Grace and words Ephesians 4:29

Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

In his letter to the Ephesians Paul encourages the use of good words and hence thoughts to pour out of the human mouth and then as such it become a grace or a blessing to the people hearing it. In today’s contemplation of cultural cannibalism I will attempt to meditate on that. I read a Craig’s list rant today about a woman in a Lexus in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; who was tailgating another car near the neighborhood of Southern Village. The venom poured out in this particular rant was horrid to say the least and scary to say the most. It was as if the person being tailgated thought or perceived that the driver of the Lexus woke up and intentionally went out searching for him as a victim. What the person ranting on Craig’s list didn’t realize is that he made himself much more a victim by his rant and words.

I see it this way and I believe that God does too; when you spew venom and ill will it does indeed poison those who hear your words. This is made clear in the passage quoted above from Ephesians. That being said, it is impossible for us, even if we are deaf to escape our own words. Our words are our thoughts, our cognition made real, live and human. Our words, our thoughts are our reality and the reality that this ranting person created on Craig’s list was self inflicted poison. Of course I’d be naïve if I professed not to be somewhat poisoned by the rave too. I was which is why the meditation. Horrid words move us away from God because even in the beginning there was the word. The word was in and of God. For people of deep and abiding faith it is very simple and clear and in fact in those people I have a deep admiration, I can see at work in them daily kind and compassionate words and it does indeed color their lives.

Paul in further writings to the Colossians says; 4:6; Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. So, like salt your seasoned words, words of passion should be used sparingly. If not then you risk over seasoning your own mind and the minds of others with your words. It’s kind of simple really, our words become our reality. Think hatefully then one becomes hateful. Think and speak lovingly, then one becomes loving. Think peacefully then one becomes a pacifist. The same holds true to others who hear our words. Nelson Mandela in prison could have allowed himself to become enraged, angry, hateful and full of revenge, he could have “talked” himself into it easily while sitting alone in his cell. Had Mandela done so then I’m sure he wouldn’t have become an effective president of South Africa and such a role model, leading that nation to truth and reconciliation and isn’t reconciliation grace?

Christ through his persecutions didn’t rail against his abusers, he asked God to forgive them for they didn’t know what they were doing. Had he reacted in anger or rage he would have then moved away from God. This of course given the persona and passion of Christ was impossible, he was fully human and fully God and therefore fully good and perfect and as such he couldn’t move in an angry direction at that time. Jesus Christ didn’t allow poisonous words to fall from his lips. As fully God and fully human he knew poisonous words are the easy words, the convenient words; he rather chose enlightened and loving words and that is what we are challenged to do.

I think that this is why Paul spends so much time in his writings to the early churches discussing these kinds of issues. He knew from personal experience that hate filled words are the easy words to find. He knew from his persecutions of the early church that hearing those words made a believer out of him. Of course not the kind of believer that Christ and God were looking for. It took a strike by God on the road to Damascus to bring Saul to Paul which was where he needed to be. It took the awe inspiring might and love of God to get him there and that is the lesson for us. Trust and love God; think good, loving, peaceful thoughts and speak those words and grace pours out in abundance to all who hear them including ourselves.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
—Romans 12:12
Rejoice in hope that good things will come especially when dealing with a time of tribulation. I do believe that these times are turbulent ones. There is a deep uncertainty regarding the economy. We as a nation are trapped by our own designs in a protracted war where there doesn’t seem at the moment to be an escape let alone an easy one and we are indeed a people hooked on easy answers. Our standing in the world is faltering after a very short time as a “super power.” We are lacking in moral fiber and faith for had we taken the time to think, pray and ponder, we wouldn’t be trapped in Iraq at the moment. We wouldn’t be swimming in a mess of our own making.

Conversely, we wouldn’t be in the economic mess that we’re in had we not gone into Iraq. Hubris and ego have taken us down a slippery slope and it will take emotional fortitude and patience of uncommon strength to rescue us. The problem as I see it is that we, Americans, don’t have patience when faced with tribulation and we are ill suited to be constant in anything let alone prayer and faith. In our cultural cannibalism we epitomize a society of distracted adolescent children who are so hopped up on the stimuli of the moment that we can’t be patient because we’ve never learned it. In slower times our parents and grandparents had the benefit of slow and deliberate reflection and that often taught them the value of patience. They were not the kind of people to go in four hundred different directions with a myopic lack of focus. They tackled one task at a time and did it well.

