A Letter to a Soldier - Eleanor Shepherd

          This week, I received the gift of a letter written by my mother 72 years ago.  If Mom were still here, she would be celebrating her 99^th birthday this Friday, February 1^st.  It is so good to hear her voice again.

            My older brother, David found this letter Mom wrote to her younger brother, Clarence after he left St. John’s to serve with the military overseas in 1941.

            I knew little of the story of my uncle, only that he died in the war.  I discovered in Mom’s letter, there must have been an interested young lady he left behind.  The letter is dated June 17, 1941.  It is clear from the context he is now in Europe.  

            Mom says, “How long it does seem since we heard from you.  I was so anxious. Last week I was dreaming all sorts of things about you.  But I was so relieved when Phyllis told me on Sunday that she had heard from you.  She brought me up your address last night.  Right away I got an atlas and looked it up.”  Living in St, John’s, Newfoundland at the time, my mother never imagined that one day she would visit the place where her brother would be buried in Europe, or that she would travel herself to so many different locations she would have to find in atlases during the years of her ministry with The Salvation Army. 

            As a typical older sister, Mom reminded her younger brother, that he had an obligation to be in touch with the family.  Their mother had died thirteen years earlier and it was their grandmother who had raised my mother’s four younger brothers.  Concerned for her grandmother and her worry about this soldier grandson, Mom wrote, “ I hope you had time to drop Grandmother a line.  I know she is anxiously waiting to hear.” 

            She gives him news of the various members of the family and what they are doing, to keep him up to date on the life he has known.  Then she mentions activities unique to the war experience, happening in St. John’s.  I can hear her voice as she writes,

“Oh yes, you might be interested in this. Last Sunday night, I went down to the Caribou Hut.  It was the (Salvation) Army’s turn to serve lunch for Navy boys and soldiers.  We had quite a crowd.  And the boys did appreciate it. I thought of you.” 

            Then you can feel her anxiety for him as she concludes this account with, “Clarence, my dear, we think of you and pray for you, that God will protect you.” She asks if he has had an opportunity to connect with The Salvation Army where he is.

            Trained as a nurse as well as a pastor, Mom asks practical questions about his clothes, and then admonishes him, knowing the challenges that he will face as a young man, far from home in a fragmented world, leaving no doubt about her expectations of him.  She says, “Now, Clarence, my dear be good, be firm.  You will no doubt meet with temptations that would ruin you and mark yourlife.  But we are depending upon you to do the right.  We are praying for you.” 

            Her letter reveals Clarence is not alone. Other boys signed up with him and Mom sends greetings to them by name.  Her concern is also for their moral well-being and she tells Clarence, “I am depending on them not to let me down.” 

            Her longing to keep the relationship strong over the miles that separate them comes out in her final wistful words to Clarence, “Write as often as you can, won’t you?” 

            After the signature comes a typical P.S when we miss those we love.  She says, “Send a picture of yourself as soon as you can get one.” 

            The letter to a young soldier from his sister helps me appreciate more a situation that I knew nothing about.  The war finished before I was born.  Yet there are so many elements of the letter that are common to me:  the desire for protection for those I love, my anxiety when I am do not receive communication from them, my concern for the physical and spiritual well-being of those who are dear to me and my desire for symbols of them to hold when we are separated. Human glimpses like this from my history strengthen the bonds with those who have gone before.

Word Guild Award
2011

Word Guild Award
2009

            


         http://emshepherd.blogspot.com

Finding Your Next Story/MANN

We drove to church this morning through a tunnel of shimmering silver trees. Even the sky had taken on a white tinge across its blue background. It wasn’t just on the road we travelled, as I soon discovered when I mentioned this in my welcome to the congregation. People nodded and smiled - they had obviously travelled on similar roads on their way to church.

It is not surprising that we would enjoy a comparable experience on a frosty morning. I would guess that if we’d had the opportunity to chat with each other, we could have shared more occasions of God’s handiwork in our lives.

This often happens in my Creative Writing Class that I teach at a local retirement residence. I sometimes hear, “I wasn’t able to bring anything and then when I started to talk with the others, I began to think of a story about attending the Elora Farmer’s Market.” And then someone says, “I remember one morning when I went to the market and the roads were like a sheet of glass and . . .” I know when this starts, the stories are beginning to jell and we’ve begun something very special in the lives of those attending.

“We carry with us every story we have ever heard and every story we have ever lived, filed away at some deep place in our memory. We carry most of those stories unread, as it were, until we have grown the capacity or the readiness to read them” (Rachael Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom, 1996). I find the fact that we may have stories within our minds and deep in our heart that we have not yet  ‘read’ and can still have the enjoyment of interpreting, quite exciting. Therein lies the hope that we can redeem those stories that have slipped between the crevices of our memory.

