Modus operandi...

My apparent modus operandi for life these days is "fits and starts." I'm a bit like those bullfrogs in our pond - barely moving for hours in the muck at the edge before suddenly leaping forward, skipping across the surface of the water in a succession of quick jumps, then sinking to swim back to rest in the muck again. I can be quite productive, accomplishing much, in those leaps forward. It's the resting time that can be my undoing - where I can lose my focus and goals can grow dim. My "On Trial" series is a perfect example. There's good news, however, for the handful of readers who've been patiently waiting for more. The next installment is in the hands of my critique group and will likely be posted later this week. On one of my recent skips across the water, (with considerable help from Louis and Emily) I completed a major cleaning of our master bedroom and painted the walls in the living/dining room, a small hallway and two foyers, but I swam back to the muck before I finished painting the trim and doors. It's a resting place where I've been distracted for too many days. Refocused and leaping forward, I'll be back to painting today, but I'm curious. What is your modus operandi? Are you a "fitter and starter" like me?

Photos: from recent ramblings 'round the pond (yes, the gator is still here), the green fruit of wild beauty berry wrapped in grapevines at the creek, and an assortment of insects crawling and fluttering about.

Contending for the faith...

I've been meditating on the Book of Jude lately. When I first opened my Bible, the Book of Ephesians was my destination, but it was in Jude that I landed. Twenty-five verses in only one chapter is a quick read. But between the tender greeting (vs 1-2) and the glorious doxology (vs 24-25), there's an urgency in the message and a command: "contend for the faith."

Eugene Peterson puts it this way in The Message:

"I have to write insisting—begging!—that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish."

And...

"Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven."

The problem? Some in the church were promoting "cheap grace."

"Their design is to replace the sheer grace of our God with sheer license—which means doing away with Jesus Christ, our one and only Master."

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

It's not politically correct to "not be soft on sin." A double-negative, I know. What I mean is that the prevailing culture would have us believe that being hard on sin - calling evil "evil" and sin "sin" - is hateful. Even some believers have been persuaded to think it's wrong for the church to call those "stinks to high heaven" ways of living exactly what they are. It is love, not hate, that longs for a politically correct culture to know the costly grace and mercy and the kindness that leads to repentance.

For the church, the urgent command is to contend - to fight, if you will - to go after those who wander and be "tender with sinners, but not soft on sin."

Photos: A baby rabbit, a baby mockingbird, and mid-June rural Florida wanderings.

Bokeh...

"I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word."

~ Psalm 119:15-16

Clearly, the majority of my photos are taken with a shallow depth of field that creates an out-of-focus background - a photography technique called bokeh, meaning blur. Some bokehs, or blurs, can be more appealing than the object in focus - like this one, with "pearls" (as my lovely friend Marilyn calls them) - pearls of light that flow down the vine covered tree and dance across the tall grass, before tumbling over the fence. Most of my bokehs are in the less attractive category. With the camera set on macro, I simply focus on an object and the rest becomes a hazy blur. Often my bokehs are an attempt to disguise or smooth the rough edges of unappealing objects in the background. My goal is to capture beauty and instill wonder without messy or unsightly distractions. If I focus correctly, the goal is achieved, and the aureolin beauty of a black-eyed susan can overshadow a weedy, littered ditch.

The analogy is obvious, don't you think?

"Turn full your soul's vision to Jesus, and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him, and the Divine 'attrait' by which God's saints are made, even in this 20th century, will lay hold of you. For 'He is worthy' to have all there is to be had in the heart that He has died to win."

~ Focussed: A Story and a Song by Lilias Trotter

Pollywog Creek wanderings...

...on a steamy sultry summer sabbath.