Howling and Howling and Howling Some More

Riley the Beagle howls. Our dog doesn’t bark too much and he never bites, but oh he can howl! And Ian and I, on many occasions, howl with him! If fact, sometimes we are the instigators of the howling, and when we start, Riley just can‘t help it and he joins in and howls with us, harmonizing quite beautifully! The three of us are a site to behold! And to hear!

A few years ago, our friends Mike and Susan stopped by our house, and in the midst of our visit, we couldn’t find Riley. Assuming he was wandering the neighborhood, we searched for him outside, but we couldn’t find him anywhere. Until we heard his howling.

Riley wasn’t wandering. A door had closed and he was stuck in a small room off the kitchen, and since he couldn’t get out on his own, he was howling like crazy. That’s how we found him. And when we finally rescued him, he followed me around for a long time, howling and howling and howling some more.

A mighty man of God, King David howled mighty long and loud on many occasions. Stuck and unable to get out on his own, David howled. In fact, Charles Spurgeon referred to Psalm 13 as David’s Howling Psalm because he incessantly howls -- “How Long” -- throughout the first two verses.

“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
 How long will you hide our face from me?
 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
 How long will my enemy triumph over me?”  

Impatient to be relieved of his suffering, David howls with all his might. In fact, this isn’t an isolated incident for the Psalms record David as a regular howler. Anytime David felt shut away from God, he howled and he howled and he howled some more until he remembers who God is; and then he goes from howling with all his might to praising God with all his might. Whether it was howling or praising, David did it with all his might!

David’s howling was directed at God, which led him to focus on God. In verse 5, David remembers God’s “unfailing love” and his “salvation” and how good God has been to him. In a distressing situation, David remembers God is trustworthy, and he gradually starts to sing, which he probably did with all his might! 

Even though we don‘t know the situation that prompted the writing of Psalm 13, the desperate words can be applied to any situation where someone is suffering and feels like howling! It’s certainly applied to my life from time to time. And it’s probably applied to yours as well. Maybe it even does today. If so, this Psalm of Howls can bring relief to our soul as we follow David’s example, crying out to God, yet remembering his  “unfailing love” and “salvation” and how good he is to us, too. One brings us help; the other brings us hope.

Corrie ten Boon said, “If you want to hear God’s voice clearly and you are uncertain, then remain in His presence until He changes this uncertainty.”  Maybe that’s why David rarely appears uncertain – he stayed continually in God’s presence – even if he’s howling. And after God repeatedly rescues David, he stayed as close to Him as he possibly could - sometimes howling, but always praising and trusting God to be God.  

Hush, please!

I have a few idiosyncrasies that my students learn fairly quickly, and saying “hush, please”  instead of “shut up” or “shut your trap”or “be quiet, you idiot” is one of them. On the first day of school, I explain that we’ll be using this more euphemistic approach as an alternative to the overused “shut up” version, and if they prefer their teacher happy, then they’ll learn to apply this lesson immediately. Which they do.
   
“Isn’t that more pleasant?” I ask them. Once they see I’m serious, they have fun with it, eventually correcting each other always with a grin in my direction.

Whenever I hear them in the hall using the old derogatory phrase instead of the new more pleasant one, they’ll laugh and say, “Oh! Sorry, Mrs. Bader. What I meant was, hush, please!” Rarely does a day go by that I haven’t heard “hush, please” at least once.

In Psalm 46:10, God says:  “Be still and know that I am God.” In other words, he reminds us to hush, please, and hear what He has to say. To hush, please, so we won’t miss what He’s about to do. To hush, please, and let Him awe us with his presence. The verse shouts over the noise and the frantic pace and the confusion that sometimes makes up our day as He reminds us that He’s God, and He wants to be known. “Be still and know that I am God.”
 
My sister Liese is on fire for God; she is passionate, prayerful, and positively sure that God is most definitely God.  And she’s fun. Lots of fun.  Sometimes lots of very loud fun. And both Liese and I know how to make a joyful noise, noise being the key word. In other words, from a worldly perspective, noise is the only way to describe our singing.
 
Liese -- like most people who make more noise than music -- likes to sing while she drives. Travelling to a tennis tournament, she and her tennis partner were laughing and singing, thrilled with their musical abilities as they belted out the words to the song. A very loud, yet joyful noise sung by two noisemakers who love the Lord. But every now and then, they’d stop their enthusiastic singing and be still and listen to the music coming from the CD, which would remind them that they weren’t the ones who sounded so awesome. The music was coming from the CD; the noise was coming from them. They’d look at each other to affirm that a miracle hadn’t occurred; they still couldn’t sing all that well. Then they’d laugh and crank up their own volume once more, rocking along and belting out the words as loud as they possibly could.

Sometimes we need to stop what we’re doing and simply listen to the One who does it best. And as we’re still, we’ll know He is God. He’s the great one. He’s the one doing it well.

