The Meandering Mind of a Christian Woman

  Genesis 3:14 “God said to Moses, ‘I AM who I AM.’ This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I Am has sent me to you.”             I feel the need to make a disclaimer statement up front as I can see what I will write in these next few sentences could be misconstrued. This writing is not claiming that man is God although I will say, that if you have claimed the Holy Spirit lives in you, that identifies that God is in you too.             How many times a day do you use the phrase “I am…”? Probably much more than you or I realize. This is how God identified Himself to Moses. “I AM who I AM” We often refer to God as the great I AM, which He is. Going back to how often we use the phrase, for myself those two words are often followed with denigrating words like; so stupid, so foolish, so dumb, so angry, so hurt, so fill in the blank. What if each time we thought abou...

              It occurred to me this week that many of us have titles; professor, mechanic, doctor, pastor, nurse, teacher, plumber, carpenter, mother, father, and the list can go forever. Many of us have worked hard to earn our titles, I know I spent many hours becoming a nurse and I take a certain amount of pride in the title. But there are days I don’t want to be the nurse; I just want to be Jody, it’s comforting.             Isaiah 43:1b “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.” In context this is a prophecy to Israel and goes on to describe how God will be w ith us through water and fire, in other words through all our traumas. I cherish the idea of being called by name. You see, along with the titles we might bear come expectations, responsibilities, and pressures. I recall my first year of being a nurse among a staff of about...

              It’s been a rough week. I began the week being heartbroken over the death of someone I hold very dear, he’s been a large presence in my life the last couple decades. I can’t stop thinking and praying for the family he left behind; a beautiful wife and three adoring daughters. It echoes my own experience becoming a widow. They are women of strong faith and I have confidence that their faith will pull them through on their dark days ahead.             Yet, a word keeps flowing through my thoughts; fragile. (If you’re a fan of “A Christmas Story” you read that as fra-jeee-lay, but that’s beside the point.) When a loved one passes away it is common to feel quite fragile, as though one could shatter into a million pieces at any given moment. I have been contemplating this idea and it occurs to me, we are all fragile. From an outside perspective we appear to have ...