Month: September 2018

Posted in Christian, poetry, Reflections

Wait

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

I’ve read this poem many times, at different occasions and yet it speaks to me differently each time I read…and in each waiting season I face.

Wait
by Russell Kelfer

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . .
And the Master so gently said, “Wait.”

“Wait? you say wait?” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.

“My future and all to which I relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?
I’m needing a ‘yes’, a go-ahead sign,
Or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.

“You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
I’m weary of asking! I need a reply.”

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,
As my Master replied again, “Wait.”
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting for what?”

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine . . .
and He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

“I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You’d have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint.
You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.

“You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there.
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence are all you can see.

“You’d never experience the fullness of love
When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

“The glow of my comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

“You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I’m doing in you.

“So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait.”

There are many plans in the heart of man, but only the Lord’s will take place. Proverbs 19:21

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Posted in Family and Society, Life, Personal Musings, Work

Delegation vs. Micro-managing

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All of us have heard about the seven wonders of the world. It includes the ancient, medieval and the modern architectural great works as separate lists. The works range from the Great Pyramids of Giza to the Great Wall of China, the Roman Colosseum, the Taj Mahal Of India, the Stonehenge and the Ely Cathedral of England to name a few. Coming to the modern world, the 20th century saw the Channel Tunnel, the Panama Canal, the Golden Gate Bridge among many others. All these works were not built in a day but required an immense amount of time, team work and skills, not by one lone person but by groups of people.

All said, the balance between “many hands make lighter work” and “too many cooks spoil the broth” has to be struck in time. The following anecdotal story is often used in various management training sessions.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Delegation of work is a fine art, which results in the final masterpiece. It is not humanly feasible to complete a big project or a responsibility by micro-managing every small item or by being the lone wolf. To achieve completion, would require the person who is in charge to delegate selected tasks to people. Yet the beauty of the completed project lies in the decisions to delegate what to whom and when. It also requires the in-charge to match the amount of work with the right degree of authority and responsibility. The entire accountability can’t be delegated but only some of the huge task.

Delegation doesn’t include just handing over. It encompasses communication of the rationale and benefits of the work, context for the project, setting down defined or expected standards, clarification of required results, granting of required authority, getting the necessary commitment, regular followups and above all to provide support for crossing over the hurdles.

Even the Scriptures is filled with detailed descriptions of delegation of work. For instance, Moses was laboring from dawn till late night attempting to resolve the conflicts among the Israelites (who were led out of Eygpt after 400 years of slavery) in the Sinai desert. Jethro, his father-in-law who was a priest of Midian saw the immense workload for Moses was not sustainable and he would head for trouble. He pulled Moses aside and celebrated what God had done through him, then gave him some wise invaluable counsel regarding the concept of delegation (Exodus 18:1-23). In I Kings, we read that Solomon had mastered the fine art of managing through men and the Kingdom was enlarged. Even our Lord Saviour was willing to delegate; as seen in Luke 10:1-23 for after the Lord had given detailed instruction, He sent seventy itinerant preachers who though were inexperienced and far less capable than their Teacher, they were blessed by God.

Delegation is an ongoing process and has the ability to reap far many dividends. As rightly said by H.E.Luccock, “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.”

 

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Posted in Life, Reflections, Stories Around the World

The Price of Over-Thinking

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

One of the drawbacks to man is that we over-think a lot or to put it simply, we do a lot of speculations. The biggest disadvantage to this is that we unnecessarily work ourselves up, creating a whole lot of stress; not just to ourselves but even to those around us. Some of us may heard about the story “Want to borrow a jack ?”. It tells about over-speculation and the trouble it had created. For those of us who haven’t heard of the story; it is as follows.

“Want to borrow a jack?”

“A fellow was speeding down a country road late at night and BANG! went a tire. He got out and looked but he had no jack. Then he said to himself. ‘Well, I’ll just walk to the nearest farmhouse and borrow a jack.’ He saw a light in the distance and said, ‘Well, I’m in luck; the farmer’s up. I’ll just knock on the door and say I’m in trouble, would you please lend me a jack? And he’ll say, why sure, neighbor, help yourself, but bring it back.’ He walked on a little farther and the light went out so he said to himself, ‘Now he’s gone to bed, and he’ll be annoyed because I’m bothering him so he’ll probably want some money for his jack. And I’ll say, all right, it isn’t very neighborly but I’ll give you a quarter.And he’ll say, do you think you can get me out of bed in the middle of the night and then offer me a quarter? Give me a dollar or get yourself a jack somewhere else.’

