Here and Now

I had a woman stop in my office recently. She stopped in front of my desk and said, "I just want you to know that it's official. Life really sucks." I was a little shocked (heh, not because I've never used/heard the word sucks before) but that she would say this. She's a woman of solid faith who, I believe, really does trust God in the good and hard times. But yesterday, for her, really sucked. A friend (and father of two little ones - 3 and 4 year olds) died tragically the night before. She just got word that her husband and sons might have a pretty serious genetic dificulty (that could, ultimately, be lethal). I think she's already cried her way though this - she didn't break down or anything here (though that day might come) - and she's trying to process it all. What could I do? I mean, really... I remember a story, though, and I've done my best to kind of live this. As quoted from somewhere else: Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked ab

I'm really tired today - and trying very hard to avoid some things that I don't want to do. Which is a particular sin of mine...who knew that procrastination could be sin...sigh... But in my case, it is... I'm taking this weekend off - Lori and I are going to just "get away" for the weekend. We've never just gone away for a couple of days without having an agenda before. Not sure we can handle it :) I don't know what we're going to do about church this Sunday. I'd kind of like to go to Hot Metal Bridge - but I don't know if we'd fit in (heh - that's gotta be ironic - a church that is all about being there for people who don't fit into church and I don't know if I'll feel comfortable/welcome/whatever...). I still might go... Sometimes when we're gone on the weekends we don't go to church...and it feels weird. What is it about sitting with other believers on a Sunday morning (or Saturday evening or whatever) t

I got one of those forwards today that, you know, you've gotten a million times but you read anyway... It was "what love is" according to little kids. Yeah, it's cute, it's funny, it's probably all fiction... One of them was: "When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth." Billy - age 4 I don't care if Billy age 4 really said that or if sad, lonely Joe, age 41 wrote it in this email pseudopigraphically (heh) - I like what it says. "Your name is safe in their mouth." There are some people that I don't want to hear call my name. An IRS agent, for one. Right now, our Bishop (it's changing churches season again...). There are a few people who just outright hate me, too, so I can only imagine what my voice sounds like coming from them... And sometimes I don't like the tone of voice that the people I love use when they say my name... BUT - when even th

I have some sort of weird infection or something on my finger. Every 6 or 8 weeks my skin just starts peeling off and then my finger cracks and bleeds and it's a horrible looking and feeling thing... My doctor thinks that I'm coming into contact with something on an irregular basis that maybe I'm alergic to or something - contact dermatitis or something like that - heh, med school, what does he know? I guess it's possible. It's just so weird that it's always this same finger, in the same place, and the same thing happens... The skin on my finger, after it grows back, is all leathery - it's been irritated so many times that I think it's beginning to alter its structure or something (maybe I'm evolving - yeah, leather finger man...or, um...whatever...) Oh well - it's just another annoyance in life. I don't really spend hours awake at night wondering what I've come into contact with that makes my finger wig out... But I can live with it

The other day I was calculating a Bible reading plan and I realized that if I read 12 chapters a day I'd be through the whole Bible in about 3 months (okay here's the skinny - there are 1189 chapters in the Bible so at 12 a day it would take me just 99 days - if I'm willing to actually read 13 chapters on that last day - to read the whole Bible). So, ask me how my reading plan is going so far...sigh...

I was reading Haggai the other day. I love the "minor" prophets - they really have so much to say to us - but we rarely focus on them... Anyway, God told Haggai that he was pretty mad about the fact that the people had come back from exile and had rebuilt their houses and rebuilt their lives - but not the temple - and more importantly, not their worship life. In other words, they came back from a long time out of the promise and they went about their practical, daily lives without any consideration of their spiritual life. A whole generation had simply turned its back on God... Is there anyone who can remember this house—the Temple—as it was before? In comparison, how does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all! (Haggai 2:3) It got me thinking... I'm part of a generation (actually, two generations, really) that has done all it can to not think about God. Part of the generation that took prayer and Bible reading out of school, God out of public life, a gener