Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

While I was worshiping with the church on Sunday a picture flashed into my mind that connected my life with God in a way that I hadn't thought of before. One of my favorite pictures that has been taken on me (I sound a bit full of myself here don't I?) is one where I am with a "then" preschool boy and we have just employed a ramp that we had just constructed to launch a matchbox car into the air. We are looking at each other, mouths wide open, in total amazement at how well the ramp worked. As I recall the picture we, literally, have the same expressions on our faces as we revel in what the car had done. I think my joy was more in the connection that I had made to this boy and the laughing and smiling that we could do together as we built some semblance of a relationship around the common experience we were having. Both he and I were absolutely loving it and from, maybe, only slightly different angles. As that picture played in my mind I wondered. I wondered how many ...

Joy (and happiness for that matter) is completed when it is expressed. When something good happens, or even when I am given a godly perspective in the midst of great pain, I have a burning desire to share it with those that I love and even God Himself. It just seems so silly to tell God about what just happened or how I am relying on Him in the midst of great trial as if I am clueing Him into something that He doesn't, already, know. But He puts up with it doesn't He? He even desires it because He desires my good. He knows that it is good for me to complete my joy (and even my happiness) through expressing that back to Him. That is one of the reasons why it is so good for me to worship my God by reflecting back to Him all that He is to me. As I articulate the joy I feel as a result of who He is my greatest good is achieved. My joy goes all the way down and it sinks deep into the earth as a most suitable foundation. I was, recently, on a business trip with a woman who was comple...

I have to admit that this is a tough issue for me. I traveled by airplane from Rochester to Atlanta on a direct flight on the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on this country on 9-11-01. Thankfully I was with the church that morning and even got to teach the preschoolers and kindergartners in our HighPoint children's ministry. IN other words, there was plenty to distract me concerning the events that transpired a while back and the bit of fear I had in my heart concerning my travels on that day. There is no excuse for the distraction that I leaned on to quiet my heart. I guess I am still a man and still need a savior. At the gate at the airport I looked around to see who I would be traveling with. They were all white like me. Even the people who were not white were white enough that I felt comfortable traveling with them and my heart sunk into a more profound peace and rest. I knew that I would be arriving safely at my destination. But I didn't really know...did I? Th...