Silver Linings

-

Yesterday my wife Merideth and I drove to Houston TX, and then spent the entire day at the U.S. Passport Office to get her a new passport issued before she flew to Guatemala for a mission trip this morning.  

 One of the many things that I love about my wife Merideth is how she always tries to find the silver lining in the midst of the worst clouds.  

 Throughout the morning, I watched her cheerily engage the weary people standing in line with us as we waited to gain entry into the Passport office.  Within moments she had everyone's story as to how they ended up there in the first place.  

 One lady was traveling to the Cayman Islands and didn't know she needed a passport to go there.  The young man in front of us discovered that his passport had been lost the day before he and his family were heading the Bahamas on vacation.  

 Merideth also found out how long the security guard had been working at the Federal Building (7 years), and that he was a retired deputy sheriff from Atlanta, who had served for years in the military.   

 When we went for lunch, she asked the very pregnant seating hostess about her due date, and then told her how beautiful she looked.  The young woman beamed and chatted about her expected little girl, and what she was going to name her.  

 Everywhere Merideth went yesterday, she did her very best to be a loving ambassador of the kingdom of God--to spread peace, joy, and hope.  

 In my reading this morning, I came across this great quote from author Eric Elnes:  
If heaven may be found here and now, then heaven cannot be merely found in the absence of struggle as most of us assume, but in the very heart of struggles.  
As I watched my wife move through her very long, very challenging day, I saw her time and time again exemplify those words.  She truly lived out Jesus' words to his followers that "the kingdom of God is within you."

May you find ways today to bring a bit of heaven to earth--even in the middle of your struggles.  May you discover moments when you can show God's peaceable kingdom to those who are in need.  

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always.  Amen.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment! If you comment Anonymously, your comment will summarily be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

Rapha & Yada - "Be Still & Know": Reimagined

-
Image
One of the most well-used verses in the Bible comes to us from Psalm 46:10, which reads like this:  He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;     I will be exalted among the nations,     I will be exalted in the earth.” That one line---"Be still, and know that I am God"---finds its way into greeting cards, wall art, church signs and the like.  And it sounds so nice, doesn't it?  But what does it actually mean ? What does it mean to be still  and know  that God is God?  Well, to dig deeper into that phrase to see what it's really saying, I'm going to have to bust out some Hebrew--so, don't hold it against me. The Hebrew word that's used here for the phrase "be still" is the word  rapha. And get this... It means "to hang limp, sink down, be feeble."  That's a heckuva lot different than what we usually take the phrase "be still" to mean, right? I don't know about you, but whenever I have heard that verse
Read more

Wuv... True Wuv...

-
Image
Go ahead. Ask me what my favorite "chick flick" is. The Princess Bride , that's what.  The pic at the top of this entry gave it away, I know. There are three reasons why it is my favorite "chick flick." 1. It's not a chick flick.  2. The only kissing is at the end of the movie... where it's supposed to be. 3. It has Andre the Giant in it. Any of these reasons could stand alone in their own right as pretty dang valid reasons why The Princess Bride is atop my list of romantic films.  But when the aforementioned reasons are lumped together, I don't see how anyone could argue against it. There is a scene in The Princess Bride that makes me giggle a whole lot...the wedding scene where Peter Cook, playing a priest with a speech impediment presides over Princess Buttercup's almost wedding to the evil Chris Sarandon (and I hear he's still pretty evil).   Here it is. Wuv...  true wuv...  gotta love that. I've been reading and re-re
Read more

The Lord Needs It: Lessons From A Donkey

-
Image
This Sunday is Palm Sunday---the beginning of Holy Week. It's also one of those Sundays when you can't ignore the church calendar and just preach whatever you want.  I am sure that some people do just that, but they probably aren't Presbyterian, and I am sure that the liturgical rhythm of the Church is not first and foremost in their mind. And they probably have had no trouble at all working on their sermon this week. I'm not one to blindly follow tradition, but there are some things that you just don't do---and you can't just ignore  the story of Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.   But this leads to a bit of a quandary...  In the short time I have been doing this whole preaching thing I have gone through the Palm Sunday story a few times.  After a while you sort of wonder if your congregation has heard your Palm Sunday riff a few too many times. That sermon needs to get preached, though.  While we celebrate the cheers and pal
Read more