Month: August 2022

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, “Rise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I shall let you hear My words.” And I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, attending to the task on the wheel. And if the vessel that he was making in clay in the potter’s hand was spoiled, he would go back and make another vessel as it fit in the eyes of the potter to make. And the word of the LORD came to me saying: “Like the potter cannot I do with you, house of Israel?” said the LORD. “Look, like clay in the…

Has a nation given up its gods though they are ungods? But My people exchange its Glory for what cannot avail. Be appalled, O heavens, for this, be shocked, altogether, desolate— said the LORD. For two evils My people has done: Me they forsook, the source of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold the water [Jeremiah 2:11-14, The Jerusalem Bible, translated by Robert Alter]. Cisterns—artificial reservoirs (usually underground) for storing liquids such as rainwater—are generally unnecessary in North Carolina. Portions of the state receive twice as much annual rainfall as does “rainy Seattle.” Some elevations in our Smoky Mountains “enjoy” up to 100 inches…

  Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” [Jeremiah 1:4-5]. Perhaps like me, you were “raised up” in a world that taught—that teaches—lessons in self-construction. To the extent that your own youth was anything like mine, you often heard statements like this from adults: “If you just put your mind to it, you can do or be anything you want.” Believing the wisdom in that statement, I studied hard through high school so that I could go to a first-rate college…

I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! [Luke 12:49]. The church within which my brothers and I were baptized and “raised up,” Olney Presbyterian, formed in 1793 by half a dozen southern Gaston County (N.C.) families—including the Robinsons—was no more than half a mile from our mother’s home place, the D.D. Grier house on Old York Road. During the 1950s, because of the proximity of the church to our grandparents’ home—it was actually owned by our great-grandmother, “Granny Grier, who lived there as well—we’d sometimes eat “Sunday dinner” at the Griers. We’d also sometimes stop by on Wednesday evenings after Olney’s…

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” [Luke 12:32]. I’ve shared this story with some of you. It was originally related to me by Jane’s father, B.P. Albright, Sr., when I was his daughter’s 19-year-old fiancé (we were 20 when we actually married). You see, knowing that we would have finished just two years of college by the time we said our vows, both sets of parents promised that after August 28, 1971, they would continue to provide for Jane and me in the same manner as they would have if we had not decided to marry. To be…