jinksto

Folks, please… stop sharing fake grotesque pictures of children on social sites.

Put simply, no one is ever going to donate anything anywhere every time you share an image on a social site.  Not three cents.  Not three dollars,  nothing.

Corporations don’t do that. Especially Facebook.

This morning I created this image with a picture stolen from St. Jude and shared it on my own Facebook.  Feel free to lift it yourself and do the same.

Childhood cancer is serious business and those posts are stealing your attention from a very real threat.  If you really want to help go to http://www.stjude.org/ and give them the money that they need to make a difference.

So, yeah… reshare that on Facebook.

Imagine you’re a teen boy.  Imagine that there’s this cute girl in math class that invites you over to her house. 

When you arrive you’re taken out back to meet her family.  They’re cheerful folk and happy to welcome you.  Her dad asks you a few hard questions but you get through them ok.  Things are going well. 

The man sitting next to you is wearing rough work boots and jeans.  He’s got on an old, beat up carhart jacket and has a shaggy beard. His hair is a bit too long and just a little wild under his “Tractor supply” cap.  He’s been staring at you for a while with a hard look.

Suddenly, as if making a decision, he leans over, smiles and introduces himself.

“Son, I’m her uncle.”, he says pointing at your date. 

“I have eight guns, four acres, two shovels and one very, very good friend.”

You stare at him blankly so he continues, “How those two things are related is really up to you.”

…

I kid you not.

This is my Uncle and First Cousin.   The video is one that they made for their Church. 

She has a very cool story that… well, have a listen, I’ll let her tell you.

Read http://kodysmom.blogspot.com/ for more of her story…  I hear she has an awesome blog post coming up about sharing her story on a national TV show.

In my post “Christmas in Poverty”. I said that we would eat for our Christmas meal those things that we had donated to the local Community Outreach program or CRO. 

We did this not to glorify ourselves but to prove to the kids who celebrate with us that a “feast” isn’t required to have a wonderful Christmas meal.

We had great friends over, we made a meal of the same 9 items that we donated to the CRO.  We never mentioned it again after the blog post on the topic.   We didn’t restrict friends to the same standard.  They brought desserts and things that were made at home to share with our family.  They used whatever they had.  We didn’t make a big deal of it over the meal or in front of the kids.  We just celebrated the birth of Jesus together.

What we discovered was something that I both expected and was surprised by.  We had a wonderful day.  We talked about thousands of things through the day but no one mentioned the food except to tell us that it was wonderful as always.  Folks went back for second helpings of the things they liked.  When we finished the night there were leftovers of everything which we ate the next day.  Just like every Christmas. 

What I didn’t expect to discover by doing this was a comfort.  What I didn’t expect to find was a joy that someone, somewhere, enjoyed a great Christmas meal that we donated.  We know that they had a great meal because we had the same one and it was, without a doubt, fantastic.  It was, against all expectations, a feast in its own right. That lesson is more valuable, I think, than anything that I hoped to teach.  The donation really did make a difference.  Too often we drop a quarter in the Salvation Army bucket and forget where it goes. What good it does.  This year, we know.

The meal was awesome.  We had things that WE didn’t have when we lived in poverty.  We had things that were new to our Christmas table.  Some of them we didn’t like but more because they were different than “substandard” so… yeah. 

The most awesome part of the day for me was the blessing before our meal.  If you’ve read here you know that we sometimes ask the young folks to ask for a blessing at our table but we never allow them to do so over a celebration meal. Those meals are important to me and I want things done right.  Sunday I asked Ms Samantha’s husband to pray over my Christmas table.

They’ve been dating for three years. He’s eaten here many times and asked for blessings at my table several times.  But this one was different.  This one he prayed as a man as he stood holding his new bride’s hand.  His prayer was exactly what was needed and was perfect. It wasn’t quite a “right of passage” but it was special to me and maybe it’ll become a new tradition for us.

As the day wound down will@home and I sat on the patio next to a big fire and talked about another great thing that is happening in my life this week.  We talked about God and how he is moving in our lives.  We talked about the gifts that we’ve been granted. Just two friends, he in an old patio chair wearing a knitted Viking helmet that his wife made and me with my suit put away and wearing just jeans, boots and an old flannel shirt and sitting on cinderblocks near the fire.  As the fire died and the cold seeped in we marveled at the gifts that we’ve been granted.  We talked about what a great Christmas this has been. 

