Inspiration

In the past few days I have experienced several inspiring events and I just want to mention a few.

Easter evening we had a very different worship service at 5 PM> We had four people do first person narratives of that passion of Jesus - Deric was simon of cyrene, Melissa - the cross maker, Rich - a centurian and Kerry was Mary Magdelene in the garden with Jesus. Each person did something that really surprised me and touched my spirit. It amazed me that there was such a freshness to the whole thing.

Today I went to "Stephanie's Champions", a luncheon which was started by Stephanie Spielman to honor the champions - the support people for those who have cancer. Her husband Chris was the first honoree. Now in its thirteenth yeat - and 2 years after Stephanie passed away- this luncheon continues as an important fundraiser for cancer research. This was my third time attending this event and the first time was with Lisa Baluk as her mother Trixie was a champion. Now Lisa has passed away and we continue to go in her memory. I sat and heard stories of selfless giving by loved ones for cancer victims and it touched me in so many ways. Life is so unfair as you learn about young people (like Lisa) who have cancer and there is no making sense of it. And yet seeing these stories of love and faithfulness were just inspiring for me.

Finally tonight I led our Wednesday night Bible study - for the first time in 7 weeks. We had taken a break to do our "Listening to the Spirit" study. It was so good to be back - especially to have Bill and Darlene Brown with us again. They returned from wintering in Arizona. During the time that they were gone, Darlene had a slight stroke. She seems to be herself and it was just a great blessing to be together. We read some wonderful texts from the Bible and talked so much about our own stories of experiencing God in our lives. Surely the spirit of the Lord was in that place tonight.

And so, I need to go to bed, but I want to remember and record these moments that come and go and remind me of the goodness of humanity and the blessing of a life of faith.