Compromise

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Doc Arnett

At ninety,
when his kidneys began to fail,
he decided he was tired of the fighting,
tired of the tooth and nail,
tired of what it takes
to hold on to this world.

They told him
that without the dialysis,
the every-other-day trips
and the two hours at the clinic,
his body would continue
poisoning him.

He said that it was his body
that had been poisoning him for years.

They said, “Then, you’ll die.”

And he said that was the plan,
had been the plan all along:

“If you folks are wanting to scare me
into doing what you want
instead of what I want,
you’re gonna have to come up with something
other than threatening
that I’m gonna go be with Jesus.”

This morning, Lord willing,
they’ll amputate the two toes
blackened by gangrene.

He reckons
he’ll just be that much closer
and that if he has to leave this world
a little at a time,
then, that’s just how it is.

H. Arnett
2/7/13

Posted in Aging, Christian Devotions, Christian Living, Death & Dying, Family, Metaphysical Reflection, Relationships, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Compromise

The Least Slice

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Doc Arnett

The last least slice
of a dying moon
shows only briefly
through the thinning of the clouds.

The eastern edge
of a dark blue front
hangs just above the burning rim
of the eastern sky.

From the break between
sky and earth,
a slight fade of fire
filters up from the coming dawn
and burnishes the edge of clouds.

Their soft rumpling
carries the color but briefly,
clouds drift and cover the moon.

I know that soon,
a wide slate darkness
will cover the sky
and the tender blush of a rising sun
will fade.

But there is a Light
that lives within
and this is the day
that the Lord has made.

And I have chosen
to not pass through this day
obsessed with darkness.

H. Arnett
2/6/13

Posted in Christian Devotions, Christian Living, Metaphysical Reflection, Nature, Poetry, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Least Slice

Encouragement for Parents and Partners

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Doc Arnett

A couple of years ago, one of my sons sent me a link to “Team Hoyt,” the inspiring story of a father and son (Dick and Rick Hoyt) who have completed a whole bunch of marathons, triathalons and such. The key to the story is that the son is physically handicapped and cannot run a step or swim a stroke. Dick pushes him in a special cart as he runs or tows him as he swims or rides a bike.

It’s easy to feel admiration for someone like this, easy to feel ashamed or weak in comparison.

I wrote a short letter back to my son. For some reason, I have a very strong sense that someone today needs the encouragement that I shared with him. So, with just a few changes and/or deletions, here is that letter. I hope it blesses you or someone you know.

I came across this incredible story two or three years ago and was just blown away by it.

What I hope that you will never forget is that you’ve already been running your own marathon for several years.

Every day that you get up and go to work, every time you’d rather do something else but instead do what needs to be done for your family, every time you catch yourself being harsh or impatient and apologize and pray for greater humility, gentleness and patience… in every one of those things, you take another step. Every time you forgive an oversight or a slight or an injury, every time you return some good act for some bad one. Every time you admit a mistake and try to make it right, every time you model forgiving and peace and grace. Every time you choose to be honest instead of taking the easier path. Every time you do your duty, every time you do the right thing, every time you take time to show one of your kids how to do something, every hug, every kiss, every prayer is another step in the great Marathon of Parenting.

Every time you show appreciation to your wife, every time you show affection, every time you choose to put her above yourself and her desires above your own. In every act of love, grace, mercy, devotion, you take another step. Each sacrifice, each acceptance is a part of the grand and glorious race of loving her as you love yourself, loving her as Christ loves the church. The Marathon of Marriage.

This father shows an amazing dedication, devotion and determination to his son and I would not dare slight his accomplishments. But I hope that you will not be shamed by his example or feel that you have to do something similar. Just love your family, every single hour of every single day of your life and devote yourself to complete imitation of the example of Christ in serving your family. Whether or not they ever put a video of you on YouTube, if you do that, you will live a Marathon that not only blesses your family and everyone who loves you, you will win the Crown of Life!!

By the way, I hope you don’t mind me pretending I wrote this to you when maybe I was talking to me just as much!!