Occasionally our voices would break or quiver just a bit from the joy that we feel in life.  We pretended not to notice or to assume that it was just a chill from the cool evening air.  Men can do that… ignore, pretend.

That’s what Christmas was like for us this year… perfect.  For the fourth time in as many weeks I feel the need to use the word “sublime” in my description of the day.  And it was. Sublime in every way.

**With nods to my friend Greybeard… if you shed an easy tear… well, fair warning.**

One of the secrets that I mentioned earlier has come to pass.

Remember last year I talked about Ms Samantha and her potential illness?  Remember that she had written a blog post of her own about that life threatening sickness and how she was dealing with it?

Since that time things have changed greatly for Sam.

She became a senior in high school with only a single class remaining so she took some time off and studied on her own to pass that course under tutelage of a friend. (The friend is a registered homeschooler so it’s all legal and such).  She completed her "Senior Year” in a little under three months.   When Sam wrote her post she was enrolled in a magnet school.  She fought to get into that school and then fought through Advanced Placement courses.  She almost invariably made straight A’s.  The chick even learned Latin.

She got a job and began saving money while finishing school.  She bought herself a computer and began saving for something else.

Four months ago her boyfriend moved away.  He joined the Air Force and went to basic and then to technical training.  They have missed each other desperately and have spent time on the phone and on online chat whenever they could.  They used video chat for some things so that they could spend some time together but it wasn’t the same and it wasn’t enough for either of them.  Two days ago he was allowed home on leave… they’ve been inseparable.

Over the last year Sam has been through test after test in far away places to diagnose her illness.  Her parents have driven her to medical centers all over the state.  Last month, after nearly a year of tests she received her final diagnosis.

She is fine.  They are treating her symptoms separately and as minor inconveniences and have ruled out anything serious.

Today, I stood with friends and family and with Ms Samantha in a private ceremony as she was married before God to the man that she deeply and dearly loves.  I was privileged and sincerely honored to serve as a witness to the marriage.

She is 18 and some would say, too young and unprepared for marriage.  I say…  This child has set goals and fought for them and proven herself.  She has, literally, faced death and dealt with it with grace and aplomb. So much so that many never knew she was ill.  She is strong in her faith and in her relationship with God.  She is fond of reminding folks that she earned that white dress. She is a woman. An amazing, shy, bright, sweet, honest, devout Christian woman.  She is more capable than many women twice her age.  She is more capable than some women will ever be.

My only prayer is this:

God help the poor boy.  He knows not where he treads.

Celebrate with them this young life full of miracles:

This post was written by Mrs Jinksto and me as an email to some friends who are facing tough times.  I’ve asked them if I could share it here because I thought it was a neat bit of writing that covers an important idea.  It starts off with a simple answer to a hard question:

Read your bible.  Sounds easy.  It’s not.  Sure, we all read our bibles in church when someone is reading a verse or three to us… but think about the last time you sat down and read a whole chapter? There’s so much in the Bible that never gets preached and so much that never gets studied. There are tools to help you figure your problems out.  There are solutions to problems that you never knew you had. You know all of this but it’s easy to forget.

We’re not telling you to study your Bible here.  You should, of course.  Dig into the details and understand exactly what it’s telling you and why. That’s good.  It’s very good. Sometimes though we’d rather pick up a trashy novel and just zone out for a while.  You can do that with the Bible too… zone out… disappear into the story.

Sometimes you just need to read it without all of the work. Start at the beginning of a chapter and just read. Enjoy the flow of the words.  The way verses flow one into the next.  See the overall story and not just bits of wisdom in verses to be aptly applied.  The stories in the Bible are beautiful tales of wondrous things that really happened. The words and phrases that it uses are poetic and… well, beautiful. As a writer, even one that’s not very good, I hate using the same word over and over in a single letter but in this case "beautiful" applies in more circumstances than not.  I honestly don’t know how to describe the Bible without using those words… beautiful, wonderful, glorious.

Some of our favorite books?  Psalms, of course. Proverbs is awesome and the most beautiful book: Luke.  Matthew is wonderful if a little hard to understand at times and Romans provides a path to salvation that is very enlightening. It doesn’t matter though.  Pick any book that you like.  Read it.

