The good news is … bad times end.  I know a couple who have had a triple dose of struggles lately, not an iota of good fortune.  The wife’s son, mid-30s, died suddenly of a heart attack about a year ago.  The husband has had major illnesses that put him in the hospital for about a month.  Even though he is about ready to return to work, his old company has gone belly up.  Financially, they are pretty close to destitute.  Emotionally, I do not know how they are hanging on at all.  

I saw her the other day and said, “You know, there is such a thing as good luck, too.  You’re about due.”  She smiled a weak, tired smile.  I think just acknowledging her struggles may have lifted a few ounces of the five-ton burden she and her husband bear.

My point, two actually:  First, people often feel alone in their struggles.  Acknowledging them, letting them know we care, can make a big difference in their lives.  Second, bad times end.  As Christians, we believe – we MUST believe – that everything has a purpose, that God knows our predicaments, and that it all makes sense, even if we do not understand how. – jri

I have a recurring dream.  In it, I am sitting on the ground in the sun in a vast wasteland, a brown/tan desert, and I am looking at the dusty brown/tan walls of a city.  Everything appears to be arid, scorched, dry, lifeless.  But I can see through the gates of the city, which are open.  Inside is a lush, green, rich garden, with pools and fountains.  I know this to be the Holy City, Heaven, a goal for which we strive during our lives. 

I awoke this morning thinking about that dream and also about a song, a variation of my favorite “Amazing Grace,” called “Grace Like Rain” — not a bit surprised, with all the rain we have had this season.  However, I imagined grace falling on us like a downpour, a cloudburst, filling the dry and cracked creek beds of our lives with life-renewing strength and faith.

My point:  A tad fuzzy this morning, I admit.  I  think it is that no matter how dry and hopeless and challenging our lives may be at times, all it takes is one wondrous rain to renew our souls, slake our thirst and restore our lives. — – jri

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see so clearly

Chorus:
Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away

                   –    Todd Agnew (Grace Like Rain)

Be joyful today.  Many of us could go toe-to-toe with each other swapping stories about our daily challenges and struggles.  Put them in God’s hands and ask for a downpour of His amazing grace.  Peace & Joy. 

John Ingrisano
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July 28, 2010

At the core, it seems to me that everyone yearns for two things: Peace & Joy.  We fight our demons daily – whether it be poverty, alcoholism, fear, depression, one obsession or another, uncertainty and doubt or (fill in blank here). 

That’s what I think about when I read in the psalms about enemies (which, historically, generally referred to King David’s prayers to be rescued from those who would slay or depose him).  To us, it seems to me, our enemies are the forces of evil – demons, if you will – that would keep us from the amazing peace and joy of close communion and community with God, that knowledge beyond knowledge that, for me, fills me with energy and enthusiasm by day and makes me sleepy and contented at night.  

My point:  My prayer for you is simply this – P & J.  Amen.  — jri 

 That’s what a friend said to me the other day.  Perhaps 50 years ago, this man’s father had committed suicide.  To this day, the scars on his soul remain close to the surface.  But as he told me, God didn’t waste his pain.  With his own family, he became a terrific father himself, perhaps better than he might have become if not forced to deal with the loss of his father.  And then just recently, another mutual friend called him , seeking something – an explanation, solace, something – having just learned that his own father had just taken his life.  At the very least, he was able to understand and share the pain.     

I’ve also spoken of a young woman, a doctor, who got involved in addiction.  Clean and sober now, she will soon begin working with pregnant women who are substance abusers.  Her pain and experience will enable her to help others.  God doesn’t waste pain. 

My point:  God has a purpose.  He can turn pain and sorrow into joy and understanding.  Be patient in your own struggles.  Don’t question them or doubt God.  He does know what He is doing.  – jri 

My mother was no patsy, was never afraid to march up to someone and sharply share what she thought … in no uncertain terms.  On the other hand, she also seemed to care about pretty much everyone, found some good in most people, even the clown who had just stolen her parking space (though she might tell him that she wouldn’t be surprised if someone “keyed” his car door someday).  She was not vengeful or spiteful, rarely took offense, but would laugh at a cutting insult and say, “Yeah, you just may be right.”  

The first time I saw one of those WWJD bracelets, I thought of my mother.  I don’t think she had one, and I’m not sure if she ever actually asked herself, “What Would Jesus Do?”  She just seemed to know how to love people.  It was simple:  Like a happy puppy of a sheepdog (forgive the analogy, Mom), she’d get the biggest kick out of everyone she met.     

