from an article originally posted June 10, 2014...
A kind group of women joined me last night for a big cry. With tests approaching, I have been feeling all the edges. I felt like a big cry was in order. I knew enough about this movie to know it would deliver. I had not read the book, so I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I just knew it was about cancer. So I was fairly certain someone would be dying.
Chapter 10: Befriend Dysfunctional Family Members This chapter spoke to my heart, and I hope it does to yours as well. Sauls talks in this chapter about how God designed his church to be a family—how he is our father, and he invented the family structure! We crave relationship and we need relationships. We need parents and siblings and grandparents. But so many of us have broken family relationships or grew up in dysfunctional families. Many of us were abused and cannot be in relationship with those abusive family members. And yet, we are not alone in these painful situations; Sauls pointed out that Jesus’ own earthly family had serious issues, just like so many of ours!
from an article originally posted June 4, 2014...
In the corners of all stories, there is a quiet story. It’s the sad story of loss. This week the loss hit a little closer. You know the story, you have heard people tell it in hushed tones. I have heard people quietly tell of the loss of someone and then sheepishly eye me. And, in that look, I know I don’t need to ask how the person died. I simply know it’s cancer. You hurt that the person will leave you anxious that they brought up the death of another. A death involving cancer.
rom an article originally posted June 3, 2014...
Choices, always choices meet us in our daily living. I have often talked to friends of the pull of the darkened room where I am tempted to spend endless hours facing a screen and checking out of living. The pull is not a light one—it’s a strong, desperate pull to stop. To quit. To check out. I still have suffocating moments that steal my peace and leave me ragged. Most evenings are a battle for peace before sleep. That is why I posted yesterday about the struggle in going, going, going. But if I’m truly honest, my going is a result of my fear of stopping—stopping and never getting going again. And perhaps if we are all honest, our going is so we don’t have to look at the condition of our hearts. I know that is my fear. If I slow, I stop, I listen, I might hear the depth of my sadness. But there is a lie in that fear, isn’t there. Yes, I know the sadness to be true, but what if I faced it? Would I be left?
Oh, friends, wasn’t Chapter 8 so beautiful?! I read it so slowly, soaking in the beauty and the wisdom. Chapter 8 is Befriend True Friends and Significant Others, in which Sauls compares the covenant nature of biblical relationships to the consumerism practiced in modern day relationships, including both romantic relationships and close friendships. He talks about the importance of being known, oh glory! He asserts, I need you to call my bluff. You need me to call your bluff too.
