Like Licking Honey Off A Thorn

By Jeff Craw

My wife says that, although my writings of may often deal with "church", to her, they are not very "churchy". And she's the brightest bulb on the family tree. In truth, my "pouring out" here in this book is testament to my search and my struggle for truth, peace, and, if I am lucky, a sliver of joy. Life's hard! Sometimes it feels like we've jumped inside a clothes dryer for a "tumble dry". And around and round we go! Or, maybe it's like the title of this book. Any way you look at it, life's a struggle. Get used to it! But the Good News is that struggle is not necessarily our adversary. It is rather, more often than not, an asset, once we stop trying to reject it and to obliterate it, - and turn our efforts towards embracing it. Its then that we begin to grow in ways we never knew existed. So read up! I bet the struggle will do you good, as it does for me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098302528

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 - Jeff Craw - All Rights Reserved

eBook ISBN 978-1-09830-252-8

Other Books by Jeff Craw

The Forest Through The Trees

"18 Wheels a Rollin’ - In search of

Truth, Love, Peace, Forgiveness, Joy

and a Piece of the Pie."

(To be published in early 2020)

DEDICATIONS

First to Pappy & Janet, - my Mom & Dad.

What a blessing! I could write a book! The Best!

I miss them, and so do a whole lot of other folks.

Secondly, noting that the passionate work of a Christian Pastor,

is not exercised in a vacuum,

(although it can definitely be lonely at times)

I do here offer my overflowing gratitude

for all the support, forgiveness and love

that friends, colleagues, and family have sent my way.

But there is also one other essential that can be added to that group:

The Church Secretary

Over the years I have been very fortunate

to work along side some of the very best.

Their friendship, their loyalty, their good humor,

their understanding, as well as, their effort and commitment

to the life of the church they served -

these have been wondrous and extravagant blessings to me,

and to the Parishes that we served together.

I try to stay in touch with most all of them who are still with us,

and most do remain, to this day, trusted friends.

(Check Out Page 112)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

LETTERS

The Battle Within

Choices

Confused

Dem Bones!

Easter & Christmas

Eulogy for Alex

Failure?

Foundations

Freedom

Gambling

Judge & Jury?

Known

Light & Darkness

Mom’s Day

Pain

Who Are The Poor?

Porches

Prejudice = Pre-Judged

Rubble

The Strong and the Weak

Talkin’ To Kids

Thanksgiving

This & That

The Trinity

Neutered Values

Visions and Sacrifice

Wisdom

Worship

What, - Me Worry?

SERMONS

Blind, But Now I See

Scoundrels

STORIES

Food For Thought

A Donkey Story

The Garbage Truck

What’s An Hour Worth?

If

Oh that’s good! No that’s bad!

On Formal Schooling

I Believe

SOME QUOTES

MOVIES of NOTE

AFTER THOUGHTS

Apocalypse

Smart vs. Not So Much

Training Camp

What’s the Point?

What Kind Of Church Is That?

Sparks!

INTRODUCTION

Bob the cat graced our home for many, many years (we named her Bob before we checked). Her personality could often be quite interesting and stimulating, - sometimes for the good, and other times not so much. Still, we (even Chuck the dog) were bonded with her, and her ashes now reside on a shelf in our living room bookcase.

That said, Bob did come with a caveat, - a warning, if you will. Bob liked to jump up in your lap and be cuddled and stroked (who doesn’t), but she would also, once in a while, without warning, give you a quick swipe across your face with her paw, which normally drew a minor sliver of blood. And you wound up saying, Hey Bob! What did I do to deserve that?!

Well, anyway, I think the Church can sometimes be like Bob, - seemingly warm and rich in one moment, and, then without warning, kind of hurtful in the next. The Church of Jesus Christ has many challenges and complexities within its make up, - and when a Church decides to chuck its basic tenets for ones more acceptable to the greater community (and for ones more easily played out), it is then that the church can often resemble a porcupine rather than a dove.

It’s like this. If you wanted to fly a plane, you would normally seek instruction in order to learn how to fly it. Most sane people wouldn’t jump into the pilot’s seat and say, Hey. I can drive a car, so I should be able to handle flying this thing without a problem. In the end, people who try to fly planes without instruction normally crash a lot. In like manner, folks can do some real damage when they think they know how a Church should operate without learning (and adhering to) its true identity and stated purpose.

The Stingray that killed Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) at Batt Reef in Australia didn’t realize that Steve was only there with him as a friend, - and only sought to help the Stingray’s lot by his presence. Still, for some reason the usually peaceful, majestic Stingray felt somehow threatened, and managed to kill his good friend in an instant. We humans often do similar things, - like dispatching people in our lives who only have our wellbeing at heart. Life, in general, is like that sometimes. Sad, but true.

Anyway, this is my second book, - another collection of my monthly Pastoral Letters that were written through the years of my ministry and updated just a bit for the present times. In addition, in this volume there are a couple of newly written pieces included also. Now, I’m doing all this book stuff, not because I think these books will be best sellers (although that would be nice!), but because it is fun to write about the thoughts, observations, and experiences one has lived through in life, and then go about the process of publishing them. With writing these books, now I can say that I’ve left something behind for posterity to put in its collective storeroom, - along all those other gifts folks leave to her attention.

Life is hard, and it is a struggle, but you don’t build a life by running from struggle. You build a life by learning the art of struggle, and by finding ways that struggle winds up enhancing your life. Still, every now and then, some silly little interlude comes your way and gives you a smile, no charge. Case in point, - my wife just got a new car and so I called the insurance company to initiate coverage. We were going through all the necessary information when the woman I was talking to hesitated for a moment and said, I see your age here, but I feel like I am talking with someone a lot younger. Who knew!? The result? A blush and a smile.

