Update and Personal Note 2011-7

Update and Personal Note 2011-7

by Fred Pruitt

Just a little note as the summer starts its wind-down in August. How quickly the summer goes these days. When I was a child, we usually got out of school around the end of May and started back after Labor Day (first Monday in September), which could be as late as September 7th. Not so for these kids today! Early to mid-August, and they’re already back in school!

And since in one way or another we live by those rhythms of when school is in and out of session, all that just really speeds up the summer time. I remember as a child lazy days in August. Usually I was bored by that time, and ready to go back to school just for something to do, but it was also a bit sad at the same time.

Now here the kids are starting school, the days are already getting noticeably shorter after the Solstice, heading gradually down toward the low-light of winter and the darkness of Winter Solstice in late December. (For the northern hemisphere of course. All the southern hemi folk follow different rhythms.)

We had our wonderful vacation time this summer with our trip to Texas a couple of weeks ago, where we spent a few days with Gary and Dee Dee Winter, and then a couple with John and Janie Collings. It was all a pure delight. There was no shortage of Mexican food, which we love, as well as Texas barbecue, music, fellowship and good fun. We especially found the Winter’s pool a wonderful respite from the constant 100+ degree temps. (It cooled off at night a lot, down to the 980s!)

So it was rather sad as we left Texas headed for home, but home called. And here we are now, getting back into the swing of the things coming next, which are always a surprise and the perfect purpose of God.

Thank you all for letting us be a part of your lives.

The next “major” event on our schedule will be the meeting in Louisville at the Buntings/Wearrens, the Reunion which has been going on since 1974, having its final year this year. We are expectant toward the Spirit, as He closes this chapter of our lives (we first attended in 1981), and new adventures start.

Of course the world is a very uncertain place these days. When I think back into my own memories, I can see that it always has been an uncertain place, and that there is simply no security in the world by means of the world; there never has been and there never will be. The world is always an uncertain and often unfriendly place. I could reiterate every era of world history as my witness, but I do not need to, since in my own life I have seen and experienced this same uncertainty which is the same in any era for those who have not found trust and hope in Christ. Only in Jesus Christ is there any certainty, or any “security.” We fool ourselves if we think we can make ourselves impervious to the things that go on in the world, by any means other than God.

So thanks be to God we live in His Security, and His Promise that He upholds and walks and talks in us, for the reconciliation of the world. We are living witnesses to those things, of the Spirit, that we have seen and heard, and continue to be. There is nothing else.

While on our visit to Texas, I passed two personal “milestones.” The first was the first anniversary of the “Voice in the Wilderness” blog, which first went live on July 21, 2010. I am heartened how it has grown since that day. The blog now has 226 articles. The first article posted was, “On Condemnation,” written in 2001, and was one of the first articles I wrote that began this “writing project” ten years ago. (I don’t think Alice Corcoran will mind me saying that it was written to her!) For the first few weeks, most of what I published were older articles; most of them had been previously posted on my website. But since the beginning days, most of what I have published has been newly written, and it seems to keep on flowing and flowing. I’ve got several threads going, and little by little we add to each one.

The other “milestone” I passed, was that I moved officially into the “60 and above” category, on July 25th. Lovely — Wednesday discounts at the grocery store, a barrage of sales flyers for this milestone (just like we got them when we got married, had kids, etc.), senior discounts (I used to be offended when they asked if I wanted the senior discount — NOT ANYMORE!!!), deference every once in a while from a younger person, etc. etc., and AARP to watch out for my every concern!

Still, nobody’s old in God, are we? We are NEW EVERY DAY!!!

Thanks everybody, we’ll keep plugging along.

Blessings!

fred

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