About Two Old Magazine Articles

The cartoon showed an apprentice watching expectantly as the master examined his work. “Of course you’ve improved greatly,” the master says, “That’s because you were so terrible to begin with”.

I thought of that old cartoon yesterday as I sorted through a box stuffed full of magazine articles I wrote back in the 1970s and 80s.

Some brought fond memories of great experiences; others made me cringe.

Did I write that?

Did I really?

One piece I wrote for the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce magazine reminded me of a laugh—I’ve always been a bit of a devil to long-suffering editors.

Carolyn Carroll, who was then editor, called me to her office and assigned me to write an article about the warehouses of Jacksonville.

Deliberately misunderstanding her, I bounced joyfully saying, “Wow! This is right up my alley! I’ll interview all the girls. Can we run photos? This is going to take a lot of research. Can you explain to Ginny what I’m doing? This is the greatest assignment ever! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“John Cowart, what are you carrying on about,” Carolyn asked.

“Didn’t you just ask me to write a piece about the whorehouses of Jacksonville?”

“Get out of my office! You know good and well it’s warehouses”.

“Drat! I never get any of the good assignments,” I said.

But yesterday I did find that piece I wrote extolling the warehouses of Jacksonville; it’s as boring to read now as it was back in December, 1988. I can’t believe I wrote such tripe.

What I won’t do for money!

But, as I sifted through those ancient articles from my distant past, I also came across the first article I ever had accepted for publication; Didn’t pay anything, only contributor’s copies, but it launched my career as a published author. It appeared in the March, 1973, issue of the Hoosier Conference Reporter. Here it is:

What Is God Like
by
John Cowart

What is God like?

This is the most profound question that either child or philosopher can ask. Getting the wrong answer to this question is the root of every error in doctrine, every doubt of faith, and every circumstance in life.

The Scripture’s main purpose is to reveal to us what God is like so that we can be completely and thoroughly furnished for every good work.

Read Psalm 145 and underline in your Bible (or make a list) the things that the Psalmist specifically tells us about God. In these 21 verses, over 30 distinct characteristics of our God are mentioned. And the Psalmist starts off by telling us that God is unsearchable. We, as created beings, cannot learn everything about our Creator, but this Psalm gives us a good start toward that end.

When I looked at a list of the qualities of God, my first reaction was “so what?”. The Psalm says that God is great, mighty, glorious, wondrous, righteous, gracious, full of compassion, etc. “Church words,” I said, “Self-evident, anybody knows these things”.

However, as I began to study this Psalm, I ran across a word that I wanted to look up in a dictionary to see the exact meaning. The word was gracious (verse 8). A certain lawyer I know often opens his prayer with the address “Gracious Lord”. What kind of God is he praying to? What does gracious mean? My dictionary says (among other things) “Marked by qualities associated with good taste”.

We serve a God who has good taste! Obvious? Perhaps to some, but I was amazed to find this out. I look at some of my fellow Christians and wonder if God has any taste at all. But, it He’s a God of good taste, perhaps He sees something in them that I don’t.

This misunderstanding about one word in this Psalm made me want to go on to look up others in my paperback dictionary to see if I’d been missing anything else. I’m going to record a few of my findings, but I urge you to take your Bible and dictionary and study Psalm 145 in this way. Incidentally, I’m not going to skim off the best ones to write about, Some of the juiciest ones are left for you to discover for yourself. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

“Great is the Lord” (verse 3). Great is defines as “remarkable, eminent, distinguished, or first-rate”. Our God is first-rate!

“The Lord is good to all” (verse 9). Good has many meanings starting with “Having positive desirable qualities” and ending with “Well-behaved” as in “You’re a good boy, Johnny”.

Our God is first-rate, well-behaved, and has good taste.

Many people returning from Disney World a few miles south of my home describe it as glorious meaning “delightful”. Or perhaps they will describe it as wonderful, meaning “capable of exciting us”. The Psalmist (verse 5) uses both these words to tell us about what God is like.

Our Lord is exciting, and He is delightful. How can we be bored and dreary if we have an intimate relationship with such a God?

The Lord has power (verse 11), i.e. “the capacity to perform effectively”. He had dominion (verse 13), i.e. “the exercise of control”. Do we live like worshipers of the God revealed here? Or do we find our lives ineffectual and out of control?

The Lord is near (verse 18) i.e. “close by, or available”. This same first-rate God, who is well-behaved, delightful, and exciting; who performs effectively and has control, is also available to us.

Now, you look up compassion and remember the time Jesus used spit on His own fingers to wipe the pus from a blind man’s eyes before He performed a miracle. Look up terrible and remember Peter’s reaction to Christ’s stilling the storm. Look up mercy (verse 9), raising (verse 14), giving (verse 16), satisfying (verse 16) hearing (verse 19), saving (verse 19), preserving (verse 20) and destroying (verse 20). In all these qualities and actions of God, remember that Christ is God come in the flesh, and He represents all these things perfectly to us.

Study this Psalm and worship our God whose greatness is unsearchable.