Tag: Storms

Shine, Shine, Shine

Today’s a new day! Life can be filled with so many twist and turns. Anyone else ever feel like you’ve lived a hundred lifetimes already? Sadly, there is so much hurt, fear and pain in our world today. It can be heavy and overwhelming. My heart grieves over the loss of life, the sin of racism, the hatred and injustice, the fear and the division that still exists today. It’s awful. It’s evil. It’s heartbreaking. And I know, I will never be able to completely understand it all.

When life is confusing and there’s so much devastation, we can find hope and guidance by looking at our example, Jesus. He lived with compassion and empathy. He loves and welcomes all. He taught us to love God with everything we’ve got, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. He taught us that there is no greater love than one who would lay down their life for another. Love is the greatest force there is on this planet, because God is love.

I pray you realize how loved you are. If you feel neglected, overlooked or mistreated, know that God sees you. God loves you. I love you. My prayer is that we can come together and love our neighbors, our communities, our nation and our world – love each other– like never before. That our love for others would help the healing process, and reflect God’s love and light in the darkness.

I love the following words from Saint Francis Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, the truth;
Where there is doubt, the faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

God has called each of us to love Him and each other. In a world that is hurting and broken, let us look for ways to love others well and share the hope we have in Him. Let’s pray that God can use these broken moments as a real turning point for good. Let’s live a life of more love and less hate. Let us be the light in the cracks. Let God’s light shine through us. Let it shine, let it shine. ~OC

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Life with Friends

Today’s a new day!

“This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” – John 15:12-13

The words from this gospel of John make me realize how blessed the bond of friendship are. However, I wonder how often we recognize how the love shared between friends reflects the love that God shares between each individual person. Additionally, I wonder if each of us realizes how difficult friendship can be.

It’s interesting to see that the gospels do not always paint a flattering picture of the friendship between Christ and his apostles. The Gospel of Mark consistently depicts Jesus struggling with the apostles, who fail to comprehend his message. In chapter 6 of Mark, Jesus calls these twelve men together to follow in his example of teaching God’s reign in the surrounding villages and gives them power over unclean spirits (6:6-7). However, Mark also writes that the apostles were unable to understand Jesus’ great power demonstrated in the miracle of feeding of the five thousand because “their hearts were hardened” (6:52). Additionally, the gospels of Matthew and Luke also depict the rocky and challenging moments in Jesus’ friendship with the apostles. Jesus chides Peter for trying to prevent Him from traveling to Jerusalem to enter into his Passion, saying, “get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block for me…” (Matthew 16:23). Finally, Luke shows that Jesus is exasperated with the disciples even after his Resurrection, when he calls Cleopas and the other disciple walking on the road to Emmaus “foolish” and “slow of heart” for failing to understand the meaning of His suffering and death, predicted first by the prophets (Luke 24:25).

How often do we find ourselves angry or frustrated at our friends because we want them to understand us in our words and actions? These brief scripture passages illustrate that sense of frustration. The Son of God enters into a world that struggles to recognize God at all, let alone when God is immanently present in the person of Jesus. Yet God loves this world so much that God freely gives God’s self to us in friendship through Jesus, despite the risk of being misunderstood, mistreated, and maligned. That is the blessing, and the risk, of friendship. We give ourselves in vulnerability to one another without knowing whether or not we will be loved and accepted as who we are.

However, friendship highlights our own vulnerabilities within ourselves and reveals our inherent desire for one another. My friends and I are not always laughing and joking; we meet each other in our brokenness and reach out for each other in our tears. They challenge me to consider new perspectives that de-center me from my own perspectives. Sometimes we get frustrated and do not understand each other. But our friendships exude love for one another because we recognize how incredible it is to simply find someone else. When we discover one another in truth and love through friendship, we choose to give of ourselves to that person.

Which leads me back to the quote from John above. I believe what Christ is trying to tell us is that friendship is the unspoken commitment of two people who recognize each other’s vulnerable, imperfect humanity and choose to love anyway. Jesus commands us to love each other as he loved us because he continued loving the world amidst rejection, sin, and death. He laid down his life to show us that the bond of friendship is at its strongest when we pour ourselves out to another. When we give of ourselves to each other, we glimpse into the eternal love that Christ promises us through his life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

This understanding of friendship creates friends who, like Jesus and the apostles, are unafraid to continue loving and challenging us. These friends will always reach out to us in our happiness and our sadness. These types of friends will always be there to take us down from our cross and lay us to rest, and wait for us to rise to new life, even if they don’t always believe it’s going to happen. And these friends will continue to believe in us, long after we have moved on from this world. ~OC

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Sunday Hope

Today’s a new day! Living by faith and hope in the midst of a storm is hard.  There are real losses to be grieved. It’s appropriate to feel sadness, grief, and fear.

