I am so hoping the upcoming
surgery(s) help with my A-fib. I am
drained and popping in and out with the accompanying chest pressure and
dizziness. I have to move carefully.
I had been invited to meet with
the new volunteers for the Ombudsman program.
I knew that if I did that I had to do it early in the day, before heat
and activity drained me. After the short
talk and a couple of errands, I came home in A-fib.
It was so good to see those five
fresh faces who will be taking on the advocacy of our people in long term care
facilities. One other was going to
attend, but unfortunately broke her shoulder of the weekend and that limited her
involvement at this time.
I was able to relate some of my
experiences and I could see how they were using those things through their eyes
and life skills they have attained through the years and applying what they
would do under the circumstances. Each
of them will handle things differently, and that is okay as reinforced by the
Deputy.
I gave them some report writing
thoughts – using the basic format of Police reports, a brief summary, names of
those involved and the narration. AND
yes, I also told them to be detailed – the designer of the on-line report form
had added additional space for reports since I always had to do addendums, so
they could write as much as they needed to.
It appears to be a good group
and they will be a real asset to our communities.
Arrived home to find that Carla
had picked a bunch of beans. She laughed
at me the other day when I told her I was ready for some.
I don’t particularly care for
green beans.
When I was dating her I learned
that her family cooked them in a covered cast iron pan with bacon on top of the
beans – in effect steaming with some frying of them they are blackened – kinda,
when they come out. I told her I had no
interest in trying that.
Over a half century later that
is about the only way I eat them now, and I only have them a couple of times
during the season.
We are going to have to process
tomatoes the next couple of days, but not today. I was also going to try a new recipe that
required the oven, again, not today.
Heat pump isn’t giving us cool air anymore and with a 95 degree outside
and 85 inside, I will pass on a 400 degree oven. Service tech supposed to be here in the
morning.
By the way a friend of ours and
his family are trying to raise funds so they can bring a couple of children into
their home. They are having a 20 family yard sale.
If you are anywhere around their
please stop by – buy something and give them a hug for me.
‘Earlier this spring, we had a huge yard sale, so it
is the same family, but with all new donations for this huge yard sale! Join us
again if you can. We'll have bagels, coffee, hot dogs, and cookies for good
eats!
150 Manor Church Road, Columbia, PA 17512.
150 Manor Church Road, Columbia, PA 17512.
We are near Manor Church just south of Mountville even
though we have a Columbia address.
Friday
and Saturday 8 am to 4 pm.’
Romans 13:12-14 The night is far
spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and
let us put on the armour of light.
13 Let us walk honestly, as
in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness,
not in strife and envying.
14 But put ye on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts
thereof.
Only those closest to me know
that I am an introvert. Most people have
a hard time believing that, but I am. We
look at things differently than extroverts and for a long while I didn’t
understand the difference.
Briefly, introverts are more
introspective; people draw down our energy and we need time to ourselves to
regroup – it used to bother me that I would go to meetings or training away from
home where I had to have a motel room.
Those meetings would last all day and if there was a social function I
would attend, but I would be much more drained than many and I would usually go
back to my room while others ‘partied’ through the night. I didn’t understand it and would ask myself
why I couldn’t be more like them.
The next day they were in the
meeting all refreshed, even if they hadn’t gone to bed until early morning
hours. They were the extroverts; they
fed on the energy of others, the more activity the better they did. Once I realized why I responded the way I
did, I became a little more understanding of myself and quit beating myself
up.
I was Sheriff and had been for a
while at the time. So, how did I get to
that position as an introvert? There are
many people who are introverts that would surprise you.
What I did was put on the
uniform, the persona of the position. I
had learned to do that early in life, although I didn’t understand until later
why and how that worked for me.
Of course in Law Enforcement we
HAVE a uniform, when we wear it the uniform speaks for us and we understand the
role we must play to effectively serve our citizens. Even when we go into plain clothes
assignments our mind set is the role we need to play; we take on the character
of the position we ARE the Police.
Most introverts, I have found,
do the same thing with whatever their profession is – people have an expectation
of what the position is supposed to do and that guides them in their actions
with others.
For most of us it is like an
actor going on the stage. He wears the
appropriate costume, he focuses his mind on the character and how he should act
and respond to others in the play and he goes about his job. Once the act is finished, he reverts back to
who he is as a person.
For us introverts, while in that
role we are fine, but when we are done we tend to need rest and quiet time away
from people so we can recharge our energy cells. Depending on what the drain is, or how long
we had to go, it may take but a few minutes or several hours.
There is a lot more differences,
of course, but this is what I was thinking about as I read these verses.
Once I lived and worked as a
Police Officer I became a Police Officer – and I didn’t act like one, I WAS
one. That didn’t happen overnight, it
came with training, practice and experience – to this day my mind set is geared
to law enforcement and though I have been out of the profession for almost 20
years, it has been so ingrained that I still do many of the things I did when I
was working.
I never sit with my back to the
door unless I have no choice; I always scan a room - particularly in a public
area - to see if there is something or someone I should be aware of; my
questions and my comments are born from my training and experience as an
officer; just to name a few.
As Christians we do the same
thing:
let us
therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of
light.
But
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ
When
we accept Christ we put off the old man and put on the new. As we learn about what God wants of us, as
we study His Word and understand how Christ lived on earth and how He expects us
to emulate Him, we start putting on that persona. We put on the clothing of God and go about
our day.
The longer we have been a
Christian the more elaborate that new man’s cloak should be.
Now, it is important to
understand that we do not imitate Christ.
To do so implies we are acting like Him, that we are just actors, and our service has no
meaning other than appearances – it does not recognize that when we put Christ
on, we change – we are His servant
totally committed to doing the work that He has demanded of us.
Instead of imitating Christ, we
allow Christ to inhabit our thoughts and heart and allow Him to work through us
to reach and teach others about His Saving Grace. It is not something we wear one day and place
in the closet the rest of the time. We
must become Christ; we must do that 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Being a Christian requires us to
have Christ so engrained in our life, that whatever we do reflects on His
glory. It is a total representation, a
total commitment that lasts our lifetime - for eternity.
We will grow, we will become
more effective Ambassadors for Him as we delve into His Word and follow the
leading of the Holy Spirit, but it comes only when we put the body of Christ on
in not only our hearts, but our lives.
We become a reflection of Him that people see when they meet with us.
This DOES NOT mean we become
God. But it does mean that we have such
a strong relationship with God that we act as He would act if He was standing
right here.
I do not want to be an imitation
of you, Lord, I want to be that perfect reflection of who you are so you can be glorified.
Later, Art :-)
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