Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

Thanksgiving this year was so much fun!  Not only did we have delightful company, but it gave me a chance to do something I don't often get to do, and that's cook. I love to cook!  For me, it's so relaxing.  I love to cook for other people and try new recipes.  I learned to cook from watching cooking programs on public television as a young bride.  Julia Child and others taught me knife skills and cooking techniques.  Today, I still am a cooking show junkie, and with the internet, I have access to all those wonderful recipes. Cooking appeals to the hands-on creativity in me, but I've learned that that creativeness needs to be kept under control. The most important cooking lesson I've learned is to make sure I have all the ingredients called for and to follow the recipe, to the letter.  Some of my worst creations have resulted from getting too creative, including making substitutions.  Or I was impulsive, deciding to make the dish o...

It's 1:25 pm on November 26, 2012, and the kitchen is finally cleaned up.  The left overs are all packaged up after a trip to the grocery store this morning to buy more storage containers.  A double batch of turkey and rice soup was made, pronounced "good," and put in the freezer for winter suppers.  There were only three of us for the Thanksgiving meal, but we had enough to feed fifteen people.  Of course, I wanted leftovers, but I made five times as much food as we really needed!  I was having too much fun cooking for people I love, producing a bounty that included everyone's favorite Thanksgiving dish.  It reminded me of a devotional in the book, Joy Breaks, called "Joy Beads" by Barbara Johnson (Zonervan Publishing House, 1997, pp. 30-31).  Barbara was told that if she put a BB in her bottle of make-up, it would keep it from becoming thick and gooey.  So, she sent her husband, Bill, out to get her a BB.  One BB. Bill returned home a...

When my niece, Chris, was seventeen, she was diagnosed with a rare form of juvenile leukemia.  After nine years of hundreds of chemo treatments,struggling to complete her nursing degree, wigs, and a bone marrow transplant, Chris died. To this day, it's hard for me to say that Chris' death was God's will.  Oh, I get it that when we pass from this life into the presence of the eternal God that we receive the ultimate healing, and that sometimes, that's the only way healing is going to occur.  I get that.  But to say that death, violence, war, devastating diseases like leukemia and AIDS, abused, neglected, abandoned and starving children, droughts and floods are the will of a loving God -- really?!?!?  I mean -- REALLY?!?! Lesley D. Weatherhead in his book, The Will of God , writes: "The phrase, 'the will of God' is used so loosely, and the consequence of that looseness to our peace of minds is so serious ... There's nothing about which we ought to t...

GOD delivers. Even after 11:00 p.m. on weeknights and Sundays. 24/7. Everyday. Rain or shine. Heaven or hell. GOD delivers. And it's free with an infinite delivery range, 'Cause Jesus paid the delivery charge. For you. For me. For the neighbor whose dog barks all night, And the little kid who kicks the back of your pew every Sunday. For the single parent working two jobs, The AIDS victim dying in a hospice, and the meth head. ALL of us. God delivers. No tip required. But a from-the-bottom-of-your-heart felt "thank you" Is always appreciated. Now, go and do likewise.

Matthew 7:24-27 Ephesians 6:10-20 On the PBS children's program, "Between the Lions," there's a character named Cliff Hanger.  At the beginning of every Cliff Hanger story, our hero is dangling precariously from a gnarly tree root on the side of a cliff.  The plot is always the same.  Cliff tries to get his feet safely back on solid ground, but no matter what he tries, he always ends up where he started:  dangling from that same gnarly tree root. Ever have days like that? There are interesting and anxious times we are living in. This summer, we experienced first hand the drought that is drying up the crops of the Midwest, while many of our young adults are drowning in debt. Meanwhile, our senior citizens worry about the financial implications of the new national health plan. Global warming looks like its becoming a reality while the conflicts born out of the Arab spring continue to heat up in places like Syria.  We, however, don't have to look far fr...

The old cowboy song, "Cool Water" is about a man who is traveling through a water-less dessert.  In it you hear his desperation, his great thirst and longing.  The stars at night look like pools of shiningwater.  The only thing that gets him up in the morning to begin his journey anew is the hope of water,  the vision of "..that big green tree where the water runs free.  Cool. Clear. Water." In Jeremiah 14:1-9, we read a story about a serious drought in ancient Israel.  It is a desperate time.  The public cisterns have run dry; there are no more reserves of water.  Even animals are suffering, as the deer abandon their own newborns because there isn't enough food to nurse their young. Then, as now, in our own time of drought, our faith is challenged.  Where will we place our hope.  Will it be in ourselves or the government or something else or will we take our stand on what we know and believe about God. Isaiah 30:18 says:...

Matthew 12:48-50 I John 3:2 In the mid 1970's, when I was looking for my first job after college, Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder ran this commercial. A young woman is frantically trying to get ready for a job interview.  She looks into the bathroom mirror, runs her fingers through her hair and says, "Why did I cut my hair ... I look like a squirrel!"  After pawing through the clothes hamper looking for something to wear, she returns to the mirror and asks, "Who am I?!?" To which her roommate, who is calmly applying her mascara replies, "I haven't the slightest idea." "Who am I" is a question we all deal with one way or another, whether we are adolescents testing our boundaries and trying our parents' patience or older adults adjusting to the limits of aging bodies.  With each new stage of life and the changes it brings, we are defining and redefining who we are.  Yet, no matter the stages and ages of life, there is one ...