Tag Archives: shepherd

What did you say?

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I work in an Ear, Nose & Throat practice which also houses an audiology department, which specializes in helping people hear better.  There is an awful lot of “What did you say??” and “Say that again, please” and “You have to speak up, I can’t hear you” going on every day.  To top that off, I also have radar ears – ears that strain to hear what’s going on around me so I don’t miss anything.  I guess this could also be categorized as nosiness, but I prefer to call it being aware.  Right?

This can cause problems for me because if the person in front of me, the patient, is telling me something and my ears are also listening to the conversation behind me so I know what’s going on with my co-workers, I invariably have to ask the patient to repeat themselves because I lose focus.  I’m not so great at multi-task listening.  There are times, too, when several of us at the front desk are dealing with several hard of hearing people and the noise level grows so that it’s tricky to hear what we need to hear from the patient we’re trying to help.

I need to just keep my ears “turned” toward the person who’s most important in that moment, the patient, and listen intently just to their voice.

I just read from John 10:27 this morning in which Jesus said Continue reading →

Green Pasture

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Life has definitely taken a turn, things are dramatically different for us as a family.  It’s hard to let go of something familiar, something you love, but now it is actually freeing to take our hands off and back away.  We need some space but have such a mixture of feelings:  love for friends but the need for our hearts to move on from a chapter God’s finished writing for us.  We watch Him turn the page with some sadness, reflection, and fondness.   It was a chapter wrought with change, quite a bit of stress and challenge, but also growth, much love and joy.  Toward the end of it, some of the characters God had written in affirmed us and let us know that what we had been and done in these last few years made a difference.   I hope many of those characters will also appear in the next chapters as we watch our life story keep unfolding, as God writes it one page at a time.

I was sharing with my mom how I was intent on staying close to these friends, keeping in touch, not letting things fade away.  She understood but said, “be careful.”  At first her words hurt a little – why would it be bad to stay close with these special people who had become so important to me?  Continue reading →

It’s Still Good

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I’ve been thinking a LOT about the nature of the Church in America, how we do some things right, how we do some things seemingly wrong, how we miss the mark so often by getting distracted and becoming like social clubs, how it seems we’ve failed in being life-saving stations.  I’ve swayed so far on the continuum that I’ve wondered the purpose of meeting every Sunday to sing songs and have “church.”  What is the point in all this that we do week after week, God?  Is this accomplishing your mission for us??

This morning God showed me that it’s still good.  Meeting for worship with other believers, other “sheep” is still a very good thing.  There’s nothing wrong with it – it’s just not all there is.  When we meet we encourage one another, we get help shifting our focus back to God, we hear from God’s Word, we gain new insights and direction, we hopefully hear testimonies of how God is at work in other people’s lives, we celebrate how good God is together, we sing, we pray together.  It’s still good!   As a church we just can’t stop or stay there.  Our mission is to get out and share hope and Jesus with everyone who hasn’t believed yet.  How do we do that?  That’s the million dollar question! Continue reading →

You didn’t expect that did you?

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susan-boyleMany have seen the You Tube video of Susan Boyle, a middle-aged single woman who appeared on the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent”.  When she walked out onto the stage the judges practically rolled their eyes with contempt.  One could almost hear their thoughts, “What on earth is this frizzy-haired, plain-faced woman in an old-fashioned dress and heels doing here?  She’s way out of her league.  Delusions of grandeur, here we come.”

Once she opened her mouth and began to sing their judgments were proven premature.  A strong beautiful voice came from this unlikely performer, a voice and interpretation of a song that touched hearts and moved some to tears.  So much for judging someone based on their appearance!  The co-hosts who stood backstage looked at the camera and said to viewers while smiling, “you didn’t expect that did you?”

For some reason humans are so quick to make judgments, usually based on what we see in a split-second.  Think about it, the next time you drive down the road or sit in a mall watching people, pay attention to the label-making that goes on in your mind as people walk or drive by.

David_anointedI read this morning in I Samuel about the anointing of King David.  King Saul had proven to be a disappointment to God so God told Samuel He was going to choose a new king.  Samuel went to the house of Jesse, a man with seven sons.  Six of the sons walked in front of Samuel – tall and strong, strapping young men.  As each one passed Samuel thought, “Surely this is the one” and each time God said “Nope.”  Continue reading →