paravanes:meditations

" Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" --2 Corinthians 6:14, NIV This is the Bible verse thrown at so many of us during our younger years, when we were dating and considering marrying someone. It's not simply a young person's concern, because many Christians are re-marrying  at all ages for all kinds of reasons (death of a spouse, abandonment by a spouse, etc.). So the question remains: is it ever better to marry someone who is not a seriously dedicated Christian? I am not counting in on "professors" who may state a belief of faith just to win over a wavering potential spouse. I am referring to the question of should a dedicated Christian who truly seeks God in all areas of life ever marry someone who does not share this commitment? Isn't it true that if you share educational background, common upbringing, or career/family/life balance ...

Reuniting with a minor child after experiencing parental alienation is a dream come true, a prayer answered, and a huge, huge challenge. Why? You may not understand how deeply parental alienation changes things between a parent and child. Parental alienation is different from a short-term problem, behavioral difficulties, or a temporary, but unwanted, separation between a loving parent and child. Some have termed parental alienation a type of child abuse because the child experiences a deep and strongly felt negative (but unjustified) change in their belief about a parent the child was once close to and loved very much. You might wonder if it is even possible for someone to disrupt a close, loving relationship between a parent and child. The answer is yes .. If you are the targeted parent and you are blessed enough to have a chance to re-establish regular contact with your child or have your child return to living with you, be very careful as your create goals and expectation...

 Image: "God and Adam", Michelangelo This line---"thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide"--is one of my favorites from this great hymn, Great Is Thy Faithfulness . What more could I ask of God than to consistently know and experience His presence to cheer and to guide me? I take comfort in knowing God will guide me as I follow Him, but do I take equal comfort in knowing God will cheer me up along the way? One of my favorite films is Ingmar Bergman's Winter Light   In one of the film's most moving scenes, a woman who loves a spiritually struggling pastor confronts him (in a letter, visualized on screen) and tells him she never believed in his god, but only went along with his faith for the sake of keeping her relationship with him. As she explains herself further, this character states she grew up in a home without any awareness of God, and that her family was happy together, supportive of each other, and joyful of life. In contrast, she d...

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford University commencement address is one of the most inspiring speeches I have ever read and heard. This talk is full of inspiration from someone who succeeded and who failed. And who was not ashamed to talk about both of those experiences. That's the kind of wisdom I want to encounter. Jobs' willingness to admit he was heartbroken, but not fully broken, by his ouster from the firm he helped create gave him credibility when he spoke to why we must push through the hard times and turn those hard times into new opportunity. Jobs' statement that we cannot connect the dots of our lives looking forward, but can  only make those connections in hindsight sounds very much like this to me: "For we walk by faith, not by sight" 2 Corinthians 5:7 (KJV) Yes, it's OK to follow God ordained dreams because what God wants for us is very much in tune with the person He created us to be. How often do we hold back because we let other people...

A Prayer About Food Lord: Help me to remember my sisters and brothers all over my country and all over the world Who cannot buy what they want to eat, Who cannot buy what they need to eat, Who are never full "after a meal", Who eat partially-rotten food because that is all there is. Who eat what's left after their children eat, Who don't give their children enough to eat because they can't, Who count the days until they can buy more food, Who divide every food item two or three times before cooking, Who miss the favorite food they can no longer buy, or can no longer find. Who settle for a smell instead of a taste, Who are thinner than they should be, Who are malnourished---badly nourished,  not enough nourished,  sadly nourished,  angrily nourished,  poorly nourished. There are twenty thousand items in my local "supermarket." Help me to remember those who struggle to get two items to eat today. Keep me from the sin of glutton...