Probably not an original thought

The Oath is forged in moment of peace

when witness shine upon the maker;

But in battle fierce and darkness deep

are the keeper divided from the breaker.

The Vow is not for when love's river

be swollen with the rains of Spring;

But when choking drought and love's stone well

naught but dust the lover bring.

None need promise what none doubt done

in joyful days when Satan slept;

The Promise is not judged on noble intent

but in the devil's hour when it is kept.

Of fog and crows...

For no one hopes in what they've seen.

Voice of the Apocalypse

It has become an uphill slog of gory hand to hand combat to write.  To force fleeting flickers of thoughts to coalesce into lamps of luminous prose.  And it's not a block.  A lump of wall between the world of words and i.  It is the i in i.

i just don't see the point.

Lately i think a lot about finishing.  A conversation with Jeff the Elder in which we lamented and he said something that my mind remembers as, "there is a dearth of men finishing well."  Ending their lives as firm and as solid and as noble as they began them.  There is a falling off which happens.  An inward curvature.  A parabolic arc that turns the man upon himself, inward, selfish, low.  As if we all, like Gollum, bury ourselves beneath the mountain, far from eyes, far from light, far from anyone and anything we need to care about.  Hobbies become obsessive.  My precious.

Depending on how you measure it, i am either in the last third of my life or the very middle.  i think of life in terms of twenties.  Scores.  The first Score: birth and childhood.  The second Score: marriage, family, raising my sons.  i am in the third Score now, what is it?  What's its purpose?  What is its mission?  Does it have one or can that only be determined in hindsight?  Mid-life crisis?  Would we have the stereotype if it weren't true?  To me this score is the last of my productive years.  Anything beyond sixty is bonus round.  But the life i've lived will most likely make it a wasteland of the physical.  My body won't be up for another twenty by then.  If i follow in the footsteps of some of my forebears, my mind won't either.  So i don't hold out much hope for a fourth movement (though who knows?  Moses did ALL of his work from eighty to one twenty).  This is it.  This is the time you have allotted to you.

How shall you spend it?  What shall you do?

i feel the deck heave beneath me.  The world at large and personal is a Titanic in her death throws.  Nothing holds together.  i can hear the screams of the metal as it tears away and it mixes with the fear of the dying.  What is yet worth doing?  Is there anyone listening?  Anyone i can give a life preserver to?  Should i just sit here and draw the bow along the cello until the deep closes over?  Would anyone draw strength from the music?  Would i?

Is it enough to be the last DJ on the overnight, graveyard broadcast, playing his songs as the stars fall?  Pappy Fricken here, your shepherd through the pilgrim's progress of the long, dark night of the soul.  The last watchman on the wall, talking to the crickets and the katydids.  "Watchman, what of the night?" they cry, "Watchman, what of the night?"  Morning comes and also the night, i would answer.  If you would inquire, inquire.  Come back again to WHUT, playing your musical score to accompany the end of the world.  Saying never forget, never forget, Salvation before Revelation, my friends, crickets and katydids.  The end is only a new beginning and you don't want to miss the next world.  It's going to be the one you thought this one should be.  One worth writing about.  Come Lord Jesus, come!

Excerpt of another conversation with Seamus

"Ye know what i hate?" Seamus asked me one cooling evening in our favorite publick house.
"Everything," i answered with the full weight of assurance.
"Now that's a lie you could'a-"
"Excepting Guinness."
"Oh well, then aye.  Pretty much," he admitted.  Small victories.  "So to be perfectly clear then, do ye know what's particularly chafing this week?"
"No, but i'm sure it's epic."
"Completely overused descriptor, lad, it's this generation's 'awesome."
"Paramount then."
"Better," he took a swig of his beer, "it's this whole business of being holier-than-thou."
"Run into that a lot do we?"
"More'n ye c'n know nor likely guess."
"Try me."
"Never ye mind, it's moot."
"How so?  Cuz it's not true?"
"Ach no!  It's dead nuts!"
"So your annoyed that your better than everyone or that they notice it?"
"Not better, ho-li-er," he drew out the key word.
"Ah well, we can't all be saints as righteous as you."
He slammed his hand down on the bar, startling me and not a few others.  "A fookin' cannibal pimp with blood on his fookin' lips could be as righteous as I fookin' am!"
"Right.  Yet it's accurate to label you holier-than-thou?"
"Aye."
"And that annoys you."
"Fook no," he took another sip, as if i didn't know it was for dramatic pause and effect.  "It annoys me that ..," he swept the entire pub and by extension, society at large in a roll of his eyes, "they..think the problem lies with me!"

