A Strange Beast Indeed!

If you have read any of my posts over the last few months, you may recall that I've been studying the book of Job in the Old Testament.

I finally got to the end the other day, yet I'm still thinking about a crazy section in it that I came across toward the end of the book, in chapter 39.

Photo Credit: Anup Shah / Getty Images

In six silly verses in the center of this chapter, God speaks to Job about the ostrich.  Huh????  What does the ostrich, of all things, have to do with Job's horrific suffering and his demand for vindication as a righteous man?

Honestly, it's hilarious.  You should take a look.  Job 39:13-18.  Go read it now.  It's as if God's saying "Look at this crazy thing I came up with.  Yes, I made this wondrous bird.  You can't possibly make any sense out of it, so stop thinking you could ever fully understand my mind, either.  Look how silly it is!"

Even though I've seen these odd creatures various times in zoo captivity, I did a bit of research to learn more.  Here are some of the crazy tidbits I found:

1.  The ostrich is the largest and fastest moving bird.  It is a bird, but it cannot fly.  It can travel at speeds up to 45 mph, grow up to 9 feet tall, and weigh up to 320 pounds.  An egg can weigh up to 3 pounds, and a baby can be the size of a chicken.

2.  The Libyan ostrich and the hornbill are the only birds having eyelashes.

3.  The ancient Romans particularly liked roasted ostrich wings.

4.  Ostrich eggs were greatly admired by the ancient Persians, who sent them as tributes to the Emperors of China.

5.  An ostrich omelet made from one egg will feed about 8 hungry diners.

6.  My Bible discusses ostriches twice, both in Lamentations 4:3 and Job 39:13-18.

7.  The ostrich only has 2 toes per foot.  All other birds have 3 or 4.

8.  It often eats sand and pebbles to help grind up the food in its gizzard, a small pouch where food is crushed and ripped up before it travels on to the stomach.

Photo Credit: Robert Airhart / Shutterstock

9.  During a predator attack, the male ostrich attempts to lure the predator away.  The mother ostrich just runs for her life, oblivious to whether her babies are following her or not.

10. Contrary to popular legend, ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand.  They do lie down when threatened, though, and the head and neck blend in with the sand color.

11. A solid ostrich kick can kill a lion.

What a strange piece of creation, indeed!

And here's what the Lord himself said about his creation in the book of Job (in my loose translation):

Job 39:13  It flaps its wings ridiculously, but yet it cannot fly.

Photo Credit: Karl Ammann / Getty Images

Job 39:14  Mothers lay their eggs and leave them totally unprotected on the ground.

Job 39:15  The mother doesn't care if predators stomp on them or steal them.  Oh well.

Job 39:16  The mother ostrich has no maternal instincts; her labor and delivery didn't enamor her to her babies.

Job 39:17  The ostrich is dumb.  It has no common sense.  

Job 39:18  At least it can run fast.

Photo Credit: Charlesjsharp / Wikipedia

Perhaps God means to show Job through the ostrich that every creature, whether familiar, mysterious, difficult, or odd, is similar to suffering.  Sometimes we can recognize its purpose, but other times it's simply painful and puzzling.  Whether we understand our suffering or not, it seems to be part of God's order for us at times.

Who'd of thought there was such a message for us from the ostrich?  A strange beast, indeed!

Hatred Turned to Love

I used to hate writing.  Numbers and equations were more my forte, please.

Both in high school and college, I dreaded any assignment that included writing a paper, even one as short as one page or a 200-word theme.  My high school senior English term paper was 24 pages long, and I wanted to shoot myself by the time it was completed.  I wrote on the symbolism of the rainbow in D. H. Lawrence's books.  Oh yeah, I got an A grade.  It's just that I didn't love that kind of writing at all.

I was a mathematician; I loved everything in every high school math class I took.  Then I trained in college to be a math teacher.

