Chris' Christian Blog

March 21, 2020

"March 21, 2020" 

Prompt: "Write about good things that can come out of a bad situation. If you have an example from personal experience, please share!"

I have found that any bad situation that does not kill you will only make you stronger. It builds character to be put through the fire. I remember how impatient I used to be. I prayed to God to help me become a more patient person even though I knew doing so would mean that my patience would be tested in every possible way. God answered and I was tested but I learned to appreciate those tests as being the incentive to grow. Humans are like plants. We need a good helping of horse crap in our lives to help us grow. I honestly believe that. I think it took every moment, of oevery situation I have ever been through to make me who I am today. Do I have regrets? Of course I have regrets. There are a lot of things in my life I wish I could go back and tell myself not to do. However I know that doing them made me the person I am and I like who I am. I would not change me if I could.

"Prompt: "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–over and over announcing your place in the family of things." ~ Mary Oliver
How does the world offer itself to your imagination?"

I can't describe all the ways the world offers itself to my imagination? I often wonder if people perceive things exactly the same or if we perceive them differently from each other. For example the color of grass to me is a dark shade of green but does that green look the same to me as it does the next guy or does he perceive it the way I perceive say brown? We don't know because we all agree that green is green. We don't have each others experiences so we don't know how another perceives things. They may see blue where we see red and it is the same color to us both. Does that make sense? The world often triggers my imagination. I can hear a bird chirp and I hear music. Beethoven could not have designed a better note. Bach's Air on G is one of my favorite classical pieces but it doesn't trigger my imagination like the sound I heard last night. Last night I hears frogs chirping for the first time in ten years. (My new hearing aids are awesome). Those frogs triggered all kinds of thoughts of summer being just around the bend. The sound of frogs and newly budding trees are the first signs of spring. It's life at its best.

Prompt: "What are your favorite fun things to do that don’t cost a lot of money?"

One of my favorite activities is holding Bible studies. I am a chaplain and I love my job. Somebody said once that "If you have a job you love, you never work a day in your life."

I love being a chaplain because I love Bible study. I love organizing Bible study and I love doing them. I learn a lot by doing them and as the teacher it never fails that I learn more than my students do. In fact, I may tell my guys tonight that I want each of them to take a turn teaching a class so they will see how much more they learn. I also love prayer and try to incorporate that into the weekly Bible study schedule. In fact, we have a prayer meeting once per week here at the home. I am the chaplain of the West Virginia Veterans Home in Barboursville WV and a resident here. As a graduate student at Regent University I am majoring in the M. Div. program. I have four internships that I have to complete. From what the advisers have told me though I may be given credit for my experience as chaplain and that experience will serve as my internships! Man that would be sweet. The adviser I talked to said that it was a done deal. I may have to do some papers about my experience and turn in some documentation, but I have three years of experience now. We'll see how that goes. Anyway to answer the prompt specifically I would say Bible study. It costs me nothing. It cost Jesus everything though so I can't let this blog end without giving him credit.

I know people are running scared now due to COVID-19. This bug is killing people and they have reason to be worried. I may well be one of them it kills because I have a weakened system due to stage three kidney failure. However I am not afraid. I trust God to get me through whatever He brings me to: even death. I believe what II Chronicles 7: 14 says "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land."