As clear as it gets

(Sent in an email, and I really liked it):

Cindy Sheehan asked President Bush, "Why did my son have to die in Iraq?"
Another mother asked President Kennedy, "Why did my son have to die in Viet Nam?"
Another mother asked President Truman, "Why did my son have to die in Korea?"
Another mother asked President F.D. Roosevelt, "Why did my son have to die at Iwo Jima?"
Another mother asked President W. Wilson, "Why did my son have to die on the battlefield of France?"
Yet another mother asked President Lincoln, "Why did my son have to die at Gettysburg?"
And yet another mother asked President G. Washington, "Why did my son have to die near Valley Forge?"
Long, long ago, a mother asked, "Heavenly Father, why did my Son have to die on a cross outside of Jerusalem?"
The answers to all these are similar -- "So that others may have life and dwell in peace, happiness, and freedom."
This was emailed to me with no author and I thought the magnitude and the simplicity were awesome.
IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM!!!
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American Soldier - one died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

Light in the Dark

"Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby."

~ Ruth Renkel

I have always found that the story of Abraham being called to go to a land far away fascinating. The fact that God asked Abraham to go, not so crazy. The fact that Abraham went- is.

Who does such a thing?

Yet, the fact is that every day as I open my eyes, I find myself being asked by God to do the very same thing. Every day is a mystery. The beginning, the middle and the end. Where is God going to take me? What will God ask me to do? Where might He ask me to go? It is a scary thought. Shadows surround us. The unknown overtakes us. But there is something about the freedom that we live in when we surrender our lives to God.

There is this poster that hung on my wall when I was younger. There was a little girl swinging being held up by a large hand. Underneath the picture were the verses, Proverbs 3:5,6. At any moment the hand could have let go of the girl. But, of course the hand doesn't. And, of course the girl doesn't going flying wild-ly through the air, eventually landing on a heap on the ground. (I know- that's comforting). Our lives are the same way. God may ask us to go places we don't know, places we cannot see, places we have never been. And yet, we are not left alone.