I fetched the new prescription, on very wobbly legs, and was greatly surprised to learn it is actually an asthma drug.  Would that not be absolutely crazy if it were to help my asthma?  I just swallowed the first pill.

I have had more blunt words this day.  While I admit that I am weary of them and am an absolute poor receiver of such, I am grateful for honesty.  For how else could I learn?  But is it wrong of me to wish with my whole heart that I did not have so very much to learn?  That the one being honest did not have to labor so on my behalf?  Lord, have mercy on us both....

Last night, God's mercy continued.  How great are His thoughts of me?  I cannot truly fathom that they could or would outnumber the grains of sand.  Yet the woman from Greek class sent me an email and included such a beautiful prayer for me.  And then "Manna" called and talked for a long while and then prayed and read and sang with me.  It was as if God wrapped His arms about me and held me tightly against Him so that I could not stir a single foot in flight.

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Manna knows it not, though I did try to feebly give thanks, but the greatest thing she has done, twice now, is to follow up a night's call, a call filled with the less-than-social-contract-acceptable topics, with a cheery email filled with wonderful details about her day ahead.  She loves Luther and talking of doctrine.  She is blunt and calls a spade a spade.  She sings the sweetest of Gospel.  I could go on, but I also do not wish to embarrass her to paint her life here.  I only want to savor, to have this reminder of what a great and wondrous act of mercy God has done to send someone who, even after reading the ups and downs of my faith here, offers to read and pray and sing with me if that is what would be helpful.

The final way that I felt God's grip last night was listening to Pastor F's sermon (five times).  He does not write them out in a way I can cut and paste, but I guarantee you that if you go to his website and listen to it, you will be blessed. I almost believe it is his most fierce, most blunt, most bald sermon that I have yet to hear.  From his "notes" which he so graciously and kindly sent to me, I shall put one bit:

To say to a human "stop being anxious" is like telling a rock to stop sitting on the ground.  Therefore, Jesus is saying, “Point your anxiety towards me, because in Me it will find its end.”

Pastor F is preaching on how "ask, and you shall receive"; "seek, and you will find"; "knock, and the door will be opened unto you" are not commands, but rather actually promises from the mouth of Jesus.  Promises!  How very wild!

Still, it is a timely Word for me.  I have a choice before me, based--I must admit--on being anxious for the morrow. 

Even more timely is the 17th thing Christ does for us.  For me.

He who has the Son has life.  ~John 5:12a

17.  JESUS GIVES US LIFE.

We see death all around us every day.  Just watch the news for an eyeful of murders, bombings, and tragic accidents. And it's not just physical death that plagues us.  If we knew the life stories of the people we interact with every day, we might be shocked by the pain that infects their souls.

In the midst of all this death and darkness, Jesus bring life and light.  Where there is destruction, He restores.  Where there is death, He resurrects.  He replaces our ashes with beauty and our mourning with gladness.  In a dying world, Jesus brings life.


Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!