This day!  ARGH.

I ventured out to pick up my mail and then purchase some groceries from Target, but the century mark heat was so awful that I came home and slept for several hours, trying to recover from becoming a wet noodle.

After pulling myself together, I ventured out again for Vespers.  Oh, my, Pastor E preached on Psalm 42!  It was altogether too brief, a mere moment of savoring the gift of this prayer, but still it was a sermon on my beloved Psalter.  I am not sure if I had sung Vespers yet.  I do not believe so...at least not apart from listening to that most wonderful CD I have, Evening and Morning:  The Music of Lutheran Prayer.  Sung Liturgy.  Sung Gospel.  What more could you want?

When I came home, I ventured out to mow the lawn and edge.  The rechargeable batteries were not cooperating; apparently their lifespan is waning.  I mowed with a flashlight, thinking the "cool" of the evening might make it bearable.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  Much of my insides were left upon the lawn as I finished cutting it.  A rare feat, really, since I have not eaten since Monday.  I lost my appetite Friday and have not been able to find it.  Not even the salads I have been eating seem palatable.  The milk I got from Target, however, didn't last long.

Feeling quite miserable, I decided to put the luggage back up in the attic.  Seeing it sitting there is rather discouraging and does not help in trying to look forward, rather than back.  However, to do so meant climbing a ladder.  Yes, I fell.  Then I took an unexpected trip down the stairs.  I think...I could be wrong...but I think the fact that I am so tired kept me from being hurt more than just banged up all over...tumbling like a drunk.  I did manage to catch the banister railing at the bottom and keep from knocking over the bookcase.

But the day was not over.  In the shower, I slipped and fell again because the tub needs to be scrubbed.  I admit that I sat on the bottom and wailed for quite a while.

I wish I had someone(s) to call and ask to put up my luggage.  I wish that I had not spent all of my regular savings putting in the third air-conditioner into this home, paying a tax bill, repairing the car, and running headlong down the wrong road, because I really have no business trying to keep up the yard.  I have no business, in truth, trying to keep up my house, but I have no choice.  It did not help that yesterday I missed both doses of medication and am feeling the lack of pain killer.

I know that Christ is with me by and in and through and with the cross.  I do.  It just doesn't stop me missing the good things I had so generously poured over me by my new family.

My command is this:  Love each other as I have loved you.  ~John 15:12

2.  JESUS LOVES US.

We watch Jesus loving people throughout the Gospels.  Sometimes His love is exasperated, like when He laments over Jerusalem, "How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! (Luke 13:34b).  Sometimes it is challenging like when He challenges the rich young ruler to give up what was most important to him.  And sometimes His love is simply indescribable, like when He stretches out His arms and allows Himself to be crucified.

Jesus loves us with an everlasting love.  And He shows us His love in may ways throughout our lives—but never more plainly or powerfully than dying on the cross.

Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!