Bonus Post: A Writer's Life

This is the life of a writer after they get published. This made me laugh so much, that I thought some of you may enjoy it too. It's musical, of course. Makes me not mind so much that I haven't been picked up for publication yet. heehee.



Thanks to Warren Baldwin, I saw this on his blog.

Don't Shut the Door

I live in a semi-rural community. It is a popular community because it is only about 20 minutes outside of a metropolitan area; but because it is not in that area property is cheaper, lots are bigger and crime is lower. Because of that, many want to move from the city to what was once a rural area. Now it is only semi-rural, because of all the "come-here" folks, as they are called. The community has experienced lots of growth because of the come-heres.

Funny thing about the come-heres. They move into the area, and then they shout, "Stop the growth!" They try to pass laws keeping farmers from subdividing their property into housing developments. They want to keep it rural...once they get here. Although they don't mind that their new home is on what was once a farm too.

Sometimes in the Christian community, we too can want to come in, and shut the door behind us. Once we are saved and walk away from our past life of sin, we get comfortable in our upstanding Christian community. Then when the "sinner" comes to our church, we don't want their kind there. We yell "Stop the growth!" or "Shut the door!"

To read the rest of this post, come over to Titus 2 in Action (by clicking the icon below) where I am a guest contributor every other Wednesday.

We are Family (I got all my sisters with me!)

"We are family, I got all my sisters with me."
We Are Family, Sister Sledge, 1979

Family relations. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize they are not all they’re cracked up to be. Unfortunately, many of us have a Norman Rockwell picture of what family relations should look like, and when our family doesn’t match it, we get depressed.

Whether you have an unfortunate relationship with your parents, siblings, spouse or children, you feel like everyone else in the world must have a perfect relationship with theirs. Yet your own family seems dysfunctional. Think you’re alone?

Even Jesus, God’s perfect son, had issues with his own family. In Luke 11:27, a woman called out to Jesus "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." But in verse 28 Jesus replies, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

In Mark 3:21, Jesus’ family try to take charge of him saying ‘He is out of his mind.” I’m sure I’ve thought that about my own family members from time to time. They may have even thought it about me. In Jesus’ case, his family is unable to get to him because of the crowd. So the crowd tells Jesus his mother and brothers are outside. “’Who are my mother and my brothers?’ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’” (V. 33-35)

If you relationship with your family is not what you had hoped it to be, look around at your family of Christian believers. If you don’t have a family of believers, now it the time to join a church, Bible study or other Christian support group. Then regardless of your own personal family relationship, you can still say “We are family, I got all my sisters…(and brothers)…with me.”

Musical Musings:
1. Do you ever feel like your family is dysfunctional?
2. Does it matter as much now that you realize that even Jesus had family issues?
3. If you don’t have a church family, why not start looking for one today.

Karaoke:
Dear Lord, thank you for being a perfect parent, my heavenly father. Please help me in my relationship with family members to be loving and forgiving. Thank you for the examples of tough relationships in Jesus life, so I can know that you really understand. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Rock On: Read about Jesus’ family issues in Mark 3:20-34 and Mark 6:1-6.