From Edwin Plass' What Luther Says, regarding the Holy Spirit as mentioned in John 14:23-31:
(The Holy Spirit is) the counsel of a man who has been accused, to a person who espouses his cause, who defends him, straightens his affairs, and serves him with counsel and aid, admonition and encouragement, when he is in need of them. This (says Christ) is to be the work of the Holy Spirit after I leave you and you will have no comfort and no assistance in the world. All the world will be against you; and the devil will be at your heels and with his venomous, blasphemous tongue will say the worst about you and will accuse you and decry you before all the world as cheats and rebels. Besides, your own conscience and heart will plague and frighten you with the fear of God's wrath, with sadness and heavy thoughts of your own weakness, so that you well may and must despair if you were to be left without comfort and strength in this predicament. (emphasis mine)
I don't know about y'all, but I sure am grateful and thankful that I don't see even a tenth of the stuff from which the Holy Spirit protects me and hides me.
In Him and around the corner (and realizing that blissful ignorance is not always a bad thing),
Al
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Comments! I love comments!!!
They're like birthday presents for me! "Someone actually read your blog! Go see if they're still breathing!" A Goddess left a comment on my last post, and I just wanted to run out, find her, and give her a big hug for validating my existence!
This is what a hilariously pathetic freakazoid I am: I crave the spotlight so much, I actually get bummed when I find no comments after something I wrote. I mean, I who am filled with wisdom and knowledge beyond my mortal body, am just brimming over with insights and observations, just waiting here for you to peruse and be amazed; the LEAST you could do is comment! By now, I should be transparent enough to everyone who reads this (all four of you) that not only am I lying about this being an online journal just for me, but that I really really really really really REALLY hope a whole bunch of people are reading this!
As much as I try to deny it, it really is all about me. I could give Terrell Owens lessons about loving me some ME! I check in with God every day to make sure our schedules match and I give Him some suggestions about how I'd like the day to go. And then I walk out the door and onto my stage that is the world. Do I look okay? Which way is the camera? Cue the music, world, cuz here's your sunshine!
But enough about me. What do YOU think about me?
Here's what I think: I get tired of suppressing the above on a daily basis. I want so much to NOT be like that, that it becomes a chore NOT to want to grab the spotlight and be the center of attention.
This is what I mean: Paul says about his own personal struggles, in 2 Corinthians 12, how God had given him a thorn in his flesh: a messenger from Satan. Three times Paul pleaded with God to remove it, and three times God said "no." Instead, God told Paul "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
So many times I have asked God to take away these selfish feelings. And yet I can't let go. There's my weakness: no real desire to change. It's all an act. At least, that's how it feels in my darkest, most cynical moments. It's a vicious cycle: at once I'm struttin' my stuff for all to see, and the next I'm beating myself up for being such a self-centered twat.
God, I do believe Your grace is sufficient for me; please help me when that same "thorn in my flesh" tries to, or rather succeeds at convincing me otherwise.
In Him and around the corner (and eager for the day when His grace is fully manifest in my soul),
Al
This is what a hilariously pathetic freakazoid I am: I crave the spotlight so much, I actually get bummed when I find no comments after something I wrote. I mean, I who am filled with wisdom and knowledge beyond my mortal body, am just brimming over with insights and observations, just waiting here for you to peruse and be amazed; the LEAST you could do is comment! By now, I should be transparent enough to everyone who reads this (all four of you) that not only am I lying about this being an online journal just for me, but that I really really really really really REALLY hope a whole bunch of people are reading this!
As much as I try to deny it, it really is all about me. I could give Terrell Owens lessons about loving me some ME! I check in with God every day to make sure our schedules match and I give Him some suggestions about how I'd like the day to go. And then I walk out the door and onto my stage that is the world. Do I look okay? Which way is the camera? Cue the music, world, cuz here's your sunshine!
But enough about me. What do YOU think about me?
Here's what I think: I get tired of suppressing the above on a daily basis. I want so much to NOT be like that, that it becomes a chore NOT to want to grab the spotlight and be the center of attention.
This is what I mean: Paul says about his own personal struggles, in 2 Corinthians 12, how God had given him a thorn in his flesh: a messenger from Satan. Three times Paul pleaded with God to remove it, and three times God said "no." Instead, God told Paul "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
So many times I have asked God to take away these selfish feelings. And yet I can't let go. There's my weakness: no real desire to change. It's all an act. At least, that's how it feels in my darkest, most cynical moments. It's a vicious cycle: at once I'm struttin' my stuff for all to see, and the next I'm beating myself up for being such a self-centered twat.
