88 - "What Is Holy In This Situation I am In?" Judges 17-19

                                                                        

Judges 17:6  "In those days there was no king in Israel.  People did whatever they felt like doing."  Sounds like where we live.  Not that much Christian leadership. Isn't everyone sort of free to do whatever they feel like doing, just about?  

A very good friend of mine is battling serious health issues with cancer that have interrupted her life. I went to see her last week and walked away from her presence thinking about one word: Repent.  She talked about it in such an inviting way.  No condemnation there.  Made me want to repent.  

And that's what I keep mulling over as I continue to read through Judges and stories like Samson.  The Israelites did not repent.  Maybe sometimes their behavior looked like they were moving toward God with baby steps.  We do see the outcome of their lives.  You don't keep on living a life of sin---you don't want to!   

I am so grateful for a person in my life who has helped me discern what it means to repent and truly live, to really love. I was confused just like the Galatians with my expectations of feeling everything I wanted to feel in this fallen world, as Larry says. I worked hard not to feel unloved, unnoiticed, uncared for. There are parts of me today that is so free from that and some parts still struggling through. It seems the Chrisitan world I live in is way too focused on the good life here. 

People don't say to me----except Larry and some of you reading this---what is holy in this situation you are in?....no, they are asking me what can we do to get out of the cancer or to help our children who are failing in some area or to restore a relationship? What will make our lives work? Is that working for you? That's where most people are and it's God Who is knocking on our hearts to make every one of us holy. 

Everybody always wants to know how I am doing with my cancer---I want to answer: Am I hating my sin more than my suffering? I do tell them where I am. So many people aren't talking about their unholiness but rather how they are overcomers. Do you think deeply about how unholy you are? I'm a mess. And praise God, that's what Easter is all about! 

PHOTO:  My older 3 kids: 5, 4, and 3. They could sling a shot at a hair. Still can. May the deepest truths of the book of Judges be theirs. Holy lives.