They allowed God standing in the quiet corners of their minds to come forth with the answers. Now mind you it didn’t always happen quickly or easily or even always with the desired outcomes. We could point to the inauspicious end to World War two over two completely destroyed civilian centers of Japan. I’m not here to judge their actions, simply to reflect upon them and the dangers of rushing where no one has yet to rush or act. They thought that their actions were right and proper. Perhaps if Truman had been in office longer, and had reflected a bit, the end would have been different. Who’s to say?

Similarly, at the start of World War two this country was completely unprepared to fight a war, let alone a war on two fronts against two completely maniacal and formidable foes. Our parents and grandparents rose to the challenge, they sacrificed and they eventually won. They too were coming out of a period of deep and Earth shattering uncertainty and a test of faith. The difference was the sacrifice, they were able to and we are not. We as a nation, for four generations now, prance and dance off to ill conceived, planned and executed wars where we indeed do not go to war. What we do is we send our army to a foreign land to fight battles. Like the passage from Romans says, be patient in tribulation, however to do so, thought and planning and sacrifice must take place. Let’s not miss the final line of the passage, be constant in prayer.

To be constant in prayer means to be still and know who God is. That stillness is the ah ha moment. The stillness must last long enough for the ah ha to take place and in our culture that doesn’t happen at least not all that often. Again, we as a people are stretched too thin and are lacking a focus and insight. We lack the ability to quietly and simply communicate with God and ask for Godly insightful revelation. Were we to do so, so many of our “problems” would not manifest into such. The solutions, I think are simple and take me back to the scripture. When faced with problems, I will rejoice in hope, that I will solve them, I will be patient in tribulation and I will be constant in my prayers. Those three courses of action will allow for deliberate and thoughtful action. Let’s all pray that our leaders and population will get it and soon.

Chicago Sun Times~Good heavens

"Gunman somewhat erratic" is a direct quote from the Chicago Sun Times regarding the mayhem in Illinois. You think? I'm thinking that the Sun Times could perhaps elaborate on how erratic our society is. Somewhat erratic is not hiding behind a curtain in a university lecture hall and then popping out and gunning down innocent people. That is both oars out of the water nuts. That is not only falling through a society's saftey net, if there were one, but using a knife to make the holes larger and wearing leg weights to fall faster.

This is the failure of the society's government, health care system, families, churches and schools. What the Chicago Sun Times needs to talk about is a back to basics care for one another. We need to remember prior to the Reagan Revolution when the mentally ill were housed in institutions and not on the streets. Personally, I'd like to see some of the hundreds of billions of dollars that we've wasted in Iraq put to this use, but that is money long gone.

I'd like to hear teachers and preachers telling folks that they are cared for and loved and joyously and wonderously made and completely unworthy of such senseless and horrible acts. I'd love to see people in this country reach out and across color, ethnic and socio-economic lines and care for their neighbors and community members. Perhaps, just perhaps if we would do a little more of this kind of caring then we wouldn't have full prisons and "somewhat erratic" gunmen in universities killing innocent students and teachers.

More guns and more mayhem

I wake to yet another day and hear that someone has gone nuts in Illinois in a university, with a gun. This happens so often in America that we as a people have become blasé. So pain is again inflicted on innocent kids who were doing nothing more than sitting in a classroom and trying to learn; I struggle to find the answers. I struggle to wrap my mind around this madness.

So, I pray and hope that eventually the powers in the country and the people of our country see the light and do something about this tragic national epidemic. How many more young people must be gunned down in their universities before we do something about it? When it comes time to cast blame we can blame only ourselves. You see when the gun crimes were happening in poor disenfranchised areas of our nation we said and did nothing.

Now, that the mayhem has spread to our bucolic college campuses and suburban neighborhoods we as a people find ourselves at a loss as to how to deal with this. We as a people have fallen victim to the special interest groups who promote gun ownership. My mind races to the question for the Democratic front runner for President of the United States; please Mr. Obama, please explain your pro gun stance to me and make it make sense. You, a man of color who’s people for all too long have been the victims of gun crime, random gun crime. Please help me sir, understand this. How sir do you intend to sleep at night and face yourself, taking a stance to simply gain votes? Where sir are your morals?

