The Hey You Lady

My pastor and really good friend Chris Logan recently asked the question on his blog, "What makes for a good day?" When you get to the end of your day, what allows you to be able to say: "Today was a good day"? Is it that the day went smoothly? Is it that you had everything go the way you wanted? Is it that the day was problem free? When I look back at the best of the "good days" that I have had throughout my life, the one thing they all have in common is that they were spent, at least in part, with people who were uplifting. Whether I was with a group of people, or one or two others, or even reflection time alone with God, the "good" part of the day was the part that was invested in the relationships. "The reality is that we live in a world where we deal with problems, and conflict, and struggles, and frustrations, and heartache." Many people (ok, ALL people) at one time or another ask the question, If God is so good, why does he all...

I recently had the opportunity to teach the youth group at my church. Now, I am not accustomed to being around teenagers for any longer than 10 minutes at a time, so it was a bit of a stretch for me to actually willingly volunteer for this task. The topic was “What happens after we die?” The youth leader got a list of questions from the group and emailed them to me. Being teens, the questions ranged anywhere from “Do we get what we want (video games, etc.)?” to “How do you know if you are going to heaven or hell?” All the questions were serious, but the youth leader admitted that some were a bit out-of-the-box. (A complete list of the questions is available upon request.) To make the lesson interesting, I had one of the group choose a question out of a basket, and I answered it. The first question was “How does God judge us for entrance into heaven?” I told a story about a man who died and was met at the gates of heaven by St. Peter. “Here’s how it works. You need 100 points to make it...

As Christians, we rejoice when we accept Jesus into our hearts. When Jesus lives in our hearts, the heart of Jesus lives there also. When we act from the heart, whose heart are we acting from?