R. S. Martin Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 Dear S________, Jesus is calling come home to me. With Love, Dad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted August 10, 2007 Author Share Posted August 10, 2007 That's right. An entire ruled sheet with the date, my name, and a message from Jesus at the top, and at the bottom his signature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoomonkey Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 The good news is, in the middle is a lot of useable paper Spoomonkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted August 10, 2007 Author Share Posted August 10, 2007 Here is what I now wrote in the middle: Dear Dad, I got both your letters. It saddens me to see how little faith you have in the Holy Spirit. If you trust an almighty God and his Holy Spirit, you can rest assured that if there is something God or Jesus want me to know they will inform me. There is much evidence that God does not need human agents to carry out his work. Your daughter, S_______ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoomonkey Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 I like that better than empty paper. Nice job! Spoomonkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NearlyInsane Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 It's so nice to see religion bringing families closer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Harley Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 I've said it many times before, and I say it many more before I die... If family don't behave like family then blood is just rusty water... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piprus Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 What do you think he was trying to accomplish, Ruby? Another one of those "guilt trips"? I don't know...seems like a kind of strange cryptic message to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Harley Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 I thought it meant he had fewer years ahead of him than behind... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftofpunk Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 Yeah it sounds like he thinks he's dying soon to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted August 11, 2007 Share Posted August 11, 2007 Yeah, I figured someone was dying too but then the message just ended. Weird. So are you supposed to go home to dad or jesus? mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted August 11, 2007 Author Share Posted August 11, 2007 It is strange in a lot of ways. It also occurred to me that he was telling me that he is dying soon. I'm sure he wishes the end would come. Mom died in March. He had a medium-serious stroke eight years ago. His right side was paralyzed but with his will of iron and physiotherapy (and God's blessing he would add) he recovered much use of his right hand and leg. He can ride a bicycle all over town and country. He will ride for miles if he can run an errand to help someone. He used to be right-handed. However, since his stroke he uses his left hand to write and eat. He also believes in symbolism. I am not sure how he will take it that I wrote in the blank part of the page; he might see it as blasphemy. I think that part was supposed to represent Jesus' inaudible message, and therefore cause me to "think." By "think" he would mean thinking seriously about death and where I will spend eternity. However, I would have to think about it in a certain way, a way that would inevitably bring me back to Jesus. He doesn't know it but I am in the process of arranging for the local humanist group to do my funeral, etc. Thus, I am "thinking" but obviously he would not find it acceptable at all. For me to write in the part that represents Jesus could be seen as defacing a divine message. It also occurs to me that this letter may be the work of a mind almost on the blink. I don't know Dad's mental condition because I have not talked with any of the family for several months. I just can't handle any communiation with them. I do know that his father's (my grandfather's) mind did weird gymnastics the last decade or two of his life. Gramps lived to be over 90. Dad is 74. Another strange thing about this letter is the hand-writing. It doesn't look like he normally writes. He's writing in a larger hand, and seems to give more attention to appearance than he normally does. Did someone else write it for him? I don't think so. He's printing rather than cursive, which is somewhat unusual. The way he makes his Js crossed at the top, and a few other letters, is an old style that none of us kids ever learned. On top of that, there was no return address on it. They know that I don't always read their letters. Maybe he thought he could trick me into opening it. Fact of the matter is, I could tell from the hand-writing that it was from a relative, I just wasn't sure which one. I did not think it was Dad until I saw who signed it. My address on the front, the message, and the signature all appear to have been written by the same hand. Maybe it would be best not to mail my reply. He is not living alone; my sister keeps house for him and my brother and family live in the main part of the house. If writing blank letters keeps him happily occupied, and therefore out of