Onward, Upward, and Further In

I watched in horror as Donald Trump announced that he was sending 238 convicted criminals to an El Salvador prison. These were mostly Venezuelan men. I was confused. Why were they being sent to El Salvador? Shouldn’t they be deported to Venezuela? Donald Trump said they were the worst of the worst. So I could understand the need to deport them, but I couldn’t understand why they were going to an El Salvadorian prison. I confess my naivety. I assumed that there had been due process. I assumed that these men had been caught in their crimes. That there had been eyewitnesses to their brutality. I started to wait and watch for the evidence of their crimes. But that never came.  And then things got worse. I learned the White House made an administrative error in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He is from El Salvador, but was in the United States legally. I felt a deeper horror. What was happening? Why was he sent off to this El Salvador prison, if he was here legally? At some point dur...

Do you, like me, struggle with chronic illness? That living death? The daily torment. The minutes, hours, days, weeks and months swallowed up and wasted, alone in your bed? Living only parts of your life…never at full capacity…no hope that you ever will again? The good news: Christ has risen. He has conquered death. While you may suffer for a little while, Christ has conquered the death that lives in your bones, and in your new body, you will have vitality. The lame will leap for joy. Have you received a scary diagnosis, one that makes your future uncertain and dire? You don’t know what is on the horizon…. You don’t have control of any of the outcomes, no matter how courageous you seek to be. You want to be there for those you love, but you know it’s God who holds your life in His hands. The good news: Christ has conquered death. He has conquered disease. Nothing you suffer now can be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to you. You will be healed. This suffering will not be w...

One of the truths that gives the most delight to my soul is that I belong to a King that SEEKS and SAVES the LOST.  “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” ~Luke 19:10 In this passage, Jesus is speaking to Zacchaeus, a tax collector who has defrauded many.  But we see this theme of seeking and saving the lost played out throughout the gospels (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).  Jesus offers a Samaritan woman ‘living water’.  He heals the diseased and disabled, those considered by Israel as unclean and cursed by God.  He allows little children, who were despised in that time, to come to him.  He makes disciples of a ragtag, rough group of men (fishermen, tax collectors, etc).  He casts demons out of demon-possessed people.  He heals the servant of a Roman Centurion with a word, who displayed greater faith than anyone in Israel.  He eats with sinners.  He allows prost...