Forgiveness

I have an enemy.  He does not know me, nor do I know him.  We have never been officially introduced nor have I spent any time with this person.  But he is a danger to someone I love.  That makes him my enemy.

But something of new life broke into my understanding last week, and now my enemy is beloved.  By the Father.  Not perfectly by me, but by God.

After communion in church last week with Joy and Nathaniel, we were singing a song called "Jesus Messiah."  Unexpectedly, I could not continue singing.  The words overwhelmed me.  The salt of my tears melted the bile of disdain for my enemy.  I began to see him as God does.  A willfully rebellious child in desperate need of his Father's rescue.
Jesus Messiah, name above all names.  Blessed redeemer, Emmanuel.  The rescue for sinners, the ransom from Heaven, Jesus Messiah, LORD of all.

My heart was broken for my enemy.  He is lost.  Not hopelessly lost.  No one is, as long as they draw breath.  But at that moment during that song at church surrounded by a community of God-lovers, I knew that my enemy was completely and thoroughly lost.  And my heart broke.  I knew it was the Father's love for His lost child that He shared with me.  So I would pray for my enemy.  That he might be found.

If I could, I would wash his feet.  I would tell him of my experience on that Sunday when my heart broke for his lost soul.  I would pass him communion and say, "Peace of God."  Be restored, oh enemy of mine.  Be healed and made whole.  Live unto the meaning of your name:  Inestimable.  Priceless One.  May God's forgiveness restore you.  Won't you please come home.

Sharing

Sharing.  It is a part of our divine DNA.  We see it when a child shares their creation.  "Come, look what I made?  And watch me jump out of the swing!"  It's more fun if someone is near to watch and applaud, ew and awww!  Half the creative delight is sharing the creation or the accomplishment.

Even GOD the Creator was compelled to share.  The boundless goodwill of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had to be shared.  So God The Creator made man in His likeness to share in the Trinity's blessed family.  Spread the love.  Share the glory.

Every person has the divine DNA, and the share gene is part and parcel of being created in the Father's image or likeness.  By default, healthy people desire to share with another.

I am thankful that I share a home, good meals and joyous experiences with my sister Suzan.  Today I noticed our African Praise Plant on the north end of the garage.  We do not know what it's going to grow up to be, but every day the thing becomes more wondrous.  Today I noticed it spread its frond in upraised praise.  I had to share it.  With Suzan.

"Have you seen our African Praise Plant today?  And have you noticed the new petunias I put on the deck, Suz?"

Mystery African Plant

Suz asked, "Do you smell my chicken frying?"  (Yes, frying!  She said at times she grows weary of "eating healthy.")  Coconut oil and garlic were indeed wafting up the stairs and entering my space.  Space we share.  Up and down.  Together.

There are prettier places to dwell in the Great Green Globe.  But the sharing in this particular place in this precise space counts for something.  I'd rather share Watertown in all its mundane glory than watch the glorious sun rise and set in Timbuktu.  Alone.

And by the bye ~ The fried chicken breast was delicious.  Suz shared it.  And now I'm sharing my thoughts.

Thoughts worth wrestling

Jesus once looked like this.  In the safe womb of His Mother.

Christianity is a faith for all people, but it is not a faith for all notions and ideas. You cannot simultaneously profess the Faith while also defending the murder of the innocent. You are welcome into the church, but your belief in baby-murder is not. You cannot carry the cross and a Planned Parenthood banner at the same time.

Matt Walsh, professional Truth teller

Read more at http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/05/28/abortion/2/#GkjbYbWBk100u4ZW.99

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL by Ray Charles

We remember all who have served on this Memorial Day 2014.  Thank you for fighting that we might remain free.

Definition of the day

Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.
from The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

I love this picture of my wise and beautiful daughter.
See you in a couple of weeks, Danielley Beth.

American Meb Keflezighi wins Boston Marathon

Meb is the first American to win the
Boston Marathon in 31 years.
Mebrahtom means "Let there be light."
Thank you for shining bright.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/04/22/meb-keflezighi-thankful-for-opportunity/ad1jdjfXvJzQkahdqYRSqM/story.html

One of the many ways of lying smoothly is to simply redefine words.  Thomas Sowell

Flummoxed

The Domestics try to keep it light,
but that 8th grade boy keeps following them

I've always been dizzied by the see-saw back 'n forth of two sides of my annoyingly animated personality:  The intoxicating immersion in all things beautiful.  The no-nonsense drive for justice.  

