Live Out Light

This week Jason was on vacation. We kicked it off with Trunk or Treat at church, Sunday night. Monday we had Halloween at Kim and Heather’s and I can’t believe I took zero pictures! We had pizza and watched Insidious. I love traditions. The boys stood out front and scared the older kids that were trick or treating.   Tuesday the kids had Fall Festival at Vanguard and I only got one photo of Jason manning the balloon game. The kids had a blast though.  Thursday we headed to Landrum for lunch and then stopped by Landrum Eclectics. What a cool place.  We snagged Saint Francis and he’s in our front yard now.  Rounded out our week with some cooking and games. What a fun staycation we had.  

   One of my favorite things about church is seeing everyone face to face.  So many of us spend a lot of time in front of a computer or some other screen.  Sometimes we are just so busy going about our days that we don’t just stop and really see each other.   Can you imagine for a minute, what it would have been like some 2000 years ago, to have met Jesus face to face, in the flesh? To have him come over and just gaze at you? Can you close your eyes and picture that in your mind for a moment?  Jesus face to face.  Him seeing you.   On any given day,  I am honestly often too distracted to notice the spirit of love that dwells within me.  But noticed or not He is still there,  loving me, holding me, and gazing upon me with grace.   And that is one of the things I love about church.  For a few hours, we all get to come together, and for a bit, we lay down our distractions and SEE each other.  We set our gazes on Jesus and find He has been watching us all along.  And we remember that every

Perspective is powerful.   When I am absorbed in my own perspective I have become so self-assured that I can be blind to errors in my thinking and judgment that another person might notice immediately.   When  I'm surrounded by an echo chamber of perspectives just like mine, that self-assurance can devolve into dangerous groupthink, like White Nationalism, hate groups, or the Nazis.    When I'm bombarded by many different perspectives , I feel paralyzed and confused: all the voices passionately debating online. When I sit and get quiet and wait for the Lord , self-assurance, anger, judgment, and confusion start to fall away. And I am left with an aching love for everyone.   I'm not sure if it is a blessing or a curse, but I have mostly been a person who sees many perspectives.  If I know someone well, I will consider what they say as I think about their personal experiences and viewpoints. I try to think this way about my own perspectives. I rarely go all-in on one side o

  I finished a great book last week, The Gift by Edith Enger. She is a 94-year-old renowned psychologist and also a Holocaust survivor. She arrived at Auschwitz at age 16. Her parents were executed the day they arrived at Auschwitz, and that first night, Edith, a young ballerina, was made to perform for Josef Mengele, a nazi known as the Angel of Death. Her life was spared and she spent months in Auschwitz before going on to the so-called Death March. She was rescued by a black American soldier in Gunskirchen, who saw her hand move in a pile of dead bodies. She weighed 70 pounds.  If you have not read her story, please go check it out!  The book was a collection of her clients' stories from years of her practice, interwoven with pieces of her own story. She shares the 12 most common imprisoning thoughts/behaviors she has encountered over the years and her tools for overcoming them.   My favorite story from the book was near the end.  Several years ago Edith was invited to attend a

  “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk, each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.” ‭‭Micah‬ ‭4:3b-5‬ ‭NRSV‬‬ Looking at this picture of my son right before he was baptized. The face of God's love on him, and on his Dad.  How does a young man cover himself in body armor, take up rifles and murder a classroom's worth of children.  Why? And what on Earth, God, can we do about it?  I am so so tired of praying over all of the hate. I am tired of the words God keeps giving back to me: Love, it's love, Aimee.  Love is what fills a heart to such fullness that evil will not find a space to creep in.  The absence of love