We are told that life is many things.  Life is short, life is precious, life is a gift, life is a journey, life is good, life is a wild ride, life is a roller coaster, life is a test, life is a marathon, life is a game, (actually, there is a game by that name), life is a play, the world a stage and we are the actors, life is but a dream, life is messy (I think that’s a national ad campaign for paper towels, but still true nonetheless), life is hard, life is a bowl of cherries, life is a cabaret (old chum), or life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it or what you do with it. Job said, “my life is but a breath;” and James 4:14 says that our lives “are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

Truth is, life is all these things and so much more.  This is a blog about life, about living life, not just surviving it.  Jesus said in John 10:10, ” I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  Our lives were meant to be so much more than just a messy mist amid the mundane.  With just a mustard seed of faith we can experience the “more” that Jesus was talking about.  The “more” that gives my life and your life meaning.

Yes, this is a blog about life and if you are reading this, then you are alive, so this is a blog for you.  Maybe something in these many posts will resonate with you.  We are all so different, so unique; and yet we are so universally similar at the same time.  That is because we are all created in our Creator’s image.  We have our humanity, our mortality and our immortality in common.  But we too often allow our many surface differences of culture, language, foods, dress and other customs to blind us to our similarities. We don’t see past our diversity to our similarity.

It is my hope that you will find something here at “mtothe5th” that will encourage you, inspire you, make you laugh or make you cry.  I hope that you will find connection somewhere here among these words, among these Life Lines.  We all crave connection.  Connection is my deepest desire, for myself, and for you, dear reader.  So I pray these words ring true.  I pray you find here words that help rather than hinder you on your life’s journey.  And indeed, that our journeys might intersect often along the way.

In closing, I wish you well, dear reader.  Take care not to turn your molehills into mountains, they are so much harder to move when they get that big.  And your life comes complete with more than enough mountains already built in, so it just seems silly to spend your time making more mountains.

Show mercy.  Mercy always matters.  Mercy prepares the way for the miracles that will manifest themselves amid the mundane moments that make up our lives. Hold on to your mustard seed of faith, watch it grow and move those mountains in your life.  You see, the mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, but it grows into the largest of plants, so large that even the birds can rest in its’ branches.  In the same way, even our small faith can make way for God to do big things.

“. . . I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you.”  (Matthew 17:20)

“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.”  (Hosea 6:6)

” . . . judgement without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.  Mercy triumphs over judgement!”   (James 2:13)

sincerely,     Grace Day