You and I can learn to become more loving. We can teach one another to be more loving. Only through humbly admitting our unloving side can we really find help, healing and wholeness.

That’s what the fear of God does, it allows our brokenness to draw us closer to God in dependence and interdependently closer to other people.

This is a treasure worth more than gold.

This is mysilentscream!

In an atmosphere of love, resting in God’s intimate love, we can finally experience an awareness that our value is settled in God’s mind. God will not, cannot, love us more or less.

We tend to develop conditionally dependent relationships with people. Relating with God is different than that. It’s rational to choose to “act lovingly” our of fear.

We can obey God because we fear the wrath of God. On the other hand, God invites us to learn that his wrath is fearful, but that a loving relationship with the Almighty will naturally lead to obedience.

When I have allowed God to come close, as close as I have so far, it can feel overwhelming. I forced back tears just now thinking of how special I felt. At the same time, I know that I willfully and consciously pushed God back because it felt so…overwhelming, that I felt like I couldn’t house God’s love inside of me.

I was on a trip with a group of TreeHouse teens.  I was praying.

“For your own good.”  That’s the kinda phrase that adults used to get me to do something I didn’t want to do without explaining all the details for me.  Why they undoubtedly had wonderful reasons that “for your own good” was sufficient, inquisitive minds like mine were never satisfied.

While some people might have chosen to use their good judgement or “common sense” to avoid such mishaps, I did not.

Ignoring “for your own good” warnings was a choice, but ignoring “for your own good” has left me with many scars to prove my unwillingness to heed the “for your own good” warnings. 

Pecky’s. I can barely remember that name, Pecky’s.

I googled it. In the gazillion possible places that google.com could find something it could only find two references to “Pecky’s” & “Schiller Park”, both on Facebook.

One was by a guy I graduated high school with. Having felt grateful that Paul Z kept the legacy of Pecky’s alive, I wrote him a thank you note.

Pecky’s & A “Player’s Coach”

Overcoming Fear

Eric Valli, a professional photographer, is dangling by a nylon rope from a 395 foot cliff in Nepal.

Nearby on a rope ladder is another man, Mani Lal, doing what he has done for decades: hunting honey.

Here in the Himalayan foothills, the cliffs shelter honeycombs of the world’s largest honeybee. At the moment, thousands of them are buzzing around both men. Lal, a veteran of hundreds of such attacks, is calm. Not so Mr. Valli.

I have become aware of the illuminating power of God’s words and I’d like to help you to know what I know.

Unless we understand what sin is we may be blind to reality.

“So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.“  [1 John 1:6-7, NLT]

Who is Jesus Christ?

Our answers, our real answers, explains a great deal of why we do what we do.

How do you relate to Jesus Christ?

Is “Jesus Christ” a mythological figure?
An irrelevant historical figure?
Someone from the past who did good things?
Someone to follow the example of?

Or, do you call him your Savior?

Someone to talk to, but it’s like talking to your ceiling?
Someone you can talk to about any and everything?
Someone that you expect — somehow — to hear from?

Who is Jesus?

Remember playing “Simon Says”?

“Simon Says” is a game for three or more players. One player leads the game as “Simon”.  “Simon” gives commands.

Commands that are preceded by “Simon says” are to be obeyed.  Those that are not preceded by “Simon says” should not be followed.

For instance, “Simon says, clap your hands.”  Should be obeyed.  “Keep clapping”, should not be obeyed.

Anyone who breaks one of these two rules is eliminated for the remainder of the game.

The goal of the game is to be the last player playing after all other players are eliminated.

I love hugs.

There is something special about a caring embrace that even an onlooker appreciates.

Hugs have been part of the American culture for longer than I have been alive [insert your joke here about my age].

While hugs have been around a long time, it is my undocumented opinion that hugs are more popular that when I was a teen.

I might have been too lonely, self-centered or busy to notice hugs as I walked through Lincoln School [my junior high] or East Leyden High School, but I seldom saw people hug one another in school.