Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

Deuteronomy 6:7-8 is the standard for me to communicate the Commandments of God, and really the whole Bible, to my children. It is a popular passage that took on new meaning for me during the evening service on Easter Sunday. We watched various scenes of John's account of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It was powerful and I even had the opportunity to do a couple (literally) minutes of instruction from the 18th chapter. Well, we were singing one of my favorite songs at the end and I was very into it. During the height of the song I felt a tap on my leg. Quickly realizing that it was Drew trying to get my attention and snapping me out of my focus on the words of the song and the beauty of the moment. I instantly wondered what was so important (I was worshiping after all) and I bent down to inquire what he wanted. And there it was. An even more beautiful moment and one that I will never forget. Drew asked a simple question: "What does 'come again' mean?...

Let me start out by saying that I find nothing inherently wrong with the statement "I am so proud of you." I do not equate the message of that statement with the sin of pride at all. Reflecting on it, though, I find that I am a bit uncomfortable with the focus it brings. It seems to me that a better statement would be "I thank God for what he has done through you." or something like that. Maybe "Thank you for letting God use you" is all right too. I guess my main concern is that I want the focus to be on the Gift Giver rather than the one who has been gifted. That, to me, makes me more comfortable and makes more of God and less of the individual that God is using in a particular way. That seems to be more of the spirit of John the Baptist when he said that "He must increase and I must decrease." For me it is a little like taking a circuitous route to a destination. If my goal is to get there as quickly as possible then there is a better way to do...

I thought our days were commonplace, I thought they would number in the millions. - Treasure of the Broken Land, Mark Heard Time leaves its marks on me in almost imperceptible ways. I mean, I live with me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (a fact that I often lament) and I need to look at pictures to see the effect that time has had on me. I don't look old to me until I look at the wedding picture on our living room wall. I looked so young back then...and that was only 15 years ago. I know that I am not as quick as I used to be and that I can't do the Spring clean up for 8 hours straight like I used to. I find that when I jog I feel like I am going to die and that I get a bit more winded running down the street after my boys. Of course that is not all age related...the volume of Stromboli that I have eaten in 12 hours may have something to do with that as well. At any rate there have been 40 of them. Years that have passed and yes, I would do some things differently had I know tha...