One More For JC

Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. (1 Chronicles 16:9) I caught the tail end of “It’s a Wonderful Life” on television last weekend, which tells the classic story of George Bailey.  From a young age, George always wanted to go to college and travel the world, but he selflessly postponed his dreams time and time again.  When a serious financial crisis came his way, George was on the verge of suicide when his guardian angel, Clarence, stopped him.  Clarence slowly coaxed him back to life by showing him how miserable George’s hometown of Bedford Falls would have been had he never been born.  When George realizes suicide is a mistake, I never fail to get teary-eyed, as the entire town rallies around him and gladly donate the money he needs. So many emotions build up in me whenever I watch that movie.  It brings back fond memories of my Dad – and all the times we watched it together as a family on Christmas day.  It reminds me of the precious value of l

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. (Matthew 7:25) In April, I told the story of a family member providing Dee and I with a very special gift – a CD filled with Christian music.  Over Labor Day weekend he repeated the favor with not one, but three Christian CDs.  We didn’t know it at the time, but one of the songs on one of the CDs, “Show Me Your Glory” by Jesus Culture, would be instrumental in helping us through the next couple weeks. It’s an extremely powerful song, but the lyrics that really hit home with me are: “I’m not afraid!  Can you feel the joy welled up inside?  Just to say that I belong to Jesus.  I belong to Jesus.  Safe and secure!  I belong to Jesus!”  They’re words that we’ve listened to over and over again – particularly last week when “the rains came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against our house” harder than they have

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. (Matthew 7:25) I hope you all had a very blessed Easter.  Mine was capped by an incredible gift that a family member gave me on Easter morning – a homemade CD with all of his favorite Christian songs.  If you had ever seen my iTunes collection, you’d probably be asking what made the gift so special (I’ve got more Christian songs on it than I can count, and I’ve been known to burn quite a many of them to CD).  The true value of the gift was not the CD itself, but it was from whom I received it.  The family member who gave me the gift has seen his life turned completely upside down over the past year, with a large number of heavy trials mixed in.  But despite being caught in the lowest of lows, there’s a peace he’s coming to find more and more every day.  There’s a level of forgiveness in his heart that I know can only come from on