The Hey You Lady

When I was very young I would often sit in a corner and think.  It wasn’t because I was in trouble – I was just a very introspective kind of person, even as a child.  And often my dad would ask, “What are you doing, Mary?”  “Oh, just thinking.”  “What are you thinking about?”  “Ooh, nothing…”   “Well, how do you know when you’re finished?”  and I’d usually let out a little giggle, and be off to do something else. It is often said that the times that people are most reflective about their lives    is during times of stillness, when in the quiet all they have is their thoughts.   Imagine with me if you will, that we are peering into thoughts of someone who is in that place of reflection.   Now before we go there, let me say that this person whose thoughts we are about to delve into IS NOT ME.   It is a fictional person we’ll call Alex.   Alex can be representative of anybody.   So without further ado, let’s see w...

A baby quilt for Amilcar A couple of years ago I received an email from a lady named Cheryl who I shared a room with on a retreat a year or so prior.   She was going on a mission trip, and was asking for several items – pencils and paper, potholders, clothes, financial support, blankets ....   Blankets! At the time, our Helping Hands (then called Binky Patrol ) had some extra blankets on hand, and we agreed we could send for this mission trip.   At the time, all we knew was they were going to a mission in El Salvador, and that they would be used to bless people.   When we later received a thank you letter and update from the mission’s founder, Cordelia, I learned more about Cordelia and what the purpose of the Mission. When Cordlia was very young girl, her mother gave shelter to a young lady with a six month old daughter.   The young lady was full of blood because her drunken husband had beaten her up.   This sight impacted Cordelia so much that s...

There is a popular hymn that is taught in Sunday school classes all over America.   As I type the words, and as you read them, we can hear young children singing, “Oh, how I love Jesus, because He first loved me!”   Yes, Jesus loves me, and I love Jesus.    Bible verses such as “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16), “God demonstrates His own love for us in this:   While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), and the assurance of pardon in 1John 1:9, the promise of forgiveness and restoration to a right standing with God when we confess our sins (“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us of all unrighteousness”)   do not begin to scratch the surface of why Jesus is worthy of my love.   Nor do they adequately explain why I love Him.   To be honest, I don’t think anything can, ...

Cell phones.   Life was fine without them, right?   True, but after having one for a while you realize how useful they are if you happen to damage or misplace yours.   Like I did.   Mine was not one of the newfangled iPhones or a Droid or anything that “smart.”   In comparison, you might call it a “dumb-phone”.   But it did have some handydandy features that I did use quite a bit.   I could call people and receive calls, of course.   My phone had an alarm clock, which kept me from napping too long on my lunch break at work.   There was a calculator that I could use to quickly split a check at a restaurant six ways, including the tip.   I could even download music or podcasts to my phone and use it as an mp3 player.   And those features are just a few that came pre-loaded on the phone!   Over time I did add some software applications, called “apps”, to make my cell phone more useful to me.   Things like some custom r...

Imagine that you are watching a beauty pageant.   After the beauty portion, the swimsuit and evening gown modeling competition, and talent competitions, five finalists are selected.   And then probably the most nervewracking part of the evening:   The Interview Question. “If you are crowned Miss Beautiful of the Universe, what would you like to work toward during your reign?” A common answer you may hear would be “World Peace.” Peace.   In over 3,500 years of recorded history of the world there have been only about 300 years where there has not been a military conflict somewhere on this planet.   Peace is gained when one side, or both sides, surrender something and an agreement or treaty is drawn up.   But even with peace treaties we still don’t get it right – over the course of history more than 8,000 treaties of peace, meant to last forever, have been broken.   The average time they remained in force?   Two years. Peace is not simp...

I like to watch children at play.   Their imaginations and curiosity are truly unlimited.   They will fight fires as easily as they blow out birthday candles, dance like Cinderella at the prince’s ball, they stomp in rain puddles just to see how high water can splash, and at the end of the day feel like superheroes because theirs is a world of pure absolute joy, where ability and pleasure flawlessly click.   Their true colors shine. That is, until they realize they are being watched.   Suddenly the fire is bigger than the firefighter; Cinderella is afraid she will miss a dance step; puddle stomping becomes a cardinal sin because of the mess it may create.   Ability and pleasure suddenly clash, and the superhero now is the one in need of being rescued.   True colors that were shining a few moments ago have suddenly faded. What gives someone the right to cast shadows on the true colors of a child’s imagination?   Ok, proper boundaries are necessa...

The other day I was pondering how vast and enormous the universe is in comparison to you and me.  As the song says, "It's a great big universe, and we're all really puny / We're just tiny little specks, about the size of Mickey Rooney ..." Yet even though we may be tiny specks in a great big universe, ponder this:  The entire universe is a tiny speck in the palm of the hand of God.  How really puny are we, really, if we are just tiny little specks on a tiny speck in the hand Omnipotence?  That is enough to make most people feel at least a little bit insignificant. The good news is the truth of the matter is, even though we are micro-Mickey Rooney-sized specks, we have captured God's attention!  In a time long, long before Mickey Rooney walked the earth, the king of Israel, David, pondered the size of man in comparison to the size of the God of the universe: Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in the whole earth! You have made your glory highe...

Ain’t technology grand? About ten years ago I was part of a team sent by my company to teach employees how to use an upgraded computer program.   The computers we had been using were very cumbersome, and obsolete to the point where they had to be replaced in order to be upgraded.   As I was learning about this new system, I wanted to try to test its limits.   I tried whatever I could think of to make it crash.   I discovered that no matter what, even if I were able to interrupt the flow of information to the computer for a while, that flow of information could be restored, and things would be back to business as usual.   The fact that the computer’s information pipeline could not be permanently broken was reassuring.   Employees who were not familiar with technology did not have to be afraid of causing the company to implode from a few clicks of the mouse.   Even if they did cause an accidental implosion, all we had to do was call the compa...