Thanks to everyone who so graciously expressed condolences and offered prayers during my Mom’s illness and recent death. God continues to gently teach me as I begin to absorb that both my Mom and Dad are gone from this world. Several weeks ago my niece told me about a song by the group Diamond Rio. The song is called “God only cries for the living” and I have been visiting that tune pretty regularly recently. Here are some of the lyrics from the song. God only cries for the living,‘Cause it’s the living that are left to carry on. That is a hard truth. The living are left with the financial and legal affairs. Disposing of personal items that generate tearful memories. And the living are left in a place that Scripture tells us is only a temporary dwelling place. Paul writes about our “dual citizenship” in his letter to the Philippians. For, as I have often told you before
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The prevailing theme at my Mom’s funeral this week was how she finished strong. I have been thinking a lot about that topic. A recent conversation came to mind with a person who could not let go of past failures, bad decisions, and missed opportunities. My Mom’s life drove home a very important fact. God does not care about yesterday. His focus is on today and how we live and respond in this moment.  How I wish that we could wrap our minds and souls around that as well. We too often live in regret of the past and fear of the future. Neither place is God’s will for His child. Christians believe that Jesus forgives us. It is a simple act of faith. Nothing that we can do to earn or work for this forgiveness. It is a gift of grace. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”Americans have a cultural value of working for and earning
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My Mom died this weekend. There is the sadness of loss that is tempered with the joy of seeing her relationship with the Lord Jesus in her final months. The last year of my Mom’s life caused me to think of Al Michael’s famous question from the 1980 Olympics. “Do you believe in miracles?” I do believe in miracles. I have seen one. I loved my Mom but our relationship was challenging. She was raised in a family where love was not expressed. She could be very negative and her comments had stung me over the years. I knew that she loved me fiercely but I will admit that I grieved for a more gracious expression of her love. My Mom could be really difficult. As her health declined I prayed that her relationship with God would be clear to her and to her family. Last summer I journeyed to Ohio to visit her. A group of Christian friends in
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Mother Teresa was alleged to have said, “I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle.  I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much”.  I think I understand how she felt. Regular readers of the humble ramblings know about Joni’s journey through breast cancer treatment. As she completed the bulk of her treatments I looked forward to the new year. Maybe 2007 would be better. But we never got to the ball dropping in Times Square before more troubles came our way. Joni noted that “bad news seems to come in waves”. I told her this was more like a tsunami. Just before Christmas we learned that one dear friend had entered hospice care. On December 27th the father of other close friends died unexpectedly. On New Year’s Eve I received a call that my Mom was not expected to make it through the night. Today I received a call that the 21 year old son of
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Sometimes this humble little blog effort touches me deep in my soul. It is an odd phenomenon that you can feel the pain of strangers by reading their words and feedback. I have been writing about a topic that God has been working on in my life for many years.  Forgiveness. I still have a long way to go. But I have seen the debilitating effects on individuals, families, and churches when there is no forgiveness. During my series on God’s Weight Loss Plan I received this heartbreaking message from a very honest reader who called herself “sinner”. Here is that post. I doubt I will ever be able to forgive the pastor who hurt my family. We lost so much, so many opportunities were taken from my children, precious years are gone forever. I asked for help and got used instead and all these years later we are still dealing with the consequences of that pastor’s negligence and lies. Our own pastor made everything so
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We have been outlining God’s Guaranteed Weight Loss Plan. With this plan you can lose the weight of bitterness and anger caused from lack of forgiveness. If you are carrying around an unforgiving spirit it is weighing you down spiritually and emotionally. Days one and two set the stage. Yesterday I outlined six facts about forgiveness. Today we wrap up the list. Fact 7: Forgiveness is not denial of the hurt. Pride will often cause us to “not allow the person who hurt us the satisfaction” of knowing we are wounded. That is absurd. Acknowledge the reality of the injury, but make the choice to be healed. Fact 8: Forgiveness eliminates revenge as an option. The late author Lewis Smedes makes a brilliant point about revenge. No matter how much we try “we cannot get even; this is the inner fatality of revenge.” When we start trying to get even, we have lost. How many times must I gossip about you to
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We have been outlining God’s Guaranteed Weight Loss Plan. With this plan you can lose the weight of bitterness and anger caused from lack of forgiveness. If you are carrying around an unforgiving spirit it is weighing you down spiritually and emotionally. Days one and two set the stage. For the next two days we will look at some things I have learned (usually the painful way) about forgiveness. Fact 1: Our ability to forgive is rooted in the depth of our gratitude.The parable discussed in yesterday’s post is the basis for our first fact. The foundation of forgiveness is our gratitude for the undeserved forgiveness we have received through Christ. Take some time to meditate about how much you have been forgiven. In the gospel of Luke we read about a sinful woman who washes Jesus feet with her tears and dries them with her hair. Jesus said, “Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very,
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