I have heard many people say they have recently thought about previous situations that haven't held any logic in the past, but now make perfect sense. Does that mean the older we get, the more stories we’ll be able to draw on that are tucked away? This is a nice thought, indeed.

Even as I write, I think of my grandfather whose stories I’ve previously shared on this blog. In my memory, I can see a little girl with a blond ponytail sitting on Swan Creek’s soggy banks, fishing with her grandpa. And I can hear his voice in my head telling me about his early farming days when he always made time to go fishing. Maybe after I finish this blog, more of his unread stories will come to mind to add some warmth to this cold January day.

Blessings on the next story that comes to your mind.
Donna
http://www.donnamann.org
Check out books on Agnes Macphail's childhood and young adult life in your library.
Aggie's Storm; Aggie's Dream; Aggie's Voice - to come

You Can Be A Hero Again—Carolyn Wilker

Recently in the news, a long-standing sports champion admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs for years in order to win his races. I’m not going to name the man, because this kind of cheating is not new.  He is not the first one who has done such a thing, even knowing the rules and the possible consequences. And because, if the confession is heart-felt—which only God and the man know for sure—he may have a second chance, which we all want when we make a mistake.

If I am to believe what I’ve heard and read on the news, the man has made many enemies and sued countless people in order to keep his secret. It had become a complicated affair.

This kind of cheating has happened, sadly, at national and international sports events, including the Olympics. It was so important to win, in fact, that these competitors flouted the possibility that their cheating would be found out. And when it happens, it’s world news. Fortunately, there are still many athletes who play by the rules and can be proud of their performance.

If the person confessing falls hard, so do those who have followed him, or looked up to him. After the disappointment, people ask, “Why would he do that?” The followers have become the judges too. Thou shalt not’s fly in the cheater’s face for he has done wrong and should have known better.

How much harder it must be for a public figure whose name and actions are practically a household name, when wrongful actions and lies become public knowledge. 

And yet, who of us, privy to that news, are free of temptation ourselves? Our actions may be less public, but it doesn’t mean that no one is watching. Instead, it will be our children and those who look up to us.

 Back to the fallen sports hero. The talk show host, upon hearing the confession, probes deeper and asks hard questions. Yet, at the end she declares that the man can be a hero again.

How could she say that? Certainly the man must pay some sort of penalty. Would the sports body or International Olympic Committee give this errant competitor the same punishment as his teammates, or more, since this man was the leader? The fallen hero has said, on national television, no less, that his punishment was life, while others got off with less.

A reporter accused, saying this confession was planned; he questioned the sincerity of the man.

Then I wonder if the man was tired of living the lies, and I ask myself, does he truly want forgiveness.

I’ll borrow an analogy that I’ve never forgotten, from our pastor, Rev. James Bindernagel in a sermon some years ago. Imagine putting all your wrongful actions into a bag, rowing out into a deep lake and dropping the sack overboard, letting it go entirely. It would be impossible to gather the contents again. They are gone for good.

What if that judge and jury were God himself, offering to take on our heavy load of sin? It’s already been done for us in that bag dropped to the bottom of the deep lake. It’s like that when we ask God to forgive our sin. In Acts 13:38 of Scriptures, we read, “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.”

 Just as Jesus forgave countless people of their sins when they asked, this man, too, has a chance, if he asks God with a contrite heart, even as he bears the punishment—including legal action. Perhaps then he can be a hero again.

While we read and hear in the news of such fiascos, ultimately, we are still responsible for our own actions. I’m glad of forgiveness. That’s some of the best news going. Better than anything else I can think of.

Carolyn Wilker

www.carolynwilker.ca

Author of Once Upon a Sandbox

The Joy of Les Miserables- HIRD

By Rev Ed Hird


People have been raving about the new musical version of Les Miserable which has already had around three hundred million dollars in worldwide box office sales.

Nicky Gumbel calls it a superb film, a triumph of grace over law, good over evil, love over hate. Eric Metaxas said that it is one of the most vivid, most moving examples of God’s goodness and mercy currently playing at a movie theatre near you. I enjoyed the new movie so much that it inspired me to again watch the 1998 version with Liam Neeson and Uma Thurman. Though my wife and I saw the Les Miserables production many years at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, this time round seemed to be striking a deeper chord with myself. The original novel, which I now have in eBook version, has been in print for over 150 years. Upton Sinclair calls the novel Les Miserables one of the five greatest novels of the world. With 1500 pages (1900 in French), it is also one of the longest novels ever written.

