Thoughts and Other Things

I recently taught a message I needed to hear more than any of the people I was ministering it to. It's title was "Take Cover" and was based on Psalm 91:1-2 which says: " He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust ."' Over the past few years, my health has not been what it had been growing up. I hadn't been back at the hospital since my birth. And the only thing that took me to the doctors office had been frostbite in my teens. But every since starting my journey in early adulthood, I've had some challenges regarding my health. I had recently gone for a check up and my world had been shaken up by the doctor's report, before I remembered this text. As I  watched things fall out of place as my earth quaked, as my eyes started to blur, as I started to loose my balance at the ground that shook beneath me, a small distant ...

I was telling a friend about a recent visit to my university campus to return library books. I was going on about how nice it must have been for the students who I passed in the study halls to be so close to campus. They were sitting in groups, pen in hand and laptops in place. I didn't have study buddies, I navigate myself through the courses. Goodness, even my "laptop" (it only works when it's plugged into a power source) isn't cooperating. I almost have to fast to get it to operate so I can type assignments. My friend stopped me in my tracks and said: "some of them probably looked at you and liked what you have". They probably thought how nice it was to have your own car to drive to campus, to have a job to fund your studies, which aren't your first qualification. I was immediately taken back to something that had been in my heart that very week, I wrote to you about it, gratitude. Another element of an attitude of gratitude (which we said keep...

The older I grow, the more grateful I am to have had and still have both my parents, but sometimes, you wouldn't know by the way I  complain about them. I was going through my baby album and couldn't help but cry when I realized that those two people were with me through every stage of my life. They were the consistent factor in all the photos. Some faces came and went away, I couldn't identify some, but these two faces, as much as they changed through the years, were always there. That's the life I've lived. And I am not one bit guilty to have lived it that way. I don't know why but sometimes people like me are sometimes made to feel guilty to have lived life so pain-free. We're made to feel that we haven't really lived life because we still have a home to run to. And I in no way underestimate the pain of loosing a parent or the challenge of living life without one, I cannot imagine what it must be like. But as much as those that lived and live life ...