Gun ownership in and of itself is not dangerous however gun ownership in a society that is terminally ill is. We as a people do not value ourselves, our children and the mores of a decent society. If we did guns would not be so readily available. We sell guns like we sell fast food and the consequences are as dangerous. We have cast simple humbleness aside and we’ve purchased into the belief that we can still solve our problems with violence which in and of itself causes more problems. Our cultural cannibalism is like a serpent eating its own tail. Rome burns while the population here reloads their automatic weapons whose sole purpose is to hunt and kill people.

It’s time for the preachers in the pulpits of this country to start preaching on this issue. Time for them to leave drinking, smoking and gay marriage alone and start hitting the tough topics of cultural suicide and mass gun killings, it is time for them to start preaching the universal salvation that the belief and love of Jesus Christ brings. In the meantime I will continue my diatribes against guns, gun ownership and the murder of our people. I will back this up with prayer and hopefulness that this country and its gun owning people somehow see the light and turn on their wicked ways.

More on anger and forgiveness

The blessings are in the waysides

When I contemplate my angry friend and myself when I was angry it becomes very clear that deep abiding friendships and relationships don’t develop in angry people. They really can’t because there are barriers in the way. All too clearly I remember that when I was institutionally angry my friendships were casual and cursory. I couldn’t let people in close because their proximity to the true me would have forced me to examine what I truly was. The thought of other people being that close to the true me, terrified me.

How absolutely sad for me because I lost countless years and countless friends along the way and I also stunted my personal development. I consider now the lost relationships and the damage that I caused in those relationships because I was dishonest, first with myself and then those trying to get close or involved. Naturally, once anyone started getting close to me, my pattern of behavior was to run as quickly as possible from them, sometimes this wasn’t a literal run but the defensive barriers definitely went up. My greatest fear was the thought of “them” seeing the true me or worst me seeing the true me.

With some age, wisdom and God’s grace, I’ve learned not to beat myself up with respect to these angry and elusive years. Some aspects of my behavior I do truly regret. I regret the countless weekend evenings of my sophomore year in college where I didn’t go out and forge close and abiding friendships. I chose rather to stay in alone and watch television or read. I regret some of the years after college where I stayed alone in Wilson and really had no social interaction for years on end. I regret the year after my relationship with Chris ended and I poured myself into a bottle believing that I was unworthy of love or even friendship.

Through these events and a spiritual evolution I have found a path to happiness, grace and peace. I reconnected with one of the closest true friends I’ve ever known and his presence has helped me out of my rut. I’ve discovered a church, pastor and friends who accept that I’m flawed, but love me in spite. I discovered a joyous God that knows every aspect of my DNA and loves me for the wondrously flawed human that I am. I have discovered that joy, peace, love and grace are not destinations but they are rather waysides on the journey through life. They are the gentle smiles in the grocery store, the singing in church on Sunday evening, meeting a friend for Thai food on a rainy Tuesday evening. They are the simple thanks that a coworker gives for doing a good job and watching basketball at NC State. The blessings are so, oh so plentiful but in this fast paced, high stress, twenty four hour news cycle angry society that we live in, most of us miss the blessings. We fall all over ourselves searching for the blessings when they are all around us and all that is required is that we be still.

So, my solution is simple. When I wake every morning I pray and I thank God for the fact that I’m awake and in a dry, warm, safe place. I thank God for the simple blessing that today I don’t hurt, that I have food and that through my actions and thoughts I can be a catalyst for good and positive change…I can live my life…as Christ with skin on. I fall short each and every day, but the greatest joy is that I can get up again and try, basking in God’s love and grace because again the blessing is in the attempt and working to the goal.

Sin and Forgiveness

If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.Matthew 6:14-15

Sin and Forgiveness

One of my very best, albeit most difficult friends in the world truly has issues with forgiveness, I might even go onto say that she doesn’t even have a clue as to how to forgive. This could be said of herself first and then those with which she interacts. Unfortunately, I see this cycle of behavior as being very self destructive and venomous to her. Furthermore, I am ill prepared because of our close relationship to help her out of where she is.

