Month: May 2008

“As every parent and every lover knows, love can be rendered powerless if the beloved chooses to spurn it.” Phillip Yancey

I underlined this in a book I had read because it seemed so topical for me at the time. When the silence becomes too much to bear from a loved one, the mind can play games. The hardest thing I have ever chosen to do in my life was to keep on loving someone who didn’t seem to be sharing it back. My immature soul always screams to protect itself and walk away, but as I grow and learn, I am understanding the nature of love is not one of “only love those who love you back”. It’s to love regardless. It’s loving people in the places they are at. It’s loving someone even when it hurts.

The fruit of the Spirit always starts with love.

Does anyone remember that 70’s song that went, “Tell me something good, tell me that you love me, yeah!” I am having the kind of day that I really want an audible voice to follow me around and confirm that I have awesome love over me and my life! Of course we have to be careful what we ask for don’t we? What if that voice was really there but no one could hear it but me? Would I feel joy to the exclusion that everyone else think me insane? What if they tried to have me committed or have me medicated? Just something to think about in the middle of any given week.

In lieu of my audible voice, how about the Man in the flesh to walk and talk with me? I feel magnanimous, how about sharing Him with everyone? Well I may not have heard the audible voice nor have I seen the Man in flesh but I can rely on the promise and be assured I am loved.

John 20:29 “Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The winds of change are blowing hard. I try not to watch too much news but neither can you bury your head in the sand. I am so tired of political rhetoric and the media trying to convince me of how bad our economy is. The economy is for sure in a state of fluctuating changes but there is no need to create a panic.

We have to pay higher gas costs and this translates into higher food costs and the trend continues. Yes we can worry and stress but will it really change anything except perhaps to be exactly where the media wants you to be? Anxious!

I plan on voting and I plan on paying attention to those put into leadership positions all around us. It’s not easy to get involved in this stuff but the alternative seems grim. If we don’t stand up and take up our own positions of influence regarding the economy, who is going to stop it from going wherever greed and injustice takes us.

Image is everything! Yeah baby, we are all putting on the ritz to some degree or another aren’t we? If you’re not, then “congratulations”, perfection has been attained and you need not read on another second. For the rest of us, let’s have a private pow wow about the topic of image. Who do you see in your mirror?

This is a “hot topic” for sure and not many can (or will) be honest about it. I have gorgeous friends who see flaws in themselves that I don’t see when looking at them. Women typically have issues with body image but this is no surprise considering the bombardment that is put up against them to look like others. Men? Well, I can’t even swim in those deep (and in some cases shallow) waters.

I get aggravated to the degree my passion becomes fired when I see the young girls in our culture turned into miniature drones of the latest pop star or movie artist whose life is “least likely to succeed” in the long run of healthy living.

Let me pose a beautiful question for all to ponder. Wouldn’t it be lovely to see a little girl again? Do you remember them? They used to be fine with snapping their gum while giggling and trying to blow the biggest bubble. Ponytails were “in style” and cheap tennis shoes got them where they needed to go. What a lovely thing to see them just dance with joy and not mimic some “stripper’s act” from the latest MTV video.

I am looking to see a new image. I long to see young girls be original and comfortable in their own skin. Would it hurt to turn off MTV or would it heal?