Many of you already know this delightful story of how an embittered ex-convict named Jean Valjean stole from a bishop who turns the other cheek and challenges Valjean to become a new man. Victor Hugo has the bishop say: “Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.” In gratitude, Valjean spends the rest of his life showing amazing grace, love and forgiveness to others. The forgiven forgive. Valjean’s life is based loosely on the life of Eugène François Vidocq, an ex-convict who became a thriving entrepreneur known for his good works. In 1828, Vidocq, like Valjean, rescued one of his factory workers by lifting a heavy cart on his shoulders.

The tension in the movie between forgiveness and judgment is expressed through the police inspector Javert relentlessly pursuing Valjean. Javert tells Prisoner 24601 (Valjean) that ‘men like you can never change’. Again and again Valjean shocks Javert by forgiving the unforgivable. Valjean offered to Javert the same radical reconciliation and healing that had been given to him. Javert cannot handle forgiveness because he is so fixated on people getting what they deserve. Javert was legalistic and self-righteous. This caused him to persecute the very person whose life had been transformed, the very person who was doing so much good for others. Javert’s compassion is completely lacking. Life becomes no more than following the rules and trusting in one’s own efforts. For Javert, God is an unforgiving moralistic tyrant. For Valjean, God is personal, caring and loving.

Anne Hathaway’s performance as Fantine was spectacular, particularly in her singing of ‘I Dreamed a Dream.’ In 1841, Hugo personally rescued a prostitute from arrest for assault. We grieve with Fantine over the injustice of her losing her job and being forced into prostitution to feed her child Cossette. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times notes that Les Miserables ‘delivers an emotional wallop when it counts. You can walk into the theater as an agnostic, but you may just leave singing with the choir.’

Les Miserables reminds us that anyone can change; anyone can become a new person. We are not fated to be bitter and miserable. We can choose the way of forgiveness and joy. We can choose to be a new creation like Valjean. My prayer for those reading this article is that the movie Les Miserables may inspire each of us to forgive and serve one another as did Valjean.

Reverend Ed Hird, Rector
St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Mission in the Americas
http://stsimonschurch.ca
-an article for the January 2013 Deep Cove Crier
award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’

http://www.battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com
p.s. In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD. This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mail ed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99 CDN/USD.
-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide : Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada
You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide

Give up books in favour of Internet? - Denyse O'Leary

Denyse 

Here’s a recent post of mine from The Best Schools blog: Does “Goodbye, literature” remind you of you? 

A writer and editor admits he has given up good books in favor of the Internet. Have you?

 P. David Hornik, an American writer living in Israel, confesses that the Internet age does interfere with reading classical literature. His bookshelf fell down and he never got around to sorting the mess out:

These days, of course, I have trouble even getting to the sort of books — on Israeli and Middle Eastern politics and history — I see as a necessary nurturer for what I’m writing. A bewildering profusion of news and commentary comes out on the internet every day; I have to decide what not to read. Even late at night — when once I might have borne down on some gems by Frost, Dickinson, Wordsworth — I tend instead to hang around on Facebook, or browse YouTube with a glass of something day-ending and universe-justifying in hand.

And the books, the old ones, surround me with their silence. I don’t keep up with the world literary scene; but I understand that the book market in general is drooping, and don’t get the sense that literature plays a huge part in people’s lives. And that desultory heap is still there in the corner of the room, unresolved and, I fear, all too symbolic.

Yes it is. It is a convincing demonstration of the tyranny of the urgent.

What makes new media so absorbing isn’t their significance but their urgency—the very latest piece of news, not the piece of news that will make the most difference.

The piece of news that makes the most difference to us might be twenty-five or fifty years old—sealed birth records, for example—but we did not know it before. Or five hundred years old—the discovery that a historical event happened quite differently from current conventional accounts. Yet we risk spending our lives discovering immediacies such as that our friend Katy is now friends with Harry and that cousin Jane is shocked by the latest increase in the price of gas.

 The worst part of giving up classic literature without a struggle is that we may become blind and deaf to what we are losing long before we have definitely lost it.

 Denyse O'Leary is co-author of The Spiritual Brain.

If You’re Happy and You Know It, Say You’re Gay

by Glynis M. Belec

                Lest anyone think I am climbing out of a figurative closet and announcing a gender bender, sorry to disappoint you.  I am gay. Yes. But not of the homosexual variety. Gay, according to my trusty Funk and Wagnall’s Standard College Dictionary means happy and carefree and merry; vibrant and colourful. I try to be a happy soul most of the time so I guess that makes me gay.

                I'm sure a few short weeks ago some sang Deck the Halls and talked about how we don our gay apparel,  Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la…  So you see, we really do know that gay still means happy and colourful, right?

