Fun Financial Times

The House failed this morning to pass the President's $700 billion bail out. Some people I talk to think it is a lesser evil that must be done, sort of like voting for McCain this fall. Others can't understand why the government must bail out private businesses that have made poor financial choices. I think it's similar to a mother continuing to bankroll an adult son and empowering him in his bad financial choices.

Dave Ramsey suggests contacting our congressmen and senators and telling them to change the "mark-to-market" accounting law and to extend insurance, but no loans. We need to let these guys know that if they allow the government to borrow money on the national debt, as Dave says, "in order for us to all go into the mortgage business a trillion dollars - you're going to fire their butts and send them home."

Sounds like a plan to me.

Gallus cantavit

Gallus cantavit

In dawn’s soft colors
and still air,
the remote crow
of a distant rooster
echoes in my ear
as a poignant reminder
of multiple transgressions

and endless grace.


© 2008 Glenda Mathes

Autumnal Psalm

Praise God

For gleaming star that crowns the gilded dawn
For frost that clings to shingled roof and lawn

For breath that fogs in air that’s crisp and clear
For flashing flags of startled antlered deer

For sunlight’s glint on frost-wrapped blades of grass
And even for the windshield’s frosted glass


Praise God

For warming sun in sky of sapphire blue
that glows through leaves in every varied hue

From flaming maple, russet oak, to gold
of elm’s frail pale and hickory’s brilliant bold

Above the clinging, crimson creeper vine
Beside the scarlet sumac and green pine


Praise God

For dry leaf crunch and dry leaf smell
While walking on the woodland trail


Praise God

For brunette beanfield shaven clean
And blonde corn’s crooked stubble seen

For round bales, wrapped and stacked in rows
Rich fodder safe from winds and snows

For golden mountains of shelled corn
that suddenly in fall are born

And daily augered to new height
in dusty cloud from morn to night


Praise God

For geese in Vs that cleave the dusky sky
While purple clouds upon horizon lie

For rising amber harvest moon
like bulging shimmering balloon


Praise God

Let everything that hath breath
Praise the Lord


© Glenda Mathes 2007

Deus utitur

Deus utitur

I’m a cracked pot
a hollow shell
an empty vessel

Through which
eternal grace glimmers


© Glenda Mathes 2008

Remembering

This morning an image of a long-time friend popped into my mind and I wrote the following poem.

Remembering


I remember your arm on the slanted school desk lid
and your finger on the side of your face
as your nervous smile tried to hide your teeth
when the teacher introduced the new girl.
You tugged down the skirt
over your crossed legs.

I remember the harsh shadows on your face
as you leaned against your locker
in the fluorescent-lit high school hall
and put that finger on your cheek
while smiling that fleeting smile.

And I remember you in a lawn chair
and a borrowed Dutch costume
and an adopted southern accent,
while the smile stayed on your lined face
and your fingers flew in the air.


© Glenda Mathes
17 September 2008

Loving the Lord

"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

Mark 12:30

For some time I’ve been thinking about what it means to love God with all one’s heart, and soul, and mind, and strength.

At the very least loving God involves ones’ emotion, cognition, and action; but what does it really mean to love God with all one's soul? How does loving God with one's soul translate into daily practice?

The soul is the indestructible part of personhood that remains after death. The soul of a believer will be immediately translated to glory, where it will live—free from pain and suffering—in unimaginable beauty and joy. But in some way beyond our finite understanding it will still long for the great day of the Lord, when Christ will return to earth to judge its inhabitants and will make all things new. Then our souls will be reunited with our resurrected bodies and we will enjoy an eternity of fellowship with believers in perfect worship of God and the Lamb.

Like Job, I know my Redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27).

This is the expectation of every believer for the future. But what does loving God with all one's soul look like in this life?

The word "essence" captures the concept of soul. The essence of a person involves emotion, cognition, and action, but it is not limited to those aspects. We shouldn't dissect our love for God and put it into neat compartments or categories. We shouldn't think that we are loving him with all our emotion, or our cognition, or our action, and are, therefore, doing a pretty good job of fulfilling the command.

