All In A Days Grace

  Have you ever had to go through physical therapy? I know several people who have as well as having to go through it myself. PT is a funny thing. Your goal is to heal, yet the experience is often times painful. I was recently talking to a friend who had shoulder surgery. I asked how physical therapy was going and he said “Hard and painful at times!” He went on to explain that he thought that he was just about done with his physical therapy. He had thought that his last visit was going to be just that….his LAST visit. After his therapy session he met with his doctor who explained that therapy was going to have to keep going. My friend, feeling discouraged protested. “Doc, I think I’m done…I don’t want to go through PT anymore…it’s too painful.”  My friend added to his rebuttal that he would continue his stretches and exercises on his own at home….he promised. He paused and I curiously waited to hear how the doctor had responded to him. At that my friend let out a sigh and said...

We look around the world and we wonder, “Will we ever be able to get along?” Sometimes what follows is a long laundry list of all the reasons we don’t get along. We focus on our differences, points of view, placement, and politics. Before we realize it, the people around us don’t even look like people anymore. They become the enemy; someone to fear, hate or be angry with. Before we know it, we’ve deconstructed everything God has told us about ourselves and others. When we deconstruct others in our minds and hearts, we then usually live our lives avoiding the very people that God created us to love. Matthew was a tax collector and Simon was a Zealot. Two people on two different sides of the political arena in their day. If we look at historical records, we’ll learn that Zealots despised tax collectors even more than Romans! Why you might wonder? Well, because tax collectors made their living collecting taxes from the Jews for Rome; many times, charging more than what was due, in order ...

I was recently watching a documentary on trees. Yes, you read that correctly….tree’s.   Those tall, bold structures we walk by, sit under and sometimes clean up after, when struck by a wind filled storm. What intrigued me about this program was the title, which implied that tree’s communicate with each other. As the narrator explained the inner workings of these gentle giants, she began to also reveal how this understood “communication” works. Moving beyond the leaves, branches and bark, there is a system affectionately referred to as the “Wood Wide Web”. This system is underground in what we know to be the root systems of the tree. Now, most of us know that the roots help to supply trees and other greenery with water and nutrients from the soil. The assumption, I think for most of us, is that each tree takes care of itself. What I learned about this vast root system under the ground was that it wasn’t simply meant to sustain the tree it grew from. Each tree’s root system ha...

  The other day I jumped on social media for a moment and was overwhelmed by what I saw. I was bombarded by angry voices. People demonizing each other for their choices and opinions. Everything from politics, to education, to masks, to health care choices. Angry, accusing voices pointing fingers across a dividing line. The pointing came from both sides. Each opinion condemning the other. Each perspective casting anger and disgust for the other. These were voices of my brothers and sisters in Christ.   People I knew. People that love Jesus. My heart became heavier and heavier as I scrolled. Some comments were bold and some were passive aggressive. It was when I saw the final line that I closed my computer and let the tears of sadness come. A person shared that they felt someone else had “deserved” to die because of healthcare choices that they had made. As Christians, as believers, as Children of The Most High we may not always agree with each other; but we are tol...