“By the time he got to the farmhouse the fellow had worked himself into a lather. He turned into the gate and muttered. ‘A dollar! All right, I’ll give you a dollar. But not a cent more! A poor devil has an accident and all he needs is a jack. You probably won’t let me have one no matter what I give you. That’s the kind of guy you are.’

“Which brought him to the door and he knocked angrily, loudly. The farmer stuck his head out the window above the door and hollered down, ‘Who’s there? What do you want?’ The fellow stopped pounding on the door and yelled up, ‘You and your stupid jack! You know what you can do with it!’” There are many variations of the same story, “borrowing the jack” but the essence is the same.

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This is what often happens to many of us. In our life, we often land into problems that we can actually easily handle. Instead of facing them with calm and patience keeping a positive attitude; we behave with blind anger thinking of imagined wrongs and make enemies of people who may actually help us. The sad truth is we don’t realize it until someone else asks us with what actually happened. It only then we realize that we having been making a mountain out of a molehill. 

So at the end of the day, it’s easier to go with the flow than to over-think and end up being disappointed. In fact, less of speculations may result in us getting a lovely surprise instead.

Posted in Daily, Food, Photography Art

Squash-Fun with Jam-Art

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

Last weekend we had a charity auction at church, consequence of which I had landed with two crates of black grapes i.e. about 20 kg. Nevertheless two days, everyone was sick of grapes even mixed with oatmeal, pancakes or desserts. Hence, it was a unanimous decision to make grape squash yesterday.

So towards late noon yesterday, the kitchen counters were grape stained and I ended with four big bottles of grape squash. The trick in making them right was to proportionate the grape extract to the sugar in a 1:2 proportion with the entire water required being equal to the amount of grape extract. In three simple steps;it was ready. First wash the grapes and boil them in just sufficient water so it gets cooked and while boiling continuously mash the grapes till it becomes thoroughly juicy. Strain the mix to get the grape extract and measure it. Second is to take the sugar (keep the amount twice the extract), add to it a minimal amount of lemon juice (1 tsp for 2.5 pounds sugar) and water (the entire water used should be equal to amount of grape extract) in a pan; and heat it till the sugar dissolves and bubbles up. To prevent charring of sugar, you make to intermittently stir the mix. Third, let the sugar syrup cool till room temperature and mix it with the grape extract to form a good consistent liquid. One can add grape extract (tonovin, 1 tsp for 2 pints or 1 litre of grape extract) or sodium benzoate (almost same measure as tonovin) if preferred. Since even refrigerated squash gets over fast at home, I had avoided the latter.

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On the whole, it was a fun experience for everyone including my two year old son who loved getting grape-stained. As for the remaining grapes, I had decided to make them into jam. Although making jam looks arduous, it’s actually easy and almost similar to squash, with few differences. Here the measure of grapes to the sugar is 2:1. It’s the same for all sweet fruits like strawberries, apricots but for bitter fruits like lemon and oranges we need a slightly higher amount of sugar ( I prefer a 2:1.5 ratio). 

There’s nothing better than having hot dripping homemade jam especially on cakes and in pies or cold jam layered on bread. Besides making jam keeps the kids from getting into mischief indoors especially on cold, rainy days of autumn. As Sandra Dallas said, “Jam on a winter took away the blue devils. It was like tasting summer. ”  Here are some pictures of jam-art to get inspired.

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Posted in Christian, Life, Reflections

Fleeing Essence of Time

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things
“Time is an illusion”-Albert Einstein.
From the physician who proposed the Theory of Relativity, Einstein had furthered the concepts of space and time. Interestingly, it is all conceptualized on relativity, speed of light and time. From time immemorial, man has been trying to understand time and its finer aspects. In our attempts to travel through time, innumerable theoretical concepts have been attempted, all to no avail. Unfortunately time doesn’t stick around long for it.

