Loving God and Loving Others

So, I didn't think it could get worse, but it did. My neck, arm, wrist, hand thing that I've had for 14 years since my eldest was born has worsened. I shouldn't even be typing this, but I am. See, it's this stubborn perserverance that probably has brought me to this place. I examined my hand last night, asked friends who were over for dinner to look at it, yes, it's pretty swollen. It's all in my head, I'd like to presume.  Mind over body.... isn't that they way the old saying goes? My husband is off doing relief work in tsunami stricken Ibaraki, Japan, he's only been gone for 1/3 of the time he's supposed to gone for... time is definitely going by too slow. It's my right hand, the hand I use for everything! I'm typing this out like a second grader first learning they keyboard. The passage I read this morning has left me pondering, "Make us glad by the measure of the days you afflicted us, and the years in which we suffered

Listened to a message this morning by Mark Driscoll, a pastor in Seattle. We gathered in our usual place Sunday morning, my son led worship, (his first time), and we settled into a comfortable position, ready to listen to the hour long podcast. A friend commented that last week a couple people had fallen asleep during the semon. It's hard to stay engaged when you can't see who's talking! Pastor Driscoll's message was on the atonement of Jesus at the cross. During Lent, we remember Christ's death, the sin of all of man, all that drove Him to the cross. We remember what we would be like without Jesus. But it's too easy to gloss over the details, those awful details that words cannot even capture a fraction of what that day was like, the day Jesus died. Crucifixion in those days was the worst of all deaths, and the pastor explained it was that kind of death that the word "excruciating" came from. As the pastor went on and on about what it meant to be sco