The question is, “What next?”

Jesus sits with you, lifts your head, and calls us to live with hope. Not because of our strength or ability, but because of his strength and love for us.

What is Hope?

Hope is “a feeling of trust, desire, and expectation for a certain thing to happen.”

Being trapped on a boat in the midst of a hurricane-like storm had to feel incredibly scary to the disciples. So much so, that it would seem natural to forget who was in the boat with them.

But What If I Don’t Feel Hopeful?

Sometimes we need to be reminded that what we feel isn’t ultimate. You may be on the mat in the ring, bloodied and bruised, but you are not crushed or destroyed, my friend. You may not be able to see ten minutes ahead of you in this storm, but you need not despair. You may be feeling frustration and opposition from every part of your life right now, but you are not abandoned.

Paul anchors our particular hope later in 2 Corinthians 4; he points us beyond our momentary feelings to ultimate reality.

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

The dominant, momentary scripts for many are either:

  1. That what you feel is true for you personally is what is most true.
    1. What is most true is what you can see, experience, or measure in this material world; there is nothing beyond that.

But Paul, Jesus, and a Biblical view of God show that those scripts are not only too small but insufficient in the midst of crisis. They aren’t enough.

What is most true is that what you are experiencing now is but a shadow in light of the eternal glory that lays ahead of you. Take all that fear and anxiety that feels relentless; and see that the shoulders of Jesus are big enough to carry those burdens for you. What is most true is that Jesus stands not just with you but ahead of you; his love for you, the love that you know in part now, you will know in inestimable fullness one day.

You cannot always change your circumstances. But what you can do is decide what to do, right now, with the time given to you.

May God help you, help us, to live with a resilient hope in the Gospel of Jesus. Our God is the Lord of the storm, and he is with us. ~OC

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Waiting…..

Waiting. For most of us, waiting is not one of our favorite things. What do you do when life finds you in a state of waiting? When all we can do is wait. Waiting on test results. Waiting on a relationship to be restored. Waiting for a breakthrough. Waiting for a sign from God that it will not always be like this… waiting can be taxing, discouraging and deflating. Waiting can cause us to question our faith. To question God.

But what if waiting is the season God is using to grow us? That there is purpose behind the waiting. God wants us whole and He wants us free, and He will often take us on a journey of discovery before we get to the fulfillment of what we hope for. God has your back and He wants what is best for you. God is for you and will not forsake you, even in the middle of your biggest storm. Even during the waiting. ~OC

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Life…Is So Short

Today’s a new day! Life.. is so short. It will continue to go on. We cannot hold on and think that every day is promised. We have all experienced great losses in this journey called life. We have all felt that pain of losing a loved one, someone that we cared deeply about.

But yet we’re still here and now we must continue on. But what is the example that we’re going to leave? What kind of legacy do we want to leave behind? How do we lead the next generation? Hate is not going to make it work. Being afraid to be truthful to who you are will only limit who you truly are inside.

Don’t let anyone take that away from you. Don’t let anyone take away who you were created to be. Don’t be afraid, to be honest. Don’t be afraid to be different. Even being different can be difficult for a lot of people.

But I guarantee you this, there’s nobody in the world that can do you. When the time comes what would you leave behind? What legacy will be left behind to remind others of your greatness, of your losses, of your victories, of your sorrows? This is a short life that we all have. And it’s not easy, it’s not easy living it every day.

It’s not easy to go through so many different trials, so many different challenges. Maybe that challenge will be a lost relationship, job or financial struggle. It’s not easy walking through tough times in this life. We cannot blame life because it’s not the life that makes these challenges what they are today. It is the purpose and purpose never lies it will always tell you the truth.

But while we exist in this world right now I need you to hold on, I need you to hold on strong and don’t give up, I need you to believe in every possibility that you have and understand that it is not over for you. I need you to understand life is always going to be filled with good moments.

But keep in mind sooner or later, we will breathe our last breath. So keep pushing forward and don’t give up and don’t give in and do the best that you can to have the right attitude. To make your life matter. Your life is not an accident. Your life has so much meaning. Are you ready to take on the unknown? Are you prepared for it? You can’t even understand in most cases how beautiful it is sometimes to not even know what’s coming your way, but knowing that God is planning every step. Sometimes it’s not necessary for us to know everything, sometimes it’s not necessary to understand everything. But are you ready to embrace those moments of uncertainty?

