Oh Books... how I love you!!!! (dreamy sigh....)

I LOVE to read.  Just in case you didn't know.  LOVE IT!

It's a retreat into another world - wonderful, colorful, and full of all kinds of emotion and adventure.  I just finished reading Eragon, Eldest, and Brigsinger only to find out that their is a fourth book that concludes the story but isn't out yet!!!

I just started The Time Traveler's Wife.  Oh my goodness... (happy sigh...)  fabulous.

I was having a conversation with my grandmother (- who is also a reader) about what it is we love about books.  I love the characters - how you can relate, or not, but exploring who they are as a person and why they choose to do what they do with the situations presented to them.  Grandma loves the plot.  Very different from the characters, the story itself not necessarily who is caught up in it.  Finding that out is wonderful insight to my grandmother and what makes us different.  =)

I love people.  Young people - old people.  People in general.  Thank you God for giving me a love of your people.  I think it's where most of my patience comes from.  At the heart of the matter I do believe people are good, even though many times their actions are bad.  Due to circumstances unknown people make a lot of choices that don't make sense or get frustrated, but when you get to know someone you learn all the wonderful things about them.  Their likes and dislikes, how to encourage them or how to make them angry.  The little things - it's what I love about people and in connection - reading about people.

Often quoted from the bible is the saying "We were created in God's image".  People I get.  God?  Not so easy.  I can't just go over to God's place and hang out, learn the things that make God happy, the way God likes a sandwich or just watch the general day to day life of what makes God - well, God.  I want to know more - and all my questions point me to the bible.  But it's not the same.  It's like reading the diary of your best friend and wanting them to be there telling you about it instead.

Yet I was wonderfully warmed by the beginning of The Time Traveler's Wife.  In a way, I felt like it related to my relationship with God.  Sometimes I feel God's presence.  Sometimes I don't.  Sometimes I feel like I know God is with me and where we are going and other times I am alone and lost.  And often it happens abruptly.  I pray for the strength to keep seeking God.  To read and learn more.  To continue to deepen that relationship.

I love to refer to God as "the lover of my soul".  Most day's I can't imagine how anyone who has really seen my soul and who I am can love me, yet I am loved.  Loved and accepted and encouraged.  I also know love isn't just a feeling, it's a choice.  Many times when I am reading stories of what God has done I don't love God - I hate God.  Sodom and Gomorra?  Even the battle of Jericho?  What about the people who lived in that city?  What about the babies of Bethlehem?  It's complicated I know - sometimes it's about human free will... but sometimes it seems like it's about punishment and vengeance.  I have this love for people - all people, not just Christians, not just "nice" people - but all people.  I think if you get to know someone you can find redeeming qualities and pain that causes things that you don't like.  But we are called to love our neighbors.  Everyone.

Faith, Hope, and Love.  I've seen that if I share love, I can give hope, and eventually help teach faith.  But in that order.  Love someone first.  Not just the people who love you.  Love all of God's children.  and love God - even when it isn't easy.

That doesn't mean not to ask questions.  Niether does it mean in this relationship I will always understand or get my way.  But if God can love me with my flaws, I won't give up on loving God and trying to learn more and continue to seek.

In peace and love,
your sister in Christ~Erin

Forgiveness...

A tricky subject with me... one that seems to plague me.  Yes plague me.  Got this the other day.  Sigh... and felt moved.  Maybe working towards forgiving... (Devotion from the Upper Room)

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

-Hebrews 4:14-16 (NRSV)

Today's Scripture
Jesus wept.  - John 11:35

"JESUS wept" was the verse my brother Jefferson chose to recite for his confirmation. My mother thought he chose it because it was the shortest verse in the Bible and therefore the easiest to remember.

Jefferson died on December 1, 2007 at the age of 48. The autopsy report listed liver failure as the cause of death. Jeff was a chronic alcoholic. He had been to rehabilitation centers again and again. He once had a promising career and a loving family. But alcohol stole everything. Some of us, his family, cut off contact with him hoping that "tough love" would help. We were often angry with him. I was embarrassed. None of us understood that he simply could not beat his addiction. When he died, I think we all felt guilty.

Now I see Jeff's confirmation verse in a different light. Jesus came to us so that he would understand what being human is like. He knows all about weakness, temptation, and failure. This verse reminds me that Jesus understands our pain and weakness, and he loves us in spite of them. We too can try to understand others and to love them in spite of their flaws.

Ali Morrison (Pennsylvania, USA)

Prayer

Dear Lord, we are grateful for your understanding. Thank you for loving us in spite of all we do that does not please you. Help us to make good choices and to love others without judging. Amen.
Thought for the Day
We are all sinners - and God loves us.
Prayer Focus
Addicts and their families

Peace, 

Erin