God, I do believe Your grace is sufficient for me; please help me when that same "thorn in my flesh" tries to, or rather succeeds at convincing me otherwise.
In Him and around the corner (and eager for the day when His grace is fully manifest in my soul),
Al
Monday, February 16, 2009
Gotta love God's timing!
So I'm reading my devotion this morning, and the reading is Deuteronomy chapter 2. In it, Moses and the Israelites travel thru various lands and are told by God to not engage in war with any of them, even though it's implied that these are hostile folks. One of the lands they travel through is Mount Se'ir, which is the land of Esau.
So I got curious and wondered where Mount Se'ir was and did a Google search. I ended up at this website whose web address might lead you to believe that it's a resource for Christians to research various origins of the Bible. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. What it is, in fact, is a collection of articles written by the website's author proclaiming how everything in the Bible is false, that Jesus is not the Messiah, blah blah blah. I didn't spend too much time there, as my only curiosity regarding this site was wondering WHY someone would devote such a lengthy diatribe to prove something doesn't exist.
So, back to my devotion and prayer time, and the following Bible verse was waiting for me:
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising
lovingkindness, judgment, and
righteousness in the earth.
(Jeremiah 9:23-24, emphasis mine)
It truly amazes me when God foresees my distractions and plans for them!
In Him and around the corner (and just wanting to say, "HA!")
Al
So I got curious and wondered where Mount Se'ir was and did a Google search. I ended up at this website whose web address might lead you to believe that it's a resource for Christians to research various origins of the Bible. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. What it is, in fact, is a collection of articles written by the website's author proclaiming how everything in the Bible is false, that Jesus is not the Messiah, blah blah blah. I didn't spend too much time there, as my only curiosity regarding this site was wondering WHY someone would devote such a lengthy diatribe to prove something doesn't exist.
So, back to my devotion and prayer time, and the following Bible verse was waiting for me:
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising
lovingkindness, judgment, and
righteousness in the earth.
(Jeremiah 9:23-24, emphasis mine)
It truly amazes me when God foresees my distractions and plans for them!
In Him and around the corner (and just wanting to say, "HA!")
Al
Sunday, February 15, 2009
25 Things
Inspired by Jacob's post over at the Kaylor blog. More of a personal inventory than anything else:
1. I play bass, drums, and guitar, in order of ability. I am mainly self-taught, with the exception of the guitar, in which a friend of mine showed me how to play basic chords. I've never had a formal lesson on any of those instruments.
2. I love to watch things spin. Especially a washing machine.
3. One of the happiest things that happened to me recently was buying a record player and being able to listen to all my old records again. And not only listen but watch THEM spin as well!
4. I've lived in Texas my whole life but didn't buy my first pickup until a few months ago. To put this in the proper perspective, my parents and my in-laws, who are from Chicago and Michigan respectively, owned pick-ups before I did.
5. I love working with children. Nothing puts a smile on my face like the laughter of children, even if (and sometimes especially if) they're laughing at me!
6. I have been blessed that I have not lost a close family member in the entire time I've been alive. Both of my parents are alive, my sister's still alive, I still have my wife and both children, and her parents are still alive.
7. And yet I still grieve the loss of one who I'm related to but never met: my brother-in-law, Cyndy's brother, who died in an auto accident years before Cyndy and I ever met.
8. I own more CDs and LPs than I'll ever have time to listen to, and yet my collection is small compared to some others I've seen.
9. I've never done drugs, smoked pot, or anything like that, but I accidentally got high at a Foreigner concert from the second-hand smoke, when I was 15. That scared me from ever doing drugs.
10. For reasons I'm not proud of, I can remember every dumb thing I ever did while drunk. I wish I could be like others and NOT remember.
11. I led the Little League in batting average when I was in 6th grade. That was also the only team I ever played on that made it to a playoff game. We lost.
12. I've never had a broken bone. The closest I came was when I took a bad hop off the tip of my middle finger in a softball game that actually flattened the tip of my fingerbone. The doctor said that, because of that, it was technically broken.
13. I've been stitched together more than Frankenstein. Thank God society wasn't as paranoid back in the early 70's as it is today, otherwise I'd have been taken from my parents' home before I was five, because by then I'd sliced various parts of my body through my own clumsiness.
