Soul Sister Time

            I have known the comfort of God.   I have known that His comfort is unique and special and beyond reason.   I have felt His comfort over small losses and huge crises.   I have listened to people tell me about their most challenging experience on this earth and say that they would not change it if it meant missing out of the spiritual lessons learned.   I knew this, but I couldn't articulate why it was until my daughter explained it to me.    She was reading 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 which says :  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.   The scripture was made clearer to her by JI Packer: This is a far stronger statement than might appear, because the English word comfort , both as a noun and as a verb, has lost so much of its meaning.  When, back in the sixte

            One week, one month, and now one year has passed since my world was turned up-side-down.   At first time felt like an eternity, each day the reality that my beloved husband was no longer with me here on earth drug on and felt like it would never resolve.   Now that a significant amount of time has passed, it doesn’t seem possible that we have lived through one whole year without him.   How did we get here?   Where have we been?   How did the earth revolve completely around the sun?   We are surviving.   We are grateful.   We have had a lot of help from heaven and from earth.             I have discovered more intimately how death is a major spiritual formation in our lives.   Whether we are deeply spiritual or not, facing death forces us to consider spiritual realities.   Our souIs are opened to a deeper understanding of our place in this world and how we view our own lives.   I found a lot of commonality with country artist, Blake Shelton, when he wrote these w

            Whether it’s the warning message from the Homeowners Association or the sense you have when you walk outside that it just doesn’t look right, the overgrowth of weeds in your flowerbeds needs someone’s attention.             My friend had attempted to conquer her weeds after such a warning.   If she was going to do it, she was going to do it all the way.   She started from scratch and bought a weed barrier over which she laid dirt and mulch.   She was sure that weeds would no longer pose a problem.   I shared my own experience having done the same and how amazed I am that some grass and weeds can make their way through anyway.   She was discouraged by my experience.               It’s not that the barrier doesn’t work at all.   I would hate to see how bad the weeds would get if I didn’t have it.   The best attitude I can have about the weeds in my life are to expect them and conquer them one day at a time.   I’ve remained basically diligent since spring.   I even p

            If you ask me, I think I’m pretty detached from money, status and things of the world.   After all, I gave up having my nails done so I could give that money to a charity.   I only buy clothes on sale.   I spend way less money than most of my friends.   I can always tell myself that I am doing better than others.  But how am I doing really?  I needed someone to challenge me.               I got that challenge in the way of a Bible study I am taking that is asking me to consider the ways I indulge myself way too much.   It’s been a wake-up call to the discrepancy between what I think I believe and what I live out.   So far, I have far more food items in my kitchen than others (I have just two people at home, and I don’t even have a pantry); my clothing number is higher than I guessed and much higher than the leader.   It all adds up to the fact that I am more attached to this world than I let myself realize.             The question is Why? When? How?   My answers

            I love that God has more to teach me than I can learn in a lifetime!   I love that I can feel so close to Him and yet, in my closeness, know He is beyond my own experiences.   Loving God never ends.   I can’t even imagine what it will be like to love Him in heaven.             This point struck me recently when the comparison between the Tower of Babel and the Events at Pentecost were pointed out to me.   When men decided that they would make their own way to God, God responded by confusing their human language and separating mankind (Genesis 11).   When the disciples had experienced the death, resurrection and ascension of God through Jesus His Son, God sent the promised Holy Spirit in fire and tongues that united mankind (Acts 2).             Our life with God will never be what we expect.   His ways are so much higher than our ways.   If we really want to know Him, the first truth we must learn is that we will always be astounded, confused and unsure, yet deepl