amazed by those who confidently pronounce, “God doesn’t care about—”. You may fill in the blanks as you choose without fear of giving a wrong answer, all are equally incorrect. Of course, one might reply that they do not believe in God and so how could a nonexistent being care about anything?

The problem with that particular answer is that those who say it don’t actually believe it. If they did, they would not classify their fellow human beings as either good or bad. (Which they do almost without ceasing, just ask them about Trump.) But that argument for the existence of God has been made here more than once.

Still, theirs is a more courageous answer than that of those people who believe in a Creator who is indifferent. Even those faiths which do not embrace Christian belief, do not support such a contention.

Some believe they shall be recycled through endless lives. Each of these multiple lives is lived with the goal of living “right” or “better” each time through or risk demotion. Are these people trying to please an entity who does not care? If so, what’s the point of living in a certain manner?

Those who believe in a mathematical/physics-driven theory of existence face the same difficulty. They seek to vibrate at a higher frequency. Higher than what, exactly? To a mindless indifference what makes one a higher frequency and more eternally blissful than a lower one? Don’t both simply exist independently of a Maker?

The greatest fool of all, however, is the Christian who presumes upon the grace of God, believing he/she may do as they please because God is indifferent to the things that touch the lives of His own.

John’s audience was, at heart, unconcerned about what God wanted. They were descendants of Abraham and all the patriarchs had won by faith, they shared simply by reason of birth.

They are no different than the one today which places supreme faith in the church he attends, a rite of the church, a forebearer who practiced the faith and uses it as a license to behave as he will while believing he pleases God.

The truth is God cares. He cares what you wear, where you go, and what you do, He cares about everything. All you have to do to find out what God thinks is to seriously take time to ask—then, listen.

Maranatha

Know Jack #375 GIGO

“…ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge of the truth…”

This quote is a part of a larger passage in which St. Paul describes the characteristics of the culture that will welcome the end of the age. For the most part, the people it describes will all be glad to see the church go and be done with those pesky people who refuse to buy into their way of thinking.

The great assumption, of course, is that they are thinking. Talk about a leap of faith—wow, that may be even too much of a stretch for my imagination. Being spoon-fed pablum and regurgitating it now qualifies as learning, but it is hardly an education. The ironic part is that the woke generation has disregarded the quintessential electronic truism of their time—garbage in, garbage out.

I’ve heard people mock their old-fashioned teachers for saying that they would not always have a calculator in their pocket. Of course, now they do. However, this does not negate the wisdom of the teacher. Is knowing how to use a calculator the same as knowing how to calculate? In the same vein, is knowing how to summon Google the same as being knowledgeable?

I suppose it is. Provided, of course, that a person is willing to let Google do their thinking. We’ve all read the new and approved tagline to every bit of news that informs us that—”this is what you need to know”.

Is it really? Who determines what we need to know? And how do they reach that conclusion? I’ll leave that for you to ponder, that is if you’re old-fashioned enough to still do such things.

Now someone will say that it is the way of the world for each new generation to think that they have discovered something new under the sun and for their elders to decry it. There is some truth to that. However, that is not to say one is right simply because it seems new and is popularly hailed by its proponents as progressive.

The key to progressivism is that it must progress toward something better.

My generation laughed at preachers who warned against allowing television into the home. It was such a gigantic leap of technological progress. Some of those same people aren’t laughing anymore—nothing throws a wrench into human progress like elders being right.

The problem is not the existence of television or computers. It is the substitution of programming for education. Garbage in, garbage out.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #161 Simple Truth

“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another.”

Paul of Tarsus

Even those who do not accept Jesus’ divinity seem willing to acknowledge him as a great moral teacher (though to do so is logically impossible). A great teacher is one who can distill a seemingly complicated truth into its essence and present it in simple language that even the unsophisticated listener can understand.

Here in the words of Jesus is the essence of the gospel.

“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Repent of your moral failure. Go to Jesus for forgiveness. Everything you do thereafter, do as if doing it to/for God. Threat others as you would like to be treated.

