Building a Good Foundation

The Point of the Gospel

The Sermon on the Mount—the end

Build Your House on Rock {Matthew and Luke}

Jesus said, {Luke} “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t follow my words?” {Matthew} “Everyone who hears my words and acts on them is like the wise man who builds his house on the rock. It rains, the streams rise, and the winds blow and beat against the house, yet it doesn’t fall. {Luke} Everyone who puts my words into practice is like the wise builder who digs down deep and lays the foundation on rock. The flood came and the torrent struck but could not shake the house because of its solid rock foundation.”

“Everyone who doesn’t act on my words is like {Matthew} a foolish man who built his house on sand. The storm came, the streams rose, the wind blew and beat against the house, and it fell with a great crash. {Luke} is like a man who built a house without a foundation. The torrent struck, it collapsed, and was completely destroyed.”

{Matthew} When Jesus finished teaching, the crowds were amazed at his words and the authority with which he taught, so unlike the teachers of the law.

Personal Thought

Jesus often spoke in parables—short stories to illustrate a moral or religious teaching. Many were a good deal more complicated than the above and required him to explain them to the disciples. This one is pretty straightforward. Practicing Jesus’ teachings builds a strong foundation from which we can survive life’s storms and not be destroyed.

Some of these posts are fairly short because the following sections are too long to add to one post. The next posts will contain stories of Jesus’ interactions with the people he met as he traveled the country.

Food, Love, and Obesity

Fat Girls’ Costumes

Walmart advertised Halloween costumes and dubbed one section the Fat Girls’ Costumes. Do I think Walmart deliberately chose to be offensive? No. Do I see Americans everyday carelessly belittling people or going out of their way to be hurtful to people struggling with their weight? Bet your life.

You can slice, dice, or peel it any way you want but the plain truth is that people by and large don’t choose to be overweight or even choose their eating habits. The mind/body connection is so strong that some people believe illnesses like cancer are at least in part caused by our thoughts and beliefs. Do some people simply eat too much? Probably, but since diets seldom work long-term, seems pretty obvious something else is causing America’s health epidemic.

Early Pathways

I wonder what kind of relationship anyone would have with food in the following not so untypical scenario: children raised by emotionally inhibited people don’t receive hugs and kisses; they get rewarded with cookies, consoled by ice cream, celebrate with lavish meals that include everyone’s favorite recipes, and are bribed to do better by the promise of some edible treat. Some parents use food as a substitute for their attention. It’s fast, easy, and shuts up the whining kid.

A person’s personality is formed primarily in the first six years of their life. Neuro pathways march through the brain and tell it how to respond to various stimuli. When a person suffers a brain injury and those pathways are damaged, new ones can be formed, but it takes months, even years of intense therapy before some semblance of normality is achieved and quite often full recovery isn’t possible. Tell me again how easy it is to just stop eating so much. Diet programs don’t come close to addressing the real problem.

Food Is Love

The only love some children receive is through the adults in their lives feeding them. It is intimate. Food and how it makes you feel becomes a part of your self-worth, emotional stability, how you deal with stresses (not just meaning strain, also meaning the importance or significance placed on something, negative or positive). Learning a healthy response to food for such people is a lifelong, day-at-a-time business and not nearly as simple as those who denigrate would like to believe. Eating fewer calories, getting more exercise, etc. doesn’t address the very real and difficult-to-change emotional component.

So next time the temptation to tease or harangue or put down an overweight person arises, maybe we could try a little understanding and support instead.   

Family Genealogy

Genetics

Studying genealogy fascinates me. I suspect a lot more of our personalities are inherited than people are comfortable believing. I enjoy watching parents and children together and noting the similarities and differences in looks and mannerisms. When I was young, I heard that the male line can be traced back through the Y gene, which remains unchanging through the generations.

Don’t ask me why, but I assumed that meant since I didn’t inherit the Y gene I didn’t inherit any of the genes from the male line, just the genes from my father’s mother on the X gene. I’ve since learned that the only trait those genes carry is gender. The rest is a crapshoot. Genes mix and mingle into who knows how many variations.

