Created for Emotions

      We are created for JOY, but we are created also with the capacity to feel other emotions. "Feel" is one of those words that scares people. Many think that to "feel" is synonymous with being weak. The truth is just the opposite. It takes courage to confront our real emotions and learn how to appropriately express them.
     Remember the story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which Christians celebrate on Palm Sunday before Easter? The crowd was shouting in celebration... welcoming Jesus, praising Him. He had only a few days earlier raised Lazarus from the dead, and many in the crowd had seen it themselves. Jesus rode on a donkey, while people laid palm branches and cloaks on the path in front of him.
     When they reached the top of the hill and Jesus looked out over the city of Jerusalem, Jesus began to weep. Now, there's a party-stopper!
     He was overwhelmed with sorrow for those who didn't understand or accept Him, those who stayed locked in unbelief and fear. His words echo today: "If you had only known what would bring you peace..."
     Jesus came to die for sin, and He came to show us how to live our lives fully as human beings. He never apologized for weeping with His friends, nor caring about others. He was sometimes angry at people and their lack of faith in His Father. He celebrated with joy when His followers completed an assignment or when He played with children.
     It may take us a long time to learn how to feel our feelings if we were trained otherwise...but how freeing and refreshing it can be to no longer stuff them.
     What keeps you from getting in touch with your emotions? What are some of the ways you express your emotions appropriately? Maybe you can help someone else find new avenues for freedom.
     

Wacky Week

     Have you ever had a week that was absolutely perfect in every way? Me neither. This one sure wasn't. And yet this morning I am feeling strangely at peace in the middle of several rather large storms.
     ---Physical - getting old is not for wimps!
     ---Emotional - reading a wonderful part of my son's Ph.D dissertation relating incidents from our family history that made me cry, but also made me smile (and feel proud of him).
     ---Spiritual - weeping and praying for friends who are struggling to try to make wise choices in their lives.
     I am appreciating more and more my ability to laugh and cry at virtually the same time. Last night I was reading to Marvin and we ended up chuckling through our tears.
     It has been a strange week...and today I look forward to being able to relax more and sit with Jesus to help me sort through some of it...with some recent FREE MUSIC DOWNLOADS from Amazon.com!
     May your day be inspired by His expansive love and promised peace.
    
    
     
    

Trusting God and JOY

    I've written before about the difference I see in JOY STRENGTH and SHEER JOY...the first is what I have sometimes experienced in the middle of life pain and turmoil. The second is just an overwhelming excitement at people, life, nature, and the ways of God in my world. Trusting God is vital in the first and a joyful response in the second.
    This week my struggle is one I've had before, but it seems very poignant today: trusting God with other people. Oh, I've had practice at this...
--- sick children when I couldn't speak the language well enough to understand a doctor
--- leaving my 3 year old with a helper who spoke minimal English, for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week while I studied language
--- sending my 7th grader to boarding school 1000 miles from home
--- coping with results of addiction in our family
--- watching my husband decline and then have to be cared for by others
    Even as I write this, I realize: God has always come through! And this week as I prayerfully place my friends in His hands, I know He's faithful, powerful, passionate about their care.
    Whenever I am afraid I will trust in You, O Lord.

Come and See

    I don't claim to be an expert at prayer...simply because I consider prayer as a conversation, and sometimes I'm not all that good at conversations! Proverbs has so much to say about me: A fool is thought wise if she keeps her mouth shut. Can't always do that! "Open mouth; insert foot" may be more appropriate!
    But the late Maurice Berquist taught about prayer in a way that has always knocked my socks off. It's like 2 parallel electrical wires. If they are truly parallel...the power can jump from one to the other. So praying is getting our thoughts and desires level with His and letting His power jump into our lives. Okay, that's pretty simple language for an amazing truth!
    I've spent more than 10 years praying for Sunnyside and for our congregation. Many changes have occurred, and God has done amazing things here. But I have known that God wants to do more. But He is patient. He doesn't push us nor drag us. He simply calls us to "come and see."
    Today as the new Oasis Community Church formally launches, I have begun to see answers to some of these prayers. God's not slow. He just isn't on my time schedule. I am glad I get to be here to see what He's doing.
   