An awkward introduction

"Seamus!  You wazzock!  You never told me you were married?  This beguiling woman is your wife?"
"Wife?"  Seamus looked intently at the woman for a moment, "no.  'at's not quite it.  Is there a word for, 'stranger I 'appen to sleep naked in the same bed with?'"
"I hate you," she said to him.
"Nemesis!  That's the word.  Thank you darling."

about cows

No, your confederate flag does not make you a racist...

But your dogmatic adherence to it does make you unloving...

"Therefore, let us no longer pass judgment on one another, but rather decide this: not to place a cause for stumbling or a temptation before a brother. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean of itself, except to the one who considers something to be unclean; to that person it is unclean. For if because of food, your brother is grieved, you are no longer living according to love. Do not destroy by your food that person for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let your good be slandered. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For the one who serves Christ in this way is well-pleasing to God and approved by people.

So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what edifies one another. Do not destroy the work of God on account of food. All things are clean, but it is wrong for the person who eats and stumbles in the process. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is weakened. The faith that you have, have with respect to yourself before God. Blessed is the one who does not pass judgment on himself by what he approves. But the one who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not do so from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin."  Romans 14

"But this knowledge is not in everyone. But some, being accustomed until now to the idol, eat this food as food sacrificed to idols, and their conscience, because it is weak, is defiled. But food does not bring us close to God. For neither if we eat do we have more, nor if we do not eat do we lack. But watch out lest somehow this right of yours becomes a cause for stumbling to the weak. For if someone should see you who has knowledge reclining for a meal in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, because it is weak, be strengthened so that he eats the food sacrificed to idols? For the one who is weak—the brother for whom Christ died—is destroyed by your knowledge. Now if you sin in this way against the brothers and wound their conscience, which is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat forever, in order that I may not cause my brother to sin." 1 Cor 8

Cows should be made meals, not sacred.

A contractor's thoughts on churches, chiefs and the confederacy.

It stands to reason, really.  There were only two kinds of people who hopped or were thrown on a boat back in the day and survived the trip to these bountiful shores:
  Those who couldn't live by the rules of their homeland.
  And those who wouldn't. 
With demographics like those, how could we not, as a people, prize and value independent spirits?  It's our legacy.  It's our common denominator.  It's our defining characteristic.  America has always danced to the beat of a different drum.  Its own.  We're the lone hippie at a hip-hop house party.  We stand in the concert of the world with headphones on listening to our own playlist.  We revel in our rebel image.  So much so that we still pride ourselves on a time when, having not been able to even stand our own rules, we thought it more expedient to slaughter six hundred and twenty thousand of our own people over the matter. 

Pride rules.  Any kind of pride.  We pride ourselves in the majority.  We pride ourselves in the minority.  We pride ourselves on our success, we revel in our outcastness.  We say we value team work and community but we turn the cameras upon and throw money at the bad boy, the salacious, the inflammatory, the rebel. 

It didn't take me long in the construction trades to realize that all of the owner operators have one thing in common, one over arching personality trait that binds them all together...
They cannot abide another person's rules.
They universally have a problem with authority.  It's why they stopped working for other men and started their own business.  'My way or the highway,' will be expressed in any number of phrases, but it's always credal. 

It took me a little longer to see this motto lurking behind churches.