14. I got hit in the head with a baseball bat when I was 8. The doctors had to strap me in a papoose to keep me still while they put the stitches in my forehead, right between my eyes. This would be the last time I got stitches for anything. (However, that nightmare would replay itself almost 20 years later when Nathan smacked his forehead on the edge of the fireplace when he was 2, and the doctors had to strap him down as well. Thankfully, Nathan remembers none of this. Lucky dawg!)
15. I go to church with my third grade homeroom teacher. She still loves me despite all the grief I gave her!
16. I am a Christian. One of these days, I hope to act like one as well. The closest I've ever come is being a hopeful fatalist.
17. I hate pickles. People are actually surprised by this.
18. I've only been married once, and I have every reason to believe this will be the only one. (like anyone else would want to put up with this destructive concoction of OCD, depression, arrogance, and various other neuroses and eccentricities)
19. I don't have a very high opinion of myself. This is just in case you didn't pick this up from earlier items.
20. I also don't have a very high opinion of the human race. Individual people I love; I'm pretty cynical towards everyone else.
21. And yet, for reasons known only to God, my first instinct with everyone is to want to treat them with kindness and trust. I've been burned by that many a time, but hey, I like having friends and more often than not will take the chance with anyone new and let them hurt me.
22. Of the four voices in a choir (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), the only one I can't sing is soprano. If the alto part is within my range and more interesting than the tenor part, I'll sing with the altos. I get this from my mom, who would sing along with the "men only" verses in church when I was a kid.
23. I love old black-and-white movies, especially comedies. Marx Brothers, WC Fields, the Hope/Crosby "Road" pictures. And old-time radio shows, especially Jack Benny.
24. I love it when someone wants to talk about jazz from the 50's and 60's. It rarely happens, but when it does I become like a little kid.
25. I try to live my life according to what Jesus said: "Unless you become like a child, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 18:3) This explains why I prefer to associate with children than with grown-ups. At parties, if there are kids there, that's where you'll find me. Grown-ups were a drag when I was a kid; I want to be the grown-up who isn't a drag!
Thanks for indulging me.
In Him and around the corner (and all about me),
Al
1. I play bass, drums, and guitar, in order of ability. I am mainly self-taught, with the exception of the guitar, in which a friend of mine showed me how to play basic chords. I've never had a formal lesson on any of those instruments.
2. I love to watch things spin. Especially a washing machine.
3. One of the happiest things that happened to me recently was buying a record player and being able to listen to all my old records again. And not only listen but watch THEM spin as well!
4. I've lived in Texas my whole life but didn't buy my first pickup until a few months ago. To put this in the proper perspective, my parents and my in-laws, who are from Chicago and Michigan respectively, owned pick-ups before I did.
5. I love working with children. Nothing puts a smile on my face like the laughter of children, even if (and sometimes especially if) they're laughing at me!
6. I have been blessed that I have not lost a close family member in the entire time I've been alive. Both of my parents are alive, my sister's still alive, I still have my wife and both children, and her parents are still alive.
7. And yet I still grieve the loss of one who I'm related to but never met: my brother-in-law, Cyndy's brother, who died in an auto accident years before Cyndy and I ever met.
8. I own more CDs and LPs than I'll ever have time to listen to, and yet my collection is small compared to some others I've seen.
9. I've never done drugs, smoked pot, or anything like that, but I accidentally got high at a Foreigner concert from the second-hand smoke, when I was 15. That scared me from ever doing drugs.
10. For reasons I'm not proud of, I can remember every dumb thing I ever did while drunk. I wish I could be like others and NOT remember.
11. I led the Little League in batting average when I was in 6th grade. That was also the only team I ever played on that made it to a playoff game. We lost.
12. I've never had a broken bone. The closest I came was when I took a bad hop off the tip of my middle finger in a softball game that actually flattened the tip of my fingerbone. The doctor said that, because of that, it was technically broken.
13. I've been stitched together more than Frankenstein. Thank God society wasn't as paranoid back in the early 70's as it is today, otherwise I'd have been taken from my parents' home before I was five, because by then I'd sliced various parts of my body through my own clumsiness.
14. I got hit in the head with a baseball bat when I was 8. The doctors had to strap me in a papoose to keep me still while they put the stitches in my forehead, right between my eyes. This would be the last time I got stitches for anything. (However, that nightmare would replay itself almost 20 years later when Nathan smacked his forehead on the edge of the fireplace when he was 2, and the doctors had to strap him down as well. Thankfully, Nathan remembers none of this. Lucky dawg!)
