Christian Jewelry?
My online friend Neil Ellis Orts wrote this funny (but not untrue) piece on Christian jewelry:
Graves Creations: Bringing the Cross into the 21st Century
Enjoy!
A Creation-centered Mantra
This life is not mine.
This body is not mine.
This mind is not mine.
These talents are not mine.
This family and these friends are not mine.
There is nothing I can lay claim to as my own:
How then shall I live?
Morning Prayer
Lord, here is my heart.
See how small and puny it is.
See how the doors get stuck in the jambs.
See how the hinges have rusted in place.
See how the walls are covered in mold.
See how the floors are stained and cracked.
See how the rooms are cluttered with sin.
How will you get inside, Lord?
Where will you rest?
What room is left for your Spirit to fill?
How can this heart be the reservoir of your love?
Kick down the doors, Lord.
Force your way in to my heart.
Cleanse the grime with your Holy Spirit,
and that you might abide in your temple,
which you have made with your own hands.
Create in me a clean heart, O Lord,
Amen.
Drowning
Things have been hectic lately, and I’ve been feeling very little motivation to deal with any of them: school, family, relationships, church. It’s not quite the blahs, since it’s so busy, but the end effect is the same–I don’t want to do anything.
The image I’ve had in my head is of drowning–not in the fighting for my life kind of way, but in the over my head kind of way, maybe more like the frog who calmly boils to death as the heat rises. I’m trying to keep my head above water, but part of me just wants to let it wash over me and take me with the current.
I am reminded of a story I heard once about a businessman who was stressed out until God reminded him that God had seen Christ Jesus through every thing He had to deal with, and surely would do the same for the businessman. If God has given himself for us so completely, if God has shown that he can see one man through an entire lifetime without sin, surely this same God can and will see us through all the details of our lives?
Isaiah 43.2:
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
I will not drown. Like the Hebrews leaving Egypt and like their descendants entering Canaan, I can walk into the water and not drown. Like Jonah in the ocean, I need not worry about the sea, for God is my promise, my hope, and my salvation. There is nothing in my life too big for God to handle or too small for God’s concern.
Thanks be to God.