Simple—until you try to do it on your own. Then, you discover performance is more difficult than profession. However, with God, neither is impossible. Thomas once asked how to walk this gospel road’

Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me.”

Walk in the footsteps of Jesus, heed the truth he preached, and share in his life, and you have found true friendship with the Creator.

Maranatha

Know Jack #374 Frenemies

“Woe unto you. When all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets.”

Jesus Christ

Aristotle proposed that erroneous thought comes in pairs. Which says much about the state of America. But it also has something important to teach writers. If we are not to be defeated by naysayers and critics, it is equally true that there lies great danger in the company of sycophants.

A home on the plains may deter discouraging words, but if you choose to live there, there’s a good chance your writing will suffer. Genre labels may be confusing at times and most writers don’t even take the genre their work will be tagged with into consideration, at least not while they are writing. However, they exist for a very good reason—not everybody likes westerns, romance, or horror.

Not everyone is going to like your book. The best seller of all time is despised all over the world. I find it’s true that the more you try to please everyone, the less chance there is that you will please anyone. Good writing takes a stand. It also produces an emotional response. Even if that response is anger or loathing, the writer has succeeded.

I read book reviews and for my money, a book with only five-star rave reviews means one of two things. Either the author/publisher has paid for the reviews or the book has been sold only to family and friends. That said, I will add that I generally know little else about reviews or what readers will like or dislike.

In my own experience, books that I thought I did well on, readers are unimpressed. Others that I thought were a total writing disaster on my part, people love. Some of the reviews I’ve read praising my writing give me grave cause for concern about the mental stability of my readers. Which is alright, I question my own most of the time.

When I was a nursing student, my mentor was a gravel-voiced, gray-haired lady with bad knees who was as old as some of the nursing home residents where we worked. A southern lady, she was full of old sayings. She used to tell me, “Some people wouldn’t be happy with Jesus on a mule.”

A mistake writers make is buying into the modern idea that you only have to please yourself. I read a few books by such people. I’m glad they are happy; they need to be because they are never going to outgrow the place they are right now.

If the people who tell this are to be believed (I like to think they are) I’m a better writer now than I was seventeen years ago. If I am, it’s because of editors and readers who told me a piece I had written was garbage and that I could do better than that.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #160 It’s a Hard Knock Life

“Life is hard, and then you die.”

Anon

That’s probably not the text for the beginning of one of my posts that you expect from me. I chose it purposely to make a point. As an old sci-fi television series used to proclaim, the truth is out there. The Truth (with a capital T) is independent of personal opinion, the latest scientific understanding, and political/social declarations. Truth towers above and upholds the multiverse which obeys the power of Truth. Therefore, Truth is where you find it. Because words are not ascribed directly to canon, does not mean they do not contain truth.

But to assure you the truth of our text is indeed Biblical, let us try to extract the gold from the stone. If you wish to contend that with a positive vibration you may dispel life’s difficulties, please man the frontlines of the war of your choosing. While we are waiting for all war to cease—there remains life as we find it in this world.

Adults, of a sound and sober mind, will tell you life is fraught with troubles and trials that cannot be wished away nor ignored. They will also tell you that difficulty does not keep life from being joyous and worth living every day. In his last post, one of my alter egos said that the joy writing brought him was worth the cost he paid to be free to write.

Mature Christians are admonished to run with patience the race that is set before them. “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before endured the cross…and is set down at the right hand of God.” The prize was the joy of his disciples sharing eternally in the life of God. Jesus thought that the prize was worth his crucifixion and paid it willingly.

While life may be hard, it is also worth the difficulties we face. Christians are not to live for a far-off, someday heaven. They are to live now, to embrace life in the present while living in fellowship with God. Oh, wait, living life in the present in the presence and fellowship of God is heaven.

Then, the pessimists tell us, you die. Make sure you read that correctly. That does not mean death is yet one more terrible hardship or disappointment. It means: Hallelujah! We made it! Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joys of the Lord.