Our love for God includes all those aspects of our lives, but it cannot be separated into them. We are to love God even when we are depressed or anxious and our emotions are all messed up. We are to love God even when we are losing our memory or our consciousness and we can’t think properly. We are to love God even when we are weak or in pain and we can’t function physically. Our lack of ability in any—or all!—of these areas is no excuse for not loving God with all our effort. We must love God with our entire essence.

God breathed into man and man became a living being. In much the same way, God begins life and bestows a soul upon the tiniest child during conception. That child isn’t capable of emotion, cognition, or action; but that child has a soul.

We are to love God with everything we feel, think, and do. But let us not forget that we are to love God with the most irreducible aspect of being, which also happens to be the most inclusive aspect of being. We are to love God with the very essence of existence.

Piety and Patriotism

It's Patriot Day in the United States. And it's been seven years since the infamous attacks of 9/11.

That day I arrived at the Edward Jones office where I worked and pulled the wire messages from the printer. The first to catch my eye was the one stating that the market opening had been delayed due to a "plane" crash involving one of the Twin Towers in the New York City financial district.

My broker turned on the television and we watched the second tower get hit and both of them collapse.

We also watched President Bush's speach in response to the tragedy. When the president finished speaking, the broker turned to me and said, "Glenda, he's going to turn their country into a parking lot."

A special prayer service was held that evening at our church and at thousands of other churches across the land. The next day I, and thousands of other people across our land, purchased an American flag and hung it outside our home. It seemed that the actions of the terrorists had galvanized and unified the country in positive ways.

In those early days after 9/11, it felt eerie to look up and see no jet contrails in the sky. All air traffic had been stopped.

A few days after 9/11, just as limited air traffic resumed, we drove to Michigan for the wedding of my nephew. Traffic was heavy and we noticed many more plates than usual from far western and eastern states. People who would normally have flown to their destinations were driving instead.

The bride told us that one of the bridesmaids was able to get a flight, but her hair dryer was confiscated at the airport. She also told us they had decided to go ahead with the wedding as planned because if they cancelled their plans, "The terrorists win."

That was the same thinking in our investment office and a few days later we held our evening chili feed and Open House as scheduled.

I confess my disappointment that the early fervency of piety and patriotism has faded. I confess my irritation at the increased security measures involved with air travel. But most of all, I confess that neither this country nor this world is my home.

I'm a patriot, but I'm far more a pilgrim.

Summer's Swan Song

It's difficult to believe that it's already September. It seems that summer had barely begun and now it's almost over.

Summer had a late start due to the stormy and wet spring here in the Midwest. Tornados and flooding caused unbelievable amounts of damage from which thousands are still attempting to recover. My son just moved back into his downtown Cedar Rapids office this week. The campgrounds near our home that were flooded this spring are still closed. We haven't been able to walk on the nearby path all summer because the area remains restricted.

While we have had some hot, muggy midwestern summer weather, there have been only a few days when temperatures reached into the 90s and none when the temperature reached 100, which is very unusual for southern Iowa.

We found it necessary to turn on the air conditioning only a couple of times. As long as the nights cool down, we can keep the temperature in the house moderate by opening windows and running fans at night and shutting windows and shades during the day.

Last winter's ice storms and terrible driving conditions make me contemplate the approaching winter with a less than joyful attitude. I am praying for a long, lovely fall.

I'm not sure I can handle another winter if this much-hyped global warming continues.

Not all scientists are espousing global warming theories. Hurricane forecaster William Gray predicts global cooling in ten years. Fox News has reported that all four major global temperature tracking outlets have released data showing a significant drop in the temperature last year. And there's this interesting article by a former NASA astranaut who is a geophysicist and astronautical engineer about the effects of sunspots (or the lack thereof) on the earth's temperature. If you want to read more about global cooling, check out the "Great Global Warming Swindle" website.

Meanwhile I'll keep praying for a long period of moderate fall temperatures. As my wise husband says, "I just don't know how much more of this global warming I can take."