Maybe it's a relatively new thing?  The church plant movement.  The independent church movement.  These have seemingly swelled in recent years.  But i doubt it.  We don't have denominations for nothing.  Even our denominations have denominations.  i suppose this is a good thing when the parent church has become heretical and needs reformation.  But that doesn't always seem to be the case, does it?  When we started using phrases like "relevant" and "rockstar pastor" i think we left reformation for holy purposes in the dust.  Part of me likes the phrase, "i wanted to create the kind of church i would want to go to."  Part of me sees Jesus in, "i looked around and i didn't see a church reaching out to people like me."  Jesus came for outcasts: lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, lame, blind, demon possessed, fisherman, the real dregs of society.  My denomination tends to look more like the successful and well adjusted members of society.  So there's a disconnect happening somewhere.  Possibly, it's in that little word, "look," but there's no denying that for all our efforts and well meaning, we have tended to create clubs for the "like me."

None of this is revolutionary.  None of this hasn't been said before by smarter people than me.  Most of whom probably had solutions and suggestions to suggest and solute.  i don't.  i just have a concern over the tribalism i see forming around every self-proclaimed chieftan, the clannishness of our people, the desire to follow any dynamic, charismatic rebel that walks in off the street with a tattoo and a stratocaster ready to rock you to heaven and rewrite the Bible in their own image. 

i just have two pleas.  Pray and Read.

Pray to see your own sin.  And don't stop at the surface.  Don't stop at the verbs, the lying, the yelling, the lusting, the partying.  Get down through the adjective layer, the selfish, the angry, the fearful and into the septic cistern of our souls.  The Pride.  The thing in you that makes you want to not just be a chief, but god.  See your sin so clearly that it breaks you, that it humbles you, that it makes you so distrustful of your own desires that you no longer are confident to tell another person much less yourself what to do or think or believe...
Except for what you have read and seen and come to know as the Truth in the Word that God himself revealed to us so we would know not what to believe or do or follow but Whom. 

stupid song

They saw us together
They saw a resemblance
They asked if we were brothers
And i had to tell them, “Once.”

Once,
once we had trust
we each spoke freely
once i knew him
and he, he knew me
and we loved each other anyway
another time, back in the day
Once

You went away
you changed your name
you tried to change everything
but you’re still the same

Once,
once we had fun
we were a family
i didn’t choose you
you didn’t choose me
but we loved each other anyway
Another time, back in the day
Once.

No one really changes
We’re all what we were at the first
the only real difference
is we keep getting worse

We still live together
sleep in the same bed
still wear the rings
but now you wish i was dead

Once,
once we were one
in spirit and body
once i knew you
and you, you knew me
and we loved each other anyway
Another time, back in the day
Once.

No one really changes
We’re all what we were at the first
The only real difference
is we keep getting worse.

Once
once we forgave
cuz we needed forgiving
once we knew dying
was the secret to living
Once we were blind,
poor, wretched, astray
But God loved us anyway
one dark morning, one good day
Once.

A conversation from the Pub.

"I fancy he thought that was a prayer," Seamus sneered.

I don't know why but I offered the following weak defense, "I s'pose with some men, God takes what he can get."

Seamus just snorted.  "A garbage disposal takes what it can get, lad.  A King takes what He damn well wants!"

i am Charlie, unfortunately, i'm also Kouachi

"The Law is a blunt instrument. It's not a scalpel. It's a club. If there is something you consider indefensible, and there is something you consider defensible, and the same laws can take them both out, you are going to find yourself defending the indefensible. " Neil Gaiman

See, this is where philosophy and reality diverge. Right here. Cuz what Mr. Gaiman says is true and rational sounding. But what happened is someone teased a bear and the bear mauled him to death and people are worried they will take away their right to tease bears. 

This is why we need something better than the Law. We need Gospel. You don't need laws protecting people's rights to do and say whatever the hell they want. If there's one thing we all can agree on, it's that people always do and say whatever the hell they want, a law doesn't stop that. We have laws that say you can't walk into an office and shoot people. That didn't stop anyone. We don't need to defend the laws or make new laws or talk about the laws. This isn't about the laws.

What we need are people wanting to do and say better things.

a quote

"i want to love people, i truly do!
But then they open their mouths and say stuff and it's just easier to stuff the grenade in and pull the pin."

Seamus

Just in time for the holidays!

http://society6.com/scruffymynxbane

Hi y'all,
Remember me?  No?  No bother.  All you need to know about me right now is that i'm poor, i draw and paint stuff and you can buy stuff with those pictures on them if you are so inclined.  Like a hoodie with this guy on it, or a clock with some other dudes on them or just a nice framed print of this of Captain Jesus...

