Good Golly, Miss Molly!

Good golly, Miss Molly; this is the last day of 2008 and I ain’t near finished—not even close! I mean, heck, the clothes are still hangin’ on the line; the hogs ain’t been kilt the yards ain’t been swept; the cemetery ain’t been cleaned; the barn ain’t been painted; the pigs ain’t been cut; the wood ain’t been chopped; the fence ain’t been mended; the soap ain’t been made; the eggs ain’t been gathered; the hay ain’t been kevered; and of all things the cow ain’t been milked, so we ain’t got no milk, cream, or butter. Shoot, I ain’t hardly got time to finish by the end of the day. I shore am glad that someone else done figured out that “what don’t get done today, will still be there a waiting tomorrow (although I do feel sorry for the cow)!” I shore hope the sun will be a shinin’; otherwise, I ain’t never gonna get all caught up!
Even so, I am trusting that, during 2009, you will not allow all the stuff of life to distract you from the simplicity and purity of knowing Christ, whom to know is eternal life; that you will find yourself consistently resting in His finished work and, thereby, avoiding spiritual burnout; that you will have ears to hear what most miss—His still, small voice—and, thus, be clued-in to what really needs to be heard; and that you will have eyes to see what many cannot see—the miraculous truth of the one True Gospel—and, thus, not be deceived by the well-intentioned religious, who would rob you of the joy and freedom of knowing Him!
I have truly enjoyed writing these perspectives this year and, even more, I have appreciated all the comments you have made (both positive and negative!), but most of all, I appreciate you and your love and friendship!

May He continue to bless your life with the riches of His lavished grace,

Mac Goddard
12/31/08

Blackberry & Facebook

Well, I have finally arrived—almost: I upgraded my cell phone to a Blackberry AND I joined Facebook; all I have left is to figure out how to use both (I am old but I am doing the best I can, so be patient with me!).
This Blackberry thing is quite something! It is almost like walking around with your Desktop attached to your side (might even be better). Amazing. indeed! My Daddy would have loved this thing; He bought the first gadget ever to go on sale and everyone that followed, until his death. He carried a pager long after he had any reason to be paged; he just liked gadgets, and he kept hoping that he would get one more page (Now that I think about it, we probably should have put a pager in his casket, so we could have paged him from time to time; he would have liked that). I don’t think I am quite the gadget enthusiast that he was, as is evidenced by the fact that I wasn’t brave enough to get the new Storm (too hard to type on it), but I must admit that this thing is more-than-fascinating. Why, I’ll bet it signaled me ten times during last night that I had received an email! Most days I would have had to wait until morning to find that out, but not any longer! Imagine!
Now this Facebook thingy is really an incredible self-esteem lifter; it allows you to connect with other people who willingly identify themselves as your friend! Heck, I thought I had almost run out of friends, but either lots of folks are pretending, or I am rich in the friend department (which is probable the most valuable department!). Anyway, if you haven’t tried this gadget out, you should; I mean, you even get to see pictures of friends you haven’t seen in a long time (the names are included, so you will be able to recognize them!) and some of those you saw just yesterday, even some of friends you have never seen, e.g. Tamera and Kelly and John.
To add more amazing to the already amazing: my Blackberry came with this Facebook thingy already installed, which means that all during the night and day, I get sounds, aka “ringtones” or “vibrations”, alerting me to the fact that one of my friends is writing on my Facebook wall. Now, if that ain’t the stuff! I mean, this is wonderful, especially for those of us, who thought we had almost run out of friends! Why, I even have one friend who lives in California! Heck, I am now thinking about inviting all of my friends (which you can do on Facebook!) to a party in Hawaii or some such place. Now that I know I have them, I feel sure we would have a grand time!
And then I remember: God has always had a Blackberry (the Holy Spirit) and Facebook (justification comes with it installed), and one day soon, He is going to send a simultaneous message to all of His friends (already invited friends!) and it is going to say something like this: Your place is ready and the party is about to begin; so, come on Home!

Take a Deep Breath!

