start

Well, we'll see how this goes. After 2 years of Denise H. telling me I should do this, here's the start. My hesitation for 2 years was that I could not envision why anyone would want to know what I thought or felt. But since Pastor D has started his it was time for me (the person in the second chair) to begin.

And this is a good day to begin. Today is my mom's birthday - Sept. 9, 9/9. My mom was always the kind of person that wanted everything neat and tidy. We were always being told to "tidy up your room." I thought her whole life was like that. Even the day she died. May 5, 5/5. Her life was 9/9/26-5/5/02.

The other day I was reading about how out of our lives should flow rivers of living water, that being close to God meant that others would be blessed without us even being aware of it. Made me think about mom. Standing up in the choir, singing "Make Me a Blessing" along with the congregation with tears running down her face. We (maybe it was just me) would tease her about it and she would just shrug it off.

Looking back on it I guess the line "out of my life may Jesus shine" was really important to her. She had her flaws and faults like the rest of us, imperfect creatures that we are. But I guess she lived realizing that it wasn't about her, but about others.

Living your life chasing after happiness is not why God made us. If that's all you do, there's nothing much left at the end of it. But, I think deep down inside most of us really want to live our lives in such a way that at the end of it all, there will be those left who were blessed because we were a part of their lives.

Blessing - now that's a good word.