So head on over to society6 and see what there is to see and if you don't see something you'd like to see, see me, or leave a message in the comment box telling me what you'd like and i'll see what i can do, see?

Why don't he write?

Cuz Astrobunny!  That's why! 

Yes, i've been spending the month of October writing and illustrating a Comic over on my Rabbit Trails blog.  Check it out if you're not too sophisticated for Comics.

My prayer

Lord save me from
ideas i have no outlet for
outlets i have no ideas for
and this most of all,
ideas with outlets i have no time for.
In Jesus' name,
Amen

What things? What good?

Finish the verse:

"And we know all things work together for good for                       ..."  Romans 8:28

What'd you come up with?  It's one of our favorite verses in the Bible.  We'll pluck that baby right out and apply it to all kinds of situations.  Anytime we see stuff going wrong in anybody's life you can bet some well meaning well-wisher will trot this panacea out.

To paraphrase the great theologian Inigo Montoya, "You keep on using that [phrase], i do not think it means what you think it means."

Here's the verse in the Lexham translation:

"And we know all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose,"

So that's cool, who doesn't love God, right?  We're all called for some purpose, so sure, it's medicine for every little inconvenience along the way, right?

You know me better than that by now.  Here's the thing.  Paul didn't write verses.  He wrote letters.  Those letters had a theme, the themes were broken into paragraphs and sentences.  And with Paul, that means run-on sentences which would give a grammarian a conniption and an aneurism and a stroke all at the same moment in time or all at once as some people say or as other people say, she would die, why i assume the grammarian is a woman, i don't know, i guess i just do that cuz most of the grammarians i've met were women.

The point is, you do yourself and the text a great disservice by lifting it out of context.  You lose the meaning.  The whole sentence is this:

"And we know all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed into the image of his Son, so that he should be the firstborn among many brothers."  

So the all things that Paul speaks of are not clearly defined by this sentence but they are by the paragraphs preceding it.  "For I consider that the sufferings of the present time..." Paul had been talking about the groaning of the present age and the hopes we have for the future and firstfruits of the Spirit.  All things can mean "All Things" but in the context, they mean especially our sufferings.  And the "good" he speaks of, what is that?  Well, it's right there, "his purpose".  What is his purpose?  To conform us into the image of his Son so that he will be the firstborn among many brothers.  He's making little Christs.  What is the image of his son?  To Love God as Jesus did.  To obey him even unto death.  To lay down your life for your friends.  To love your enemies.  To pray for those who persecute you.  To forgive as often as they ask for repentance.  To bear no grudge.  To love your neighbor as yourself or as Philippians concisely puts it, Jesus, "who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God something to be [held onto], but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave, by becoming in the likeness of people.  And being found in appearance like a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, that is, death on a cross."

Or as Isaiah, another man not afraid of grammarians, puts it, "He had no form and no majesty that we should see him, and no appearance that we should take pleasure in him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering, and acquainted with sickness, and like one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised, and we did not hold him in high regard.  However he was the one who lifted up our sicknesses, and he carried our pain, yet we ourselves assumed him stricken, struck down y God and afflicted.  But he was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and y his wounds we were healed.  All of us have wandered about like sheep; we each have turned to his own way; and Yahweh let fall on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was brought like a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep is dumb before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth.  He was taken by restraint of justice, and who concerned himself with his generation?  For he was cut off from the land of the living; he received a blow because of the transgression of my people.  He made his grave with the wicked, and the rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.  Yet Yahweh was pleased to crush him, he made him sick.  If he places his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring.  He will prolong days, and the will of Yahweh will succeed in his hand.  From the trouble of his life he will see; he will be satisfied.  In his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, shall declare many righteous and he is the one who will bear their iniquities.  Therefore, I will divide to him a portion among the many, and with the strong ones he will divide the bounty, because he poured his life out to death and was counted with the transgressors; and he was the one who bore the sin of many and will intercede for the transgressors."

