30 More Days of Grace

I stumbled into church Sunday morning a whopping 7 minutes before the service started, and I was feeling pretty good about that accomplishment.  I wandered over to my typical, might-as-well-be assigned, seat in the back corner and dropped my purse onto the chair, but before I could even sit down, I was intercepted by a great friend whose mother-in-law in the hospital with end stage vascular disease.  His wife has been camped out at the hospital with her mom for the last 10 days or so, and he was at church with the family and extended family.  I hadn’t heard an update for the morning, yet, so he quickly filled me in on the night and the exhaustion they all were feeling.  I’ve sat in that same hospital, in those same rooms, and even worked with those same surgeons, and as he explained all the things happening in that hospital, I felt that weight on my own shoulders from my own hours in their shoes.  Before he even finished updating me, a friend from bible study st...

Life Lessons from Winnie the Pooh: I’m from the era of Saturday morning cartoons.  When we were kids, my brother and I would get up on Saturday mornings, park ourselves in front of the tv in our living room, and spend the morning watching Saturday morning cartoons because that was the only time cartoons were on and we were actually able to control the tv! Winnie the Pooh was always on, so we grew up with Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, Tigger, Christopher Robbin, and Owl.  Every episode of Winnie the Pooh involved the characters getting themselves into some type of trouble or trying to solve some type of problem. And, in every episode, Tigger was getting himself in some type of trouble, Winnie the Pooh was guilty by association, Eeyore was the nay-sayer cloaked in self-pity, and Owl was just waiting to bestow wisdom and advice on his friends. I think, if we take a minute to be a little self-reflective and introspective, we can all agree that...

But, Mommmmmm…. My older brother, Jeremy, had this obsession with unique vehicles when he was a teenager and throughout his early twenties.  He chose to buy some of the strangest cars and trucks. When he was still in high school, he bought this 1970s boat of a white Cadillac.  It was one of the biggest, ugliest, most impractical cars ever. But, he had the money, and he wanted it, so he bought it. And the trend only continued from there with his El Camino, Dodge Stealth, and Sporty S10--all completely impractical cars that our mother disapproved of and knew were far from his best choices.  But, she never tried to talk him out of his car choices or even make a case as to why he should be doing something differently. I think mom knew it would be a pointless argument to even attempt. I think she knew Jeremy well enough to know that he was determined to do what he wanted regardless of whether or not it was his best choice.   And she knew he would co...