Dear Church (not the building, but those who make up the body),
Is it ok to laugh? No, not the joyful kind of laughter, but that nervous giggle that has to do with truth. You know. You are sitting in service and the pastor says something that 
holds up a mirror. And instead of taking a breath and looking full into that mirror, you glance over thinking you know what it shows and just give a nervous giggle. I don’t know when I stopped giggling and started being sad, but it happened at some point.
In the church we talk about sin quite a bit. Sometimes it seems that we tend to talk about other people’s sin more than our own, and we have chosen some particular ones as our favorites. I think the biggest problem though is when we do bring up sin that is present in the church, we seem to be met with a more relaxed attitude toward it. Something like, no one is perfect, but that is why we have Jesus to “wash them all away”. What I guess I am trying to say is, while God forgives, shouldn’t we be more brokenhearted by our own wrongdoings? Continue reading “A good look in the mirror…”
I have thought about this regret at various times in my life, and it typically makes me pretty sad. Her birthday is St Patricks day, so thoughts of her came to mind again. This year though, I found that my perspective had changed. You see, what I finally realized was what she did teach me was worth much more than what she didn’t. It was pretty funny, because I have always known what an example of love she was to all who knew her. This year though, I realized why everyone loved her so much. Well, it was because she loved us! Warts and all! She loved us all so much, that we couldn’t help but love her back! 
So I have a question this morning. Do you have idols? It was something that I was
I have a new office. Well, it is actually one of the same old bedrooms in our house, but we have given it a major overhaul. It has been cleaned and painted from top to bottom, adorned with a new desk, rug and drapes. The things that were in this room are coming back in one at a time. With each item, I am taking the time to see if I truly need it or not. This room had previously housed our computer, desk and other “office” stuff. It had also become a catch all for everything else. When that happened, it became a room that I did not like. There were things in the room that did not belong, and other things that needed to be addressed, but could be ignored because they were hidden in the chaos.
Balance has been on my mind. Some of it has to do with the political news, some with my life, but I decided to write about it because of a news story about the Wallenda family.
hurt, and thankfully all will recover. As soon as this horrific event happened, they immediately started looking for a cause. The most likely culprit was the rigging, and it was the first thing they checked, but they discovered it wasn’t the rigging. They determined that it was the most simple, yet most important thing in an aerial act. Balance.
So to make a long story short, I have a bit of a new purpose statement for this new year. It really kind of came to me a little before Christmas, and it seemed to make an impression for multiple reasons. I actually could not get away from it because it is a bible verse that is part of the traditional Christmas story. Wow…this short story seems to be getting longer by the minute!
Why? Well maybe it was a reaction to this whole year of anger, fear, with so much talking and not enough loving. In this past year of election noise, I wondered if that proclamation of “good news” was clearly heard? Did I see “great joy” when I looked in the mirror? Or in the church pews? And were “all people” able to hear and see those things? We may have thought so, but in watching and listening, I really wasn’t so sure?
Cheryl Mendoza 