On The Seventh Day Of Christmas: New Year's Blessings To All Of My Blog Readers

"I pray for good fortune in everything you do, and for your good health—that your everyday affairs prosper, as well as your soul." 

II John 2 (the Message)

Thanks for all of the encouragement you've given me in my blog writing as well as for my radio spots and other occasional articles and op-ed pieces. Without readers, there would be little point in writing, although sometimes venting and reflecting can provide some needed therapy.

I had no idea how Harvspot would fare when I posted my first entry on November 25, 2010 (ignore the dates on the above graph), but it's gratifying to see the number of page visits steadily increase over the years, reaching a record number of over 6000 this month. That's certainly not spectacular as blog sites go, but it does help make the effort seem worthwhile. Plus many of these entries can be adapted and recycled for the radio spots or used in other ways.

I always value your feedback, although you have to be a Google member to post comments on the blog itself. Sometimes I also get a response on some of the Facebook links.

If you want to browse through older posts, type in a topic or title you're looking for (in the search box in the upper left hand corner) or click on to "Older Posts" at the bottom of each  page.

Have a blessed and purposeful New Year!

My 90-second radio spots are aired locally as follows: 

WEMC 91.7 FM 11:58 am (M-F) Sun 7:58

WBTX 1470 AM 9:20 am (M-F)

WNLR 1150 AM 11:28 am (M,W,F)

My Prayer For The Sixth Day Of Christmas: Six Godly GrandMen and Women

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"Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it."

Proverbs 22:6 (NLT)

Someone has said that what this oft-quoted "train up a child" text might really mean is that our teaching will never leave them. At any rate, most of us parents have one wish above all others, that we not fail to pass on to our children and grandchildren a strong faith and a good set of values.

But none of us is perfect, and even if we were, it would be no guarantee that our children would be. Every human being has the right, indeed the God-given  responsibility, to make personal choices. And even God's very first children didn't make all wise ones.

I once heard someone say that our real success as parents has less to do with what kind of children we produce as it does with what kind of grandchildren. At any rate, Alma Jean and I thank God every day for being blessed with three children and six grandchildren who are far, far better than we deserve. But we know they all face challenges and temptations greater than any of ours in previous generations.

For example, will constant access to virtual world entertainment rob them of good connections with the real world of nature and of people? Will increased wealth and an ever easier and comfortable life detract from their willingness to work and serve in self-giving ways? Will they form strong bonds with supportive communities of faith in which they will be able, if so led, to grow strong families of their own? And will they be able to live by the above six "family rules" in all their relationships?

Pray with me, on this sixth day of Christmas, that our future generations of grandmen and women will do far better than we in making this a truly God-blessed world.

A Prayer For the Fifth Day of Christmas: A Planet Kept Clean And Liveable

"The Lord God placed the human in the Garden of Eden as its gardener, to tend and care for it."

Genesis 2:15 Living Bible

The very first mandate God gave us was to take care of the earth, to subdue it and have dominion over it on God's behalf. As caretakers created in God's image, we are entrusted with the wise stewardship of creation. 

Sadly, most people have chosen to exploit the planet for short term gain rather than preserve and care for it as the unique, life-giving treasure it is. Huge areas of rain forests ("the lungs of the planet") are being destroyed at an alarming rate to provide more grazing land to meet increased demands for ever more red meat in our diets. Coal burning power plants spew tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every day due to our insatiable need for increased power, resulting in the planet warming at a steady but alarming rate.

Good planets, like healthy bodies, require diligent care. We know we can't abuse our bodies with too much alcohol, nicotine and other drugs, or with too many carbs, harmful fats, sugars and sodium, without paying a heavy price. In the same way the harm we do to the earth will be passed on to our children and to future generations.

On this fifth day of Christmas pray with me that we will be responsible caretakeers of our rich topsoil, pure water, clean air and all of the resources with which we have been blessed.

A Prayer For The Fourth Day of Christmas: Love Toward People Of All Faiths (And No Faith)

posted by Ghezal Safi, shared by David Kreider

^"All who are wicked will be punished with trouble and suffering. It doesn’t matter if they are Jews or Gentiles. But all who do right will be rewarded with glory, honor, and peace, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. God doesn’t have any favorites!"

Romans 2:9-11 (Contemporary English Version

I've never been one to promote the idea that all religions are the same, that we should just forget about our differences and blend together into one generic faith. On the contrary, I feel that whatever I or anyone else truly believes as their "way, truth and life" they should freely promote and affirm.

But we can't get others to even consider our faith if we are inconsiderate of theirs, and certainly not if we are hostile toward them. Jesus never lashed out against Samaritans or called them heretics. Nor did he ridicule or insult the religion of Romans or of other Gentile idol worshipers of his time. In fact, the only religious teachers or teachings he lashed out against were unloving dogmatics within his own strongly held Jewish faith.

Certainly if we are to love even our enemies we should love and respect all of our many friends around the world who follow the faith of their choice--just as we would have them respect ours. It's the Golden Rule.

Besides, we'll never be able to influence people we can't love.

A Prayer for the Third Day of Christmas: Release for Long Held Prisoners

"I, the Lord, have called you... to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness."

Isaiah 42:6-7 NIV

Imagine spending half of your time every day confined to a space as small as a medium size bathroom. At meal times and some other times you live in equally crowded spaces surrounded by concrete walls and barbed wire, never able to get away from the hundreds of fellow detainees with whom you share a concentration-camp-like environment for years on end. 

Whether detained for just or for unjust reasons, decades of such confinement become an unusually cruel form of relentless punishment.

So pray with me on this third day of Christmas for the humane release of three people like the following:

Mr. A. Jefferson Grissette #1143033, currently at St, Brides Correctional Center in Chesapeake was free on parole and doing well just two years ago. He had a good job, was working full time, paying off his debts and getting his life together. Unfortunately, he became a convenient suspect in a credit card theft case in Arlington because of some similar crimes for which he had been convicted earlier in his life. The only evidence against him was based on his resembling an obscure image caught on a surveillance camera. Without due process, he got another 18 years in prison after being urged to take a plea agreement rather than face a jury trial.

Also please pray for the release of men like Mr. Nat Painter #1009725, age 72, who is still incarcerated for a crime he committed 19 years ago, but who has consistently demonstrated good behavior in prison, and only wants a few remaining years of a normal life with his loved ones. He has repeatedly been denied parole in spite of his almost certainly not being any further danger to society. His address is Coffeewood Correctional Center, 12352 Coffeewood Drive, Mitchells, VA 22792.

Virginia Public Radio

Likewise, pray for the release of Mr. Jens Soering #1161655, age 47, to his native Germany. Jens, whom I met at the Buckingham Correctional Center a couple of months ago, has just spent his 28th Christmas in a Virginia prison for a crime he says he foolishly confessed to at age 20 to save his then girl friend from being convicted of capital murder. As a son of a German diplomat he assumed he would be sent to Germany for a trial and get a lesser sentence. When she testified against him he got two life sentences here and she got 90 years. Jens has had nine books published since his incarceration. His address is BKCC, P.O. Box 430, Dillwyn, VA 23936-0430.

For an excellent Washington Post column by George Will on mandatory sentencing, check this link.

And here's a good article on the increasing numbers of aging citizens in our prisons.

A Prayer For The Second Day Of Christmas: Tear Down Dividing Walls

"For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility."  

(Ephesians 2:14 NIV)

Whether it be the Berlin Wall, the barrier fence on our U.S.-Mexican border, or Israel's Separation Barrier (seen here) that scars the Holy Land around Bethlehem and the West Bank, there is something in us that "doesn't love a wall", that begs to have it removed.

On the second day of Christmas, a season that for believers has just officially begun, join me in praying that these kinds of physical walls will become a thing of the past. Also that those invisible barriers dividing us along race, class, gender, religious and national lines may be removed by the Prince of Peace, or at least that doors may be opened in them to allow us all full access.

In the vision of the "New Jerusalem" in the Apocalypse (that visionary new city representing the peaceful Lamb's radiant " bride") Gods eternal dwelling, established on a new and transformed earth, has secure walls but eternally open gates in all directions. "The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there is no night there." (Revelation 21 NIV)

Pray with me that the world's darkness will be dispelled and all of its walls be destroyed--or to be remade with gates that are forever open and welcoming.

Re-Gifting At Christmas

I once read a Dear Abby letter in which a reader lamented, “How do I get a person to stop re-gifting me? Often it's her used clothes, used decor and knickknacks that she no longer wants. This person can afford nice things, which is why she thinks I would like her old stuff. I find it insulting when I get it in the form of a gift. It is always wrapped beautifully and presented as though I should be so grateful.  How do I get her to stop?”  Secondhand Rose

Abby's response was, "Dear Rose: If I selected a gift for someone and she didn’t keep it--or exchanged it--I would give it one more try. If it happened again, from then on I would send a lovely card to mark the occasion, or a bouquet or plant. And if I was really ticked off, I would re-gift her gift back to her." 

That’s one approach, but I'd like to offer a different take on re-gifting. I’ve come to believe that everything we give, at Christmas or at any other time, is some form of recycled gift.

For a start, none of us givers has earned the priceless gift of life itself. And the privilege of being born to parents who loved us and took care of us for free, and of being born in a land of abundance instead of in some poverty-ridden country, were also things we could have never negotiated, bought or paid for. In addition, many of us received a free public school education, one paid for by others' involuntary gifts in the form of taxes.

Later some of us got to enroll in higher institutions of learning we could have never been able to create or afford to attend, all through the generous gifts of hundreds of unnamed donors. Add to that our good health, our mostly sound minds, and whatever talents or gifts we've inherited from our ancestors--all helped us get whatever earning opportunities we’ve had, and are examples of amazing, unmerited grace.

Way back when I was six, my parents were able to buy a farm with the help of a generous uncle who helped with the financing. Here we grew and produced food for a living, but we could have never done that without the unearned blessings of God’s soil, sunshine and everything else it takes to make a farm productive. In return for whatever we invested in money and labor for our harvests, we usually got sufficient payment to cover our costs, with some extra in the form of a gift known as profit. In the same way, whenever any of us buys or sells anything, this kind of gift-swapping takes place, grace for grace, blessing for blessing.

That’s how I’ve come to believe that everything we have in life is first a gift. You and I just get to exchange. So let's pass good things around and around, re-gifting with abandonment.