Lunch With A Happy Hooker

My friend Barbara White has become a Happy Hooker.

Barbara is the author of the Along The Way series of books at www.bluefishbooks.info .

Yes, she’s joined a group of women who crochet or knit baby clothes which are given to mothers of newborns when they leave a charity hospital. The 18 or 20 ladies who crochet these caps, booties, and baby blankets call themselves The Happy Hookers.

The hooking part of the group name refers to crochet hooks.

“John, I do this because this is something I can do,” Barbara said as she treated me to lunch yesterday at Silver Star Chinese Restaurant. Because of an injury to her wrist, Barbara knits instead of crochets. “When I found out that I may live a while longer, I wanted to do something I’m able to do as service to the Lord, and I can do this,” she said.

It appears that the chemotherapy has worked for Barbara’s cancer; yet she felt it prudent yesterday to see an attorney to adjust her will. And since that brought her over to my side of town, she came by and picked me up for lunch.

Since I firmly believe in the old adage that the chief duty of a writer is to avoid writing, I was happy for the excuse to leave off work on the will of God book to go with her. No wonder it has taken me so many years to get this far with that book!

I have this deep ingrained feeling that no one reads what I write and that it does not matter if I write or not because my work is useless.

Barbara said I listen to the wrong voice. “The enemy’s voice is persistent and persuading. But it is not pervasive,” she said. “He is a smooth-talking liar. The Lord may convict but He does not belittle you”.

But I am so attuned to the put-down voice and have listened to it for so long that it is difficult for me to discern the Voice of God when it relates to the value of my own work, life or influence.

The main thing I cling to is that phrase of Scripture that declares I am “accepted in the Beloved”. And the Lord Christ said, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent”.

Barbara quoted that the important thing is not whether we make right decisions but that we make faithful decisions.

Over the weekend she attended the Bar Mitzvah of the grandson of a friend. The young man represents the third or forth generation in his family in that same temple. The continuity of faith there impressed Barbara greatly as the Torah scroll was passed down among family members before reaching the young man. He read the passage from Judges about Deborah and Barak.

Barbara said tears of worship streamed down her face during the service.

Of course, I also contributed to the high tone of our conversation as we also talked about e-books, writing and editing.

I told Barbara about a murder mystery I’ve been reading: a 15-year-old girl accuses a candidate running for governor of molesting her. She can prove it. She tells the two detectives that the politician has a birthmark on his testicles; it’s shaped exactly like a semicolon.

Outside the interview room, one cop says, “She’s lying. Somebody coached her.”.

“You don’t believe he could have done it”?

“Oh, he may have done it. What I don’t believe is that a 15-year-old in our educational system knows what a semicolon looks like”.