We have written thousands of words in these emails trying to share things that we have seen work.  Things that we know will help you in the troubled times ahead.  We’ve seen parents who have devoted every waking moment of their lives to their children.  They’ve made hard choices and given them the best advice that they could.  They have agonized over those choices, and begged shaking and crying on their knees before God that they be shown the right decisions.  They have cried tears of love for those children. They have cried tears of rage and tears of sorrow because they could not see clearly how to guide them at times. They have lamented the mistakes that they made and prayed to God that they never make them again.  We know this because we have seen the tears.  We have heard the prayers and we have prayed some of the same prayers and shed some of the same tears for them and for their children.

And yet, if you read the Bible you will find that this dedication and love is not new to the world.  Here is the first Chapter of Proverbs, It teaches something that we’ve all been trying to teach children for years.  It teaches wisdom and right… in 33 verses God spells out clearly what has taken mortal men and women a lifetime of teaching to share.  Read it with us… we’ve removed the verse numbers, skip the words you don’t know, just read it, not as verses but as the story that it was intended to be.

Proverbs, Chapter 1
The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young–  let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance– for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them. If they say, "Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for someone’s blood, let’s waylay some harmless soul; let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot with us, and we will share a common purse"– my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their
paths; for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood. How useless to spread a net in full view of all the birds! These men lie in wait for their own blood; they waylay only themselves!  Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it.

Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,  since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke,  I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes you–  when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.  "Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD,  since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke,  they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.  For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools
will destroy them;  but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."

In Proverbs 16 these same ideas are mentioned; here are verses 20-24:

20 Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD.
21 The wise in heart are called discerning,  and gracious words promote instruction.
22 Prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent, but folly brings punishment to fools.
23 The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction.
24 Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

"Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."  How beautiful and meaningful and direct.  There is such beauty in the bible that we miss when we study too closely. Study too, always study and understand but sometimes you need to stop and see the whole story and just read. It is divine, and grand, and lofty, and sublime, and yes it is beautiful.  It is all of those things and it is the Word of God.

Some of my best Christmas memories come from being a child.  A child in a very poor family.  I’ve been there.  I’ve eaten meals provided by others in bags surreptitiously left on a porch when no one was home.

I thought about that this year, as we bought meals for those in need at Christmas.  The local church outreach organization calls it “meal in a bag”.  We were given a list of 9 items that supposedly make a Christmas meal.  The idea is to provide an entire Christmas meal to a family who might not otherwise have one.  So, you buy the 9 items for about $30 or so; they’re split into bags and given to families who need them.  It doesn’t matter that they are not members of our church or, even, that they are Christian.  They simply need to be in a position to need help and ask for it. That’s Christian outreach and it’s a good thing.

As we planned to buy these 9 things and laid it beside our own shopping list for Christmas dinner the difference was astounding.  God has been very gracious to us over the years and we’re in a position to put on an amazing meal for every holiday.  I worry sometimes that the kids coming to my house on holidays are getting the wrong idea about what those holidays are actually about.  We’ve worked hard and God has rewarded that work with abundance.  We use that abundance to glorify Him but sometimes… sometimes I wonder if we’re doing it for the right reasons or, at the very least, sending the wrong message.

To “fix” this we’ve decided that this year our Christmas meal will be exactly what we gave away.  There will be 9 items and nothing more. They will be the same 9 items that were on the CRO meal in a bag list.  Depending on the number of folks that join us for this day of celebrating Christ’s life and works we will double or triple the order (if we’re feeding three families we’ll need more, right?) but it’ll be all of the same stuff.  Instead of one canned ham we’ll have three… whatever.

I’m not doing this out of some misdirected “be more poor” attitude or to glorify myself by submitting to a “substandard” meal.  God has granted us amazing gifts and we celebrate those every other day of the year.  I’m doing it because we don’t want to teach a fallacy to the children (or adults) that come here and celebrate with us.  The fallacy that you can’t enjoy a perfectly happy and joyful celebration of Christ with other than the best food you can afford. 

I was reminded today that Christ himself spent a lot of time working over food.  The bible calls on us in several places, to celebrate prosperity and to share his Word over food.  It reminds us to invite sinners, the lame, the blind, the crippled.  It reminds us that what we have should be used for His glory. 

