Author: Cadie (Page 6 of 46)

Consider Who We Worship

June 29, 2025 / Cadie

John 4: 25-26 (KJV) The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

The story of the woman at the well is familiar to most Christians. Jesus went out of His way to meet this sinful Samaritan woman so she could be saved. Beginning with a simple request for water, Jesus had a conversation with the woman that led from the promise of everlasting life to a confrontation about her sin to revealing that He was the true Messiah. Eventually, the woman left her waterpot at the well and ran into the city, exclaiming, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”

During their course of their conversation, the woman said to Jesus, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship” (v. 20). She did what many sinners do when confronted with their sin: she dodged her need for pardon from personal sin by asking questions about religion. She brought up where God could be worshipped, and Jesus answered her that where was not as important as how God was worshipped. He said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Still not knowing Who she was speaking to, the woman said she believed the Messiah was coming and would reveal all things when He came. It seems she still wasn’t convinced Jesus knew what He was talking about until He said, “I that speak unto thee am he.”

The woman was so caught up in where and how to worship that she was blind to Who was in front of her deserving her worship. God is the most important part of our worship. Without Him, we have nothing. Without Him, we are nothing. I looked up the word worship for this study. Two words that are repeated in the definitions of worship in both the dictionary and the concordance are reverence (respect) and honor (high esteem). God deserves all the reverence and honor that we can give Him. Not only is He the Great Creator, but He is also our Loving Savior. He has literally done everything for us.

Sometimes I find myself falling into a routine or habit when I approach times for worship. At church: sing, pray, announcement, sing, sermon, pray. In my quiet time: a chapter, a moment of meditation, sometimes I write it down, done. Singing or listening to Christian songs: enjoying the lyrics, then going about my day. But worship is so much more than sermons, singing, or praying. It is me communing with God. When I think of Who He is, and who I am, it makes that time of worship so much more meaningful.

I have a challenge for us as we ponder worship. Let us consider Who we worship. Jesus, who wants to have a personal relationship with us. The Creator of the world. The Savior who gave Himself for us. He is Perfect. Everlasting. All Knowing. All Powerful. If we are in a church building, perhaps we could take an extra moment of silence before the service begins to think about what the Lord has done for us. If we are admiring nature, perhaps we could breathe a short prayer of thanksgiving for what He has made for us. If we are singing, perhaps we could take a moment to reflect on the words of the song and what they say about our God. No matter what we do, let us approach God with reverence and honor because of Who He is.

Elegiac

June 24, 2025 / Cadie

Elegiac – (1) of or composed in dactylic hexameter couplets, the second line (sometimes called a pentameter) having only an accented syllable in the third and sixth feet: the form was used for Greek and Latin elegies and various other lyric poems. (2) of, like, or fit for an elegy. (3) sad; mournful; plaintive

“In Nine Horses, Billy Collins, America’s Poet Laureate for 2001 – 2003, continues his delicate negotiation between the clear and the mysterious, the comic and the elegiac.”
back cover description of Nine Horses by Billy Collins, printed by Random House Inc, 2003

Poetry, by Billy Collins

June 23, 2025 / Cadie

Call it a field where the animals
who were forgotten by the Ark
come to graze under the evening clouds.

Or a cistern where the rain that fell
before history trickles over a concrete lip.

However you see it, 
this is no place to set up
the three-legged easel of realism

or make a reader climb 
over the many fences of a plot.

Let the portly novelist
with his noisy typewriter
describe the city where Francine was born,

how Albert read the paper on the train,
how curtains were blowing in the bedroom.

Let the playwright with her torn cardigan 
and a dog curled on the rug
move the characters

from the wings to the stage
to face the many-eyed darkness of the house.

Poetry is no place for that.
We have enough to do
complaining about the price of tobacco,

passing the dripping ladle,
and singing songs to a bird in a cage.

We are busy doing nothing - 
and all we need for that is an afternoon,
a rowboat under a blue sky,

and maybe a man fishing from a stone bridge,
or, better still, nobody on that bridge at all.

("Poetry", by Billy Collins, printed in Nine Horses, 2002)

Kindness on Purpose

June 22, 2025 / Cadie

Ruth 2:15-16 (KJV) And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.

I was looking for the word “purpose” in the Bible when I came across these verses in Ruth. They made me stop and think about how kind Boaz was to Ruth. Then I realized that there’s a trail of kindness throughout the book of Ruth. I’m going to take for granted you know the story of Ruth, but if you do not, please take a few moments to read it. Ruth is a short book in the Old Testament, but it’s one of my favorites.

Naomi showed kindness to Ruth first by accepting her and loving her as a daughter. Even more important, Naomi taught Ruth about the one true God, probably not just with words, but by the way she lived too. Eventually, Ruth chose Naomi’s God to be her own. Naomi didn’t have to be kind to Ruth. Ruth was her daughter-in-law, a Gentile, an idolatress. But Naomi chose to be kind because she knew she could impact Ruth’s eternity.

