Survivor's Guilt

By MAD21

There are people who come in and out of your life at unexpected times. And you never really know the full impact of their friendship until after a number of years, and in this situation after an illness threatens to take their life.

Around 1994, I was teaching a children's class at our church and I needed some help. I asked one of the parents of the kids in my class if he'd be interested in coming every week to help us out. He gladly accepted. Little did I know how that decision would impact both of our lives.

Roger worked with me until I changed positions in the ministry about a year and a half later. He then moved on to help another teacher for several years after that. He served many people in children's ministry including the special needs ministry, and was also elected and served as a Deacon. The kids, their parents, and many, many others came to love Roger over the years, including myself. But even more important, Roger developed a close relationship with Christ.

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Being Human

By Kelly (Living is Simple)

Take joy in the un-rushed living.
In the unfolding.
It takes time to...

 Words from about a year ago.

How much life takes you and spins you around into places, relationships, and events you never could have imagined. I wish I could peg the best of those moments.

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A Cheap Imitation

By MAD21

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to capture things in a photo sometimes? The way something appears to us in real life, the beauty or enormity of a situation and no photo you take can do it justice?

I was thinking about this when I was trying to get some pictures of the area around my house after the blizzards dumped such a huge amount of snow on us last month. I kept taking picture after picture, but when I'd look at the picture I took, it just didn't match what I was seeing with my eyes. I mean they were ok, but there was so much lost in the pictures. The camera was just unable to capture the whole essence of what I was seeing.

I wrote a little about this topic for my post on Remembering, and I was reminded of it again when I was looking at Beki's picture for her blog carnival, Fingerprint Friday. She had tried to capture the beauty she saw in a frosted window, but wasn't able to get the picture to show the full beauty of the frost with it's shine and depth.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)

I've been thinking about how a photograph can fail so badly at portraying the beauty and complexity of real life. It is such a good analogy to the things we experience over the years. God has given us so many gifts. They aren't exclusive to believers, most of those gifts can be enjoyed by unbelievers. But there is always something missing when you take God out of the equation.

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Death Up Close And Personal

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

Last year we experienced death up close and personal, in our own backyard.

Throughout the winter we had observed a large cocoon dangling like a leather satchel from the river birch tree. We weren’t confident it contained a hibernating creature – Rowan had prodded it too vigorously a couple of times, batting at it like it was a miniature tether ball, so we didn’t have high hopes for its metamorphosis. Nevertheless, one May evening Noah stormed into the house shouting, “The moth is here! The moth is here!” and we all dashed out to take a look.

Its body was furry and plump, like a tiny fruit bat, with a wingspan as wide as my hand. Two bushy antennae sprung from the moth’s head like centipedes, and on its intricately patterned wings shone bright yellow spots, unblinking owl eyes. It dangled a few inches from its cocoon, gingerly folding and unfolding its giant wings, hairy legs twitching a little as they clung to the branch. We all posed for photos with the moth like it was Julia Roberts suspended from the tree.

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No One Is Good, Not Even One

By Kelly (Living is Simple)

In my Senior Sem class at EMU, we read Henri Nouwen's "Turn My Mouring Into Dancing." Nouwen, in the book, says,

"Many things we think we do for others are in fact the expressions of our drive to discover our identity in the praise of others."

We were asked to respond, then, to these questions:

How has this been true or untrue in your life?

How does Christian culture and drive to service affect this?

I will freely admit that I often thread the praise or lack thereof into the tapestry of my identity. Who does not enjoy a word that builds confidence in what the body or mind can accomplish? Who does not fall into doubt when praise is few and far between? We crave affirmation in what we can do.

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