Happy Wednesday, Peeps,
When I started this Wednesday blog thing I had no idea what I was starting. I said I would share tales and tidbits of wisdom. But I simply did not know that sharing could be so hard. But this morning, Tom had his usual “talk with the boys” and they already knew it had been a hard week. SJ was worried and maybe you have things you are worried about too.
I looked for them and they were no where to be seen.
Where oh where are Wisdom and Wonder? I need both of them!
“So where are they?” I ask. 
“Right where you can see them.” he answered with a twinkle.
I looked in a different direction and this is what I saw . . SJ sitting on Solomon’s head( because there is no other way Solomon could carry SJ).
And I would swear this is what I heard Solomon saying to anxious SJ... “Just jump on and Wisdom will carry you . . . you cannot always understand things, but you can ‘just make good.’
Hmm. “Just make good” is a phrase that has carried me all week. I do not know exactly where it came from but I do know why it came to me. It was my attempt to change the “just do with what you have” into a creative act of making “good” in a bad situation.
And it came to me one day recently when I repeatedly shook my head and my brain railed, “It just does not make any sense… it just makes no sense.”
Please bear with me . . . I was struggling with heartache at watching Tom’s increasing pain and life restrictions. But I also have been listening to disturbing news on TV, and I have been in tune with many a story of TSJ peeps suffering too. And TSJ peeps are only a few of God’s peeps on this planet!
Honestly, I have been asking God for help understanding what how to respond in love to a mean and nasty world out there. Lest you worry here, I also know it is a kind and beautiful world too. But let’s face it, some days it is hard to hold both truths in our heart. We trip over our rational understandings and get off balance.
Then … a verse from the library of ancient wisdom (scriptures)... came to me.
Amazingly-even mysteriously-the verse is written by King Solomon in his book of wisdom!
I learned it in my youth this way (Proverbs 3:5)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
Now this verse is very familiar to me and to many of you. Sometimes when something is familiar it can lose its punch. Sad but true. Why do you think our kids ignore us when we tell them good things about themselves, but they really get excited when a teacher or even better, a friend, says the same thing?
Anyhow, I needed to draw from my bank account of what I am calling grace and guidance these days. So apparently my “account” had that verse in it for this time!
I do believe in rational brain work and knowledge. I know the power and utility of good brain work. But I also know the deceptive nature of our brains. Dense thoughts steps in front of the light and create shadows that cause us doubt and unrest. We can only trust what the brain knows . . . just so much. A good scientist is always on the alert for things that can foil a perfectly intelligent heory.
But the heart may be the seat of wisdom. At least it works as a metaphor. It shares the same love of life the brain has, but it seems to beat with a rhythm that defies all understanding.
My heart is telling me to take the tough moments and discover how “to make good” in them.
Once this week when Tom was bearing up under the strain of pain as the doctors are tweaking pain medicines like changing the paint on a wall, I felt totally helpless.
I whispered to myself, “Just make good.” All I could do was put my hand prayerfully on his shoulder, the one place it was safe to touch and whisper words of love and presence.
I know this up and down journey of life and love is not something I am capable of fully understanding.
But I can make good.
So I say to myself… “Just make good.”
And this morning when Tom playfully put SJ on Solomon’s head it was beyond science, beyond understanding, and dipped into that pool of the mystery of love that makes this earth journey so worth living. The fact that Tom felt well enough again to do that was awesome!
Then in my morning “sip it and zip it moments” from Psalms… a whole book of praise and lament about the human journey and the God Shepherd ….
….this is what I read (!)….
Trust in the Lord and do good, so you will live in the land and enjoy security.”
Yep. I read that in Psalm 37: 3 (NRSV)
Trust … not in ourselves …. but in our divine Shepherd.
Just do good…. whatever the circumstance, our heart knows good. And that can be a simple act of listening or noticing something to be thankful for.
Live in the land and enjoy security.
That means playing in the pastures and sharing the grass and good water.
Happy shepherding to all of us shepherds in training.
Margie and Solomon
PS… SJ feels better. Solomon is content and proud of all of us since we took a moment and remembered his main theme…. we are secure in the goodness of God’s Shepherding. We do not and cannot fully understand it.
But we can “just make good” today.