My parents had three kids. None of us looks alike. One of my sister’s and my children inherited a bump on the bridge of my mother’s nose and no other features. My sister’s child looked very much like her (she looks like my father’s mother) in early childhood but developed more of her father’s features during puberty. One of my sons has tight curls. Many in the family have wavy hair—no curls like my son’s.

The Family Tree

My father’s family has been traced back to the mid-1600s when the first ancestor arrived from England and settled in Salem, MA. His house still remains as part of a historical tour. A later generation, a gentleman, owned lands in PA. Unfortunately, he was a British sympathizer and lost them after the Revolutionary war and moved to Canada.

One ancestor owned and edited a newspaper and was instrumental in helping Canada form its Parliamentary government. Maybe that’s where I get my love of writing from, though my mother’s father wrote a book that he self-published. My father’s branch of the family eventually moved back to PA and my grandfather settled in MA.

My maternal grandmother came from Nova Scotia. I know little of her or my other grandmother’s families. I have the history of my maternal grandfather back to my great-great grandfather, again nothing on the female side. America was a patriarchal society for at least two centuries. I wonder how much history has been lost in the assumption that the female line wasn’t as important as the male.

Wide the Road to Destruction

The Point of the Gospel

The Sermon On the Mount con’t

Choose the Narrow Path

{Luke} Jesus went through the towns and villages (reminder—only Matthew put the previous and following teachings in the Sermon On the Mount) teaching on his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”

Jesus answered, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, for once the owner of the house rises and closes the gate, you will stand outside pleading and knocking, but he’ll say, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ You will argue, ‘We ate and drank with you and you taught in our streets.’ He’ll say, ‘Away from me you evildoers!’ Those unable to enter will weep and grit their teeth in distress when they see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God. People from every direction will take their place at the feast. Indeed, some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”

{Matthew} “Wide is the gate and broad the road that leads to destruction. Many enter through it. But the small gate and narrow road leads to life, and only a few find it. Not everyone who calls my name enters the kingdom of heaven, only he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say, ‘Lord, we prophesied in your name, drove out demons, and performed miracles.’ I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” 

Personal Thought: What makes people important on earth and in human terms—wealth, political power, celebrity—is not how they will be seen in the kingdom of God. Importance or prominence on earth will not guarantee your place in heaven. There’s a discrepancy in when a person goes to the kingdom. Some passages like the reference to the feast seem to intimate that everyone will be called at one time, while others refer to people there directly after death. There will be a lot more on that as the story continues.

Write Angles Conference

The Write Angles Conference

Most writers’ conferences cost hundreds of dollars. Western Massachusetts has a lovely conference for one hundred that takes place in October or November at Mt. Holyoke College. At least five agents from well-known agencies come to share their expertise and attendees are given the chance to talk to one (the conference tries to match the type of writing you do with the agents’ interests) for a short, scheduled meeting.

Schedule

A keynote speaker addresses the writers in the morning, after which two classes are scheduled. This year’s panels included the following subjects:

            Sustaining your writing practice

            The essay

            Choosing a point of view for your work (first or third person and others)

            Building a platform

            Writing about your experiences as a caregiver

            Critiquing

            Agents’ panel discussing what agents look for

            The poetry process

After an included lunch (continental breakfast during registration), the afternoon keynote address takes place and one more class.

Keynote Speaker

David Anthony Durham gave the afternoon keynote speech. He has written short fiction and has six published novels, including Walk Through Darkness, Acacia, and Gabriel’s Story. His novels went on to be published in a number of other countries and three have been optioned for feature films. He’s also taught at universities across the country and currently teaches at Stonecoast MFA Program of the University of Southern Maine.

Agents

Literary agencies represented were: the Susan Golomb Literary Agency, Trident Media Group, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency, The Bent Agency, and Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency.

Anyone interested can read about the conference at www.writeangles.com