For several years I have attempted to help my friend find her way. As my faith journey began it was aid offered first in conversations of grace, love, joy and forgiveness. However, the longer these conversations went on the more intractable she became toward the topics and the more frustrated I became with her claims that she couldn’t change because she was too old and had too much invested in this cycle of behavior. The truth is that she refuses to change; she has made a choice not to change. I think this is because her anger and bitterness are her snug harbor and safe haven. They consume and envelop her; they are a poisonous security blanket. They color each and every aspect of her life and all interactions that she has with other people. The anger and bitterness she cleaves to are so comfortable to her that I believe she can’t even recognize them.

The sad reality of this anger and bitterness is; she through her words and actions and victim mentality has driven every close friend, partner or spouse away from her. Her anger has colored her relations with family too. Now because of my very close relationship with this woman; I find myself driven away too. So, I’m in mourning to a degree. The mourning of this relationship is very different from the other relationships that I’ve lost because the evolution of this death is not complete. I’m plagued now with doubt and worry. I see my friend moving away from me, something that I now see that she’s wanted for a very long time and my desire not to let her leave has created an abundance of tension for both of us.

So, today while praying on this situation, I came to this verse in Matthew.

If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.Matthew 6:14-15

I hold that one can substitute the word, wound or hurt or insult or slight for the word sin. I think as a person of faith and a believer in Christ and Christ’s path that I must do this. I have attempted to do so in all instances. This as it turns has been one of the wedges driving between my friend and me. What drew us together initially was the fact that at our core we are fundamentally damaged people. We could stand outside work and smoke, and complain and suck the flavor out of any joyous situation we to delight in not forgiving others and discussed this openly. In common we had a thread of negativity so thick it couldn’t be cut with a sword. In reflection I know this now about myself, years ago my father said to me that he thought I enjoyed being angry. At the time I was furious with him…isn’t that all too telling. I can now smile when I think about how brave dad was to say that to me.

I made a decision not to be an angry person. I made a decision to say to myself each day that God would do something miraculous in my life and that I would find a way to love people even with their flaws and shortcomings. I thought that I could love my friend out of her place. I couldn’t and I’ve failed so far. The endless hours of prayer and conversation haven’t worked and we’re separating on a temporary and part time basis. I’m not so naïve to think that our separation is temporary or part time, I see it as the first step to a permanent parting of the ways. I’m not scared about where I’m going. I have a focus and clarity. I fear for my friend because she’s admitted to me that she doesn’t know what the next phase of her life will look like. I hope that she can figure it out.

An angry society, what to do?

Yesterday a man walked into a city council meeting in Kirkwood, Missouri and opened fire with a gun and killed five, two police officers and three city officials. Inside I pain for the people of Kirkwood and the families of the police and the city officials. Inside my brain swims with questions; why would he do this? What would drive a person to grab a gun and attack? How can human life go so unvalued? What made him snap? Why are there so many guns in the hands of so many unstable people who view those guns as the only effective way to solve a problem? Why is our society at war with itself?

The questions out weigh the answers, but maybe as a recovering angry person I can shed light on some of this. The attacker most likely felt slighted by society and was offered no constructive, effective outlet for those slights. As the slights against him built in his mind they began to boil to the point of lost control, and perhaps the only thing that he could see was the red of his anger. Then, put a gun in the hands of an angry person, who is clearly at the end of his rope and out of control and poof, disaster in Kirkwood, Missouri. One would beg the question, is America the only angry society in the world? Simple observation might say no, look at chaos in Africa, hooliganism in England and organized crime in the former Soviet Union. I think each of those societies grapple with the same problem but in different ways.

To me the solutions are simple and plain but not simplistic. Start by getting guns off the streets and out of hands of people. Oh, I’ve heard the comment that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. True, but I rather like this statement instead; people with guns kill people more often. Second, churches, local government and agencies put in place programs to deal with an angry society. The training must be started at an early age and it must start with a call to conscience and judicious thought.

It is imperative in this country that we start treating one another with mutual respect and love. Day to day I am in contact with angry people or people on their way to institutional anger, whether it be an email blasted off without though or regard to other’s feelings, a belief that one can say whatever one wants without regard to other’s feelings, or an angry home owner who calls me, rails me out because she has received several postcards and a letter or it’s an aggressive driver acting out behind the wheel of a car. In each instance I see the old angry me lashing back in rage. Sometimes it was a scary reaction, which took me out of my car and into another person’s face.