Latest BOOK PROPOSAL

After raising my kids, I returned to the working world and taught college mathematics for ten years.  I loved the odd mix of students at the technical college where I taught, and I thrived in my work.  Some say when you love your job, you never work a day in your life.  It was just that way for me until I retired from teaching.

But now I write.  An odd and unexpected mix of circumstances led me to start writing, and I write about what interests me.  I create books that help others.  My former hatred of writing has turned to love, and that's a beautiful thing.  I can only attribute this new phase in my life to the lovely creativity of my wonderful God.  I'm so grateful that He has opened up this new world to me - an exciting and challenging career that can continue into my old age, no matter how physically infirm I may ever become.  As long as my mind is clear, I will write.  I will write and point to Him in all my writing.

Many of you, my readers, have been cheering me on in my latest writing project, and I appreciate your interest and support.  My fifth book is nearly finished, Risking It All: One Woman's Adventure Giving Away Her Income.  You've been asking me how soon this book will be "out" and available to purchase.  Here's the update:  Just a few days ago, I finally submitted the book proposal for this book to my agent.  Woohoo!

There was a lot of writing.

Three-inch clips - necessary for file organization

Files were organized and combined into one final document.

Then there was a lot of editing on the proposal, both by myself and by a professional editor.

Next there were some sequestered days when I carefully made all the suggested corrections and changes.

I made sure all files were named as the agency required.

One last page through, and then the cover letter and proposal were sent via a carefully labeled email.  Most agencies do all by electronic methods these days.

27,000 words and 87 pages.  And that's just the proposal!  Now I wait until I hear back from the agent as to what happens next.  He will pitch it to publishers and hopefully rustle up a contract.  I have done my best, I have prayed, and now it is all in God's hands.

Required tools of the edit process

Many of my faithful encouragers have asked me why this proposal has taken me three full months to write.  I thought I'd answer by explaining here what is involved in writing a non-fiction book proposal.

Every literary agency requires different elements to a proposal, and I'm only going to list the elements that my agency requires.  It falls onto the shoulders of each author to research what an agency requires and then to follow those directions explicitly.

My proposal to the Hartline Agency (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) includes these elements:

1.  A proposal cover letter.  This letter is the body of the email to the agent.  The proposal is attached as a link to this cover letter.

2.  A proposal cover sheet

3.  A proposal table of contents

4.  A one-page sell sheet (the agent will use this with various publishers)

5.  A biographical sketch

6.  A description of the book

7.  A chapter outline, including a table of contents of my book and a 4-5 sentence description of each chapter.

8.  A market analysis

9.  A competitive analysis (of other books similar to mine)

10.  A  marketing plan

11. History of the manuscript

12. Three sample chapters

Last Friday, I pushed "SEND," and then I cleaned up my desk.

How did I celebrate after clicking "SEND?"

With a decadent lunch assortment of some of my favorites - pickles, several slices of cheese, potato chips, and a thumbprint peanut butter cookie.  Of course.

Phew!  Now to return to writing the remainder of the other chapters.

The end is in sight.

Brace Yourself!

Some of my readers may recall that I've been plodding through a study of the Biblical book of Job.  It's taking me a while to get through this book, longer than I thought it would.

I started on July 14th of this year, 69 days ago.
The book of Job has 42 chapters.  I've studied 38 to date.
In my tiny Bible, the book of Job only covers 46 pages.

Make it stop, guys!

Yes, I'm progressing through this book like slogging through molasses.

For the first 37 chapters, Job laments about his awful condition, and his "friends" try to convince him to repent, for surely no man would be so awfully afflicted if he hadn't done something very wrong.

Ugh!  For a good half of the chapters, Job's friends pontificate, so pompously sure of themselves.  They know Job must be harboring some secret sin and is just too proud to confess it.  (With friends like that, who needs enemies?)

By the end of chapter 37, I just wanted to scream.  I wanted the good old boys to shut up, and I wanted help to finally come for Job.  Please.

And then in chapter 38, God finally responds to Job.