Last month, Liese and I were invited by our sweet, generous sister Janie to a fabulous resort in Cabos San Lucas, where we spent five days eating and swimming and laughing and crying and even occasionally singing. With delicious cuisine, luxurious rooms, and the beautiful crystal-clear aquamarine water of the Sea of Cortez, we loved every minute of our trip, but mostly we enjoyed being together on what we refer to as our annual sisters’ vacation.
  
Relaxing on our private patio, I’d write, read my Bible, pray, and simply enjoy being in the presence of the One responsible for all the beauty in our world.  One morning while my sisters were still sleeping, I sat outside, drinking my coffee and listening to the roar of the ocean. As I started to turn my chair around so I could see the water, I stopped. And God spoke. And I was still and listened. And then I was awed.

God reminded me that morning that sometimes I need to turn my back on what I can see and simply listen and pay attention to what I can’t see.

So I didn’t look at the beautiful water; instead, I merely listened to the sounds all around me. And as I did, the violent roar of the ocean, the strange caw of the gulls, even the salt-water scent in the air overwhelmed my senses and brought tears to my eyes. Even when I couldn’t see the water. Maybe it was because I couldn't see the water. 

God is invisible, but the visible evidence of who He is, what He does, and what He is presently doing is not always where we are looking. Sometimes we just have to stop and be still in his presence, and He’ll overwhelm us with who He is.

“Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted on the earth.”

Who are our one anothers?

My friends were riding bikes, playing basketball, and hanging out at the soda fountain at Paul’s Pharmacy. They were doing all the fun things kids in Bellville did during the summer: going to movies, having slumber parties, roller skating in Wallis, swimming at the city park, eating at The Hill, and simply running around the neighborhood. And while they were having a blast, I was flat on my back in bed – very sick – for the entire three months, watching Batman and Gilligan’s Island and Andy Griffith. In black and white. And not very happy about it.

Aunt Speedy came to visit me at the beginning of that summer with a big box full of little gifts all for me! But her instructions were clear: I could only open one present a day.

The gifts weren’t presents that cost a lot of money, but presents that brought a lot of encouragement. Small things, funny things, personal things, home-made things.  Most definitely the “small things” referred to in Zechariah 4:10. Not on the scale of a temple being rebuilt, but definitely on the scale of a life being rebuilt. And certainly helpful to a young devastated girl who desperately desired to be out with her friends. Who needed something to look forward to each day. Aunt Speedy’s small gifts did exactly that.

I still have one of the gifts, a treasured poem she wrote just for me. It’s now forty-five years old and includes one line I’ll always remember:  “God wants her life to count for him in big or little things.”

Aunt Speedy didn’t live long enough to see the impact her blessing had on me, but I think she knows nevertheless. And she’s still encouraging me through this poem. Reminding me that God wants my life to count for Him in big or little things.

In John 13:34, Christ commands us to “love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” And that’s only one of the many times God’s Word tells us repeatedly to love one another. To encourage one another. To think about “the interests of others” as Philippians 2:4 tells us to do. And there are many one anothers in our world. In our day. 

Aunt Speedy wasn’t my aunt; she was that sweet little lady who was everyone’s aunt at our church. And the way she lived her life showed many of us how to love one another in small ways that matter greatly. And how God wants our lives to count in big and little things. She certainly showed me.

Today, I’m praying for God to show me all the One Anothers he has placed in my path wherever I might find myself. And to help me remember that no gift is too small to make a difference.  Sometimes it’s not the present, but being present - the gift of caring and listening – that is enough to change another’s day. 

Have you ever felt like this little guy?

 

 

 

Gifts

“Why does Mary Williams stretch my socks?”

That was the question Kayla asked her mother as she was putting on a new pair of socks that morning.

The socks were bigger than her little feet even though they were beautiful socks. What the little girl didn’t know was that Mary’s mother had given her those socks. Mary and her mother had given her lots of socks and dresses and pants and shirts and beautiful clothes for years. Expensive clothes that Mary had outgrown, but were practically brand new. And since Mary was bigger than Kayla, Mary’s clothes were bigger, too.

“Why does Mary Williams stretch my socks?”

The little girl had no idea. She just wanted to know why they didn’t fit as well as she wanted them to fit.

A simple, true story that reminds me of the many times I’ve wondered why something didn’t seem to fit my idea of what my life should be like,  and in the process, I’ve missed the wonderful gift instead. The times I’ve wondered why God has given me something different than what I expected. Something that didn’t fit my idea of a perfect life.

My prayer today is to see the gifts in my life for what they are – generous, beautiful gifts. Gifts like the people I take for granted and a job that I complain about too much.  And to see all the gifts I’m missing because they don’t exactly look like gifts! And especially to love and appreciate God, the Giver of all good gifts, even more.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17 NIV).