Soul Sister Time

              How does God do it?  How does He give mercy to those so undeserving like me?  His mercy is incredible.  David, the man after God’s own heart, praises God for His mercy over and over.  I wonder, why aren’t we all more amazed by God’s mercy?  This thought leads to another important question “Why?”  Why does God flood this world with mercy?               Albert Einstein is quoted as saying: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”  Mercy is the only answer if you love the world you created.  And God does.  He loves the world for sure, and most of all He loves the people He created in His own image.  These people are hopeless without His mercy (I agree with Einstein there is no limit to human stupidity).  The people that don’t recognize God’s mercy are in need of it the most.  The main lesson the universe teaches us is that it is far beyond the human mind’s ability to understand it.  I love how far we have come.

              Jesus was strategic in teaching us a prayer that can unify Christians.  We call this prayer “The Lord’s Prayer.”  The prayer begins with the words, “Our Father.”  When Jesus teaches us to pray “Our Father,” He is teaching us to understand that we are dearly beloved children of God.  Learning to know your true identity as a dearly beloved child of God will free you to become the mature Christian that you long to be. It will guide you to see other human beings as His children too.  When you pray to God as your Father, you will recognize that His enemies are your enemies.  His enemies are Satan and his fallen angels.  He loves His children created in His image.  Praying to God as your Father helps you make sense of His instructions like—love your enemies.               We celebrate our earthly fathers on Father’s Day.  The importance of a father has been well studied in social science.  The absence of a father has strong implications in the formation of a child, whether

              Never miss a chance to be kind to others.  Kindness is good for the soul.  In these days kindness is so unexpected that it makes a huge impact.  My recent emphasis into kindness developed after I had been cruelly treated.  After I found myself so dumbfounded by why someone would be so cruel, I started focusing on kindness.  Rather than be brought down by the unreasonable reality, I fought off my natural tendency to obsess over my wound by being kind to others.  I was surprised by what happened.  By not missing a chance to be kind, I distracted myself from my pain and I built up my own soul more than any kindness portrayed.               No wonder God’s Word is so full of admonitions for us to be kind to one another.  He loves us so much He doesn’t want us to miss out on anything that will soothe our souls while living in a fallen world. Be careful; it only works if you are kind without expecting your kindness to be recognized, returned or responded to in any way.  As

              When you let God bind up your broken heart, an amazing thing happens.  Your heart’s capacity to love is increased in incredible ways.  It almost makes you grateful that your heart was torn because the after effects of observing God’s love gaining more and more power in your soul by His healing touch were probably impossible had your heart not been severed right down the middle.               The largeness of a broken heart reminded me of one of my favorite books.  It is Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son .  In this book Henri Nouwen is inspired by Rembrandt’s painting by the same title.  A poster of the painting captured his attention and led him to the parable in Luke 15 that inspired Rembrandt to create the characters on canvas.  His book basically has three lessons.  First, we are all like the prodigal son; we have all left the home of God’s love and acceptance by indulging in the world thus drowning out God’s call to our eternal goodness.  Second, we a