Posted in Christian Devotions, Christian Living, Exercise, Family, Metaphysical Reflection, Relationships, Spiritual Contemplation, Sports | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Encouragement for Parents and Partners

The Art of Appreciation

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Doc Arnett

Yesterday morning, I submitted a week’s worth of devotions to Quiet Hour, a publication that has been contracting with me to write for them for the past few years. Each time, they send me a list of scripture readings for each day of the week. I choose a particular verse or two within the reading and then do a reflection based on the passage. Yesterday afternoon, I had a very nice reply from the editor, thanking me and making specific, positive comments about the submission.

It wasn’t anything lofty or grandiose. Just a few things that showed he had looked at the submission with some care and thought. Mostly, the reason why his response was so soothing and encouraging was that it seemed quite sincere.

I think it is easy for us, in the nearness of our lives, to overlook the constant opportunities we have to encourage one another. It doesn’t take something spectacular; it doesn’t require some tremendous accomplishment. It requires that we become deliberately alert and aware.

Most people do their work well, or at least try to do it well. Even it’s something as simple as making the coffee, there is effort. If we cannot praise the coffee, we can praise the making of it. The point is not to make a big deal out of it; we don’t have to say, “You make the most magnificent coffee on the planet. No one, in the entire course of recorded history, has ever made coffee as well as you make it.” Instead, a simple, “You know, I really appreciate that you take time to make coffee for us. That really is thoughtful of you.”

Of course, the practice of appreciation and encouragement begin with noticing. None of us enjoy having our efforts overlooked or ignored. Whether at work or at home… or anywhere else.

H. Arnett
2/5/13

Posted in Christian Devotions, Christian Living, Family, Metaphysical Reflection, Relationships, Spiritual Contemplation, Work | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on The Art of Appreciation

The Lifting

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Doc Arnett

A quarter-moon hangs
high in the midst of a southern sky,
its light distinct above the low slate
of this pre-dawn darkness.

Stretches of snow
still show the shape of drifts
from the storm that came
just less than a week ago.

My fingers know the form
of the chain that holds the gate
shut against the wandering of horses.
More by feel than sight,
I unlatch the steel.

Shaking feed into the hanging bucket,
I remember the morning meeting
on the Lord’s Day
and the way five men stood together,
humbling themselves
before God and the people,

asking Him for a fresh filling
for the shepherds and the sheep,
a pouring out of the Presence
upon them
whose lifting demands
a wonderful yielding,
a power dependent
upon the emptying of self.

Shuffling through sand and manure,
I walk pure among the stars.

H. Arnett
2/4/13

Posted in Christian Devotions, Christian Living, Farming, Metaphysical Reflection, Nature, Poetry, Prayer, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Lifting

Hard Morning

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Doc Arnett

I stand, back to the wind,
holding the hose
that sends the fresh water
surging into the heated tub
from which the horses drink.

The thick frost
lining the tub
from rim to low water
is lost as soon as the stream hits it:
a matter of relative warmth.

Even fifty degrees
seems warm
compared to frozen.

With my layers of cotton clothing
and lined gloves,
it does not seem so cold—
until after I shut off the water
and turn into the wind.

As I kick my way through
the narrow drift
that stretches from the clump of cedars
all the way to the pen,
I send puffs of powder
shimmering into the wind,
whipping away toward the south.

In such cold as this,
it is good to have something warm
between you and the weather.
And to not venture
too far from the house.

H. Arnett
1/31/13

Posted in Christian Devotions, Christian Living, Farming, Metaphysical Reflection, Nature, Poetry, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Hard Morning

A Mighty Wind

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Doc Arnett

Monday’s high of seventy-three won’t be much comfort when we get down mighty close to zero tomorrow night. Come to think of it, it’s not all that much comfort right now at twenty-four, what with the ice and snow and the wind blowing thirty miles an hour. Not much comfort now, but my, what fine comfort it was Monday!

A jump of forty degrees from Sunday, a warm southern wind came sending and sounding like a chinook into Canada. Not that I have all that much Canadian experience but I talked to a guy once who’d lived there a decade or two. In his words, “Oh, you could be down around zero or below and that chinook would come blowing and you’d just feel the warmth coming. By afternoon, it would be up in the forties or even higher. It could jump up to sixty degrees in a single day.”