15. I go to church with my third grade homeroom teacher. She still loves me despite all the grief I gave her!
16. I am a Christian. One of these days, I hope to act like one as well. The closest I've ever come is being a hopeful fatalist.
17. I hate pickles. People are actually surprised by this.
18. I've only been married once, and I have every reason to believe this will be the only one. (like anyone else would want to put up with this destructive concoction of OCD, depression, arrogance, and various other neuroses and eccentricities)
19. I don't have a very high opinion of myself. This is just in case you didn't pick this up from earlier items.
20. I also don't have a very high opinion of the human race. Individual people I love; I'm pretty cynical towards everyone else.
21. And yet, for reasons known only to God, my first instinct with everyone is to want to treat them with kindness and trust. I've been burned by that many a time, but hey, I like having friends and more often than not will take the chance with anyone new and let them hurt me.
22. Of the four voices in a choir (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), the only one I can't sing is soprano. If the alto part is within my range and more interesting than the tenor part, I'll sing with the altos. I get this from my mom, who would sing along with the "men only" verses in church when I was a kid.
23. I love old black-and-white movies, especially comedies. Marx Brothers, WC Fields, the Hope/Crosby "Road" pictures. And old-time radio shows, especially Jack Benny.
24. I love it when someone wants to talk about jazz from the 50's and 60's. It rarely happens, but when it does I become like a little kid.
25. I try to live my life according to what Jesus said: "Unless you become like a child, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 18:3) This explains why I prefer to associate with children than with grown-ups. At parties, if there are kids there, that's where you'll find me. Grown-ups were a drag when I was a kid; I want to be the grown-up who isn't a drag!
Thanks for indulging me.
In Him and around the corner (and all about me),
Al
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Passing time, passing people.....
More neurotic paranoia for ya....
What do you do when you're driving and you pass someone you know, only you don't realize you know that person until after they've driven by? And all they saw of you was you staring at them trying to figure out who the heck you're looking at.
This morning, I *think* I passed someone I know. Of course, I didn't realize who it was until long after I'd passed him. And I'm also sure that if he saw me, he thought nothing of the maniac in the pickup bashing his dashboard to the beat of whatever ruckus was playing at the time.
I know whenever I pass someone and wave at them and they don't see me, I just write it off to that person concentrating on other things (the road, for instance), and not a personal slight.
God, what do you do with a worry-wart like me?
In Him and around the corner (and keeping one eye on the road and one eye out for folks I know),
Al
What do you do when you're driving and you pass someone you know, only you don't realize you know that person until after they've driven by? And all they saw of you was you staring at them trying to figure out who the heck you're looking at.
This morning, I *think* I passed someone I know. Of course, I didn't realize who it was until long after I'd passed him. And I'm also sure that if he saw me, he thought nothing of the maniac in the pickup bashing his dashboard to the beat of whatever ruckus was playing at the time.
I know whenever I pass someone and wave at them and they don't see me, I just write it off to that person concentrating on other things (the road, for instance), and not a personal slight.
God, what do you do with a worry-wart like me?
In Him and around the corner (and keeping one eye on the road and one eye out for folks I know),
Al
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Heart-hardening for dummies
Whoever thinks being a Christian is easy never read Exodus 10. Especially the three verses that specifically state, "The LORD hardened Pharoah's heart." I looked all over (translated: I did a Google search and looked at maybe three or four web-pages, such is modern research, I guess) for some kind of explanation of this. Nothing. At least, nothing satisfying. There were plenty of explanations, from "different translations say one thing but they mean another," to "Pharoah sinned against God which was how God hardened Pharoah's heart," to probably the one I thought was the closest: that it wasn't so much God hardening Pharoah's heart as much as it was God restraining Pharoah's heart from hardening itself. Once God removed His hand, Pharoah's heart was hardened. This argument makes sense to me; after all, what can we accomplish without the hand of God?
But the Bible doesn't say that. It doesn't say "God removed His hand from Pharoah's heart." It doesn't say "Pharoah hardened his own heart." It doesn't even say "Pharoah was about to change his mind, but his heart was hardened." No, it specifically says, "The LORD hardened Pharoah's heart." Period. On to the next plague.