I recognized with me that this instant and spontaneous reaction to even the slightest of slights or perceived slights caused my emotions to boil faster. It is within us to curb these actions when we come to the realization that we are loved. For me it is the gift of the cross at Calvary which takes away my anger. It empowers me to not respond to a slight. I pause, I take the Psalm, be still and know that I am God, and I reflect on it. I say a silent prayer in my mind for the anger I’m confronted with and more importantly the person. Do I still get angry? Absolutely, sometimes to the point where I feel hot; I try to walk it out and pray it out and get myself back to a loving place. More often than not when I take that time to reflect and pause it becomes very clear that the problem isn’t mine and by not submitting to my anger I don’t buy into the problem. I give it up to God.

I suppose the real work here or the million dollar question is; how do you get a society to see this and when?

Cultural Cannibalism

Oh America what to do, what to do? Have you noticed that America isn’t the same place that it used to be? People aren’t nearly as nice, kind, courteous and pleasant as they were even twenty years ago. Our twenty four hour news cycle has made us petty and mean spirited, self righteous egotists. In America today it isn’t enough to just punish someone, we’ve got to make them bleed and die a million deaths. I call this cultural cannibalism.

Take for example Michael Vick the football player. I’m in no way going to exonerate his participation in dog fighting, it’s wrong, it’s vile and it’s inhuman. There is no doubt about that. But, isn’t it vile, inhuman and wrong to take a poor kid, who’s greatest gift is playing football, give him a whole bunch of money to do so, give him no tools to cope with his celebrity and then when he screws up…take it all away and throw him in jail? That is cultural cannibalism and that is America today. It is us at our worst and it is awful.

We Americans behave this way over and over again and it is exacerbated by the twenty four hour news cycle. No sooner is Michael Vick destroyed, unemployed and thrown in jail and we’re moving on, as a culture, taking bets on line as to when Britney Spears will die. We ring our hands in glee as the president of the United States falls from grace, whether it’s an affair, an unjust war or declining approval ratings. We as a culture eat people up and chew them up to a point where there is no taste and spit them out. It is a modern version of the games in the Roman Coliseum. Our games are played out on the news which sometimes as if to placate its guilt claims to be “fair and balanced.”

So what is the solution? I think it’s really kind of simple and basic and can be best boiled down to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Love your neighbors as you love yourself and above all love God with all of your heart and mind. I do think that this is easier said than done right now. I can honestly look at the behavior of America and in my mind say, huh, they really don’t love themselves all that much. They rush to judgment, they move too fast, they are self righteous and worse of all, they believe their own press. Where is the humility and humbleness that comes from being simple loving creatures? I’ve often said in my real estate practice and in a lot of aspects of my life, the most dangerous thing that a person can do is believe their own press and that is the danger in America’s cultural cannibalism. We have bought into the hype, lock, stock and barrel.

Well, I for one am done. I decided well over a year ago that I was done with the twenty four hour news cycle. I am willing to forgive anyone anything, who am I to judge? My belief is that no person is beyond redemption and forgiveness. So, I’ve examined my sins, transgressions and behaviors and I’ve decided that I’m worthy of God’s love, grace and forgiveness and so is everyone else…oh if only the rest of the world could get there.

I have decided to daily forge into the world to be the light, to let Christ conscience shine through my words, actions, thoughts and deeds. Here is the kernel that I’d like you to take away, participation in cultural cannibalism is a choice and all you have to do is decide to say no and then do so.

One of my pathways to God

Pathways to God, reflections on a healing service

For three weeks or so I’d wrestled with the fact that as an infant my parents had me Christened instead of waiting for me to reach the age of reason, when I could choose Baptism. By default my younger brother had been given the choice because my parents left “the church” before he could be Christened. That bothered him so much so that as a twenty year old man he chose Jesus Christ and was baptized. Sunday September 30, 2007 my pastor says, “We’ll wait here, until the person here in this place, comes forward to renew their Baptism or is baptized. I know he’s here. I’ll wait all night if I have to. We’ll wait until the sanctuary is empty if that’s what it takes!”

