Thinking on these things . . .

So here I was today going through the metal detector at the county courthouse feeling a bit like a criminal...but no, I wasn't here for a court date but merely to pick up a copy of my birth certificate. "Fill out the green card" So I did; name, date of birth, city of birth, father's name, mother's maiden name... As I wrote their names an inexplicable sadness settled on me, and then swiftly deepened as I realized that, in the eyes of this office, the entirety of my life was reduced to the thickness of two sheets of paper; a birth certificate and a marriage license. My parents have lives three sheets thick as a death certificate is now also a part of their records... Is that all a life is; one, two or three sheets of paper among the one, two or three sheets of the other three hundred eight million six hundred eighty-five thousand current people living in the United States? It was sobering. And then I found out that there is something wrong with my certificate so it ...

As I was on Facebook last night the status of a friend read "...is on for the last day until April 4th". It took me a few seconds to figure out what she was talking about until the light bulb went off and I realized April 4th was Easter which meant Lent was starting - which you think I would have realized as I still had the fruit filling dripping off my lips from enjoying our Fat Tuesday Paczkis! (You’ve got to love any holiday that celebrates with doughnuts!) For years Lent was a foreign concept to this Fundamental independent Baptist raised girl yet now I live and move in a community of Irish Catholics and Protestant traditions that recognize Lent. It boggles my mind every year to see people walking around with an ash cross on their foreheads. I say to my chagrin that I don't think I could do that - the Lenten version of wearing your heart on your sleeve. I've also never succeeded in giving up anything. I always think about it and always think the most sacrificial t...

I love a good turn of phrase and I don't think I'm alone in this admiration for a clever combination of subject, verb and modifier as our culture is awash in quotes, jingles, and pithy bumper stickers! (well at least a few of them are...) You can now even buy giant sticker phrases to put on your walls so that you can always remember to "Live, Laugh, Love" or "Life is not measured by the breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away". It's all great stuff how a giant concept can be reduced to a memorable (and decorative!) sentence. This morning I had the gift of being able to leisurely spend some time in the Psalms and, as I've been reading, I've found a plethora of phrases to pull out and plaster on my painted porticoes (okay, I'll stop!) but let me share a few first... For you are God, my only safe haven (43:2) The Lord Almighty is here among us (47:7) How great is the Lord and how much we should praise Him. (48:1) As your na...

A remnant is a small part, a tiny amount of the original, or what remains after the rest is gone. I’ve been studying the prophetic books and the period of time between the Old and New Testament and it’s all about the remnant God preserved of the people of Israel. They’d been conquered and lead into captivity as God’s judgment for their rejection of Him. Thousands, and tens of thousands of God’s people turned to worship idols, only a handful stayed true to Jehovah, and God preserved these ones that continued to seek him. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of Heaven but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matthew 7:21-23 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destructi...

It's the first question we ask when something bad takes place. "Why did this happen to me?!" And typically it takes the long lens of time to see the answer; and I for one, hate that. I want to know why now and if not immediately, then very soon. Why am I going through this? I want to know there is a reason and that this anguish is not just some random event. I am quick to look for applications, maybe it's the teacher in me, and usually some explanations are readily available, like a “silver lining” and while it does not completely assuage the giant grey cloud, it helps. This was not the case of Ezekiel the exile... The king of Babylon had conquered Jerusalem and carried off 10,000 exiles and twenty-five year old Ezekiel was one of them. He was the son of a priest. And that's significant because historically the priests began their service at the age of thirty. So all his life, one can surmise, Ezekiel had planned to be a temple priest and offer the sacrifices to...