Unfortunately, after Naomi’s husband and sons died, she became bitter and depressed. She announced to her daughters-in-law that she was returning to Bethlehem, and they needed to return to their parents. She had nothing to give them. But Ruth would not leave Naomi alone; it was now her turn to show kindness. Ruth left everything she knew – her parents, her homeland, even the grave of her husband – to accompany a bitter old woman to a place she’d never been. As far as Ruth could see, there would be no reward for her kindness. She and Naomi would live as impoverished widows for the rest of their lives. Can you imagine their journey? Ruth 1:18 says Naomi left speaking unto Ruth. Maybe she gave her the silent treatment all the way back to Bethlehem. Yet Ruth never faltered. She would be there for Naomi until the end, taking care of her and loving her. Ruth’s kindness was Christ-like and, I believe, was a result of her newfound faith in God. Ruth may have felt that her kindness would have no reward, God would make sure that it did.

Life in those days was not easy for widows, but God had made provision for them in Leviticus 19. Reapers were to leave the dropped grains and the corners of the fields for the poor. That’s how Ruth found herself in the field of Boaz, gleaning behind his reapers. Then Boaz did something that surprised Ruth: he invited her to eat lunch with him. After lunch, he told his reapers to let Ruth glean anywhere (not just the corners). And not only that, he also told them to let extra grain fall to the ground for her to gather. “Let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her.” Ruth must have brought a lot of food home that day because Naomi exclaimed, “Where hast thou gleaned today? Blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee.” When Ruth asked Boaz why he would show favor to her, he replied in Ruth 2:11, “It hath fully been showed to me all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.” Ruth’s testimony was that she had left all to be with Naomi, even during her darkest moments. And Ruth was willing to go out to glean in the fields so that Naomi didn’t have to. Boaz knew this, and he chose to be kind to her because of her kindness to Naomi. It did not matter where she was from or what her previous religion had been or what her past looked like. In the end, they were married and became the great-grandparents of King David. They are part of the lineage of Jesus. What an honor!

Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz chose to show kindness on purpose, even when it wasn’t easy. God still wants His people to show kindness on purpose. Who do I need to be kind to today? What impact can my kindness have on their lives? It may be that my kindness can open the door for me to witness to a lost soul. Then I can tell them about the greatest kindness ever shown: Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of the whole world, who loved us even when we were unlovable. As we go about our day, let us choose to be kind on purpose.

Christmas Sparrow, by Billy Collins

June 16, 2025 / Cadie

The first thing I heard this morning
was a rapid flapping sound, soft, insistent - 

wings against glass as it turned out
downstairs when I saw the small bird
rioting in the frame of a high window,
trying to hurl itself through
the enigma of glass into the spacious light.

Then a noise in the throat of the cat
who was hunkered on the rug
told me how the bird had gotten inside,
carried in the cold night
through the flap of a basement door,
and later released from the soft grip of teeth.

On a chair, I trapped its pulsations
in a shirt and got it to the door,
so weightless it seemed
to have vanished into the nest of cloth.

But outside, when I uncapped my hands,
it burst into its element,
dipping over the dormant garden
in a spasm of wingbeats
then disappeared over a row of tall hemlocks.

For the rest of the day,
I could feel its wild thrumming
against my palms as I wondered about
the hours it must have spent
pent in the shadows of that room,
hidden in the spiky branches
of our decorated tree, breathing there
among the metallic angels, ceramic apples, stars of yarn,
its eyes open, like mine as I lie in bed tonight
picturing this rare, lucky sparrow
tucked into a holly bush now,
a light snow tumbling through the windless dark.

("Christmas Sparrow", by Billy Collins, printed in Nine Horses, 2002)

Obedience: Show that You Believe

June 15, 2025 / Cadie

Matthew 18: 1-5 (KVJ) At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

I want to remind you of a childhood song. Perhaps you sang it in Sunday School. Maybe you serve in a children’s ministry and still sing it frequently. I’m talking about the little song “Obedience”. I loved this song as a kid, but as I grew older, it dropped from my memory. Its truths didn’t seem to apply to my adult life. They were “little” truths, but I was adult now, and I had to think about “big” truths. And so, I tucked the little song and the “little” truths away in the recesses of my memory. Then about a month ago, I was flipping through our hymnal at church, and I came across this little song again. Did you know it has two verses? That made me so happy: a sweet memory from childhood and another verse to add to my knowledge!

Here is the song:

1. Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe. Doing exactly what the Lord commands, doing it happily. Action is the key, do it immediately. Joy you will receive. Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe.