Lord have mercy, Christmas has come and gone! How did that happen? Not to worry, however, because it will be here again before we know it! In the meantime, we are in the transition period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, which is really a rather interesting time. I say “interesting” time because we tend to look backwards and forwards at the same time. It is much like driving on an interstate highway, where we look ahead through the windshield and behind via the mirrors, and we do both almost at the same time. The truth is, it is this skill that prevents us from causing highway accidents.
Because God is eternal (The Eternal Now, to use the words of Paul Tillich), I seriously doubt that He bothers with a calendar; in all probability, He isn’t too concerned about 2008 ending and 2009 beginning. Furthermore, I am rather certain that He never looks backwards, or forwards, for that matter. Why would the “I Am that I Am” look anywhere other than the eternal present? I mean, after all, this ain’t rocket science. However, the fact that God is living in the eternal now, does not mean that we are doing what He is doing. Actually, we are, but we simply aren’t far enough along the journey of the not-so-eternal-now, to realize it. When we finally get home (before dark!), I think it will all make sense, but I doubt that it will really matter then. Yes, I know that some folk say that it is the journey that matters most, but I think the destination is rather important; after all, at least from my understanding, Home is quite the place, certainly more-than-worth the journey!
Thankfully, God has an ability in His repertoire, that He has chosen to omit from our ours: He sees the entire picture and He sees it fully and completely developed, with the highest of resolutions and in living color. In other words, even though He doesn’t use a calendar, He knows exactly what will take place in every moment of our lives—clean, clear through ‘till next Christmas (even further, to be honest, much further). I say “thankfully” because I don’t think any of us really want all of the details of the next year served up to us on a silver platter. Well, I guess we would, if we could know ahead of time that everything would be A-OK, but the truth is this: everything ain’t going to be A-OK, at least not in our humble opinions, and (I might add) we all know this to be true. Knowing that can be a bit frightening (you can say it isn’t, but you might be lying, too).
So what is our modus operandi, as we face the unknown 365 days of 2009? We operate much the same as we do when we are driving down (up) the interstate: we look ahead and behind at the same time, trying to do all we can to avoid any painful experiences. Some even make New Year’s resolutions, in an attempt to perform a bit more efficiently than in previous years and, thus, decrease the “chances” of painful crashes.
Now don’t go and misunderstand me because I am all-in-favor of each of us attempting to improve; however, I guess I need to tell you that God, the One who is the I AM that I Am, has already decided in your behalf that you won’t miss a thing He has planned for your journey. So take a deep breath and trust you life to the one who knows you best and loves you most! And by the way, keep your eyes on Him, “forgetting the past, and pressing on to know Him . . .”!

Well,the day we call Christmas is almost over and we now begin the journey to New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Bittersweet is the descriptor for me. Today was good in every way, even the Standing Rib Roast (succulent, tender, and wow!)! The presents were opened and appreciated, the grands and mom were then off to another destination, Michael left to meet one of his friends, and Annis and I had a bowl of Ambrosia and whipped cream and began to clean the kitchen! Tomorrow the entire Goddard clan will gather at my brother's house (George & Jaye) in Atlanta (Kennesaw) for fellowship, barbecue, and Brunswick stew, along with many laughs and carrying ons.

Confused? Missing the point?

Wednesday, December 24, 2008 [CHRISTMAS EVE!—a bit sunny and 470],
Maybe the entire universe is confused! As I sit at my computer, thinking about what I want to say to you today, it suddenly dawns upon me that I am watching a most unusual happening: there are about 50 robins pecking around in my backyard, looking for worms. Folks, this ain’t springtime; it’s Christmas Eve and 470F!
As if that were not enough, as I watch the robins, I also watch as a golfer walks to the edge of the small lake on #16, to approach his ball. In order to hit it, he has to stand in the edge of the water and he does (he can only be my friend, Travis; no one else loves golf that much)! Folks, this ain’t springtime; it’s Christmas Eve and 470F!
Today is Christmas Eve and that means that tomorrow is Christmas Day, and unless I am confused (which is entirely possible!) this is the time we (Christians) celebrate the Birth of our Savior, aka Jesus; however, the part of the population I can see is just about as confused as the robins and the golfers. Yes, I realize that not everyone “celebrates” His birth the same way I might celebrate it, but Robins in December seems a bit strange to me. Surely, golfers standing in water in December is more than a bit strange (well, for everyone but my friend, Travis).
Yesterday afternoon, I took my granddaughters from our house to their paternal grandmother’s house in Byron, via Gray, which meant that I was privileged to travel the highways for quite a spell. Trust me on this: it seemed that everyone was taking somebody someplace and they all chose the same time I chose to make the trip. In other words, the traffic was horrendous!
As you might imagine, I was in no hurry, as I just don’t hurry much anymore, espe-cially at Christmas. At this point in my life, I am designed more for comfort than I am for speed, or so one of my friends told me, so I was just tooling along, enjoying Sydney and Caroline, as we sang various Christmas songs—celebrating Christmas—and wondering why everyone was in such a rush to get someplace. Didn’t they know it is Christmas?
Later in the evening, Annis, Michael and I decided to go out to eat, as no one wanted to cook, and Annis needed to pick up something at one of the stores at the new mall. Eating was a piece of cake, but EVERYONE in Georgia had gathered at the mall (or so it seemed) and EVERY ONE of them was in a HURRY to do what they apparently did not want to do, in the first place (or so they acted!)—buy Christmas presents for people they apparently didn’t even like.
I don’t know for sure, but it surely seemed that they were missing the point, aka confused, as to what this season is really about, namely Him, not us! Maybe the entire universe IS confused! Slow down! Take a deep breath! Celebrate Jesus!