There’s something about such a fine, sudden change that brings cheer and hope. It sends a sense that even the deepest cold can be broken by something stronger, something better. Even in our knowing that seasons change and that spring’s good green is not so long and far away as it was a month or two ago, there is something wonderful about the sudden surge of warmth. Something strong, reassuring, comforting.

Something like the Spirit of God, sent to bring us meaning to heaven’s fine promise.

H. Arnett
1/30/13

Posted in Christian Devotions, Christian Living, Metaphysical Reflection, Nature, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Mighty Wind

Feeding in the Fog

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Doc Arnett

I walk into the midst
of mist and darkness
for this pre-dawn feeding.

Stirred by an unseasonable warmth,
the smell of the horse lot
drifts toward the house,
even in the absence of breeze.

Leafless limbs show in soft silhouette
against the hazy glow
of farmhouse lights from across the creek,
leach into the gray of fog.

Hooves soundless against the fresh thaw,
the horses stir slowly in the stillness.

As they crunch the mix
of beet pellets and sweet feed,
I carry flakes of alfalfa, timothy and brome,
dump them into the rack.

Latching the door of the barn,
I look back toward the house,
see the bright showing through the glass
of the kitchen window.

It is good to know the sight of home,
good to keep its glowing firmly in heart
when we have to walk
through the midst of mist and darkness.

H. Arnett
1/29/13

Posted in Aging, Christian Devotions, Christian Living, Death & Dying, Farming, Metaphysical Reflection, Nature, Poetry, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Feeding in the Fog

Whom Shall I Praise?

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Doc Arnett

I can’t remember who it was that I once heard say, “Talking about a thing is not the same thing as doing it.” Like many of the better quotes that we hear or read, we may remember the substance well after we’ve forgotten the source. It might be that it was one of the old farmers that I heard talking around the stove in the back of Merritt Jordan’s store in Browns Grove, Kentucky. It might be that it was my dad. I guess, at least in this case, crediting the quote’s original author might be less important than recognizing its truth.

Most of the men around whom I grew up held that the doing of a good thing was more worthwhile than talking about it. Not that there was any shortage of talkers around Browns Grove, or anywhere else I’ve ever lived. It was just that the folks who mattered most to me were the ones less preoccupied with conversation and more devoted to the doing.

I remember them and this from time to time. Sometimes that memory eases its way into my consciousness during a committee meeting. Sometimes it pops up when I walk through the college bookstore. And, every now and then it will emerge when I’m listening to a Christian radio station.

Singing about how much I love to praise God is not the same thing as praising him. Singing about how much I love to do his will is not the same thing as doing it. There is a subtle yet powerful distinction in the lesson and language of a lyric. Whenever we truly worship, our focus is completely upon the object of our worship.

No matter how great or genuine my love or praise or devotion, it will never be worthy of my own admiration.

H. Arnett
1/23/13

Posted in Christian Devotions, Christian Living, Metaphysical Reflection, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Whom Shall I Praise?

The Sum of Years

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Doc Arnett

In the sum of my years,
it is the measure of tears and prayers
that seems to carry the greater notion
of what has been my burden:

those times when I find
that it is not within me
to fashion the ends to the means
of the greater good.

In the long hours of darkness,
when the tender tends to harden in me,
I find myself closing off the path to closeness,
consoling myself with the ghosts of loneliness.

I feel my heart wither,
my spirit toughened in a way
that welcomes indifference,
shuns caring, embraces agony.

That is the way of the human
that wrestles me with lies,
taunts and tortures me with reminders
of my own deep failures.

Pangs of disappointment twist the heart,
fangs sink into deeper flesh,
until Grace comes with liberating caress
and Spirit whispers with calming fire,

“Greater is He who is in you,
than he who is in the world.”

I rise in strength not my own,
a strength made perfect in weakness,
unleashed by surrender,
a liberating submission.

This power lies not in my own understanding,
but in the knowledge of His Presence.

H. Arnett

1/18/13

Posted in Aging, Christian Devotions, Christian Living, Metaphysical Reflection, Relationships, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment