Preface: It was fourteen years ago today....
It was Thanksgiving....2008....November 27 that year....in a few days it will be fourteen years. My special dog had died suddenly....in fact his name was Special....thus the name of these posts. He was a rescue dog....and had been returned to the Humane Society a number of times....for he was an escape artist. He was in the house for about one minute and had jumped up and torn our lace curtains....then ran upstairs as if he knew where he was going...and did his business on our bed. We kenneled our dogs while on vacation for we had a wonderful kennel with loving owners. The first time we took Special there I warned the owner that he was an escape artist. She then took a rope and tied the kennel door closed with it. When we returned we were told that he chewed the rope in two....somehow got into the office....and then somehow got out into the yard.....and was about to lift the latch on the chain link fence when they discovered him.....put him back in his kennel....and put a Yale lock on it.
I needed something to occupy my mind in the days immediately after he died....so I started writing these posts. This is post number 2745....but I work on them just about every day of my life....even while on vacation. It's impossible to know exactly how many visits there have been to these posts....this because of 'bots' if you are familiar with what they are....but the number of legitimate views would be well over 100,000. Australia would be one of the countries with the most visits.....there are 3770 of them today.....but there were 3770 of them about six years ago.....not a single visit since! I researched this and Australia censors a lot of incoming web content.....and apparently my posts are in that category.....for what reason I can't even imagine.
This obviously is not a blog in the technical sense.....for it is more of a bulletin board. I check the visits throughout the day and pray over each and every person who reads something that I posted.....not having the slightest idea who they are....or where they are from....other than the country. If you are reading this then I....Lord willing....will be praying for your spiritual needs soon.
I have probably wanted to quit a hundred times. Sometimes I pray after a post...."Lord....was that the last one?" My friends do not read my posts....I know that for they never mention them....although there are a few exceptions. I have only told someone that I write a 'blog' and then gave them the URL....about a dozen times in the fourteen years....for if I did it more often there would be a whole lot of awkward moments after they read the posts. So I rely on leaving promotional items around.....right now it's one-year pocket planners.....and I rely on my bumper stickers. I gave the URL to various pastors of mine over the years for one reason.....they should know what one of their people write....and I do not bring it up later.....if they have an issue they can come to me.....and if they do not read the posts......well....they were informed of what I do.
At one time I relied on writing letters to the editor....and at another time I wrote a newsletter....titled it A Pilgrim's Progress.....and sent it out to about 125 people. Then we opened a Christian bookstore....and I relied on the conversations with customers. This is the latest....it's the longest running.....and it is the hardest. I've often wished that I might had been a mailman....a letter carrier....for it would have suited me fine....but in a way that is all that I am right now.....a mailman....a letter from Jeremiah....to you.....or a Psalm sent to you.....or a letter from Paul or Peter or a number of others. It's a great job....bringing good news.....even the bad news leads eventually to the good news! The hard part is that I give the good news....but I don't see the smiles....mostly because this is just....as I said above....a bulletin board. So....here is the latest postcard in your mailbox....Romans 8:31..."What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?"
Having posted I can now sit down and read God's Word.....or listen to a sermon from a preacher from the past....or a preacher today who preaches like a preacher from the past.....go to bed.....and then.....as the country song says about work....."wake up....and do it all over again." Praise God for even this opportunity!
