"Sticks and stones may break my bones. " Chances are you didn’t even have to think about the rest of the expression. It’s one of those sayings that somehow we just know. We’re born, we learn our ABC’s, and then around the same time somebody also gives us that expression.
The power was still off when I woke up Monday morning. From my front window I could already see some of the damage left behind from Sunday’s extreme bout of storms. It was just getting bright enough outside to walk around and assess the damage.
Some days, I struggle to show up to life. Some days, everything just feels like way too much. There's so much heartache and so much suffering. Across the street, around the world, across the room. Not to mention my own shortcomings and burdens.
I was on a flight a few years ago and the airport we were due to land in was experiencing some congestion on the runway due to inclement weather.
Sitting in the coffee shop, I hear the sound track of love coming from the speaker behind me. Or at least, the soundtrack of wedding receptions. Frank Sinatra is, “saying something stupid like I love you,” while Etta James, “wants a Sunday kind of love.
I spend a lot of time thinking about thoughts. My thoughts -- and everybody else’s thoughts. Especially their thoughts about me. I like to convince myself that I’m good at “reading people. ” Which is a fancy way of saying, “I’m pretty sure I know what you’re thinking, even though you haven’t told me in actual words.
There’s a moment in one of my favorite British TV series where one character asks/yells at another, “ARE YOU HAVING AN EARTHQUAKE?!” The first time I heard it, it made me laugh. That scene has been running through my mind a lot lately.
I’ve heard it said that the Bible reminds us 365 times not to fear – once for every day of the year. It turns out that’s not exactly true, but the point still stands. Scripture does indeed repeatedly exhort us, “Do not fear!”.
I sat across the table, listening to her tell her story. It sounded familiar. She was asking the same questions I had so many times, during what felt like a long season of singleness. Sometimes you just need to say the words out loud.
1 Peter 3:15 says in part, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. ” In this passage, Peter exhorts us to always be ready to explain to others why Jesus is the source of our hope.
