Wallow

ByHal Hammons

When I feel ill, all I want to do is wallow.  Just sit and groan.  It’s not a cry for attention — usually I’m alone when I make my pathetic whimpers of discomfort.  I’m feeling sorry for myself.  It’s pathetic, but at least it’s private.  As we say in my family, “If you’re going to die, die quietly.”

In the end, I always feel better — emotionally if not physically, and frequently both — if I make some sort of deliberate effort at accomplishing something.  I can read my Bible.  I can come up with a bulletin article (like this one).  Even if it is just coming up with a plan for how to catch up later on, I am not wasting my time.

Wallowing, in my mind, conjures up 2 Peter 2:22.  Souls that have found God’s truth decides to retreat back into the morass of the sinful world.  It’s not just that they find themselves distanced from God’s holiness; it’s that they have found joy there.  They like being foul.  And so they are unlikely to ever find holiness again.

I cannot afford to take joy in my misery.  I have to constantly remind myself of the task that is set in front of me, which is not going to wait for me.  I have responsibilities — parenting, husbanding, personal growing, relationship-building.  A barrier between myself and my work is a problem to be overcome, not an excuse to be exploited.  The day I give myself a pass is the day I quit on God’s plan for my life.

I’m not sick enough to embrace that future.

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Let my people grow

ByHal Hammons

One of the first things you notice at Walt Disney World is the preponderance of “Mickey-shaped” items.  From pencil tops to fireworks, everything seems to consist of two small circles sitting atop a larger circle.  Sometimes, as with shrubbery, the shape is forced upon the item; those in charge simply alter it until it achieves the proper proportions.  Sometimes, as with ice cream, the item is formed inside a mold.  The latter of these can get downright creepy at times.  Forcing a pumpkin to grow in a “Mickey” shape by placing it in a mold in its infancy is … weird.  The desired effect is achieved, yes.  But at some point a living organism has to be allowed to grow in its own direction.  I don’t know.  Maybe I’ve just seen one too many Mickeys over the last seven years.

Anyway, striking a balance between fostering growth and channeling that growth has been a bit of an obsession with me over the last 23 years. 

 

A few words about “change”

ByHal Hammons

A Facebook “preachers” group that I somehow became attached to (you social media types know how easily that can happen) brought a preacher in Tuscumbia, Alabama, named Jesse Winn to my attention. After e-mailing Bro. Winn and exchanging a few thoughts and pleasantries, I decided (with his permission) to include his name and a link to the article in question. You can find the article here. I encourage you to read his article with the same prayer, spirit and consideration I ask when you read mine. The gist of his article was this (his emphasis):

I believe that, generally speaking, as a movement, we (the churches of Christ) need to be less afraid of change when necessary and more willing to question things.

Election

ByHal Hammons

I really need this election to come and go.  Despite my admonitions to everyone and his brother these days about keeping things in perspective, trusting in God through all situations, seeing ourselves as citizens of heaven and not of a disturbingly flawed America, still I find myself gawking at the latest earth-shattering rumor about the candidates and/or those near them.

Maybe I should try this again, if only for my sake.

Honey

ByHal Hammons

Raise bees in your home!  “BEEcosystems” are completely enclosed units that hang on your interior walls and provide access to the outdoors for the bees and access to honey for you.  The bad news is, they’re $599 apiece; however, I am promised, “for the amount of honey you will eat, they practically pay for themselves!”

The good news is, they don’t come with any bees.  That makes them a bit more workable in Tracie’s mind.

Control

ByHal Hammons

If people can’t control their own emotions, then they have to start trying to control other people’s behavior.  That is a very profound truth (unfortunately, not original to me) regarding political correctness in particular and whining in general.  We convince ourselves that the problem is “out there” and  therefore someone else’s fault, someone else’s responsibility.  In truth, though, the problem — at least, the one relevant to the current circumstance — is “in here.”  Our own personal weaknesses, our own personal insecurities, our own personal failures.

Audience

ByHal Hammons

I don’t know Amy Petty, and I barely know her music.  (I’m not much of an indie guy.)  But I appreciate what she wrote in a blog recently about why she is not going to try out for The Voice or one of the other half-million competition programs out there these days.  She says she…