Sounds of Hope

In 800 yards, turn right. At the end of the road, turn left on to garbled street. Go 300 feet and turn around. A GPS is a wonderful thing and it is persistent.  It never relents.  It never listens to our rationale that we think this is a better route.  This weekend, we were on a quest to find a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of the small town of Thomasville NC.  We missed the GPS instructions to take the exit.  Without missing a beat, the GPS rerouted.  At first it tried to get us to turn around, then it planned another route. Sometimes when following a GPS you see a “sign” – the sign seems to contradict the GPS.  Such was the case on Saturday.  We saw the sign for Thomasville – we looked at each other.  I said, “It’s your choice, you are the one who is driving.”  He followed the sign. The GPS persisted.  We kept going ignoring what the GPS was telling us. Soon we realized that we were far off course. We had not listened to the G...

I just finished my weekly blog on Kingdom Bloggers .  It’s a pretty good blog.  I hope you’ll read it.  But as the late Paul Harvey would say, let me tell you the rest of the story.  In that blog, I speculated about the crowds of Palm Sunday and the crowd who yelled, crucify Him.  If they were the same, perhaps they were so angry that Jesus didn’t do what they thought He would that it drove them to bitterness and hatred. Now before I go any further, I have never been guilty of such heresy.  Thankfully, I have never reached the place of consuming bitterness and hatred.  But I’ve had moments.  Perhaps I could spot that potential so well this morning, because I had one of those moments just last night. I like to listen to talk on the radio.  It has nothing to do with my politics.  I can listen to NPR or Rush Limbaugh.  I just like to listen to talk.  My primary talk radio choice in Nashville is politically conservative.  As...

Like Dorothy I want to go home. I want to go home where I have friends, love and support. Instead God has put me in the wilderness of South Dakota. It has felt a bit like being in OZ. I am trying to follow the road to get home. No, not necessarily home to Tennessee, Connecticut or even Brooklyn. But home with Jesus - and not necessarily heaven either... Just a sense of settled-ness and home. Knowing I am doing what God would have me do. I preached a sermon one time, There Are No Straight Lines in God’s Kingdom .   As with many of my sermons, it starts with an ordinary event or conversation.   My husband and I were driving in South Dakota and saw some trees. Now in other parts of the country seeing trees is not a big deal. It is however in South Dakota.   There are so few trees that you tend to get excited when you see them. These particular trees were planted in a straight line. I assume they were planted to break the wind that shrieks over the prairie. My husband r...