Job has been horrifically afflicted.

He has cried out to God.

Job has imagined a peaceful setting and a "legal trial" in which God hears his case.

It is not to be as Job has wished.

Instead, God answers Job out of a whirlwind; He speaks out of a storm.

It is terrifying, but is evidence that God has not been ignoring Job all along.

Brace yourself?

God does not belittle Job's intelligence, nor does he scorn Job.  The format of God's response to Job is to bombard him with rhetorical questions.  To each of God's questions, Job must humbly plead ignorance.

However, first God tells Job to "brace yourself like a man..."

BRACE YOURSELF?

I continued reading through the rest of that chapter, but my mind kept returning to those two commanding words.  Brace yourself.

What was God really telling Job to do with that brief command?

After some thought and prayer, I believe by encouraging Job to brace himself, God wanted Job to use all his physical, mental, and spiritual abilities to try to understand God's intentions for Job, which God will express indirectly in the speech that will follow those two words.

Son Caleb "bracing himself"

What is the takeaway for me?  How shall I "brace myself?"

I, too, can use all my physical, mental, and spiritual abilities to try and understand God's intentions for me.

For one, I can be intentional about studying the Bible each day.  Furthermore, I can train myself to listen to Him speak to me throughout each day.  The more I obey, the more I believe I will clearly hear Him.  And finally, I can step out in faith and obediently take those "risky" steps of action as I reach out to others.

Who can fully understand the mind of our God?  Perhaps with some practical "bracing," we all will see more into the depth, nature, and wisdom of God.

That, my friends, seems to be a win-win.

There "jillgoes" Again!

And there "jillgoes" again!

The hubby and I just returned from a ten-day trip to the deserts and mountains of Arizona, and it was an awesome trip, so rich in landscape beauty, culture and history, and opportunities for adventure-seekers.

I love to write, and I have excessive wanderlust.  Combining the two is my passion!  When jillresearches, jillplans, jillwrites, and then jillgoes, let's just say Jill is one happy gal.

For years I've written a plethora of custom tours.  Trip planning has become my most favorite hobby. The problem is that I write more trips than I can get around to taking.  The hubby needs to retire soon, so we can get those trip notebooks out of the file and into reality.

I dream of someday opening my own little travel company:  "Yougo with Jillgoes" or some such outfit.  With just a few specks of encouragement, I may do just that.

Who wants to go travel with me?

Do you need a vacation custom-designed for you, created with your own preferences in mind?

Maybe I can help you.  I love creating a masterpiece of an adventure, including a vast variety of interesting experiences.

Take a look at just some of the fun the hubby and I had on this last adventure:

An early morning balloon ride over the majestic mountains of Sedona:

A short hike to the Montezuma's Castle ruins (U. S. National Park).  Seeing these ancient abodes challenges me to think about how older cultures survived in difficult places and climates:

An exhilarating all-terrain pink jeep tour along the scenic rim of the mountainside around Sedona.  This tour was not for the meek and fragile!

A self-guided auto tour of the greater Sedona area using an audio CD.  We enjoyed the freedom this CD gave us to stop where we wanted and to go around the area at our own pace.  The narration added valuable and interesting tidbits of background to what we were seeing along the drive.  The landscape and wildlife in the desert of Arizona is so different from what we see in Pennsylvania.  The photo below shows a common prickly pear cactus.  During our trip, I enjoyed a prickly pear margarita, some prickly pear hard candy, and some shampoo and shower gel all made from the fruit of this plant.

We took a part day trip over to the town of Jerome, known as one of the best ghost towns in the United States.  A historic/ghost van tour took us all around the area and delighted us with a plethora of fun stories and legends.  This old, vacant church in the valley of Jerome was built entirely of dynamite cases:

After leaving Sedona and Jerome, we headed south a few hours to the Scottsdale/Phoenix/Glendale area of the state.

