Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

i walked through a garden in the morning i walked right into a change no words were spoken just a feeling and i cannot explain but i can feel the difference  - King's X, The Difference It always seems to happen around the end of the year. Things get really busy at work and the stretch of days that I plan to take off are threatened to be broken up by a promise to check an email here or a half-hour conference call there. As I walked out into the parking lot last night there was a specter that wouldn't let me pass until I had walked right through him thereby committing myself to some mode or method of work during my vacation. Once I had whirled around to see if I had, indeed, passed through him (I had, there was no doubt about that) I said to myself, "Lord, I am not going to worry about this. You got this one, right?" A simple prayer that did nothing to dissipate the presence of that ghost but that set my mind and heart on a course into water that was decidedly uncharted...

I lost my temper on Monday night. I lost my temper so badly that I sinned in the process and had to ask for forgiveness from my oldest son. There was no reason for me to have done that. Even though my son was disobedient and more than a little wrong in what he pulled there was no reason for me to lose it. I guess I just wanted to make him feel badly about what he had done, but how is that my job? Shouldn't I have left room for the Spirit to convict him of his sin and drive him to confess it? So there I was, in his room, just before he went to bed, confessing my sin to him and asking him for his forgiveness. Then, when the conversation was over, and rather uncharacteristically, I hugged him. And he wouldn't let go. When we left each others' arms he looked at me and said, "I don't know how you do it." "Do what?" I asked. "Well, I just keep on sinning and sinning, but you still love me." His inquiry led me to remind him that he forgave me for ...

I was at a Christmas concert last night for my nieces and I thought that the choirs that sang did a great job. The accelerated choir group sang "Carol of the Bells" and as they did I thought of the piercing cry of a bell in relation to the piercing presence of Christ that Christmas night. I couldn't shake the thought that bells are such a perfect picture of what happened when God took on flesh and dwelt among us. But then, probably because I grew up Catholic, I got to thinking about the Annunciation. The Annunciation is what Catholics call the salutation the Gabriel made to Mary to announce that she had been chosen to bear Christ. It is recorded in the Gospel of Luke and is tremendous in its implications and in the illustration of Mary's unbridled submission to God's will. This event in our salvation history is celebrated on March 25 each year. What made me think about the Annunciation in reference to Christmas (beyond the obvious fact that Mary had to get pregnan...