Living In God’s Amazing Grace
When we talk about the ‘voices inside our heads’ I wonder how the hearer takes that. I mean the voice that tells you you aren’t good enough, the voice that tells you that your life has not counted for anything, and reminds you of EVERY, SINGLE MISTAKE, yes every one. My angry button gets pushed when I hear Christian preachers yammering on about our sin so long that we, the hearers, go directly to that place where the voices live, and cannot get out.
Jesus does not want that for us. Period.
1 John – that epistle which brings the love of God into bas relief is our subject this week, and truth is the center of the passage. The hymn in the video I have attached is an old favorite of mine – and I think, to be honest, its because its one of the first hymns I learned the alto part for! I felt so powerful knowing my part of the hymn – without even looking at the hymnal. I wish I could say I was 8 when this happened but I think it was more like 28! Continue reading “The Truth is in us”
We are getting pictures and texts from the FLY youth in Houston, and so far, they look tired! And fabulous!
Stay tuned for more!
Quoting the Bible is a funny thing. It seems to me that, if the title of this message were “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” your reaction might be different. And yet, because we know the context of this quote from Exodus 20 – the ten commandments, the picture I have attached to this blog makes a lot more sense. In God’s commandments, the overarching theme is one of care. God cares for you. God cared for the Israelites, and released them from slavery and gave them rules that would make their lives better. That’s it.
My soul aches as the news informs me of another suicide. Laden with sadness, the emptiness that the person who died must have felt seems to permeate the air. Of course, it makes me think of Gary, my good husband and friend who died from suicide in 2010. And, people who haven’t experienced a death like this look in my direction, to see if I know how to process it – if they can take any clues from my reaction, and learn how to deal with the inexplicable loss.
Practice doesn’t seem to help a lot with these horrific moments, unfortunately. I know there is another set of family, another set of friends who feel the dark wash over them. What could we have done differently? What did we miss? There aren’t any answers down that road. Continue reading “Another Suicide in the news.”