I arranged for a private, narrated, golf cart tour of Old Town Scottsdale.  Because the hubby was having such trouble with his knees, we didn't do any excessive hiking on this trip.  I had planned tours and experiences that would work with his challenges.

While on the golf cart in Old Town Scottsdale, we paused at this little place.  It was a former stopping point for the Pony Express Riders who would sleep between shifts in the two chambers on the upper floor:

Now who says there's no water in the desert?  If it's there, I will find it.  Traveling east into the Mesa, Arizona area, we thoroughly enjoyed a 1-1/2 hour narrated cruise on Lake Saguaro.  Along its shores we spotted bald eagles and other waterfowl, a vast variety of cacti on the cliffs and mountains, and a group of wild horses grazing near the water's edge.

View from the Desert Belle on Lake Saguaro

I find myself feeling like a sponge whenever I travel.  I soak up all I can learn about so many different things, places, and people.  It's difficult for me to understand why some people never want to leave home to explore other places.

Along with the new things to see and experience, everywhere I go there is a bonanza of neat places to eat, if one takes the time to find them.  (I love researching area favorites.)  

And let's throw into the vacation mix those museums, interesting factory tours, and shops to investigate.  The #1 attraction in Phoenix is the Musical Instrument Museum.  This museum is considered to be one of the top twenty museums of the country.  Here is one odd musical instrument we discovered there:

And finally, I relish the challenge of simply finding unique hotels, resorts, and vacation homes in which to stay.  Some classic driving road trips work best with chain hotels, but this was not one of those.  These very special locations seemed to call for extraordinary accommodations, and that is what we found:

Our private infinity pool, along the canal.  Yes, we had a pontoon boat, too!

Wanna come along next time?  Want me to design a special getaway for you?  Make my day by letting me get to work on it!  

The memories we made from this trip are priceless.  I'd be glad to help create some for you, too.

Job - An Unlikely Social Activist

For several months I've been working my way through the book of Job.  And, as I’m finishing writing the last few pages of my book Risking it All:  One Woman's Adventure Giving Away Her Income, it’s quite timely that I came across a particular chapter this morning during my Bible study time.  

In Job chapter 29 and the two that follow it, Job presents his final speech of the entire book.  He gives his final thoughts about his current state.

Once a wealthy man, he has lost it all, and his body is wracked with horrible pain.  Not only that, but he is also tormented by unanswered questions.  It seems to him as if God has turned his back.

In chapter 29, Job takes some time to reflect on his past prosperity, happiness, honor, respect, helping, kindness, and usefulness.  It is in this portion of Scripture that we clearly see a man who was aware of the needs of those in his society and did what he could to help those less fortunate.

In spite of his own personal troubles, Job sets a stellar example of a man after God’s own heart.

He rescued the poor who needed help.  (29:12)

He took care of the orphans.  (29:12)

He cared for the dying.  (29:13)

He provided for the widows.  (29:13)

He was righteous and fair, in all outward actions and in his mind.  (29:14)

He gave direction to the blind.  (29:15)

He cared for the lame.  (29:15)

He gave fathering and advice to the needy.  (29:16)

He helped strangers integrate and make their way.  (29:16)

He did what he could to stop evil men and rescue their victims.  Could these be thieves, kidnappers, traffickers, slavers, embezzlers, gougers?  (29:17)

He gave good, Godly counsel.  (29:21-22)

His words were compassionate, bringing kindness and hope.  (29:23)

He was a loving, caring person, kind to all.  (29:24)

He shared his wisdom, watched over his people, and comforted them when needed.  (29:25)

Also, later in Chapter 30:

He wept for those in trouble and grieved for the poor.  (30:25)

It would seem that Job knew God’s heart for people and used the resources in his possession to do what he could.  What a great example of a compassionate man whose devotion to God showed through his care for others! 

Although we may never be able to answer all our questions about Job’s story, I still think we can learn a lot from his unique experience.  His story is unique in its extremes, yet we all can relate to it on some level because all of us have known some level of suffering.