My point:  Beats me today.  I think it’s that we don’t have to judge or decide what we think of people.  All we have to do is love them, all of them, even the ones, to quote my mother, who “did us dirt.”  So, let go of anger (ah, that’s my point; knew I’d find it somewhere), forget about slights and wrongs done to you and just do what Jesus would do. – jri

I’ve worked in the life insurance industry for better than 30 years, so I was surprised when someone mentioned the other day that “life insurance is such a depressing subject.”  On the contrary, I explained, life insurance is a terrific idea.  It’s about love and life and taking care of loved ones.  Life insurance is for the living, and it’s far from depressing. 

In the same respect, I’ve heard people say that God must be one terrible, mean, cruel fellow to torture and murder His own son … or at least to allow others to torture and murder him.  It seems true, and if so, it certainly flies in the face of the loving God we hang our Christian hats on.  But it’s not true.  

My point:  It’s not like (or so it seems to me) God ordered His Son to come down here and get slaughtered like a helpless lamb.  I suspect Jesus volunteered, and He did it as a very loving gesture.  That’s the point, especially when you consider that Jesus showed us how He overcame death and we can do the same.  That makes God – both Father and Son – a pretty good and loving God in my book. — jri   

We all have a ministry.  In its simplest, boiled-down-to-the-nub core, it is to “love one another.”  Additionally, I believe it is to help, support, comfort and pray for one another.  Still, who am I to speak of such things?  Nobody, really.  I’ve never been to seminary; nor have I been stopped dead in my tracks by a burning, talking bush.   So I guess you could say that I am practicing faith without a license. 

However, at the risk of smite-me-down heresy, I think that’s okay.  Our Lord had no divinity degree either.  No, I do not “speak with authority;” just from the heart.  I attempt to share in these periodic ramblings things I have learned in my search for truth, which has led me to God.  So, if I screw up or offend, I ask your forgiveness.

But that’s not my point:  My point is that I believe we all have a ministry to love one another and share the Good News of God’s love.  We may get it wrong.  We may not be experts.  Don’t claim to be.  Just witness to what the Lord has done in your life.  And let God take it from there. – jri 

This could be sub-titled, “Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned from my Dog.”  Rocky (aka Pig Face) and I were on the trail the other day.  It was hot, borderline too hot for a smush-nosed Boxer, whose tongue, half the size of Montana, was hanging to his toes.  So, he kept trying to get into some stagnant water beside the trail.  It looked great to him, the answer to his prayers.  However, I knew that slimy green soup would rip his stomach to shreds, so I kept calling him off.  He didn’t understand, but went along … and he got some clean water back at the car.  

I think it’s that way with us and God sometimes.  We’re thirsty (oh, I love this analogy) for something spiritual, something to fill the hole in our souls, something to quench the fire inside us.  And we see what looks like the answer to our prayers and we really don’t know that there might be anything wrong with what we want.  But (and here’s the hard part) if God decides NOT to give us the shiny brass ring for which we are yearning, that’s because He has something better waiting.  He knows this would rip us up. 

My point:  Just as Rocky has no idea why I denied him his swamp stew, we can no more truly understand why God denies us something.  Oh, we can moan and gripe, but we might as well just trust.  God does know what He is doing … always.  – jri

I remember how one my children’s soccer coaches explained the game: “It’s real simple, kids – just bring the ball down the field and put it in the net.”

Faith is kind of like that.  Just put everything in God’s hands and try as best you can to live a life according to His rules.  Do that (and, yes, you do know the rules), and, even amid a world swirling in chaos, you can sit in the eye of the storm in perfect peace.  Sure, easier said than done … but quite doable, if you put it in God’s hands.  

My point:  Just for today (you can worry about tomorrow tomorrow, if you like), let your heart and your mind be God-centered.  Give up anger, fear, jealousy, destructive desires, and worry.  Just trust.  Trust in His strength, in His forgiveness, and most of all, in His love.  Let it go and let it happen. – jri

Okay, let’s keep in mind that nobody really understands how God works.  We’re guessing, we’re hoping, we’re praying.  And here’s the really frustrating part:  Just when we think we have it all figured out and our hearts and heads are in “the zone,” we go to sleep and during the night the wind in the willows erases or makes vague that which we knew for certain the evening before.  

Of what are we certain?  For me, it’s just that this man, Jesus Christ, who truly did live and die (and many say, including me, that he rose from the dead and is the Son of God), sparked a wildfire in those who knew Him.  And it was way more than some “ism” or belief “system,” but real and powerful enough that those who followed Him stuck with Him even after His death … very often unto their own deaths as well. 

My point:  A serious and critically-thinking fellow, I have a wobbly faith that feeds on hope and that knows beyond knowing, with certainty, that the Lord is true and real and with us to this day.  And, yes, it is a faith based on hope. – jri