Life is hard. It is also filled with rewards.

“For our light affliction, which is for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

Maranatha

Know Jack #373 High Hopes

“Anyone knows an ant can’t—move a rubber tree plant…”

Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn

I think at some point in his or her life almost every writer has heard the voice of conventional wisdom proclaim loud and strong that they should come to their senses and give up that writing nonsense.

“It’s never going to amount to anything.”

“You’re just playing around at writing.” (It’s not like you’re a serious writer—they have talent.)

In my particular case, in the grand scheme of things, they’re right. This obsession with typing words onto pages amounts to very little. For at least a year after publishing my first book, I made enough every month to buy a cup of coffee—as long as it was a McDonald’s coffee and not Starbucks. I’ve been lucky or blessed depending on your point of view. I make more than that today. Not enough to live on, but I drink coffee every day.

If the goal had been money or fame, then my writing doesn’t amount to much. However, fame and fortune were not the goal then. They still are not the goal. If I thought I had talent, maybe I would aspire to such things. So, why do it?

The most immediate reason is that I write because it brings me joy. If reading is a portal to other worlds, writing is the power to command those worlds. That may sound a bit like a god complex, but that only lasts until your characters start dictating the story. I get a word from Ed Landry now and then to listen to Bob Dylan’s song Positively 4th Street (Look it up on YouTube.). I’ll listen and then, I know my worth.

You may be wondering what that has to do with ants and rubber plants. Well, ants are small, but they constantly work at whatever task they happen to be engaged in and they seem to never give up. Writers are like that—all the time tapping away and just ignoring the sane people telling them to stop.

Solomon said that in the industrious activity of ants there is wisdom to be gleaned. Besides being constant workers at their calling, ants are incredibly strong. They can lift and carry many times more than their body weight. I can’t tell you if ants don’t know or just don’t care that people say they can’t lift an entire plant.

With writers, we generally know we can’t write. At the same time, we don’t care who thinks we can or can’t. Writers are not insensitive to criticism. It is that the joy derived from writing outweighs the cost incurred by writing. It’s a combination of determination and high hopes that seems to work.

Just what makes that little old ant—think he’ll move that rubber tree plant

Anyone knows an ant can’t—move a rubber tree plant

But he’s got high hopes, he’s got high hopes

He’s got high apple pie—in the sky hopes

So, any time you’re getting low—‘stead of letting go

Just remember that ant—oops there goes another rubber tree plant!

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #159 Be Careful What You Ask For

“Ask, and it shall be given you…for every one that asks receiveth…”

Matthew 7:7-8

Though Jesus talked about Hell more than anyone, He preached a very positive gospel. That is because the gospel, like the Law His listeners were familiar with, has more to say about what people should do than about prohibitions, and more about rewards than punishment.

Prayer is an essential part of a relationship with God and to encourage prayer, Jesus had important things to say about it. One of these things was the assurance that prayer is heard and answered. Not sometimes, not if you do it right—but always.

In the last century, parents were familiar with the benefits of saying, “No” to childish requests. Of course, we’ve evolved since then. If you don’t believe me follow young parents around the store and see the change for yourself. God’s an old-fashioned Father, there are times He says no, but not as often as you may think.

The mistake many make in asking God for something is that they believe God works like a genie from fairy tales. Rather than a puff of smoke and a loud Poof! Announce an answer, God answers by granting real things. Ask God to give you patience—if you dare. He will give it by sending you troubles to be patient through. Ask for wisdom—prepare for some tough lessons. Ask God for peace—He will show you the cross of Christ and tell you that is the way to peace.

Jesus in the same lesson as the text above also said that if you ask for a fish, he will not give you a serpent. That is, He will not give you something that will kill or destroy you. Uncountable millions of dollars could as easily be the death of a person as poverty. God knows where you fit in the spectrum, but neither does He shackle you.

Israel asked for a king so they could be like everyone else. God told the prophet to explain what having a human king would be like. When Israel insisted on having one anyway God granted the request, and the mistake became clear right away and Israel had to learn to live with their answer.