I intend to do all of those things but I intend to do it with the tools that he has given us to use for others.  We’ll have a beautiful if not extravagant meal.  We’ll have friends and fellows to share it with.  We’ll talk about what Christmas means to us and share how He has led our lives.  We’ll just do it over a canned ham, canned vegetables and a box of cake mix rather than three fried turkey’s and 27 pies.  I think that’s fair, no?

My Uncle Butch declared himself a “buzzard Baptist”. He knew every cook in the church and could preselect meals at the church based on what he knew of the people that created the food. He even knew the individual dishes, plates and crockpots owned by members of the church to help him identify who cooked what.  At any church function he could be counted on to lead you to the best of the best. As Mrs. Jinksto and I are exploring a new Church home I find that much of what he taught me is still there.  We’ve only been attending this church for a few months and became members just last week.   In that time I’ve already identified enough of the best cooks to be able to pick out a really nice plate at any church function. 

That’s not to say that the ONLY thing about this church is the food.  Not at all.  It’s an amazing place with wonderful, thoughtful people.  I simply prefer to meet and talk with those folks over amazing food.  It puts us on even ground and gives us a chance to share the most basic of human needs with one another while celebrating our love of God.  Food is important but we want to remind ourselves that it’s not the only thing that’s important.

As always during the holidays our doors are open to everyone.  If you’re spending Christmas with just your immediate family or alone (or know someone who is) then, please, feel free to stop by and share ours.  You don’t have to bring anything and you don’t have to dress up. You don’t even have to be Christian as long as you respect our faith. Just bring yourself.  That will be plenty.   

jinksto@gmail.com for directions.

As for the menu:

1 Canned Ham
1 Large Box of Cornbread Mix
1 Large Box of Stuffing
1 Large Box of instant Potato’s (or rice)
1 Large Can of Cranberry Sauce
1 Large Can of Green Beans
1 Large Box of Jell-O
1 Package of Drink Mix: tea, juice, etc.
1 Box of Cake Mix and Can of Icing

Bon Appetit!
If you don’t think that jinksto can create an amazing, blessed, celebratory meal out of that and a bag of flour you aint read enough of my blog yet.

… it was the worst of times.*  Charles Dickens finishes that thought with a long paragraph that continues the theme but those two more famous lines from the opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities really describe what this year has been like.  It has been exactly that…the best of times and the worst of times.

I was joking on Facebook today and said this (typo’s and poor math skills included):

This has been one of the worst years of my life. Seriously, top five worst. It has also been the best year if my life . Sometimes it managed to be both in the same week. Its been crazy and glorious. The cool thing is that with only 21 days left in the year God had granted us two more amazing gifts to finish it off. If next year works out this way I may finally have to admit ti being bipolar.

Later this morning, I told a friend, “You know, even if I’m not bipolar I might need Lithium just to deal with my life.”

Many of you know that I work for a big bank and you’ve seen the news about things happening at those banks. Layoffs, cut backs, protestors… the list is endless. Those things have impacted me deeply.  There have been medical issues, job issues, family issues and other frustrations but let’s be clear that this post isn’t meant to be a jinksto pity party.  Sure, things have been hard but, as the title of this post declares, they have been awesome as well. 

For every disaster that we’ve suffered (or nearly suffered), God has granted us an amazing reward.  I’m a generally upbeat and positive (though stoic) person which is why I haven’t taken the time to recount all of the negative stuff that’s been going on in my life.  I accept challenges for what they are and work at resolving them.  Sometimes there’s nothing that I can do about them but I still try to do the best I can.

By the same token I accept God’s graces with humility and sincere thanks (most of the time) and have a lot to be thankful for this year. 

That’s not just hyperbole; I really do.  The glorious rewards that He has granted us have been life changing events and completely undeserved.  They have led us to stare in wonder at our lives and all that He has given us and think that we’re not worthy of that much love.

There is much going on in my life now that I’m not able to share openly but by the end of the year events will have transpired in such a way to allow me to share my joy with you. For now I’ve made promises to keep secrets.  Promises to people that I care deeply about so I’ll have to wait until January to tell the whole tale of ecstasy and woe.

I don’t mean for this to be a teaser post either. I simply want to document my joy this Christmas season.

As we close in on the end of the year I can’t help but look at my life and think, just for a second, “wow… this is awesome.”

If I don’t find time to post again this year I want to say, “Merry Christmas my Internet friends.”  May your life be as joyful this season as mine continues to be.

* Thanks for the title idea Mathew… it really has been both.