other people's hair, it would be unfortunate to dump cold water on it. Replying with a chit-chat letter when he meant it as really serious could get him really mad. If it was some childish project of a senile mind, it would be cruel to address it as a serious spiritual message. If I am ever asked about it I can say with sincere honesty that I had no idea what it meant, that I thought maybe he was saying Jesus was calling him home. I would love to believe it's the latter. I would love to believe that he trusts me enough to confide something like this. However, the last letter he sent was a sermon. That was rather unusual, too. Two sides of a large sheet of paper had been filled with small hand-writing. He must have worked long and hard on it. But I grew up hearing those sermons. I didn't read it. Maybe he found out about that. Maybe that is why he put no return address on it. Maybe that is why he resorted to symbolism. If I wouldn't listen to him maybe I would listen to Jesus. I'm just talking in circles..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted August 11, 2007 Author Share Posted August 11, 2007 I think I have decoded Dad's message. He doesn't know too many songs but there is one song he sang when I was an adolescent and I think it may be what he is referring to. I found it in one of my hymnals and will copy it here. Some of you may know it. It's by Will L. Thompson. Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, Calling for you and for me; See, on the portals he's waiting and watching, Watching for you and for me. Refrain: Come home, come home, Ye who are weary come home, Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling, Calling, O sinner, come home! Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading, Pleading for you and for me? Why should we linger and heed not his mercies, Mercies for you and for me? Time is now fleeting, moments are passing, Passing from you and from me; Shadows are gathering, death warnings coming, Coming for you and for me. O for the wonderful love he has promised, Promised for you and for me, Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon, Pardon for you and for me. Refrain: Come home, come home, Ye who are weary come home, Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling, Calling, O sinner, come home! So there we've got, "Jesus is calling, come home to me." All of this must be understood inside the context of Mennonite theology. Many people here at exC were former Baptists, which I understand is a strong Calvinist denomination. Unlike Calvinists and Arminians, Mennonites believe it is possible to backslide and miss heaven; God's election is not taken very seriously. "As the tree falleth, so it lieth." In other words, if you die in an unrepentent state--if you committed a sin such as a bad thought or unkind word that you have not repented of, and if you die in that state, you're off to hell. If you have been an overall decent, kind, and loving person, that one unrepented sin can bar you from heaven for eternity. I don't fully understand Calvinism but here is my prof on Calvinism and my relationship with my family: ince [for Calvinists] predestination is the basis for salvation it all boils down to the sovereignty of God. If you "deconvert" and stay deconverted until you die, it is because you were never elect in the first place. You might deconvert and come back later. In that case you are elect and God is going to save you somehow. If your siblings were strict Calvinists they would be sad that you were not one of the elect or they would be praying that God will re-activate your election sooner rather than later. You can't reject predestination. They're not Calvininsts. Calvinists are once-saved-always-saved and the Mennonite church vehemently condemns that concept as a despictable heresy. They say it makes people think they can live as they like and still get to heaven and that is not okay with Mennonites. Thus, the pressure is on. There is a very urgent necessity to pull apostates back from the flames. They will use analogies like rescuing people from a burning house--trying to wake up people who are comfortably asleep in a burning house, people who resist rescue by saying such things as, "I want to sleep. Let me go. It's not time to get up." They will also apply Ezekiel where he says if the watchman sees the enemy coming and warn not the people and they get killed, the blood will be required of his hand. But if he warns the people and they heed not the warning and get killed, the watchman will be free. That might mean ministers. On the more personal level there is the story about Cain. He asked God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" God answers by condemning him to exile; obviously we are the keepers of our brothers and sisters. Matt. 18 says if thy brother sin against thee....that also means if thy sister sins against thee......go talk with him/her.....I think we all know the passage. They also believe that if one has blasphemed (rejected the promptings of) the Holy Spirit, there is no more hope of salvation for that person. They believe that blasphemy need not be literal; rejection of the Spirit's promptings amounts to blasphemy. "Opportunity (Holy Spirit) knocks once at the door," Dad used to say, and it is believed if we don't heed when the Spirit knocks we risk eternal damnation. God said to Noah or someone, "My Spirit striveth not always with man." Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." This all hangs together. The pressure is on the converted to rescue their apostate friends and family; if they don't do all within their power they risk eternal damnation themselves. Thus, the only way I know of getting them off my back is to get them to think I have blasphemed/rejected the Holy Spirit. Yet that amounts to telling them that I am truly the thoroughly evil person they suspect I am. I feel really sorry for their anguish but what can I do if they lock their ears and eyes shut against everything I do or say? They daren't even consider what I say for fear of being led astray because that is another of Satan's tricks--to deceive you into thinking all is well. As travail cometh upon a women with child no one shall escape....The Lord will return as a thief in the night when no one is expecting him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LithaB Posted August 11, 2007 Share Posted August 11, 2007 Ruby, I don't know you or your history with your family, so I may be WAY off here, but it looks to me like your father is dying and wants to see you one last time. The symbolism of the blank page could be his way of saying "no more sermons." Is your family so bad you can't go back, even now? (no judgement, just a sincere question from someone who doesn't know) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
מה טבו Posted August 11, 2007 Share Posted August 11, 2007 Whatever his intent may have been, that is one serious mind job. Like everyone else here, I could read several things into it. Perhaps he intended it to be cryptic - he wants you to contact him. It could mean he thinks he's dying. It could be a way of begging you to come back to the fold - a last, desperate attempt. It could be the product of an aging mind playing tricks. The thing is just too cryptic to decipher. The unusual script only makes it stranger. Do Mennonites believe in mysticism? Pentecostals will dip a piece of cloth or something in oil and pray over it and send it to you, thinking this will bless you, get you back to the fold, whatever. Is there anything similar to that in Mennonite teaching? I agree with your decision not to mail your response. You have no way of knowing what he really meant by it, and anything you send back could be way off base. Do you have a means of contacting any other family member and inquiring about his health? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Harley Posted August 11, 2007 Share Posted August 11, 2007 ruby, Lilith has a point. Could be that. In the end it's down to you. Like I've said before, family is as family does. I'm more family than some have as blood kin (me? I'm lucky... mine would kill or die for me) If you think they've burned the bridge, then Pa, if the death imminent scenario is correct, has lost more than you have. We are the architects, not the victims of our destiny. If YOU think you'll get something out of seeing dad, other than a sermon and more mind fucking... Go... if you think the bridges are too badly burned, then no... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted August 12, 2007 Share Posted August 12, 2007 In other words, if you die in an unrepentent state--if you committed a sin such as a bad thought or unkind word that you have not repented of, and if you die in that state, you're off to hell. If you have been an overall decent, kind, and loving person, that one unrepented sin can bar you from heaven for eternity. This describes exactly how I was taught. Of course that "unkind word" had to be bad enough to qualify as a "sin" but the point is there. Having Tourette's and all it was all I could do to keep from losing my mind from about age 7 until about 20 (when I got diagnosed which took some pressure off). I had little prayers worked out to make sure I would get those sins forgiven even in my dying breath (this was up to my deconversion). mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-COG Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 In other words, if you die in an unrepentent state--if you committed a sin such as a bad thought or unkind word that you have not repented of, and if you die in that state, you're off to hell. If you have been an overall decent, kind, and loving person, that one unrepented sin can bar you from heaven for eternity. This describes exactly how I was taught. Of course that "unkind word" had to be bad enough to qualify as a "sin" but the point is there. Having Tourette's and all it was all I could do to keep from losing my mind from about age 7 until about 20 (when I got diagnosed which took some pressure off). I had little prayers worked out to make sure I would get those sins forgiven even in my dying breath (this was up to my deconversion). mwc That's what was taught in my church too. I think you hear less about this now days than the Calvinist predestination teaching. Or at least the predestination crowd has taken over Christian TV, radio, and publications. I guess Calvin won. About the letter, Ruby--Grandpa Harley is right. Go visit if you feel it's the right thing to do, don't if you think it's a manipulation attempt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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