The warring sides are readily seen on this blog.  One post excoriating illogic, hypocrisy and willful destructive sin, next to the post that is pregnant with meaning and glory.  

Art can tip the see-saw:

Makoto Fujimura's magnificent abstracts
are of another world

A song or symphony tilts toward Whatsoever Things are Lovely

Perhaps we will just lean into All Things Lovely and leave the justice to the good dear LORD.  Art, music, and lofty ideas to make the head dance are edifying.  And here is the Big Idea that balances the see-saw:  The Father's Justice Will Prevail.  The Lamb is the first Word and shall be the last.  And all of creation will say, "It is good."  

Poetry to make the heart sing

Is it just me or is Tolkien's elven Rivendell home similar in tone and vision to Colorado Springs Glen Eyrie?

Two and a half decades ago Robert and I relished the beauty of Glen Eyrie during a Pastor's Seminar.  Of all the ill advised uTurns, after we left the other-worldly retreat we went directly to Walmart.  I cried.  It was heavenly poetry to dusty prose.  Stark.  
That experience set this truth clearly:  Set your hearts on things above, not on earthly things.  Colossians 3

Lord of the Rings Rivendell

our GOD-bathed world: that all would know as they are known

Until our thoughts of GOD have found every visible thing and event glorious with His  presence, the word of JESUS has not yet fully seized us.  Dallas Willard

There is no one like Kathryn Dawn Lang for bending the earthly themes: love/lust, innocence and guilt in juxtapostion, or the ache of romance set in the frame of remorse.  Sometimes while listening to her music, I am brought to prayer.  May KD Lang know the Source of all the beauty.  The first note of her sonorous voice pulsated from the Father's echo chamber.  May she know where it began?  And, dear LORD, may it end where it started; with You.  

(We live in) a world in which GOD is continually at play and over which He constantly rejoices.  

GOD is simply one great inexhaustible and eternal experience of all that is good and true and beautiful and right. 

It is precisely from the space immediately around us that GOD watches and GOD acts.   DW 

Life as poetry

The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.  C.S. Lewis

Here's hoping my favorite Craftsmen are with us for all Eternity.  Chihuly lining the mansion walls while KD Lang's wondrous pipes join the celebration.

Family February birthdays

On the occasion of Nathaniel's recent birthday
19 February 2014.
He shares a birthday with this doll:

Morgan Jo, age 11

Roger L. Simon sporting 20/20 vision

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/12/19/the-pc-lynching-of-phil-robertson/

Book recommendation

Malcolm Gladwell's latest, "David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants"

Mr. Gladwell's "there is more than meets the eye" mode of operandi is in place with this volume.  His contention is that there is a flip-side to the notion that might wins;  bigger and stronger prevails.  

Malcolm always makes me think.  And apparently, he thought about his childhood Mennonite upbringing while researching David and Goliath.  In his own words, "I think there has been an overemphasis of the idea that David’s victory was improbable. When you look closer to that story and you understand the full historical context, you see it from a different perspective. Here was a guy who brilliantly changed the rules of combat. He was equipped with a sling that was routinely used by armies to defeat the sort that Goliath was. David was very skilled at using the weapon and he was filled with the spirit of the Lord. Put those things together, why is he an underdog? He’s smarter than his opponent, better armed and he had this extraordinary force in his heart. When you understand that perspective, you understand that sometimes our instinct about where power comes from is wrong."  

During the writing of "David and Goliath," Malcolm says that he was brought "back into the fold."  Welcome, my good man.  Welcome.

Worth repeating

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” 

― John Adams

Amendment 1: Freedom of association

If a man has the right to choose who he marries, a business owner surely must have the right to choose who he serves. You can not argue for the first while actively attempting to undermine the second.   Matt Walsh

What is a Capitalist?

What is a Capitalist?

The political dialogue and over-the-fence conversations would be greatly enhanced if we could all agree on proper word definitions.  The above article does a masterful job of defining 'capitalist.'

Quote of the weekend

There are so many holes in the Unaffordable Care Act, there are not enough Democratic thumbs to plug them.  Caren MacMurchy

Insight of the day

Most of us will just be given tiny, seemingly insignificant chances every day to be honest, honorable and forthright.  Matt Walsh