So there you have it, both the "All Things" which have happened and must happen and the "Good" for which they are working.  Amen.

Someday and Meanwhile

i'm reading Jeremiah lately.  i don't think that's good for me.  It plays to my fears.  i don't see myself as a prophet but i do see myself in a dying culture.  i see a decline all around and i know my own suffering. i see a world on a collision course with the consequences of its sin and i see my warnings fall on deaf ears.  i fear and know Yahweh my God.  i love and trust his salvation through his Son Jesus the Christ. The problem i have is one of time.

Promises and hope are Somedays.  Some bright morning, when this life is over...i'll fly away.  There was a reason for the slave spirituals.  Their hope was not in the day to day.  It was in the Someday.  We will overcome.  In the End, our God has triumphed.  Someday my prince will come.  It's true.  We can bank on it.  God has made his promises and he's given his signs and they are solid, they are bank, they are true.  Sit secure in them.  

But the alarm clock rang this morning, not the final trumpet.  This is Meanwhile, not Someday.  Meanwhile is just that.  Mean.  Low.  Unfair.  Meanwhile is addiction, sin, persecution, labor, thorns, sieges and wicked men doing wicked things.  Someday God will call all debts due and they will either be stamped "Paid-In-Full" by Jesus or ...they won't.  But Meanwhile, we live in poverty, in want, in need and in debt.  Someday every tear will be wiped away.  Meanwhile tears are our food every night.  Someday death will be swallowed up in Victory.  Meanwhile we die and bury loved ones.  Someday we will rise to no more pain, no more sorrow, no more conflict.  Meanwhile we struggle and give up and try again and faint and the alarm goes off in the morning...

Life is lived in the Meanwhile.  Life is lived for the Someday.  Most of the secular world's hopes are just attempts to make Someday today.  Lotteries, vacations, better homes, better jobs, better hobbies, better governments are all man-made attempts at recreating Eden.  And i'm not saying don't do these things, except for the lottery, that's just a tax on the math challenged.  i'm with Yahweh when he says, "‘Build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take for your sons wives, and give your daughters to men that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and you must not be few. And seek the prosperity of the city where I have deported you, and pray on behalf of it to Yahweh, for in its prosperity you will have prosperity.’" Jerry 29  i'm with Mr. Greg Forster when he says we need to be in the culture.   What i'm saying is, you got to know your limitations, you got to know the times in which you live and therefore, you got to know your God!  His name is Yahweh and He has Someday in mind.

Something to ponder

"Nevertheless listen please to this word that I am speaking in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people, The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times prophesied against many countries and against great kingdoms of war, and of disaster, and of plague. The prophet who prophesies peace, at the coming of the word of the prophet, will become known as the prophet that Yahweh has truly sent.”" Jeremiah 28

Why i think we need more poets, artists and musicians

There are people in Kosovo kidnapping others and harvesting their organs for the black market.  There is a market for illegally harvested organs.  There are people kidnapping girls to use as sex slaves.  There is a market for sex slaves.  There are people selling their sons and daughters.  There is a market for sons and daughters.  There almost isn't a country left that doesn't have unrest and armed fighting in its streets.  There has never been a better time in history to be rich nor a worse time in history to be poor.  There has never been a wider gap between the two.  What used to be sins are now inalienable rights.  Murder is now contraception and assisted suicide.  The church now has a greater divorce rate than the secular world.  Faceless, soulless corporations now have the same rights as people but with far greater power and influence and no conscience.  Children are showing up on our doorsteps, homeless, hungry and afraid and we think the answer is more guns and laws on the doorstep.  Famine, drought and diseases we should have eradicated by now kill millions but we do nothing because those millions are in countries we don't care about.  We build elaborate homes for our cars while others sleep under tarps.  In a world where nothing is wrong, power is the only right.

It's not a lack of resources, laws, guns, money or power or will that's the problem, it's a lack of prophets.

It's a lack of the fear of Yahweh.  It is the prophet's job to call us back, to open our eyes and ears and turn them inward to see the sin in each of our hearts and outward to see the God-man wanting to heal those hearts.  The train of the world is running to the end of the track and it's only picking up steam.  Now more than ever we need to repent and return to God.  Who will call us back?

