“Less politics and more scholarship! And don’t give so much of yourself to this cause. Yours is scholarship-and one can never know what the future may bring politically. You understand me-my advice places me in your hands, I wish you well.” I Will Bear Witness by Victor Klemperer.
The advice from this German professor was something that caught my eye as I read his diary today. The gentle advice to this woman, whom he said was “an adherent to the new regime,” was daring. It was advice that I think makes sense for many of us today. As soon as I read it though, my mind changed it up a bit.
Maybe for us, we could change it to “Less politics, and more Jesus! And don’t give so much of yourself to this cause. Yours is Jesus-and one can never know what the future may bring politically.”
Have we spent too much time on politics and not Jesus? Sadly, I just have to think yes. How else do Nazi’s have such a strong presence right now?
(The fact that I wrote that sentence tells me that something is very wrong with the world but more importantly that something is wrong with us in the church)
“We are all infected impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6
What happens when you focus so much on yourself and your own problems that you can’t see anything else? I have gone through so many different emotions today. I woke up and was feeling pretty down. I am feeling some stress from the decisions I have made, and so I was trying to work out some of my feelings. (wow….used the word feelings a lot) Maybe that was my problem this morning? So many feelings, but so little perspective.
Well I was spending some time with someone recently that I wasn’t particularly excited about. You know…. It is one of those situations where you are going to have to hear their story again, and it is kind of heavy. He had fallen on hard times, and had started questioning God. 
“It was my goal in life to be beautiful,” she told me. Well my friend, I couldn’t help but think, you have reached your goal. Ericka Vega is a buddy that I’ve known for a couple of years now, and I wondered what she was up to these days. I messaged her on FaceBook and invited myself over for an interrogation… I mean an interview.
I once had a dream where I was swinging a baseball bat. The problem? I wasn’t playing baseball. I was swinging away at things (I’m not even sure what?) just smashing objects at will. When I woke up and remembered my dream, I could still recall the anger and frustration I had felt. It was really weird to see myself that frustrated, even if it was in a dream. It was a bit scary to realize that this anger and frustration was buried in my sub conscious. Like I said, the first time I had the dream, I was dealing with teenage boys. I love my children and the men they are becoming, but there was a time that they were struggling badly. Really….it was hard! 
Is that really how we look at people, all good, or all bad? It seems that a lot of times we do. I think we can look into our own lives, and know that’s not that way it really is. Am I good, Am I bad, or maybe a bit of both? 
Fourth of July…. Independence day. While I am thankful to be an American, I am more
So every year I wind up writing scenes for VBA, or Vacation Bible Adventure. I take bible stories and I adapt them to these vignettes that we do one a day during the week.
Cheryl Mendoza 