Surprised

Isn't being surprised cool?  Not like, you know your friends are throwing you a party, but you fake it surprised... but like, you are expecting something, and you get something totally different?  It's cool, huh?  Like a reminder that there's something bigger than you...

Tonight I was at a barbecue at my Pastor's house.  My church is a little group of people that don't really have much in common other than the fact that they want to follow Christ, and keep Him in the middle.  I guess that's all he asks, huh?  It's us who notice things like what we look like or what we do that makes us so different....

Anyways, after we ate a group of us girls went inside to pray.  Kind of like an impromptu small group.  Only it wasn't my usual group of girls.  There were three women there that aren't usually at my apartment when we meet.  One is a woman about 10 years (I'm guessing) older than me, who is going through a divorce.  Another is married.  The other is a senior in high school.  Random.  But that's God's people.  We're random... but as my Pastor Ron says, that's Symphonic.  Symphonic is the name of my church.  Symphonic is the sound God's people make when they are living thier lives, and they bump into and go alonside eachother.  My sound.  Your sound.  Our sound together.

Tonight my sound met a sound it was surprised to hear.  That high school senior that prayed with us, really touched my heart.  I shared what I was going through, and she has been through something similar.  Her experience mattered to me.  It gave me hope.  Surprise!

Remembering A Hero

I am a television news producer.  Often times, unfortunately, local news consists of shootings and other crime stories that seem so day to day.  It's sad, because I know those shootings affect the families that lose loved oves to bullets, even on the streets of bad neighborhoods, where it's almost expected... but to the rest of us, it seems like the same old stuff. 

Tonight, my newscast started with two crime stories.  A woman attacked with a hammer.  A guy killed in a double shooting in a neighborhood, an innocent grandmother hit in the foot with a bullet.

But today was Memorial Day.  A day that many Americans associate with a 3 day weekend, a trip to the beach, or an excuse to grill out.  But today we are supposed to remember the men and women who fought and died... so we can sit on our back porch with our families and enjoy an extra day off.   So many times, I think people miss that.  I miss that.

Today my dad called me.  He had a story.  Yes he did.  A couple found a Purple Heart, a man's picture and a letter of condolence from FDR.  His date of death was June 6, 1944.  D-day.  The day the world was won back.  The day Europe was saved, and the tide of World War II was changed.  This guy, who's name I don't even remember was there.  He died.  Maybe on the beach... I don't know.  But this is a real story.  His story.  My dad called me because he wants this man's family to have his medal, his pictures and his letter from the President.  This man deserves to be remembered.  He's a hero.  And so is my dad.

Sufficient

I am blessed by this song by "Shane & Shane"

Your grace is sufficient for me
Your strength is made perfect
When I am weak
And all that I cling to
I lay at Your feet
Your grace is sufficient for me

Blind

I'm going through a really hard situation right now and I feel blind.  I can't see what's ahead.  I don't know what's next.  My only instinct is to feel... but feelings are so unstable.  If I stand on my feelings, who knows what will happen.  But maybe that's the idea, huh? 

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."  --Hebrews 11:1