What my heart has been singing lately... (Jan '06)

Lyrics to "I Will Not Be Broken"... as performed by Bonnie Raitt

That was then this is now - Found my way back here somehow - Knew you'd have to let me go - Told you once I told you so

Take me down - You can hold me but you - Can't hold what's within - Pull me round - Push me to the limit - Maybe I may bend - But I know where I'm not going - I will not be broken - I will not be broken - I will not be...

Someone other than who I am - I will fight to make my stand - Cause what is livin' if I can't live free - What is freedom if I can't be me

Take me down - You can hold me but you - Can't hold what's within - Pull me round - Push me to the limit - Maybe I may bend - But I know where I'm not going - I will not be broken - I will not be broken - I will not be...

I won't let you near it - I will let my spirit fly - Fly - High - Oh take me down

Take me down - You can hold me but you - Can't hold what's within - Pull me round - Push me to the limit - Maybe I may bend - But I know where I'm not going - I will not be broken - I will not be broken - I will not be...

Recuperation! (Jan '06)

Anyone who knows me (even for a short time) knows that I do not sit still very well. I am constantly running... constantly thinking about the next thing to accomplish, the next thing to get involved with, the next thing to mark off my "to do before I die" list, the next thing to volunteer for, etc. Some see me as the classic over-achiever trying to set world records for Guiness... but in all reality I just don't believe in getting rusty.

To those worried about me living a full life - you'll be relieved to know that I slowed down this week. This last week I SAT. I sat back in my pajamas and watched way too much TV and expected others' to do things for me and FULLY ENJOYED every minute of it.

Actually - I couldn't do much to change the circumstances! So I sat back and enjoyed my surroundings - I enjoyed every last "get well" card and flower bouquet and email message wishing me back on my feet.

Last Friday (Jan 20th) I had my gall bladder removed. This was my first time in surgery (I hate to break it to everyone - but having your wisdom teeth pulled isn't much of a "surgery"... not like this anyway)... and hopefully I will not have to go through too many more surgeries. All went well - and I'm recuperating speedily. And I'm feeling extremely better today than I was yesterday. And hopefully tomorrow will bring even more of an improvement.

In the meantime I will continue to make the most of the circumstances and catch up on some reading, phone calls, visits with family and friends... such is the life! Now if I can just figure out a way to keep this many fresh flower bouquets in my house at all times...

Conflict with "The Book of Daniel" (Jan '06)

If you have not read about the conflict with the new NBC show "The Book of Daniel"... you should take a few minutes to sit back and look into it. Take just a few minutes to look at the true conflict here...

The main character is a pill-popping Episcopal priest with a gay son and a daughter selling drugs, a wife who drives away daily problems with regular martinis, and a recently widowed sister-in-law who has also just "come out of the closet". The priest has a regular visitor - Jesus. Like a cartoon character Jesus pops into the scene to confront the priest and apparently the priest is the only who seems Him. They appear to have regular chats - even cynically laughing at the way things are and making light of the ironies in the priest's life.

What's the conflict? Due to thousands of complaints about the show many affiliate stations across America have cancelled the airing of this show and replaced it with re-runs of something else. According to Yahoo! news the complaints are being submitted to NBC via phone, email, fax and some of them on church letterhead.

But my initial question is "How much more real can you get?!" When I was growing up my dad was a pastor. And while we didn't deal with THESE types of issues in our home, some of these issues were present in our home churches. I know that the reality of our home was a lot like this priest's home in the sense that we all had our own short-comings, our own set of temptations, our own "drama" - after all, NO ONE is perfect nor completely righteous.

And as the TV priest, played by Aidan Quinn, deals with problems in his family, his church and his own person he shows that the Grace of God gets Him through every day. Doesn't man - even those called to be priests and pastors and biblical teachers - all have issues of our own?! And isn't that why we believe in the Grace of God to start with?! The fact that Christ still loves us ... and that after "falling short" of others' expectations of what a Christian should be we can turn around and chat with Jesus. And while Jesus might have done it differently - Jesus is not condoning the behavior. He's showing the priest (and the tv viewers) that grace is there to comfort everyone and to show that He's not abandoning us because of our personal issues or how we react to them.

While my caution to this show would be - let's make sure they continue to do their best to be Christ-like (humble, gracious, holy even in persecution, acknowledging sin and where it stems from and how to be free of it, etc)... and in the meantime let's sit back and see just where we fall on the "holy scale"... this priest's life may not be far from our own.

In my humble opinion - this TV show may end up to be the best witness of Christ's love - ON TV!!! Do you think NBC knows what they are doing with the airing of this show?! I say "AIR IT!" If nothing else, it's getting people to question the authenticity of their own beliefs - and the depth of love Jesus has for all of us!

Once upon a time... (Jan '06)

Below is yet another life lesson I've run across. But more importantly than running across it - to know that I've learned this as well in my own life... I needed to share this because it speaks volumes!

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Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so they all prepared their boats and left.

Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to stay with the island until it started sinking. When love was almost sinking, he decided to ask for help. Richness came by Love in a beautiful boat. Love said, "Richness, can you take me with you?" Richness answered, "No, I can't ... there is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you." Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by. "Vanity, please help me!" "I can't help you Love. You are all wet and you may damage my boat," Vanity answered. Sadness was close by so again Love asked for help, "Sadness, let me go with you." " Oh... Love, I am so sad that I prefer to go alone!" Happiness passed by Love too, but she was so happy that she did not listen when love called her!

Suddenly, there was a voice, "Come Love, I will take you." It was an elder. Love became so happy that he even forgot to ask the elder her name. When they arrived on the dry land, the elder went on her own way. Love asked Knowledge, another elder, the name of the elder who had helped him. "It was Time," answered Knowledge. "Time? But why did Time help me?" asked Love. "Because only time is capable of understanding how great Love is," answered Knowledge.

The moral of this story is: "Take the time to know what Real Love is". - author unknown