I’m grateful for http://www.biblegateway.com/ for many
reasons—the many resources, such as keyword search, topical index, and passage
look-up. Over twenty
translations/versions of the Bible are available for comparison study and/or
reading. But one of the tools I really
like is the Daily Reading Plans. http://www.biblegateway.com/reading-plans/
Over the years I’ve pretty much
stuck to the Old and New Testament readings.
But this year I thought I’d go for the Chronological Reading plan. So today’s reading was from Joshua , chapters
nine through eleven. Most times I try to
take a few minutes to pray and ask God to speak to me through the daily
reading. Otherwise, I might as well be
reading any other casual reading material.
I don’t know about other people, but
it can be the obscure words or phrases that catch my attention. Especially if it is a word I’m already familiar
with—and think I know it’s meaning. Then
I look up the word and find out that it means something different. Or, I see that word in a new context, and how
it applies to my life.
Today, the word, “Hamstrung” caught
my attention, when I read: 9 So Joshua
did to them as the Lord had told him: he hamstrung
their horses and burned their chariots with fire." Joshua 11:9
My first thought was, “Why weren’t the horses just
killed? Wouldn’t hamstringing them just
make them useless? “
Apparently such is not the case. After an internet surf to search, I learned
that cutting the tendon at the back of the horses’ hocks rendered them
incapable of speed and the strength to pull heavy loads. But once the horse healed, it could be used
for transportation, and carrying light loads.
This was certainly a new thought
to me.
One of the links presented the question to me: “Hamstrung?”
http://reachingfinland.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/hamstrung/
This article is well worth reading. It put an incident in my life into a new
context. In 2000 I had sent a manuscript
to my friend, Elaine Wright Colvin. (Elaine Wright Colvin is a market
specialist, editor, and career consultant for hundreds of authors. She directs
the international organization Writers Information Network and publishes the
WIN-INFORMER, marketing and trends newsletter, from Bainbridge Island,
Washington-- http://writersinfonetwork.blogspot.co.uk
) Elaine kindly sent the book manuscript
to two editors for critique. These kind
women did critique it with notes and instructions. Instead of having the box sent to my post
office box, I had it sent to my street address.
Unfortunately, the box disappeared—never to be found. At this point I’d been hamstrung. I wanted to do the re-write—but didn’t know how or what to change. And here I am, fourteen years later and no further with a writing career or a re-written manuscript. My writing actions are what my mother would have called, “Played at”, but never have been driven.
Earlier this year, I prayed for a breakthrough in this area. I needed to know what had knocked my determination to follow this calling. God spoke through this scripture, through another person’s blog post and now I can pray for healing.
Please pray with me and for me.
Serving Jesus, Author of our faith,
“Lady Helene”