As we all travel down today’s path, how many of us pause to realize that all this can go in a flash, many a time beyond our control ? Unfortunately it is in man’s nature to plan a lot. Yet the purpose of planning waits to be seen. Some plan for the future, some to enjoy the present. No matter how concrete our plans go, sometimes we don’t even realize the fact that all these can be altered in a matter of seconds. Yet the beauty of human nature is that we still hope and pray that it happens the way we wish to see it go.

The human race is tied to time. Through all means, we try to keep account of time to fulfill our worldly dreams and desires. The concept of time has been problematical for scientists, philosophers, thinkers and even theologians. The theory and understanding of how “time” is employed in the divine scheme of things is also controversial.
Divine timing doesn’t follow the rules. Although we in our earnest prayers, hope and ask for the blessings; sometimes nothing makes any sense. And instead we land with another set of worries r problems as we see it. That’s when we should realize that true faith requires us to hand all our burdens over to the Lord and trust Him to do what’s best. True faith requires complete trust in Him and for that we have to fully follow the Christian path by His Word. Our time frame is set by our limits. Yet the Lord’s time frame is infinite. “8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)”
One of the greatest promises of the Lord, the gift of salvation doesn’t have a time limit. In the light of this fact, we have to realize that each day God gives is not for us to simply live it, but for us to become better. For if today there will be no time, tomorrow we may lack strength and the day after tomorrow there may not be us. 
So instead of banking on the future time, live the life of Faith for today first. Along with the intense planning for the day; take time off for yourself , your loved ones and your Faith. Above all, instead of trying to count the clock and get lost in the mundane, do try to live the hours and do something that makes it all the worth.
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Posted in Christian, Life, Personal Musings, Stories Around the World

Take the Battle to the Sky

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

Among the birds of prey, the eagle has it’s own special place in the wildlife kingdom. Besides soaring the skies, it fiercely protects its young and preys on the smaller land creatures especially snakes. Ever wondered how the eagle kills the deadly poisonous snake? 

The eagle usually hunts from a high perch or from the skies, scanning the land below for prey with its’ sharp eyes. When it sees a snake, it swoops down, seizes the reptile behind the head and crushes the spine with its talons and beak. If it loses the advantage of a surprise attack and the snake turns on it, the eagle will flap its wings to try and induce the snake to spend its’ venom and energy reserves before moving in for the kill.

Another way for the eagle to kill the snake is not fight it on the ground. Instead it picks it up into the sky with its’ heavily scaled claws; thus changing the battle ground. Then it releases the snake from the sky. Unlike the eagle; the snake lacks power and balance in the air. It is weak and vulnerable in the air, whereas on the ground where it is powerful wise and deadly. 

Why the talk about the eagle and the snake? The scriptures quotes eagles many a time. There is are many references to the eagle, but the one that I want to quote is from the book of Isaiah. “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Take the fight with the evil into the spiritual realm by praying and there God will takes over the battles. Don’t fight the enemy in their comfort zone, change the battle grounds through prayers and His Word. Let God take charge; for then the clean victory will be ours. 

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Posted in Daily, Photography Art, Quotes, Reflections

Sweeten the Extra Lemon

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

As I was making lemonade yesterday, I was recalling the day I made it for the first time when I was in junior high. It was disastrous as I ended up adding almost five times the amount of lemon than needed and squeezed a bit too much of the lemons that it had a very sour taste. To save my face, I had to correct it somehow. I ended up adding lots of sugar and water, that lemonade for four turned out to be a lemonade for twenty. I still wish that day I could remove some lemon juice from water to make it taste perfect! 

Unfortunately, life has taught that certain things can never be changed. Some mistakes cannot be undone. Likewise many a time, we may not be able to undo the things that have gone wrong in life. Certain choices which turned out to be disastrous like bad decisions, wrong actions, bad associations and above all, angry meaningless words; were situations that couldn’t be taken back.  Besides some things do happen which are beyond our control.

While we cannot turn back the hands of time, what we can do is to move forward. So when what went wrong can’t be changed; wasting more time over it is like removing the extra lime. What we can do is to rectify and improvise, so that the wrong things are corrected by increasing the number of things that went right in our time.

Human nature has two sides – the positive and the negative. Although we strive to be more positive, occasionally negativity  may arise. However if the proportion of positives that we surround ourselves is high, then the negative fades away. Life like human nature can’t be perfect, but what we can do is to live for the better days and store away the cherished moments and sweet memories in the cache that God has given us.

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