well, technology and I continue to do battle on a daily basis.  And technology continues to win most of the time. Technology usually gets the best of me, leaving me confused, discouraged, and longing for things to be simpler, clearer or at least more user friendly.  I mean one wrong click and things can go awry at an alarmingly fast pace and I’m left wondering what if anything will fix the mess and put me back on track. Technology has the upper hand.  No matter how much I learn, she advances far faster than my futile efforts to close the gap between us.  She is always  out of reach, taunting me, telling me I will never catch her, let alone master her.

So, she has the fear factor going for her, keeping me in my place.  Additionally, she surrounds me at every turn, making herself inescapable.  There is no where I can go to get a rest from technology, she is everywhere.  She has made herself necessary even as I have been trying valiantly, (but without success) to get through a day without her, so that I can avoid the battle.  The battle that will leave me worn out and wondering where I went wrong this time and what I could do differently at our next encounter.  No matter though,  technology always has new moves with which to block any attempt I might make to use her to accomplish even the simplest of tasks.  She can turn these seemingly simple tasks into monumental challenges.  Technology turns my molehills into insurmountable mountains every day, leaving me looking for the miracle that will lead me out of the maze.  Otherwise, technology once again holds me captive, an unwilling prisoner unable to free herself from the confusion and chaos that is technology, as she runs circles around me yet again.  (That must be her victory dance)

And passwords?   Let me just say, passwords are the bane of my existence.  I mean, everything requires a password.  Who can keep them all straight?  Having the same password for each account, membership or whatever is not advised.  And the requirements vary for passwords for different things.  Some require including capitalization, some require numbers as well as letters,  there are length requirements as well.  My user name and password often don’t match, so I seem to be always creating new passwords so I can access something of mine that I need.  It is a process without an end in sight.  Yes, I know, write them down, you say.  I do, but then I have to remember where is the all important place where I have hidden this top secret information away to keep it safe?  The question, safe from whom? comes to mind.  I have no specific answer to that question, but passwords continue to be required from me nonetheless.  They are safe from me,  that much is clear every time I have to remember one and have no clue what brilliant, memorable password I changed it to the last time.

And so the cycle continues.  I’m glad God doesn’t require a password from me, like say when I want to pray, to spend time with Him.  He already knows my thoughts, He knows my name.  He knows my user ID and I don’t need a password to prove I belong to Him.  My name is engraved on the palms of His hands and He knew me before I was even born.  I’m relieved I don’t have to log in,  that’s where I get stopped cold every time by technology and I can’t even get the access that I need or desire.  But our Creator is available 24/7 to us and without a “log in” requirement.  This is good news to me for sure.  After being totally frustrated and shut out of where I want to go by technology, I enjoy immensely the immediate access and total freedom I have in Christ to live, move and have my being in Him who created me and sustains me every moment.

Technology may be a thorn in my side but at least I don’t need her to access what is most important to me.  Prayer doesn’t require a password, just that mustard seed of faith and a willing spirit.  Our heavenly Father is ready, willing and able.

“Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”  Isaiah 65:24

“Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”   Jeremiah 33:3

sincerely,                Grace Day

 

 

Recently, as I was driving to my dentist appointment, I realized I was looking forward to it and had been all day.  It would be a break in my busy day,  my only chance to literally put my feet up for a few minutes and rest.

So my question is, if I am looking forward to my time at the dentist, what does this say about my day?  Seriously, if my dentist appointment is the high point of my day,  what does that tell me?  Is my day that bad?  Or is my dentist that good?  These are points to ponder for sure.  I’m supposed to be dreading the dentist, aren’t I?  I mean,  its not a spa, after all.

So I will give the credit to my dentist, ( really to my hygienist ) rather than the blame to my day. Not many days are bad enough to make the dentist look good all on their own.  It’s  Sheila who makes me feel welcome, comfortable, cared for and at ease when I go to the dentist.  And that is no small feat considering that the dentist is most often a dreaded and put off appointment for most everyone and considering my own personal aversion to pain and any possible discomfort.

This is truly an everyday miracle amid the mundane and I’ll give thanks for it.  They show me compassion and mercy there and the miracle occurs.  (also, that anti-anxiety gas stuff doesn’t hurt either.)  My dread is replaced with my anticipation of a relaxing respite in my day,  while getting the health care that is important and needed.

So,  a shout out to Sheila, with my thanks and gratitude, for doing more than just her job, but caring about her patients as people in the process.  And to everyone working there for creating that kind of an environment,  one we don’t necessarily expect to encounter when we enter.  Pleasant surprises are always welcome!

sincerely,                      Grace Day

ps.     they also have my all time favorite game,   ms. pac  man in the waiting room

Forgiveness, its a tough topic.  We all need it and we all need to give it as well.  But it’s just not that easy.  We’ve all been hurt, we’ve all been wronged, treated unfairly, treated unjustly,  maybe we’ve experienced harm at the hands of others.  Sadly,  maybe there have been those times when we were the one causing the hurt, inflicting the pain or perpetrating the injustice upon another person.  So we may find ourselves in need of forgiveness as often as we find ourselves needing to extend our forgiveness to someone we know.

