Good Things
There is very little that is significant about the number 41. It's a prime. You can't do any numerical tricks with it. About all that I can come up with is that '41 was an amazing year for baseball, what with Williams hitting .406 and Dimaggio's streak. But as far as ages go, it's a great big, "Eh." Still, it was a great birthday. And, yes, that's the big change...whoopee!My Calculus class threw me a party. I think they're trying to outdo the awesome group I had last year. The jury's still out but they are making it close. We got quite a bit less math done than usual, but I guess that's okay once in a while. After work, Lisa and James met me for a scrumptious dinner at McDonald's. I was leaving for my retreat out of town and it's all we had time for. I'm sure we'll make it up soon (hint, hint, baby).
The weekend was beyond description. I could try, but I would either leave too much out or just go on so long that people would abandon the blog forever. It was a time that simply transcends words and bullet points. If I was forced to put it into a sentence, I would say that a group of men, many of whom have served God faithfully for their entire lives, learned for the first time just how much God loves them. At least to the extent that we can grasp it.
It is a powerful thing to learn that God loves you. And not in the Biblical, memory-verse, "God Loves You" sort of way. But in the perfect, blameless-in-Christ, "knitted together in your mother's womb" sort of way. There's nothing we can do to make Him love us any more and there's nothing we can do to make Him love us any less. He gets disappointed, frustrated, and angry but He never stops loving us. We spend a lot of time tearing ourselves down and concentrating on our faults. And a certain amount of introspection and self-analysis is a good thing. We can't ever become better people if we don't look clearly at who we are and what we are doing. But God sees us through the blood of our perfect Saviour and remembers us always as the clay He Himself molded. We are His children. He can't NOT love us.
I think today would be a good day to think about what you're doing right. That's okay, you know. It's not always pride to focus on good things. How can we keep doing them if we don't recongize them? So, how is God pleased with you today? What have you done to lift Him up? How have you served others? What have you been successful at lately? Have you sung to Him? Have you written about Him? Have you caught 13 fish...given your mother-in-law a ride...supported someone who was grieving...spent quality time with your son...turned down a chance to do something wrong...bought somebody food...prayed for a friend...taught someone how to be better at their job...studied when you wanted to be playing...told your spouse how important they are...given money away?
Remember, you do more right than wrong.
God loves you beyond words. You are His chosen one, his child. There's nothing He wouldn't, nothing He hasn't done for you. Satan would love for you to believe that you are worthless and ugly, that your sin defines you. But we know better. God has taken our sin from us as far as the east is from the west. He created us in His image. We are far from ugly to Him.
Thank you for your prayers this weekend. They were answered in abundance.
God loves you. So do I.
posted by Thurman8er @ 8:59 AM
5 Comments:
My math brother – that must have been some retreat because your blog is oozing with encouragement and love. I was feeling somewhat inadequate for some reason this morning. Maybe I’m stuck in Romans 7 mode, I don’t know. What ever it was your post jarred me out of my poor, poor, pitiful me mode.
Happy 41st my brother and please, go out to eat with your wife to a little better place than “Mickey-D’s.”
pwexmrji (drug I won't have to take now that I've read Steve's post)
How about sushi????
Yes, please.
objgncz (soy/wasabi mix)
Thanks for the encouragement. We can be much harder on ourselves than we should. Thanks for the great reminders of our great God.
Speaking as one who caught 13 fish and caught 8 more yesterday!
nxvmcu (complex mathemacalcus theory)
I missed you this weekend, but I'm glad your time was blessed...
Post a Comment
<< Home