Repost

[Hi y'all, in my readings today, i was going through Mark 5 and i remembered this old post i wrote back in the days when i was smarter.  I needed it today so i thought maybe you did too.  What you really need though is time with the Lord so if this can encourage you to do that, amen.  Anyhoo, enjoy this old rabbit trail called, "No Boat for You!"]

“38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8)

We’ve been talking a lot about boats as a metaphor for following Jesus.  Getting in them, getting out of them, what keeps us from following Jesus and the like.  How we need to let go of everything in order to truly follow Him.  How nothing is more important.  How this is our true path.

But what if Jesus tells you not to get into the boat?  What then justshane?  Huh?  What?

Ummmm.

I’m gonna admit right up front, this would have been really hard for me to accept.  If Jesus had done this kind of wonderful miracle for me, knowing how I am right now, I would want to follow him, be with him.  I would be very envious of the twelve yutzes getting back in the boat to leave.  Why Jesus?  Why can’t I sit at your feet and feed off your every word?

And yet, this is pretty much where every believer is.  Standing on the shore of mortality, looking across the ocean of death, knowing Jesus is on the other side.  Our true home is on the other side.  Our true selves are on the other side.  Perfect peace and prosperity are on the other side.  The lover of our souls is on the other side.  Jesus came, saved us and left us here!  Whut up, Jesus?

As simply as I can put it: because we are different.  “13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many….17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.” (1Cor 12) 

In some things we will all share.  We all have the same calling.  We are all to obey and submit.  We all must love God with heart, mind and strength.  We all love each other as Christ loved us.  We all are told to go and make disciples of all men.  These things are universal.  Every new Christian can be told them.  Every new Christian should expect them. 

But there are also specific callings.  God knows us.  “6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Luke 12)  God knows you!  Yes, you!  He knows your struggles, your history, your sins, your potential, which he placed in you.  He knows His design for you!

So to a dutiful fisherman with a family and responsibilities and natural leadership skills, he says, “leave your nets and follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.”  To a tax collector, an outcast of his society, he says, “follow me,” and makes him part of and a leading scribe for the Kingdom of God.  To a rich young ruler, he says, “go and sell all you own, give it to the poor and follow me.”  To a woman caught in adultery he gives forgiveness and tells her, “Go and sin no more.”  To a Pharisee, he explains the mysteries of the kingdom so this man can teach them to the people.  To a widow with a dead son, he restores the young man to her.  And to a demon possessed man, living among the tombs, he restores his mind and says, “Go home.”

From the ones who have, Jesus takes.  To the ones without, Jesus gives.  Those who feel themselves established, built up, on solid footing, secure, Jesus tears down so He may build them up again on the Rock.  So He may make something new and true and eternal.  To those who have lost everything, who have nothing, who are cast out, unclean, unloved, He restores what was lost and more. 

This demon possessed man of the Gerasenes, has suffered greatly.  To him, Jesus restores mind, body and soul.  He does not ask him to follow him onto the boat, to share in the sufferings and depredations he and the disciples will still face.  He sends him HOME.  A place the man hasn’t been welcome in who knows how long.  He gives the man back to the community, back to his family. 

And he gives him this command, “declare how much God has done for you.”  Full circle.  We come back to the universal commandments, Love God, Love neighbor, make disciples.  Obey, submit, love.  Paul sums up his dissertation on spiritual gifts in this way…

“29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way. 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing… 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1Cor 12,13) 

Love is obedience, submission.  Where ever God sends you; whatever field He gives you to tend; whoever He sends you to minister to; whatever mountain He has given you to climb; whatever He has taken from you or given to you; whether He tells you to get into or out of the boat; remember this: He has chosen you, He has trained you through the trials of your life, He has equipped you with His Spirit and His Word and He has prepared the way for you.  He “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,” has got this!  Go forth, be fruitful and multiply!

Just a thought.

If we ignore or turn away the poor and fatherless and the widow and the alien at our gates, how much more can we expect when we arrive at Yahweh's gates?  As you have done to the least of these, so let it be done to you.