                I'm sure I am going to get myself in trouble somewhere along the lines by griping about how some words, like gay,  manage to evolve over time and before we know it our nice original meanings have been changed around to suit. Speaking of nice, did you know that a nice person – a very long time ago, was someone who was ignorant or unaware?

                And a troll used to mean to either move around [as in fishing] or it was a funny looking creature with big ears and a bad smell - think The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Now it means someone who thoroughly enjoys sending someone into a tailspin on on-line forums or social networks. 

                 Remember when a stream was that little body of water that instilled a feeling of peace and serenity? Now it also can mean that horrid constant flow of emails, Facebook photos, images, tweets. 

                

Spam was the name reserved for that fatty jellied ‘mystery meat’ housed in that special rectangular can with the equally special key attached? Now it means nasty messages or unwanted, unsolicited and irritating email.

 Windows aren't only something you have to clean every now and again. Tweet is not necessarily the sound a bird makes. Text isn't just a heavy book you have to lug from class to class. The list goes on. I feel sorry for people just learning the English language.

                Some might think some of these changes are awful. Others might think that it makes language interesting.  That reminds me. Do you know that something that used to be awful actually meant something wonderful, delightful and amazing? You know - full of awe. Now we have that lovely awesome word that is flashed around all over the place these days instead. Funny how things change. 

Speaking of awesome, I'm thinking about the awesome Word of God. I'm also thinking about how glad I am that that never changes. I know some will argue and shout about how interpretation and false prophets and people who rip people off using the Bible, distort and change what is written. But no matter how people try to drag the Word of God through the mire, it always survives. The Word is relevant and awesome  [as in - it fills me with awe] and as it says in 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking and correcting and training in righteousness.

                For that, I am a happy [gay] camper. 

Best Novel I've Read This Year--den Boer

Michael D. O'Brien's The Father's Tale (Ignatius) is not only the best fiction I've read this year (which includes Robin Hood), it is the most satisfying novel I've read in a long time. The author describes his work as "A modern retelling of the parables of The Good Shepherd and The Prodigal Son." That's the essence.

The book is 1072 pages of adventure, drama, suspense, East versus West, family relationships, spiritual experiences, and love. Here's  the link (the trailer is worth a watch).

Absolutely loved this book written by a Canadian writer who is Christian.

Marian den Boer is the author of Blooming, this Pilgrim's Progress.

A Matter of Concentration - M. Laycock

In his wonderful devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers says - "Narrow all your interests until the attitude of mind and heart and body is concentration on Jesus Christ."

This makes me just a little bit uncomfortable. It makes me picture a doleful monk or severe nun, doing nothing but fasting and praying all day. I don't think that's what Oswald Chambers, or the Lord, intend. We are meant to live in this world, and live well. Living well means doing what Mr. Chambers says - have only one focus and that is to know and glorify Christ. Do that through all the other aspects and potential distractions of life, and you will live well indeed.

Easy to say. Not so easy to do. We don’t want to ‘narrow all our interests,’ we want to live life to its limit, experience it all. But often, when we’re out there ‘experiencing,’ we realize it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Often the things we’ve gotten ourselves wound up in don’t give us the satisfaction we thought they would. That's when it is all the more astounding to find that God has blessed anyway - blessed us, and others through us, even though we’ve been ignoring Him. His purposes are so far above ours, yet he invites us to be part of them in the midst of our foolishness.

This makes me think of the scene described in the Bible when John the Baptist points Jesus out to two men. They immediately scramble to follow him and when Jesus asks them what they want, they ask - "Rabbi, where are you staying?"

It’s hard to know exactly why they asked such a question, but I imagine they were surprised that Jesus spoke to them and were perhaps suddenly a bit tongue tied, as most of us would be if a celebrity we admire suddenly turned to us and asked us a question. I imagine Jesus smiled when he answered, "Come and see." (John 1:35-39)
It's a perfect example of God’s grace. Jesus doesn’t chide them for asking a silly question. He doesn’t ignore them or condescend. He extends an invitation. That’s exactly what happens to us, every day. We're scurrying around, concerned with all the unimportant things, madly trying to fill our lives up with unimportant pursuits, and Jesus turns to us, smiles, and invites us into His world, into His ministry, into His very home. He invites us to live well, with Him.

Then he opens all the doors for us, provides what we need, shows us the depth of His love and the joy we can have in His service. All we have to do is accept the invitation - go and see where Jesus lives. Once we have done that, “concentration on Jesus Christ,” focusing on worshiping and glorifying Him, becomes part of life, and life becomes a grand adventure.

****

Marcia Laycock writes from Alberta Canada. Visit her website to learn more about her writing/speaking/teaching ministry.