Loving God and Loving Others

I dread these moments. The 6 month "routine" ct-scan. It's all routine until they find something is wrong. I can't tell you the number of people I know who have been diagnosed with a rare form of sickness. It's rare until someone you love gets it. Finding my way in the waiting isn't easy. It's like feeling your way in the dark for something to hold onto. Most of the time it feels like the darkness will swallow you up. Things didn't start out this way. But compounded trauma has left me a bit bruised and torn up, so any subsequent bumping around hurts all the more. More painful news of the past few weeks has added to the grief. But the  Lord has heard our prayers for my husband, and his back is nearly normal. We have made it through an incredibly sweet but incredibly busy season of ministry, something I did not think was possible back a couple months ago. My heart is easily distractible though and during our busiest moments a week ago I found my mi...

Advent.  A celebration of Christ's coming.  An anticipation of Christ's coming again.  But it's not really "again".  Christ never really left us.  I just need to know that He's still here.  That He hasn't left me.  Have you ever felt that way?  In what feels like darkness to me I sometimes can't feel Him.  So I pray that He'll come.  But He's not left.  The religious beliefs has this country I live in shrouded in a cover of darkness. My neighbors place their incense and fruit in front of their idol shelves in their yards. To the undiscerning heart it may not feel like anything. But it is something that tugs at the heart and screams to shut it down and stop the feeling and celebrating. Our first Christmas here in this country and the feeling is tangibly dark. My own darkness of the journey shrouds the Light.  I'm reminded today of His Word. God's Word must be the plumb line for lif...