What the heck was God thinking? Why did He feel it necessary to harden Pharoah's heart, when Pharoah was arrogant enough to do it himself? Aren't we all like Pharoah? When something bad happens, we tend to say "Okay God, you win. I'll do it your way." Five minutes later (and sometimes not even THAT long) we've completely forgotten our promise to God and we've reverted back to form. Exodus 10 reads a lot better and a lot more logically WITHOUT those three verses.
But then I imagine God having enough of my demanding petulance, dropping His "New Testament" veneer and letting loose:
So, I don't make sense to you. Gee, I'm so sorry. Perhaps you can tell me what part of My Plan I'm interfering with by hardening Pharoah's heart. Oh yeah, that's right: YOU AIN'T SEEN MY PLAN! Well, now that you think you've lifted yourself up to my level, allow me to go old-school Job on you. News flash: I don't answer to you!!! This may come as a shock to you and some of your buddies down there, but there's a lot of things you don't know because either you are incapable of figuring them out or I choose not to reveal the answer to you. Sometimes both! Notice I didn't say "yet." You may never know the answer. Can you live with that?
Still think I'm being arrogant? Well, pardon a guy for giving himself props for creating EVERYTHING.
Oh, and another thing, as long as you think you're at My level, perhaps you can explain why you blame Me for all the bad things that happen to you and everyone else down there. ESPECIALLY since y'all seem to have such a foothold on bringing it all upon yourselves. I'll try and put this in words you can understand: there's this cat called Satan, right? And his whole purpose is to reject Me, get you to reject Me, and to be all kinds of evil. On the other end of the spectrum, you have Me, who has plans for you, plans to prosper you. Me who loves you with a boundless energy, infinite wisdom, and eternal tenderness. So tell me again why I get all the blame and Satan gets away unscathed.
So yeah, I hardened Pharoah's heart. Don't understand why? Here's a clue: focus on the stuff you DO understand. A lot of times, if not all the time, that's all you need and all I'm gonna give you. If you don't like it, you're welcome to try and find a suitable replacement for Me. You won't be the first, you won't be the last, and you won't succeed. And don't be a wiseguy and say "science." This may come as a shock to you that I invented science by creating the very brains you use to try and prove I don't exist!
In Him and around the corner (and, if I'm honest, still bugged that I don't have all the answers),
Al
But the Bible doesn't say that. It doesn't say "God removed His hand from Pharoah's heart." It doesn't say "Pharoah hardened his own heart." It doesn't even say "Pharoah was about to change his mind, but his heart was hardened." No, it specifically says, "The LORD hardened Pharoah's heart." Period. On to the next plague.
What the heck was God thinking? Why did He feel it necessary to harden Pharoah's heart, when Pharoah was arrogant enough to do it himself? Aren't we all like Pharoah? When something bad happens, we tend to say "Okay God, you win. I'll do it your way." Five minutes later (and sometimes not even THAT long) we've completely forgotten our promise to God and we've reverted back to form. Exodus 10 reads a lot better and a lot more logically WITHOUT those three verses.
But then I imagine God having enough of my demanding petulance, dropping His "New Testament" veneer and letting loose:
So, I don't make sense to you. Gee, I'm so sorry. Perhaps you can tell me what part of My Plan I'm interfering with by hardening Pharoah's heart. Oh yeah, that's right: YOU AIN'T SEEN MY PLAN! Well, now that you think you've lifted yourself up to my level, allow me to go old-school Job on you. News flash: I don't answer to you!!! This may come as a shock to you and some of your buddies down there, but there's a lot of things you don't know because either you are incapable of figuring them out or I choose not to reveal the answer to you. Sometimes both! Notice I didn't say "yet." You may never know the answer. Can you live with that?
Still think I'm being arrogant? Well, pardon a guy for giving himself props for creating EVERYTHING.
Oh, and another thing, as long as you think you're at My level, perhaps you can explain why you blame Me for all the bad things that happen to you and everyone else down there. ESPECIALLY since y'all seem to have such a foothold on bringing it all upon yourselves. I'll try and put this in words you can understand: there's this cat called Satan, right? And his whole purpose is to reject Me, get you to reject Me, and to be all kinds of evil. On the other end of the spectrum, you have Me, who has plans for you, plans to prosper you. Me who loves you with a boundless energy, infinite wisdom, and eternal tenderness. So tell me again why I get all the blame and Satan gets away unscathed.
