Glad to be here

We arrived back home late last night from our 2.5 week vacation back in the South.  It is no exaggeration to say we cherished every moment with our family, friends, home climate and culture.  We are so thankful for having the opportunity to fly across the country and spend that kind of time.

I feel very refreshed, which is good, because I came back to a place and time for figuring some stuff out.  It's good to come back with a cleared head.  For now, with school officially out, I plan to just putz around my house putting things back in order post-vaca.  I have the tremendous privilege of planning for my dear sweet friends who are coming to visit starting the 4th of July.   We are so excited to have all four of this precious family under our Oregon roof for a few days!

And now it's time for me to walk my pup.  I think he's emotionally spent from our going and coming, but it sure is good to see him again.  I so enjoyed feeling the sun on my bare shoulders back in the South, but the prospect of walking on dewey ground with sunlight spilling through the massive evergreens with my dog at my side, even while wearing a sweater (sigh) doesn't sound too bad, either.  ;>

Under the curse?

 Once upon a time, I found grace.

It was God's grace, coming from the one who defines the word.

Thrilled as I was to have a word to describe what I always knew in my heart, 

I talked of it everywhere I went.

Understanding even a tiny bit about grace changed everything.

It changed too much according to the theys, the thems, and those.

They said, 'grace has it's limits, girl'

'you're still under the curse'

That's what they said, when I asked if maybe we worried about things that didn't matter anymore?

They said, 'you're still under the curse'.

Really?

How much sense does that make?

How much sense does that make in 

the light of dark, holy blood

spilled by an exsanguinated savior,

by whom sin and death were wrestled to hell,

and the veil was torn

from top to bottom,

and the sky went dark

and the only Good that ever walked

was buried behind stone. 

Until He wasn't anymore,

because,
then He was alive, because He was
victorious, so
now He is alive!

Where in all that is there still room
to live under the curse?

How is it even possible?

And to say that we are still under the curse is to
accuse Jesus of ailing from
the foulest impotence...

it is to say,
He cannot save us at all.

Do not believe it.
If He saves you from anything,
He saves you from everything.
There is no curse for you, beloved.
You are justified, now be
sanctified.

Hard Eucharisteo

sometimes life is a pile of salt washed drift wood

and there is no order

or sense in it

and it's a mess

and sometimes you are like a tree

weathered, worn and broken

planted by still waters....

not so much

and sometimes, with sun obscure

you are standing in the grey

and there's not much left to do

but embrace the wood

of another kind of tree

sometimes that's just how it is

Counting with the community of the grateful:

~  understanding that knowing the truth and hurting is better than being the fool

~  finishing the little orange book

~  the admonition, blessing and encouragement we received from it

~  not knowing much, but knowing Him, and how that really is enough

~  the pain that comes from the loss of something that brought great joy

~  watching how one who is loved well, loves well

~  the healing that brings, like a balm on a burn

~  sending off dear ones

~  the adventurous journey ahead of them

~  the emptiness the leaving causes only because of the fullness their presence meant

~  how life was good with them

~  how they are gifts

~  how it's hard, but we are thankful, because who are we to say, 'it's bad', so

~  we count it as good