There are a lot of negative things and people that exist in this world. People that can always find the negative in any situation. But we must make peace within our own heart. We must make peace in our community. Life.. is so short. ~OC

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September 10, 2001

Tomorrow, most everyone in America—and most of the world—will take a moment to remember what happened on that Tuesday across our nation September 11th, 2001.

We will fall silent as bells toll for the almost 3,000 people whose lives were lost in those Tuesday morning attacks.

Countless others have been lost over the years due to health issues caused on that tragic Tuesday twenty-three years ago.

There will be tributes paid to the heroes who responded to the attacks—those members of the public who fervently worked  to help rescue people from the rubble, even when there were so few left alive to rescue.

We’ll pay tribute to the 184 who died at the Pentagon.

We will salute the courageous passengers of United Flight 93—the very first soldiers to engage the enemy in a post-9/11 war. We will remember the words “Let’s Roll.”

We will remember where we were when we heard the news—what we were doing, how we found out, who was there with us… who shouted and who cried. Who was speechless.

We will all recall asking “Why?”

We will recognize the lessons learned on Tuesday September 11th—perhaps we’ll even celebrate the unity we had on September 12th.

But what of our recollection of 23 years ago today?

What about September 10, 2001?

On the morning of September 10, 2001, Katie Couric and Matt Lauer opened NBC’s TODAY show with news of “anemic” economic growth, noting the Dow and the NASDAQ at near record lows for the year. Al Roker giving us the latest weather for our neck of the woods.

On September 10, 2001, ESPN was discussing the Dallas Cowboys loss the day before to my Tampa Bay Bucs. Headline news was discussing shark attacks along the eastern seaboard. And the entertainment world was a buzz about the first Harry Potter movie.

In our nation’s capital, news outlets chronicled the investigation into the disappearance of Capitol Hill intern Chandra Levy, and ever-increasing suspicion that then-Congressman Gary Condit knew more about the matter than he was saying.

Only a tiny number of people even took notice of international news that Ahmed Shah Massoud—the leader of the so-called Northern Alliance fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan—had been killed by a suicide bomber disguised as a journalist.

News of that terrorist attack would have massive repercussions just days later.

But terrorism was the furthest thing from virtually everyone’s minds.

The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center—which killed six and injured hundreds more—was barely a distant memory for all but a few police professionals still working “the terrorist angle.”

There was no mystery surrounding the most recent attack on the United States—al-Qaeda had claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing on the USS Cole as she was being refueled in Yemen’s Aden harbor, killing 17 sailors and wounding 37 others less than a year prior.

American law enforcement officers were correctly focused on keeping the streets safe from criminal mayhem perpetrated by the thief who comes to steal and kill and destroy—but they were doing so almost entirely “below the radar.”

It’s difficult to believe that the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred twenty-three years ago tomorrow. Sometimes it feels like it was yesterday.

It’s even more difficult to believe that on 9/10 America as a whole—and many ways, Americans individually—had a unique brand of innocence. We didn’t know it at the time, but we did have it.

However, that purity wafted away in the smoke and cinders rising from the smoldering craters in lower Manhattan, northern Virginia, and a plane in rural Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday 9/12, our thinking about the world was vastly different from what our thinking was on Monday 9/10.

Remembering Monday 9/10/01, is to be reminded that we simply cannot know what tomorrow may bring, or what may follow thereafter.

Today is September 10, 2024—twenty-three years ago today 2,996 families spend their last day together as a family.

Today is September 10, 2024, what thoughts and memories are going through your mind? ~OC

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Scream, Scream, Scream

Good Morning! As some of you know, I have been dealing with kidney stones for the last few week. The pain has been some of the worst I have ever dealt with. Probably having surgery this week to remove them. But I figured I might as well have some fun with it. So I wrote the following. As you read it, do so with Justin Timberlake’s song Can’t Stop The Feeling! on your mind. Feel free to laugh and dance.