Peter asked Jesus about forgiveness saying, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?  Up to seven times?”  Jesus’ answer was, “I tell you not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”  (Matt.18:21-22)   This is also translated seventy times seven,  either way expressing that we are not to put a limit on our forgiveness of others, just as God’s forgiveness towards us is infinite and without limit.  This is very good news because I know I can’t go a day without needing my Heavenly Father’s forgiveness many times in the course of that day.  And I may also be called upon to offer my forgiveness to others often in the course of that same day.  So I become both the forgiven and the forgiver.  It is precisely because I am the forgiven that I can also be the forgiver. Because I am forgiven by my Heavenly Father, (1 John 1:9), I can practice forgiveness and become the forgiver of those who wrong me.

God’s love leads me to do this.  He compels me to forgive, He commands me to forgive.  And He empowers me to forgive, to obey Him in practicing forgiveness towards all.  In the Lord’s prayer we ask to be forgiven our sins just as we forgive those who sin against us. The two actions are linked and cannot be separated in theory or in practice.  If I refuse to forgive, how can I expect to be forgiven?

Yet, sometimes I hold on to my hurt, to my anger, to my injury at the hands of another. Someone has wronged me, I have suffered an injustice and I refuse to let it go.  I wear it as a badge of honor, I have suffered, I have been mistreated.  But the badge becomes a burden, the bearing of which destroys the bearer.  Jesus was mistreated,  He was falsely accused, persecuted  and unjustly put to death.   Yet His words as He hung on the cross were, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

The religious leaders of that day brought before Jesus a woman caught in adultery.  The laws of that time required death by stoning for such an offense.  They asked Jesus about this woman and his reply was,  ” He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. ”    John 8:7

 

I have no stone in my hand to cast,                                                                                                 only my sins both present and past;   but                                                                                                     I have no stone

I am the woman at the well,   I am the leper,  I am lame;  and                                                                 I have no stone

I have logs in my eyes, I have pride, I have shame;   but                                                                           I have no stone

I am the blind man by the roadside,   I’m the beggar by the pool;   and                                                  I have no stone

I am the rich young ruler, I’m thought wise but am a fool;   and                                                                I have no stone

I am the woman who poured perfume,  I’m the Pharisee who prayed;                                                     I have no stone

I am Peter who denied Him,  I am those who should have stayed;                                                              I have no stone

I have a heart that’s hurting,  I have many a regret;   but                                                                              I have no stone

I have the joy of His forgiveness,  I have the hope His love begets;   but                                                  I have no stone

I have feet that refuse to follow where He would bid me go,                                                     I have sins of scarlet,  His mercy made them snow;    but                                                                             I have no stone

I have the joy and comfort of His unending grace,  I have the hope that on that day I’ll see Him face to face;      but                                                                                                                                    I have no stone

I have hands full of the good gifts,  God alone can give;                                                             Forgiveness,  His greatest,  for eternity will live                                                                                                I will never have a stone

Your debt is not large, though it caused me much grief;                                                              In releasing you, I find my relief;                                                                                                      I will never have a stone to cast,                                                                                                      God has forgiven me my past;                                                                                                                              I have no stone

The religious leaders accusing the woman slipped away, one by one,  until just Jesus and the woman were left.  Then Jesus asked her,  “Where are your accusers?  has no one condemned you?”  She answered Him,  “no one, Lord”   and Jesus told her, ” Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more.”

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”  Romans 8:1

sincerely,                       Grace Day

 

 

Mark Twain was onto something when he said,”youth is wasted on the young.” Why is it that we lose our hearing just when we have learned to listen well?  Why does our eyesight become cloudy just as we are seeing things more clearly than we ever have before?  Why does our voice grow faint just when what we have to say has the value experience bestows?  Why does our heart grow weak just as our love for others grows stronger than it has ever been before?

Our steps may falter even as our resolve grows firmer.  Time takes some things from us for sure,  but it deposits more than it withdraws.  Time takes from us the tangible, giving us in exchange the intangible.  Now we know that what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal.  (2Cor. 4:18)  So to lose what is temporary and gain what is eternal,  seems an excellent trade-off to me.  While our bodies are growing weaker, our spirits are growing stronger.  Our minds may cease to remember the multitude of minutia that is part of our daily lives, yet our hearts will retain the reality of our identity in Christ, whose we are and where we are going.

Proverbs 16:31 says, “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.”  If more of us believed that, maybe we wouldn’t spend our time and money concealing our crown of splendor with the magic of hair color.  Not all cultures feel the need to conceal their crowns of splendor as we do.  Its a matter of focus,  do we focus on what we are losing or what we are gaining each day?  If we lose our self-centeredness  and gain empathy we are the richer for it.  If judgement is replaced with mercy the gain is ours.  God wants to give us something better than what time has taken from us here.  God’s gifts are eternal and they are always good.   (James 1:17)

God promises that He will renew our strength, that we will soar on wings like eagles; we will run and not grow weary, we will walk and not be faint.   Isaiah 40:31   This is what He will do when our hope is in Him (and not in ourselves).   All I can say is, thank you Lord,  I need You every hour.

sincerely,                                     Grace Day