2. We want to live pure, we want to live clean, we want to do our best; sweetly submitting to authority, leaving to God the rest. Walking in the light, keeping our attitudes right, on the narrow way; for if we believe the Word we receive, we always will obey.

On the chorus, you spell out O – B – E – D – I – E – N – C – E and then sing again, Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe.

In Matthew 18, the disciples asked Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus called a child to him and said the greatest in the kingdom of heaven are those who humble themselves as little children. One of the characteristics that all parents want to teach their children is obedience. I have a friend who has taught her children that the best obedience is that which is done with a happy heart. Happy heart obedience shows the world the children’s love and respect for their parents.

Obedience isn’t just for children. It is just as important, and perhaps even more so, that as adults, we obey God and honor the authorities He has set in our lives. How will the world know that we are Christians if we do not obey the commands of God? Like the song says, obedience is the very best way to show that we believe.

I want to challenge you to think about the “little” truths that we should obey, the ones we learned on our mothers’ laps or in our primary Sunday School classes. Let us be like little children and obey the commands of the Bible with a happy heart. Here are a few examples:

Read, study, and memorize the Bible. (2 Timothy 2:15)
Honor those in authority over me. (Hebrews 13:17)
Be kind to those around me. (Proverbs 18:24)
Keep my life clean as an example to others. (1 Corinthians 6:19)
Confess secret sins. (Psalm 51: 6)
Trust God, even when I don’t understand. (Psalm 34:22)
Forgive those who have wronged me. (Matthew 18:21-22)

In closing, I want to reiterate the last line of that song. “If we believe the Word we receive, we always will obey.” Obedience is not always easy. Sometimes, obeying God’s Word is the hardest thing to do. Many people struggle to trust that He will take care of us, no matter how circumstances turn out. But if we believe it, we must obey it. The God of the Bible, who took care of Joseph, Daniel, and Paul, will reward our obedience and take care of us too.

The Dictionary of Lost Words, by Pip Williams

June 14, 2025 / Cadie

Everything about this book drew me in. The title is intriguing, the cover art is fun. Can you see the suitcase and the bits of paper that make up the words of the title. The Dictionary of Lost Words.

It’s a stand alone novel, though a companion sequel has been added since my copy was published in 2020. The reviews printed on the cover laud the author’s extensive research which is evident on every page.

The story begins with a small child, Esme, who dives into a fire to retrieve a paper with the only word she knows. Lily. The name of her dead mother. Esme’s fingers bear the scars of her childish love for the rest of her life.

Esme’s father is a lexicographer, one of a team of men who worked tirelessly to compile what would become the Oxford English Dictionary. As Esme plays under their desks, the men collect letters, cut outs, pages from books, and anything else people submit with definitions of words and examples of how those words are used. They pin the examples together, alphabetize them, and place them carefully in fascicles – small sections – in the shelves that line the large room where they work. Their workroom is called the Scriptorium.

One day, Esme catches one of the papers dropped from the desks above. It has a word on it – bondmaid. She slips it into her pocket and then into an empty trunk. With that, she has the first entry in her Dictionary of Lost Words.

Soon, Esme grows too tall to play under the desks. She matures, goes to school, and enters puberty. But her love for words never changes, and she begins to carry slips of paper in her pockets so she can “catch” new words from people. She collects words from all over the city of Oxford, but her most prolific contributors are the common people in the marketplace. She quickly realizes words have different meanings for different people, especially women.

Esme gradually becomes involved with a group of suffragettes who seem to question the fundamentals of her upbringing. She is faced with decisions about what is right and good. She makes mistakes. She suffers pain and loss. She continues to collect words, stuffing them into her trunk along with other mementoes of her happiest and saddest moments.

As we read The Dictionary of Lost Words, we grow with Esme. We laugh with her, and we cry with her. With her, we question the norms of society. We recognize the importance of the women whom Esme stopped to hear. In her own way, she gave the women around her a voice they’d never had before by writing down and defining their words.

The author, Pip Williams, started writing The Dictionary of Lost Words with this premise: If everyone involved in defining the words were men, then how well did that first edition of Oxford English Dictionary represent the way women used words? Through research, she found the story of a word that was not printed in the first edition of the dictionary: bondmaid. The entries for that words went missing, and it’s still a mystery where they are a century later. That mystery sparked the story of Esme and her Dictionary of Lost Words. Williams weaves in true historical figures like Sir James Murray, one of the chief editors of the Oxford English Dictionary, his daughters Elsie and Rosfrith, who also worked on the dictionary, and Edith Thompson, a volunteer contributor and proofreader for the dictionary. Though Esme is fictitious, the things she experienced during her life in the book were all too real for many women of the time period, 1880s-1920s.