I see it clearly, God is working in this service, the cause of some of my fears and anxiety have just been laid out in front of everyone, and those words hang heavily in the air. The entire weekend has been filled with emotion for me and now this. The protesters at pride were filled with venom and meeting them with love is a new experience for me. The morning service that I almost didn’t go to because I felt afraid; I found myself weeping with joy as the praise team sang. Lunch was a warm and rewarding event with newly found and trusted friends and helping to clean up and bring order to God’s house soothes me. The afternoon passes too quickly.

Then, here I find myself, in my new church hearing these words from a Pastor whom I’ve grown to admire and love. Yet, a failing on my part, not fully trusting yet, my baggage from what’s been programmed into my head, I was christened not Baptized. It isn’t the same, I know it. I know that I should have told her. Why haven’t I? Pastor has given us permission to tell her anything. Is it that once I do, then I’m all in, fully engaged, the focus of my life changed to where it should be. Why is it after all of this time it is so hard to just say yes, three letters, three easy little letters, an affirmation to God?

Still through my Pastor, God is telling me exactly what I need to do. Yet, I sit. The praise team sings. I sit still, debating, wrestling, scared; frantic on the inside but not moving forward. I hope it will pass if I stay still. Even with the vibrating in my head from the sermon, the story of the Prodigal son and his journey home. Could it be made any more crystal clear to me? All I have to do is get up and move but I won’t, I’m paralyzed by my fear and lack of trust and the recording playing in my head. I’m praying too, hoping and praying that someone else will get up and move to the front of the church and that will let me off the hook. I ask God for one more sign. Me, little small man hasn’t heard enough, seen enough of God working in my life; he still needs one more sign, one more demonstration of love and acceptance.

Then I hear it. Crystal playing the piano starts the first few notes of “This is the air I breathe.” The song that I mentioned to her at lunch, eight hours earlier, I told her, “I love that song.” I was delighted that she sang it for us, truly a gift, a message from God through Crystal. Silently I’d said to myself if she plays it again I’ll get up. I’ll move forward, I’ll say yes and let God change my life. Now she’s playing it. Now I have to let something be done for me.

I loved hearing her sing that song it when she first took over on piano at evening service and communion was being offered, and here this Sunday she’s sung it once and is about to sing it again. I know that God is telling me to move and I do, I can’t deny Him any longer. Suddenly up and moving it’s easy; and into trusted arms I go. I go into the arms of my Pastor and Kayla and I step with them at my sides, finally, into the arms and warm, tender embrace of my God. The God who loves me and who knew on this Sunday, at this time, at this moment, I would choose to say yes again but as a man.

My glasses come off, tears are falling, not sad but joyous tears, tears of relief, my pain, my anguish, my mistrust are all washed away with three handfuls of water and very powerful words of affirmation. Saying those words out loud as a man is wondrously empowering, like a weight lifted off my shoulders and an easing of my mind.

It’s all right now. I’m not a ten year old boy holding my well intentioned and loving Nana’s hand as I say to her Preacher that I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. The ten year old boy saying those words didn’t know what they meant. He didn’t understand the depth of the gift, the sacrifice that was made for him at Calvary. He didn’t comprehend the fact that if he and Jesus were the only two to walk the face of the Earth, that his God would have sent Jesus to die for his sins on the cross at Calvary so that he could be reconciled with God. He didn’t understand that more than anything God wants his people, all people to be at peace with themselves, with each other and with God, their father. The ten year old boy is gone and the forty three year old man, finally trusting says yes. He says yes to God, understanding the gift given to him so long ago, so far away by an eternal and ever present God. It is a gift of love, sacrifice, redemption and salvation.

The water just like the blood, and saying yes have washed away the painful years of running, denial and anger. He’d directed the anger at the world, those he “loved,” at himself and at God. Yet through all of it God waited, a silent witness, steadfastly standing in the corners of his mind, waiting for him to come home and say yes. God waited for this man to have the courage to say a simple three letter word, the word yes.

This forty three year old man knows on this healing Sunday, September 30, 2007, that his life is changed. His life changed for the best because it has been passed with friends at his side and behind him into the hands of a loving, generous, forgiving and eternal God. It isn’t over, but at the pause he’s tired, all of that running and anger have made him tired and the final relief of saying yes is like a warm soup made with loving hands heating up his soul.

Just a glimpse at part of my story
Michael Sullivan, REALTOR/Broker/SRES/E-Pro and
Believer