People I trust and admire read and discuss Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling devotional. Their faiths have been strengthened and their lives transformed.

I was excited to review the Jesus Calling Devotional Bible even though it was published using The Holy Bible, New King James Version a translation I seldom have used.

There is a topical index listing more than forty topics most readers of the Jesus Calling Devotional Bible would have chosen.

Following the Topical Index is the “When Your Heart Longs for Help” index.

I had read a favorable review of Going Deep with Gordon MacDonald.

Picking up the book I read, “There are plenty of good people, well-meaning people, sincere people — but not enough deep people.”

Intrigued I stepped in.

I had not read a Gordon MacDonald book in more than twenty years.  With that in mind, I initially felt a full step out of the loop. MacDonald had introduced his readers to a fictional church and and a fictional town in a previous book entitled Who Stole My Church?

My friend Rev. Rachel Morey of Brooklyn Mosaic United Methodist Church emailed me today. 1  Rachel is one of those people with a warm smile and a quiet magnetism that is the antithesis of some televangelists.

Rachel is also a representative of the Minnesota Interfaith Open Forum.

Rachel’s email had me thinking about how I connect with my own faith.

My Faith

I have opinions, beliefs, faith statements and values all of which have been influenced by family, friends, like-minded people and other-minded people.

Our Pandemic

“While the H1N1 virus has sickened tens of thousands of people and closed summer camps in a season when there should be little flu activity, it has killed far fewer than the 36,000 Americans who die from seasonal influenza each year. ”

I had not idea — no idea — that the “flu” was so deadly. I was blind to the pain and suffering that people experience.

In order to protect themselves many people defensively protect themselves with masks.