I highly recommend The Dictionary of Lost Words if you enjoy good historical fiction, however I have two words of caution:

(spoiler alert ahead)

First, there are a few uses of curse words that I do not like to read, however they are not used as curses in the text. Rather, they are listed, defined, and then the story moves on. Also, one of Esme’s contributors is a rough old woman who enjoys embarrassing Esme with crude words. Early in the story, one of the lexicographers said, “Our job, surely, is to chronicle, not judge.” And that is what Esme does – she chronicles the words and doesn’t judge. However, if you do not like books with certain ugly words, you will want to refrain from reading this book.

Second, about halfway through the book, Esme meets a man who takes advantage of her. She is consenting but naive. The chapter is not graphic, however, she ends up pregnant. In fear, she considers terminating the baby. She even goes so far as to visit a woman who could help her do that, but the woman tells her she is too far along. Instead, Esme leaves town to stay with her aunt until the baby is born so she can preserve her reputation. When I got to this chapter, I was very displeased and almost stopped reading the book. I felt it was pushing the boundaries too far for a historical fiction. But I’m glad I continued reading and finished the book. Esme’s pregnancy was dealt with tastefully, and I wept with her when she gave the baby away to a couple who could have no children of their own. I decided that as much as I don’t care to read about pregnancy before marriage and abortion, these have been experiences of women since the beginning of time. If Esme was to represent women and their words to the Dictionary, she must also suffer like them.

Pip Williams’ style is endearing. She uses word pictures like flowers strewn throughout her book. Esme’s wit made me laugh many times. But Williams shines most in the way she uses actions rather than words to describe sorrow. My heart broke, and I cried several times for Esme.

The Epilogue sends the reader forward in time to the 1980s and the introduction of the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s life is honored. Her words are given their place in history. A retiring woman rises, looks into the eager faces of an audience of new lexicographers and tells them the story of Esme. Her mother. An absolutely beautiful way to end this story.

Have you read The Dictionary of Lost Words? Did you have a favorite part? I hope you will share your thoughts in the comments below.

Bodhidharma, by Billy Collins

June 11, 2025 / Cadie

This morning the surface of the wooded lake
is uncommonly smooth - absolute glass - 
which must be the reason I am thinking
of Bodhidharma, the man who brought Buddhism
to China by crossing the water standing on a single reed.

What an absorbing story, especially
when you compare it to Zeus with his electric quiver
or Apollo who would just as soon
turn you into a willow tree as look at you sideways.

In every depiction, there is no mistaking 
Bodhidharma, always up on his reed,
gliding toward the shores of China,

a large, fierce-looking man in a loincloth
delicately balanced on a little strip of bamboo,
a mere brushstroke on a painted scroll,
tiny surfboard bearing the lessons of the Buddha.

I recognized him one night in a Chinese restaurant
after the disappointment
of the fortune cookie, the dry orange, and the tepid tea.

He was hanging on a wall behind the cash register,
and when I quizzed the young cashier,
she looked back at the painting and said
she didn't know who it was but it looked like her boss.

Thinking of her and Bodhidharma
makes me want to do many things,
but mostly take off my shoes and socks
and slide over a surface of water on a fragile reed 
heading toward the shore of a new country.

No message would be burning in my satchel,
but I might think of one on the way.
If not, I would announce to the millions
that it is foolish to invest too heavily 
in the present moment,

not when we have the benefit of the past
with its great pillowed rooms of memory, 
let alone the future, 
that city of pyramids and spires,
and ten thousand bridges 
suspended by webs of glistening wire.

("Bodhidharma", by Billy Collins, printed in Nine Horses, 2002)

Colorado, by Billy Collins

June 10, 2025 / Cadie

Is there any part of the devil's body
that has not been used to name
some feature of the American topography,

I wondered when the guide directed 
our attention to the rocky tip of a mesa
which was known as the Devil's Elbow.

He was a college student
just trying to do his summer job
and besides, the cumulus clouds

were massing beautifully
above the high rock face,
so I was not about to say anything,

but from my limited encounters 
with evil, it looked more 
like the hammer in the devil's inner ear.

("Colorado", by Billy Collins, printed in Nine Horses 2002)

Elk River Falls, by Billy Collins

June 9, 2025 / Cadie

is where the Elk River falls
from a rocky and considerable height,
turning pale with trepidation at the lip
(it seemed from where I stood below)
before it is unbuckled from itself
and plummets, shredded, through the air
into the shadows of a frigid pool,
so calm around the edges, a place
for water to recover from the shock
of falling apart and coming back together
before it picks up its song again,
goes sliding around the massive rocks
and past some islands overgrown with weeds
then flattens out and slips around a bend
and continues on its winding course,
according to this camper's guide,
then joins the Clearwater at its northern fork,
which must in time find the sea
where this and every other stream
mistakes the monster for itself
sings its name one final time
then feels the sudden sting of salt.

("Elk River Falls", Billy Collins, printed in Nine Horses 2002)

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