When we ask something in prayer it’s good to remember we are asking from the passenger seat and God is determined to drive us where we need to go to be the people He intends for us to be. Prayer is as much a lesson as a gift. Before you ask, think about what it will take to produce what you are seeking—believe me God is thinking about it.

Maranatha

Know Jack #372 Well, Say Something

“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jeremiah, not the bullfrog, but the Hebrew prophet, decided one day that he had had enough. His words had gotten him beaten, scorned, and thrown into a deep, dark hole. He made up his mind that he was just going to shut up. Silence, however, made him feel like he had a fire shut up in his bones. He went back to writing and speaking.

Sometimes writers don’t just have something to say—they have to say something. St. Paul, a prolific writer, and speaker, once said, “Woe is me, if I preach not the gospel.” Who he was in his own eyes, and in the eyes of God, depended on him expressing the message he carried inside.

I readily identify with both men. There are simply things that must be said, and you are the only one who can, or will, say them—consequences be damned.

It’s like having a huge, festering infection set up in your leg. You’re feverish, moaning in pain, you can’t walk, and there’s no one around to help. You must open the wound. You know it’s going to hurt, but you also know it will kill you if you don’t do it.

I have made the mistake that other people understand that about my writing. This is not a knock against anyone, it is just that writing truly is one of those things where unless you seriously write, you don’t really understand.

I have written, at least, one book that I didn’t particularly want to write. I wrote it anyway because I felt I must. It has made virtually no money and garnered few readers. I have no regrets because I wrote it for my own well-being.

Writing for acclaim and riches will leave you disappointed and depressed (as some very successful writers have discovered). Any real satisfaction or joy you find in writing comes only when you put into print something that must be said that only you can say.

Maranatha

Lost Crusader #158 A Simple Gospel

“And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?”

2 Kings 5:13

If the story is unfamiliar to you let me set the scene. Naaman is a general for the King of Syria and he has leprosy. It comes to the king’s attention that there is a prophet in Israel who could cure leprosy, so he sends Naaman and a small detachment of soldiers to find Elisha. When they do, the prophet doesn’t even come out to meet the great general. He sends out a message that if Naaman goes wash in the Jordan River, he will be healed.

Naaman’s upset because he was disrespected by the prophet, and refuses to consider doing what Elisha said. On his way home, his servants, who proved wiser than him, shared with him the advice in the text. Naaman, probably with a what-can-it-hurt shrug, dips himself in the Jordan and is healed.

The publishing company I work with, like most others, asks authors to send them a synopsis of their book before it is accepted. Now there are a multitude of websites that go into complicated formulas to explain how to do this. There are also agents and publishers who demand the formula. But all anybody really wants is a book report that tells what the book is about.

Christians have a great propensity for overcomplicating the gospel. Now, I do not deny the Bible can take you deeper into philosophical, metaphysical, and theological study than anyone could go. However, understanding and sharing Christianity need go no further than personal experience.

For me, one of the greatest arguments for Christianity is found in the simple statement of a blind man healed by Jesus. The rabbinical scholars wanted an explanation of how the man was healed. The man’s answer was that he didn’t know anything except—I was blind, but now I see.

He did not know how, he did know who. Christians need no theological degree beyond their personal testimony to their experience. Experience will always trump theory.

Relating your personal experience requires a certain overcoming of fear. The fear is misplaced, but it is real. If you feel fearful, that’s good—overcoming it with your story is even better. You need not do some great thing to please God. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Belief and a simple statement of it is enough for God.

It’s usually those with no part in Christianity that wish to debate theology and proper Christian behavior. They have no fear delving into subjects they don’t understand and generally resort to scorn when they find themselves in over their heads.

Socrates thought he was a pretty intelligent guy, and most people would agree. The reason for his thinking was that he was the only guy around who knew that he knew nothing. When it comes to your Christian faith, don’t be afraid to be like Socrates. And remember the old saying, it’s not what you know, but who you know. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Maranatha