Ah!Life is good!YES!!!!!!!!Enjoy!

Author’s Note:

As these Letters were written over the span of a number of years, you will undoubtedly notice that some of my examples and themes are repeated from time to time. Now if I were going for perfection here, I would sit down and compare each letter to the others, tidying up some of those redundancies. But to tell you the truth, - that would be a lot of work, and not a lot of fun. Further, I do believe that some redundancies have a seminal purpose in life, such as the act of often saying, I love you! to your spouse. Whatever.

Now I am also aware that my writings can wander a bit at times. It’s just that I get an idea, and off I go! Then inevitably, I approach numerous alleys and trails that beckon me off the main thread of my initial vision. At any rate, I think we miss a lot when we don’t risk wandering off track from time to time. Hey, that’s how penicillin was discovered, not to mention WD-40! So be it.

Anyway, I think perfection is overrated, - at least the way most folks define perfection. But life isn’t about perfection anyway, - it’s about love. And ironically, no life is truly perfect that is not centered in love! As Bruce Hornsby sings, That’s just the way it is.

Well, as I have long said, perfection lies in our ability to deal with the imperfect. So, read on, and let’s see how perfect you are! And if, by chance, you are looking for another interesting read, you might try:

The Blessings of Imperfection by G. Peter Fleck.

BEGIN

THE BATTLE WITHIN

When I was a young boy, I remember my Elementary School Teacher impressing on our class that, in an election, one should never bad mouth an opponent. Rather, one should concentrate on defining oneself! You got ahead NOT by pushing someone else down, but by lifting yourself up. Quaint idea, isn’t it. And yet so often, many of us have a tendency to blame others for our failures and our broken dreams. True, an adverse or hostile environment can indeed affect our well-being, but in the end, it is our own actions and reactions, - along with our attitudes, which have, by far, the greatest effect on our spirits.

A Pastor was visiting with a church member in her living room. As they sat and talked they looked through a large picture window into a neighbor’s yard, where there was some laundry hanging out to dry. The Pastor and his congregant commented on how dirty the laundry was. How disgusting, they thought! Don’t they know about basic hygiene? As the Pastor was leaving, he and the woman stood on her front porch, taking one last glimpse at the neighbor’s unsightly laundry. But low and behold that same laundry was now bright and clean! In fact, the neighbor did not have dirty laundry at all. The congregant and her Pastor had been observing that laundry through the congregant’s dirty window!

One hears a lot these days about Jihad. It’s almost a dirty word to us in the west. But not many realize that the Jihad being bantered about as a war cry is really the lesser Jihad. The greater Jihad has to do with the battle going on within each soul between truth & falsehood, - between fear & love. This Jihad is present in all human beings, and for far too many, that battle is given up way too soon. The greater Jihad should begin at a young age and continue throughout one’s life.

News flash! The struggle for truth and peace never ends! Too often folks give up the quest for inner truth much too early in life, and eagerly move on to the lesser Jihad, whose major concern is the defending of one’s faith against aggressors (both real or perceived). This Lesser Jihad is the easier of the two. However, without the greater Jihad being present and in good working order, the lesser Jihad makes little sense because you wind up defending your delusions and your insecurities rather than your faith, - be you a Muslim, a Jew, or a Christian.

Peace doesn’t mysteriously materialize once everyone in your world is doing exactly what you believe they should be doing. Peace is not about control. It is about love. As author Frederick Buechner says, Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of love. Peace, or the lack of it, has to do with how we visualize the world around us, and our attitude toward that world. Peace is not found in the successful bending of the world to our form, but rather it is found in the act of allowing our form to be bent to God’s love and will for us.

Peace (nirvana) does not bloom when the institutions and people that surround our lives live up to all of our expectations for them, but rather it happens when we ourselves seek to live up to the expectations that God has laid before us, - and it is then that we begin to take off, embracing full and joyful lives. And what does God expect? Check out the 10 commandments for starters. Then read Micah 6:6-8. Begin with baby steps. Take 30 seconds every morning, noon and night to offer a prayer of thanks to God. Forgive one person a month, maybe starting with yourself. Visit at least one person a month. Say thank you now and then to your spouse, your children, your parents, or your friends just because!

So, in the battle within, always seek to discipline your heart and soul in the Light of God in Christ. Do this so that others may not have the power to dictate your level of peace & joy. Let God’s love fill you!

The Rabbi’s Gift – Author Unknown

The story concerns a monastery that had fallen upon hard times. Once a great order, as a result of waves of anti-monastic persecution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the rise of secularism in the nineteenth, all its branch houses were lost and it had become decimated to the extent that there were only five monks left in the decaying mother house: the abbot and four others, all over seventy in age. Clearly it was a dying order.

In the deep woods surrounding the monastery there was a little hut that a rabbi from a nearby town occasionally used for a hermitage. Through their many years of prayer and contemplation the old monks had become a bit psychic, so they could always sense when the rabbi was in his hermitage. The rabbi is in the woods. The rabbi is in the woods again, they would whisper to each other. As he agonized over the imminent death of his order, it occurred to the abbot at one such time to visit the hermitage and ask the rabbi if by some possible chance he could offer any advice that might save the monastery.

The rabbi welcomed the abbot at his hut. But when the abbot explained the purpose of his visit, the rabbi could only commiserate with him. I know how it is, he exclaimed. The spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in my town. Almost no one comes to the synagogue anymore. So the old abbot and the old rabbi wept together. Then they read parts of the Torah and quietly spoke of deep things. The time then came when the abbot had to leave. They embraced each other.

It has been a wonderful thing that we should meet after all these years, the abbot said, but I have still failed in my purpose for coming here. Is there nothing you can tell me, no piece of advice you can give me that would help me save my dying order?

No, I am sorry,