Writer’s Block
Believe it or not, I have been enduring a strange kind of writer’s block. It is a form of writer’s block, however, so the full power thereof has been turned away (that’s a 2 Timothy 3:5 pun). Full-blown writer’s block would have left me with no ideas…no creativity…no thoughts…no opinions. What I have is simply a lack of energy.
Really, there have been a lot of topics crying out for my opinion. The news has been full of stories needing to be discussed at length, but am I up to it? Have I had enough sleep?
For Example(s)
If I wanted to take the time, here are some subjects on which I would love to tell you what I think and why. The only problem is that they all make me ill.
- Miley Cyrus. “Oh, Anthony, you shouldn’t pick on her and be all negative and stuff like that…you will never win her over by being judgmental and critical,” they say. Really? For the record, I am more concerned with the little girls who are now becoming sexually degenerate while trying to imitate this 20 year-old spawn of Madonna. There is sooooooo much I want to say, but Hannah Montana fans might get angry and point a foam finger in my face (and who knows where that has been?).
- New York Bike Gang. All I will say is that had those crotch-rocket-riding hoodlums tried doing what they did to the family in the Range Rover down here in Tennessee, there would have been a lot more broken than one guy’s leg. Switching lanes without warning is a common, heartfelt practice in Chattanooga, so I can imagine the motorcycle parts strewn across the highway. Of course, there’s also the fact that Southerners believe in the Second Amendment.
- Government Shutdown. My blood pressure is rising just thinking about it. Those shutting down the government and closing open-air WWII memorials are still getting paid while common people suffer. And do you know what’s so ironic? There are more people guarding places than used to work there when they were open!
- High School Dance Teams. “Don’t say anything, Anthony! Don’t offend anybody, Anthony!” I can’t help it. People, when you think it is appropriate for your underage daughter to “shake her thing” in barely-there clothes…perform moves only an experienced, professional pole dancer should know…and when you applaud to a guy with a microphone as he says of your daughter and her fellow dancers when they spread their legs on their backs in front of a stadium full of football fans, “I told you they were bad,” you’re not a parent, you’re an enabler!
See, I have things I could write about. There’s just too much to say about too many things.
Hupomenō?
You must be wondering what the title of this post is all about. Well, it all started this evening when I told Katie, my daughter, that I was having a “form of writer’s block.” She asked, “Do you want me to give you a random suggestion?” I said, “sure.”
Two minutes later she comes to me with a picture and a word: hupomenō (ὑπομένω). “Write about this,” she said.
The word is a Greek word which means “to remain under,” or, “to remain under the test in a God-honoring manner, not seeking to escape it but eager to learn the lessons it was sent to teach.”* But it could also mean standing firm by holding one’s ground (Mt 10:22; 24:13; Mk 13:13) and persevering in spite of difficulty (2 Tim 2:10).** The words that hupomenō is most commonly translated into are “patience,” and “endure.”
Katie’s a godly young girl, so she wrote this on her hand as a reminder to be patient and to “endure.”
Patiently Learning
So, what have we learned? How can I close this post?
I will patiently endure the pressures of this world, and seek to glorify Christ as I persevere through difficulties. But if my patience runs out, well…
…just keep that stupid foam finger away from me, Miley. And for Billy Ray’s sake, PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!
*Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), Ro 12:9.
**James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).
The Recovering Legalist 