I got this feeling inside my kidneys
It’s like I’m being stabbed with a rusted out knife, my screams can be heard throughout my home, all through our condo down to the city streets, my body feels the pain and I can’t turn it off,

I can’t stop the screaming
I can’t stop the screaming
I can’t stop the screaming

What I got going on in my stomach doesn’t feel like any type of sunshine in my pocket and when I jump around it’s not because I’ve got any soul in my feet, I feel that hot pain in my kidneys when my stones wake up and say hello, I guarantee you their not The Rolling Stones, but I agree with Jaeger I can’t get no satisfaction, even pain meds can’t take my mind off it, I pray it would just stop

I can’t stop the screaming
I can’t stop the screaming
I can’t stop the screaming

Nothing I can do but scream, scream, scream, as the pain intensifies I just scream, scream, scream
And that pain ain’t leaving until the surgeon takes away those dancing stones

After the stones are removed, It will be something magical, and I will dance, dance, dance and move so phenomenally, I will finally experience some satisfaction. Can’t wait to stop this feeling. ~OC

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Thoughts and Prayers Must Equal Action

Today’s a new day! This past Wednesday we witnessed a deadly school shooting in Georgia and then yesterday we witnessed an unknown person shooting at random people on a highway in Kentucky.

When we witness these tragedies, so many reach out with words of comfort. Usually those words include “thoughts and prayers.” But we have to do better than “thoughts and prayers.”

Over the years as our nation and world has faced so many tragedies -some created by humans and some by nature, we have been challenged to reflect and pray.

I know people are well meaning, but as we have faced tragedy after tragedy, I have become tired of hearing the words “thoughts and prayers” and I do not believe I am alone.

Let me take a moment and share I believe in thoughts and prayers. My life is built on prayers. But thoughts and prayers without action are just hollow words at best.

When we hear elected officials who could create laws to curb violence or provide adequate help to clean up after storms, we must cry out. We must demand real change takes place.

We cannot just fill our social media pages with “thoughts and prayers.” We must step up and speak out.

Our thoughts and prayers help victims of tragedy if those thoughts and prayers lead to action.

Our thoughts and prayers help in a variety of ways. But they help most when they move us to action.

What I believe is needed is a national movement toward solutions that eliminate or at least lower some human made tragedies like gun violence and hate crimes.

As a human being and more importantly as a Christian, I am dedicated to thoughts and prayers, if they lead to real change. Prayer is the first action I take when I see or hear news of another tragedy. And I will keep on praying wherever and whenever necessary.

What I will no longer do is quickly post or say to someone “my thoughts and prayers are with you.”

No, I think Instead, we should start saying the following:

*My heart breaks for you. I am praying for the wisdom to do what I can to prevent further tragedies like this. I will work to put those thoughts and prayers into action.

*I will also pray that the people we elect will turn their “thoughts and prayers” into action. And my action will be to research and support those candidates. I encourage you to do the same.

Let’s begin to be people who think beyond “thoughts and prayers” and turn tragedies into life changing action. Who’s with me? ~OC

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Enough is Enough

Praying for all of our teachers, school staff and students. Bless and protect them. No one should ever have to live this experience. It’s well past time for common sense gun laws. How many more times do you want to write “thoughts and prayers” on your social media pages? Enough is enough. ~OC

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Between the Mourning and Tears

Today’s a new day! Another mass shooting in America. More tears. More pain. One more community devastated by gun violence. One less person at the dinner table. When will America wake up?

As I digest yet another senseless act of gun violence in America, I have to examine my own life and asked what can I do to be a positive light in a dark world?

As a Christian, I am called to remember that God chose to enter a time as violent and faithless as our own and that the light of God cannot, will not, shall not ever be overcome by the darkness of this world. What will I do with the light I have been given in the healing life, witness, death and resurrection of Jesus? Will I stare at the flame and pretend I don’t see the darkness around me? Or will I carry God’s call to put down my sword, love my enemy, and pray for those who bring harm to the world?

But I must confess; in the light of another mass shooting, sometimes it feels like what can I really do to help? The situation feels overwhelming. l long for more help, for God to come in a new and powerful way. That His love will act like a consuming fire that will burn up all the ugliness— all the negativity that mares the beauty that I know is here. Sometimes the most honest and faithful prayer I can lift up to God for America is, “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us, because we are sorely hindered by our shortcomings, let your bountiful grace and mercy help and deliver us.”

But, we must all stand up and take action. Some of these actions will be individual and some will involve working with other people. Some of the discernment about what should be done will happen alone, in prayer, and some of it will happen in a crowded room of people who are disagreeing, respectfully, about our next steps on gun violence and other issues that are effecting our little piece of the world. But together we must press for discussion, debate, and action on the issues facing our communities. Mournful silence is an option, but only if we sinfully close ourselves off to God’s clamoring in our hearts to be part of the change.

So in between those cries for God to come, to save us in ways we cannot, we are free to make choices, each day to make a difference. We know what human beauty would look like, what it would sounds like. So why don’t we let it have its moment? ~OC

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