The Forerunner of Jesus

Saturday morning, December 20, 2008 [cloudy and 670],
During this Christmas season, let us not forget John, the son of Zacharias and Eliza-beth; you probably remember him as John the Baptist (although I don’t remember reading anything about him ever joining a Baptist church!). Actually, it is probably a bit more accurate to call him John the Baptizer, but, then, that will probably make all the Baptist folk angry, because some of them really do think he founded the Baptist church. Oh, well—
Call him whatever you choose, but this is the truth of the matter: God was rather emphatic that the folk call him John: “And it came about on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias, after his father. And his mother answered and said, ‘No indeed; but he shall be called John.’ And they said to her, ‘There is no one among your relatives who is called by that name.’ And they made signs to his father, as to what he wanted him called. And he asked for a tablet, and wrote as follows, ‘His name is John.’ And they were all astonished (Luke 1:59-63).
In case you have forgotten, this is what Gabriel (the angel) said to Zacharias prior to the aforementioned meeting: “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor; and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, while he is yet in his mother’s womb. And he will turn back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. And it is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous; so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:13-17; emphasis, added).
Sometimes (all the time, really!), it is best to stop arguing and fussing and making excuses and to simply do what God says do—even if it doesn’t make any sense. Heck, I have no idea why it mattered so much to God that this child be named John; as far as I am concerned, He could have named him Zacharias (at least it would have made more sense). Actually, I would have been completely satisfied with “Little Bo Peep,” or even John Calvin, but the fact of the matter is that He wanted him named John, and that is enough for me.
If you will go back and read the third paragraph, you will readily see that God had a very specific and quite wonderful purpose for John; I mean, this is awesome! Were it not for the last sentence, one could confuse him with Him! There was, however, this one drawback: “And the child continued to grow, and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel” (Luke 1:8; emphasis, added). Why would God want this handpicked “John” to live in the desert, eating locusts and wild honey and wearing leather skins, for such a long time, prior to his actually doing all those important things? Hmmm, I thought you would want to remember him during these days!

He Touched My Friend!

Thursday night, December 18, 2008 [warmer, PTL!],
This afternoon I visited someone who has lung cancer and is presently living in a rehab facility. He is trying to regain the strength that both the illness and the treatment have robbed from him. The mountain he is attempting to climb is much too high, every step leaves him almost breathless; yet, he looks forward to being released from this facility and returning to his home, where he lives—alone.
When I walked into his room, he had a visitor, but he interrupted their conversation to tell me that he had been meaning to call me, but just hadn’t done it, then he motioned for me to have a seat in his wheel chair. He obviously wanted to talk about something that was important to him. To be sure, I already knew that I was there by Divine appointment because of the circumstances that led me to him, so I sat down, waiting for the other visitor to leave, so he could say whatever he need to say. He didn’t wait; instead, he started right in with his story. Soon the visitor excused himself, and I think he did so because he knew that our friend had more to say than he was saying in his presence.
As soon as the visitor left the room, my friend got up out of his bed, took the several, labored steps necessary to reach his chair, and plopped down, looking directly at me. I knew he had something on his mind, a burden that he needed to release. He was fighting tears, as if men aren’t supposed to cry. Then these words came forth: I can’t tell you when it happened, all I can tell you is that it happened; I have truth in here (pointing to his heart), but I need to know how to pray; I need to know how to pray so that I am not sounding selfish. I knew what he meant, what he was asking.
I find it so sad that so many have been taught such erroneous things about God, things that say I am being selfish, when having been diagnosed with lung cancer, I am asking God for healing; things that say I am being selfish, when I am scared to death (not of death, but of dying), and I am asking God to take away my fear; things that say I am being selfish, when my life is completely out of my control, and I am asking God to bring some sense of hope and security to me.
As you might imagine, I told my friend not to worry about sounding selfish because God already knows that he is, and it doesn’t offend Him one bit. I told him to tell God whatever he wanted to tell Him, and He would understand. I told him to yell and to scream at God, if He needed to, and He would gather him up in His big arms and hug him. I told him to tell God that he wanted Him to heal him, that he really wanted Him to heal him, and God wouldn’t see it as selfishness, but as honesty.
Before I finished that piece of this conversation, I told him that most of my prayer life has to do with my getting to the place, where I desire His will for me, more than I desire my own will, and I told him that it was hard, very hard. Then, of all things, He asked me to pray for him. I mumbled something, probably something asinine, but I know God heard me and I know that He touched my friend! I really like it when He touches my friends!
Have I told you lately how blessed I am to be able to spend my life doing this? Talk about grace!