Tag Archives: God

Stay Squishy

Posted on by
Reply

…dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.   Romans 12:1-2  NLT

My little brother, sister and I molded and created all sorts of silly stuff out of play dough together when we were little.  My sister had this amazingly fun set of hard plastic molds we used to make all sorts of foods and play restaurant on little plastic plates.  We’d end up pressing, rolling, pinching, cutting and flattening away for hours.  To get the best fruit or pizza or cheeseburger you had to push the play dough really hard so that it filled all the little spaces of the mold.

When my girls were little we acquired our own play dough toys that introduced them to the fun of moldable squishy stuff.  They even had a fuzzy pumper – do you remember those?  Continue reading →

The Courage of Christ

Posted on by
1

My family and I decided to attend the “Journey to the Cross” Good Friday event at our church, not fully knowing what to expect.

In the last few years, this type of observance seems to be becoming popular, replacing services in which we just sit, sing songs and pray.  Those are good things to do but I’m glad people have used their creativity to come up with ways for people to physically walk through, smell, taste, hear and feel the story.  The story of Jesus’ death and resurrection can become benign to those of us who have heard or read it year after year.  It may even cease to really affect us or make us think harder about the gravity of what Jesus did and experienced.

The “Journey to the Cross” is the first experiential-type setting we’ve been through in first person as if walking in Jesus’ place, sensing a tiny bit of what it must have been like for him.  We began by entering a room set up as the last supper, Continue reading →

Live backwards to move forward

Posted on by
2

Lose your life to find it.    (Matt. 10:38-40)

Die to live.    (Romans 6:3-5)

Leaders should behave like servants.    (Luke 22:26)

Rejoice when things are going wrong, in hard times.  (Romans 5:3)

Last is really first.   (Mark 9:35)

Love the haters.  (Matt. 5:44)

Being God’s servant is the only way to true freedom.  (I Peter 2:16)

When I’m weak, I’m actually strong.  (II Cor. 12:10)

Do you see the trend here?  Following Jesus feels as if we’re walking backwards; especially when we look around at the rest of the world and the way they’re walking and living their lives.   Living within the boundaries God sets, however, actually gives us freedom – to enjoy a better, guilt-free, peace-filled life.   It would be one thing to walk this way if we never saw the other way.  Continue reading →

So that…

Posted on by
1

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.  He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.  For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.  II Corinthians 1:3-5   NLT

All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.   II Cor. 1:3-5 (The Msg)

My sister and her family swam against a powerful tide and swirling waters of grief, fear, hurt and the big blackness of the unknown and have finally come crawling out onto the shore of the other side – the other side of this particular storm.  Still dripping from their exhausting ordeal, my sis turned around to throw a rope to me as I swim through unfamiliar waters hauntingly like the ones she just stepped out of, sometimes feeling overwhelmed by the size of the waves, sometimes starting to lose heart.  Continue reading →

Little gusts of wind

Posted on by
Reply

It was another cold, dreary, dark morning that I drove through on my way to work.  At that time in my life I was sinking down into some depression, finding it hard to cope with ongoing stress and pressure.  I really couldn’t explain why otherwise.  It must have been gradual but that month I realized I could hardly get out of bed in the morning and didn’t even want to decide what to wear or put on makeup.  The least little thing brought tears to my eyes.   However, little things encouraged me, too.  For example, when I drove through McDonald’s to get my diet coke each morning there was a cheerful worker named Mary who took my money just about every day.  She’s short, a little rotund, has a tooth or two missing, but always has a kind, cheery voice and smile.  I was amazed how much her happy smile blew a little gust of wind into my droopy sail, even if all she said was “thank you, have a good day!”  I told her that day, “Your kindness and smile make my day.”

In better times, little acts of love are still a blessing.  Today at church during the worship time, we were singing along when I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders.  I turned around to see a friend’s smiling face.  Continue reading →

Notes from the last few days of class

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been learning a lot the last few days, thought I’d share from my mental “notes”:

Fasting from facebook has been good for me, but is sometimes difficult.  It’s just so fun to catch up on everybody and, I have to admit, play a few games in free time.  My 10-year-old niece added me as a friend (I got an email telling me) so I went on facebook JUST to add her.  I didn’t want her to think I was ignoring her – she doesn’t know I’m not using facebook right now.  My middle girl came downstairs while I was on the facebook page and asked me with hands on her hips, “Mom, what are you doing?”  Continue reading →

Which Direction?

Posted on by
2

My girls think I overreact when they drive recklessly or make a mistake on the road but they don’t realize that in those split seconds my brain immediately recalls the dumb stuff I did as a teenage driver.   I guess I could see how my sudden gasps while clutching the dashboard for dear life might appear as overreacting.  One memory of my early driving years in particular that makes me laugh now but then scared the stuffing out of me was when my sister and I were attempting to navigate the one way street maze that is downtown Indianapolis – at night.  I don’t remember what we were doing down there but at one point we turned left onto a street and started to head to the next intersection, only to look and see cars parked on the curb facing the opposite direction and a lady in the crosswalk waving her arms and pointing.  Continue reading →

PWYP

Posted on by
Reply

You know how yesterday I blogged about loving the unlovable and how much I love my daughter even when she disobeys or does something that hurts me?  Well last night after swatting away (as gently as possible) a disrespectful attitude that was thrown at the back of my head by said daughter, I sulked into my bathroom to get ready for bed and felt God poke me on the shoulder.  I could almost see a smirk on his face as He asked me, “So, do you still love your daughter?”  I practically rolled my eyes at His question as if I had a feeling it was coming.  “Yes, I love her,” I muttered to myself through gritted teeth, “I love that little…”  (insert synonyms for “pain in the neck,” “toot”, “pill”…you get the picture).  Continue reading →

I love you

Posted on by
2

A husband and wife sat together at the kitchen table in awkward silence.  They had decided, having trouble getting along lately, that perhaps they should share with one another the frustrations they had with each other by each making a list.  After some quiet thought and pencil scratching it was time to share their complaints.  The husband read his wife’s first. A long list of his faults filled the page, and then another page. Continue reading →

No Fear

Posted on by
Reply

They said three days.  So why was I still waiting to hear from them?  Granted, Monday happened to be Labor Day, and of course the lab was closed that day, so that didn’t help.  If it was nothing I would have heard by now.  The not knowing was so hard.  If only I knew the situation fully I could face it, but facing an unknown, invisible enemy was awful and seemed impossible.  I could hardly keep my mind from trying to figure out or imagine what it was, what the outcome would be.  During that time of waiting, the anxiety was so intense that my very nerve endings seemed on edge, all over my body, as if fear was continually pricking my skin. Continue reading →