The Hey You Lady

I want to be a "retreat junkie" when I grow up. That's what I've been telling people lately. I want to go to retreats and speak to groups. Not necessarily a high-profile or highly sought-after speaker for major arena-sized confernces. And not that I have done anything profound with my life that everyone must know about. I'd be perfectly content with the smaller scale groups, sharing with them how God has impacted my life, and hopefully inspiring them to take a step or two forward in their faith journey. And I almost had a chance to do that. I almost was invited to be a speaker at a retreat in October. How did it come about? Well, I recently filled in for my vacationing pastor as "guest preacher" at my church. And the domino effect started from there. A Facebook friend saw my status update that I would be preaching, and she asked me if I would consider speaking at their upcoming retreat. Knowing this person the way that I do, when she asks a question li...

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." – Matthew 9:35-38 It’s no secret that many people believe that prayer has a positive impact in their lives. After all, it's how we communicate with God, how we make our requests known to the Divine. We seem to pray for everything: for blessings over our meals, for our favorite baseball team to have a winning season, for green lights in traffic, healing of ourselves or others, for business deals to go through, even for world peace and safe return for our men and women serving in the military. While there is nothing wrong with p...

When I think of beauty, I think of flowers, nature, attractive people, things that bring to mind the goodness of God. I often have nice, warm-fuzzy feelings come over me. I mean, who doesn't like to be in the presence of beauty? But ugliness? Well, that's another story. We often react to ugliness with mockery or disgust. Thinking of ugliness reminds me of a woman who was particularly unattractive physically. She had the frizzy hair, two or three front teeth missing, eyes that resemble a chimp's, the face that only a mother could love. Well, maybe not even mom ... Wow! That's a sore for sighted eyes! As my granddad would say, "DAAAYNNG!! This girl was dragged through the Ugly Forest ... and her face hit every tree!!" (And he meant it, too!) Or another remark would be, "Beauty may be skin deep, but ugliness goes all the way to the bone!" Or, "She's the kind of girl that no one would share secrets with ... not even beauty secrets!" Ugli...

Everybody goes through hardships in life. Whether it's losing your job at the same time your spouse faces a pay reduction, or a serious illness in the family, or kids not wanting to go to school, or whatever the circumstances, life can bring us down. But it's not a healthy thing for you or me to stay down when we get there. So I'm sharing a list that my cousin Sue forwarded to me. It's a list of 39 little things we can do or mottos to live by, to turn our frowns upside down: Health: 1. Drink plenty of water 2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar 3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants, and eat less food that is manufactured in plants 4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy 5. Make time for prayer 6. Play more games 7. Read more books than you did in 2008 8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day 9. Sleep for 7 hours 10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day ---...

(DISCLAIMER: The subject of the week for the Topical Bloggers group is "What must I do to be saved?" The following is purely fictional. It is NOT based on my life . Any similarity to any person, real or imagined, is unintentional. ) __________________________________________________ Forty-six years old. I'm at the peak of my game, so to speak. I've done it all - kids (two daughters), marriage (times three) . Having done it all, is there anything left? Is there really nothing more to life? Am I stuck in this hell that I have created? If I'm done living, why am I still here? Why do I still have a heartbeat? Why do I still breathe? I'm "alive," but I feel so ... ... I don't feel. Anything. I'd pour myself a drink, but I'm not supposed to have alcohol with these antidepressants. I don't even know why I take them. They don't seem to do anything for me ... I remember during my college days groups on campus with signs that said "A...