So yeah, I hardened Pharoah's heart. Don't understand why? Here's a clue: focus on the stuff you DO understand. A lot of times, if not all the time, that's all you need and all I'm gonna give you. If you don't like it, you're welcome to try and find a suitable replacement for Me. You won't be the first, you won't be the last, and you won't succeed. And don't be a wiseguy and say "science." This may come as a shock to you that I invented science by creating the very brains you use to try and prove I don't exist!
In Him and around the corner (and, if I'm honest, still bugged that I don't have all the answers),
Al
Monday, February 2, 2009
Notes for the rest of the week
Intended for no one but me, but written here in case something here speaks to you. Also so I can access it from any computer in the world.
Keep reaching out. Never stop. The one time you stop will be the one time the other hand was reaching for you.
That voice that keeps second-guessing you? That voice is not of God. Ignore it.
Not sure what to do? Take Jake's advice: "Ask God."
Say hi to as many kids as possible on Friday. They've grown up and they think you're a doofus. Be the doofus who said HI to them and don't worry about how they react or if they even react. Do it because you love them and because you've watched many of them grow from little kids in kindergarten to the teenagers they are now.
You will see a lot of people you know at Mrs. Whitt's funeral tomorrow. Hug them. Talk to them. The reason there will be a lot of people at Mrs. Whitt's funeral is the same reason there were so many people at Deb's funeral, at Jess's funeral, at Casey's funeral: they reached out to others, they loved others, they weren't afraid to let Christ's love flow through them. You shouldn't be afraid, either.
Focus on the people who are happy to see you, and believe that they truly are happy to see you.
Be a pest for God. That's not your decision. If you think someone needs you, chances are you may be right. There's enough loneliness in this world without people living in fear of reaching out to others. And if they reject you, that's not your call either. Let God handle it; He knows a few things about rejection.
Do what you can when you can with the time you have. If that isn't enough for some people, that's not your problem. Let God handle it; He knows a few things about people who are never satisfied.
If the opportunity to be kind presents itself, seize it. Don't let it go by into that netherworld of regret and might've-been. Be the person who stands out in the crowd with your kindness. Don't be just another person, another face in the crowd.
Do something, don't just sit there. If you feel it move inside you to do good or to do something good, very likely God put it there. Don't deny it or Him.
Tomorrow's another day. If the sun doesn't come up tomorrow, it only means God's called it a day and it's time to go Home. Isn't that where you want to go anyway?
Keep doing what you're doing, let God take care of the rest.
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Finally, promise me you'll come back and read this as often as necessary. Jesus loves you, this I know; for the Bible tells me so.
In Him and around the corner (and more determined than ever),
Al
Keep reaching out. Never stop. The one time you stop will be the one time the other hand was reaching for you.
That voice that keeps second-guessing you? That voice is not of God. Ignore it.
Not sure what to do? Take Jake's advice: "Ask God."
Say hi to as many kids as possible on Friday. They've grown up and they think you're a doofus. Be the doofus who said HI to them and don't worry about how they react or if they even react. Do it because you love them and because you've watched many of them grow from little kids in kindergarten to the teenagers they are now.
You will see a lot of people you know at Mrs. Whitt's funeral tomorrow. Hug them. Talk to them. The reason there will be a lot of people at Mrs. Whitt's funeral is the same reason there were so many people at Deb's funeral, at Jess's funeral, at Casey's funeral: they reached out to others, they loved others, they weren't afraid to let Christ's love flow through them. You shouldn't be afraid, either.
Focus on the people who are happy to see you, and believe that they truly are happy to see you.
Be a pest for God. That's not your decision. If you think someone needs you, chances are you may be right. There's enough loneliness in this world without people living in fear of reaching out to others. And if they reject you, that's not your call either. Let God handle it; He knows a few things about rejection.
Do what you can when you can with the time you have. If that isn't enough for some people, that's not your problem. Let God handle it; He knows a few things about people who are never satisfied.
If the opportunity to be kind presents itself, seize it. Don't let it go by into that netherworld of regret and might've-been. Be the person who stands out in the crowd with your kindness. Don't be just another person, another face in the crowd.
Do something, don't just sit there. If you feel it move inside you to do good or to do something good, very likely God put it there. Don't deny it or Him.
Tomorrow's another day. If the sun doesn't come up tomorrow, it only means God's called it a day and it's time to go Home. Isn't that where you want to go anyway?
Keep doing what you're doing, let God take care of the rest.
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Finally, promise me you'll come back and read this as often as necessary. Jesus loves you, this I know; for the Bible tells me so.
In Him and around the corner (and more determined than ever),
Al
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