THE WONDERFUL CREW

                    Phil Helsel and Sharon Bernhardt...Sharon & Casey's 3 boys and Phil and Carolyn's 2 kids...                          wow, I wanted to be there in the worst way!!!

Did Jesus Laugh At Himself?

       I don't like everything about Mel Gibson's, The Passion of the Christ, but I smiled at the clip where Jesus, the carpenter, is making a tall table and His mother ridicules it because all tables of the day were low to the ground and without chairs. I wonder if He made mistakes as He learned the carpenter trade? Did His goofs give Him a chuckle? 
      For some people, even talking about Jesus in those terms seems sacriligious, like people think Jesus wouldn't have needed to LEARN anything...but I don't agree. John 1:14 (written originally in Greek) says, "The Logos became Sarx and lived among us."  Sarx is the Greek word used for "flesh." It's the word Paul used when he wrote about the wars between the Flesh and the Spirit. The big argument for hundreds and hundreds of years (now too) was about whether Jesus was fully man and fully God --- and could He have sinned? Personally, I believe He could have or Satan wouldn't have wasted his time on Jesus! The writer of Hebrews says Jesus was like us, except He didn't sin.
      So, did He laugh at Himself?
      What about you? Do you laugh at yourself or do you get angry at yourself when you mess up? Promise not to laugh too loud if I tell you one?
      I knew it would happen one day---that's a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the cabinet in my bathroom are 3 shelves. The bottom one contains a couple bottles of refreshing after-shower spray. On the 2nd shelf is a bottle of hairspray. Yep---it happened today---grabbed the wrong one and had to get back in the shower!
      Okay --- you can laugh...He's probably grinning too!

Crown-sightings

    I'm still thinking about God crowning His human creatures with glory and honor. When other people do annoying things, when I annoy myself, I sometimes lose sight of the crown of glory.
    What would happen today if, in the middle of a heated discussion, when I'm feeling particularly frustrated, I could see the crown on the other person's head? What if I could feel the touch of the crown on my own head when I revert to old practiced, self-destructive habits? When a little child throws a tantrum, can we see the crown? When a spouse ignores us and doesn't engage, can we touch our crown and remember whose we are?
     What kind of difference could it make today to watch for the crowns all around us? To live under the crown and treat ourselves and others with God-honor?  I mean, what could it hurt? It absolutely couldn't make things worse, could it?
     Let's try it...share your experiences with me, will you?

Digging in the Word

    For the past few weeks, I've been reminded of several things that I have read in scripture many, many times...but struggle sometimes to live out.

• I am an adopted child of God
• Because I'm adopted by God, I'm an heir with Jesus Christ --- of the glory of God and more!
• God has crowned me with glory and honor  (Psalm 8:5)
• When other people don't treat me with honor and when I don't treat myself as a person with the Glory of God living in and through me...the TRUTH STILL STANDS: He's crowned me with glory and honor

     My goal for today (one day at a time) is to do the things that help me remember this truth.
     What would it look like for you to treat yourself as a person of GLORY and HONOR? Not the self-centered kind, the Christ-centered kind...the same glory that Jesus had, He shares with you and me as Christ-followers! 
      Amazing - what do you think?

Perspective

    I just returned from a few days on a road trip to Boise, Idaho. I stopped in Pendleton for lunch with one of my favorite couples: Aunt Ethel and Uncle Everett. Then I visited Pam and Fred Moore in LaGrande...and I admit, envied Fred's cars!! Then to Boise to stay with my brother and his and wife and see my father, who lives in an assisted living place there.
     I've made that trip before, but every trip is different, because WE ARE DIFFERENT!
     The grandeur of the Blue Mountains and all the canyons between Pendleton and Ontario --- AMAZING! I am always sad when I see sides of these magnificent mountains slashed open for mining and money-making. It's like: beauty...and now UGLY.
      I'm always watching for humorous things on my trip. Several abandoned hotels, restaurants and gas stations litter the desert and then there's the old signs high up on the pole that advertised:   EAT/GAS. Is that why they went out of business?
      One fleeting picture caught my eye. On a frontage road, three cows had escaped their pasture. They sauntered down the road together...on the wrong side of the fence. I wondered where exactly they were going. No grass there for grazing...imagine the "conversation" they had as they made their dash for freedom!
     What makes you smile today?