Wisdom and Understanding

Hi Everyone,

We’ve moved! We simply decided that our online presence needed an overall update, and John began with a new look and location for the blog. (He knows this remains the most efficient (and fun!) way for us to communicate.) Two-way conversations are much more fun than monologues.  

There are many nuts and bolts involved in an online presence, so thank you in advance for your patience as we relocate and update what you will see and hear.

One more thing…. If you do not already follow the blog, you may simply click on the ‘Follow’ icon (lower right corner) and enter your email address for notifications of new posts.

New blog address: https://janetpaschal.wordpress.com/

When I haven’t seen or spoken with Gloria Gaither in a while, she always asks the same question: “What are you reading?” That could (and often does) lead to a long discussion on topics ranging from prophecy to basketball. Just because it seems like the right thing to do, I will tell you that, right now, I am rereading Lee Strobel’s The Case for Faith. (The introduction alone is worth the price of the book.) That, along with Proverbs and Psalms, is driving home the idea of pursuing wisdom and understanding. Our family has needed both of them in large doses for a while now. They have become a lifeline as we navigate uncharted and unfamiliar waters. 

I tell my close friends that I am still awaiting the dispensation of wisdom, but the last three years are teaching me understanding. Nowadays, I often cringe thinking back on my quick opinions and instant remedies when I knew so little about what others could have been going through. I was often the priest or the Levite when someone in my life needed a Samaritan. Hopefully we can all learn from each other and grasp both wisdom and understanding as we press in to together to wherever He leads. I’m excited about the prospect!

So here we are… December 7, 2022…. 

Eighty-one years ago, at 7:55am, the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, suffered an unprovoked attack. Four heavy carriers launched 353 aircraft torpedoes and bombers in addition to submarines and destroyers. One hour and fifteen minutes later, 2,403 American families began a dark journey through grief and loss. 

Prior to the attack, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto famously stated, “I look forward to dictating peace to the US in the White House at Washington.”

It is difficult to imagine how many prayers rose to God eighty-one years ago. Prayers for safety, protection, healing, comfort, resolution, etc. And He heard them all. 

Bad things happen in a broken world. Power corrupts and greed distracts. We tend to forget Catherine Marshall’s great observation of the autonomous structure and creation of God: “(a) power that no one really understands keeps our heart beating, our lungs breathing, … our body temperature at 98.6 degrees…. a surgeon can cut tissues but he is helpless to bind the severed tissues back again. We grow old relentlessly and automatically. 

Even the planet we live on… we had nothing to do with it’s creation either…. All of this happens quite apart from man – little man who struts and fumes upon the earth.”

Humans seek bigger, better, higher, bolder, shinier… and God waits patiently for them to grasp their own frailty and to learn that the brief span of a lifetime can hardly be compared to God’s tomorrow. 

“Lord, on the anniversary of an event carried out totally devoid of wisdom and understanding, help us to move closer to both of them today.”

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