what did i do?
Would love to hear your answers
to any or all…
do unto others
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
So I do. Or at least I try to.
And then I find my heart disappointed and sometimes even hurt when those “others” don’t do to me as I’ve done to them.
Which doesn’t mean they are being hurtful. It maybe just means they are doing for me what they’d want done for them. Ya know, the whole we speak different love languages thing.
Maybe what’s a priority for me isn’t as important to them. And maybe doing unto them what I value doesn’t mean as much as doing unto them what they value.
Such is the random ponderings of my mind this morning…
Love sure is a tricky thing.
even when i deserve stoning…
I keep thinking about the adulterous woman who was dragged before Jesus. Mainly because I can’t help but see myself in her.
The crowd was ready to stone her for her sin, for her failure. And then Jesus spoke. He looked the mob straight in the eye and actually challenged them to go through with it. Under one condition.
He called for the one without sin to throw the first stone.
I can only imagine the shift that instantly took place within the crowd. They knew they were just as sinful as the woman was. They were well aware of how stoning-worthy their own hearts were.
So one by one, the crowd slowly turned and walked away.
All of them.
Until Jesus was the only one left with the woman. Perfectly fitting with what He’d said… “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” He alone was sinless. He alone had the right to judge.
Yet the One without sin cast no stones.
Instead He barraged her with grace.
Just like He still does with me.
It doesn’t matter how many accusations are hurled at me. Or how many I throw at myself. It doesn’t matter how far I’ve run, how deeply I’ve messed up, how ashamed I feel.
He casts no stones. No judgment. No condemnation. All He casts is love.
Every single time.
[Originally posted at Deeper Story...]
One Word Mile-Marker: Halfway
It’s June. The year is half over.
So it’s time to check in with everyone for a mid-year One Word 2011 update.
I would love to hear how your word has developed in you over the past six months, how it has impacted you and the ways it’s taken on significance in your life…
How has your word taken shape? And how has it shaped you?
Does it mean something different to you now than you thought it would?
How has it steered your decisions, plans, and actions?
How do you remain intentional about it? How can you continue to focus on it during the rest of the year?
This is a mile-marker.
To look back and see how far you’ve come, but also to help you set your sights forward on the six months that lie ahead of you.
What do you want to do differently with the second half of the year?
It’s a way to take your pulse, honestly process how you’re really doing, and purposefully step into the rest of the year.
Would you write a blog post about your One Word?
And then come back here and link up so the whole community can read it?
I think it would be incredible if each of us took time to read at least 5 update posts from this link list. We can speak words of life and truth to each other’s hearts, and rally around one another in encouragement and support.
You can do this.
We can do this.
Together, let’s finish strong.
_________________
Write your update blog post, then come back and add the link here. (Use the permalink to the specific post, not just your homepage.)
monday morning confession
One of my guilty pleasures is watching the tv show Chuck.
Oh, and Bones. And Castle.
(Such horrible acting. And yet… I. Can’t. Stop. Watching!)
Mmkay… Your turn.
[see previous monday morning confessions...]
the one where i sell the shirt off your back
The Hodges decided to have a yard sale to help with the purging process before our move to Nashville. This is a first for me. I’ve never had a yard sale before. I cringe at even the thought of stopping at someone else’s. It all just seems so awkward to me.
So all week I’ve been asking stupid questions about how the heck you actually run a garage sale, and the likelihood of people showing up and buying our stuff. It just seemed so beyond me! But I went through my things and added a bunch of stuff to our garage sale pile.
It’s been a crazy whirlwind around here, so we really didn’t do much of anything to prepare for the sale today. Yesterday Brent put up a listing on Craig’s List — announcing it would start at 8 am—and late last night we went and bought a “garage sale” sign to stick on the corner. We got a bit of a late start this morning and when Tam opened the front door at 8:15 to start bringing things out, there was already a guy standing there waiting. Seriously!? Even though there wasn’t a blessed thing out in the front yard yet!? I don’t understand this! HA!
As soon as we started carrying things outside, people began showing up in droves. There were suddenly multitudes — of Biblical proportions! I just kept laughing and shaking my head and exclaiming, “I don’t get it! Where are all these people coming from?!” These, apparently, were the professional yard-salers. The ones who scour the local Craig’s List listings and show up early for “the good stuff”. It was seriously cracking me up.
I jumped right into the spirit of yard-saling. I kept going back inside and scouring the house for more and more things we could sell. “You don’t use this, do you?” “What about this?” “Can I get a screwdriver to get this thing off the wall? Tam laughed so hard she almost peed her pants when I came out carrying a large potted plant and plopped it down in the yard with a $5 sticker on it.
Good times.
It’s been such an entertaining day. The people-watching has been awesome, made even funnier by our own Mystery Science Theater commentary of course.
It all is still so strange to me. I still don’t get it. And it still cracks me the frick up.
Annnnd I’m still wondering if I should make another pass through the house for any last minute items. “Excuse me, Tam. I need that chair…”
What about you? Are you a garage-saler?
