Can I offer you some hope?

What do you do when someone you love is broken? Emotionally, spiritually and physically broken. I have a dear friend who is dealing with this situation right now. Someone who is precious to her is broken. And she can't fix them. What do you do? Bring them dinner? OK, that's pretty much what I do, but really, don't you feel like a dork doing that? "Hey, I know your whole world just collapsed and you don't know how to take your next breath, so I made you this casserole." Ugh! So frustrating, because what you really want to do is show up and save the day...you want to make all the bad stop, heal the hurt, go back in time and rearrange things. You want to whip out the miracle they need to get back to "normal." You want to truly deliver peace and love and healing. But all you can do is take one less burden off their shoulders. (They gotta eat, right?) All you can do is sit with them. And hold their hand. Cry. Pray. Be frustrated. Offer hope. That's a good one...How do you "offer hope?" What does that even mean? Say something to make them feel better? They're not going to feel better! If you're anything like me, you're more likely to say something incredibly stupid then comforting, and then they'll feel worse. And then you apologize and they end up comforting you, "It's OK. Thank you for your concern...." or whatever. So how do we help people? Let's face it, we're not Jesus. Yes, we are supposed to love people like he did and treat them like he did, but part of his treatment involved healing. He HEALED the blind man. And the lepers. He cast out demons. He rose Lazarus from the dead. FROM. THE. DEAD. He NEVER made a casserole!!! I don't think he ever showed up and said, " Sorry about your eyes. I'll pray for you." and then left. He fixed broken people. But we can't do that. We don't have a miracle just burning a hole in our pocket. So, we bake casseroles. And we send cards and flowers. We text messages. "This too, shall pass." Slowly, maybe. Probably painfully. But it will pass. Is that where hope comes in? Knowing that tomorrow, things will be different. The possibility that maybe tomorrow, things will be better. Maybe not, but at the very least, they will be different. We sit in hospital waiting rooms. We hug and hold hands. We make phone calls. We are with them. Is THAT where the hope is? Knowing you are not alone? That whatever hellish road you're on, at least someone is there to walk it with you? I don't know about you, but that would make me feel better! Anyway, I love my friend, and I hope she is ok. I hope her loved one will recover. And I hope she holds on to hope, and that she knows I am with her.

Wait. Where am I??

So here is the embarrassing truth. I haven't blogged in so long that I forgot how to it all works. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. That's why I've only posted one entry, and I tried to put a link in that one and messed up. I've tried to update my Twitter account (which I had forgotten I had) link. No luck. It took me FOREVER to update my side column thingies, and yes that is what they are called. And worst of all, I'm strugglin' with posting a video, and it's Tom Petty Tuesday for crying out loud! Plus, Blogger.com has made a few changes since I was last here, so that's a bit disorientating. Very much like when I went to the gym on Friday and found they had put in a new front desk area. I stopped in mid-stride and looked around, not really sure of what had happened or where I was. The guy behind the desk laughed at me and said, "Been awhile?". awesome. I say all that to say this: Bear with me. I'll get it, eventually.

"What if..."

" What if we have developed a religion that makes reverent and honoring statements about Jesus but doesn't teach what Jesus taught in the manner he taught it? What if the religion generally associated with Jesus neither expects nor trains it's adherents to actually live in the way of Jesus?...What if the message of Jesus was good news...not just for Christians, but also for Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, new agers, agnostics and atheists? And what if the message of Jesus also contained warnings...for Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, new agers, agnostics, atheists... and Christians? Would we want to know what that message is? How much? Would we be willing to look hard, think deeply and search long in order to find it? Would we be willing to rethink our assumptions?" ~ The Secret Message of Jesus, by Brian D. McLaren.

Back again

It has been 22 months since my last blog entry.

What. A. Slacker.

In my defense, I have been a little busy. And I have been posting on FB.

AND, most importantly, I have kept up with Tom Petty Tuesday.

Well, there is no way I can fill you in on all the crazy happenings over the last year in one post. It has been a beautiful, wondrous, heartbreaking, painful, exciting and tedious year and a half. I visited with family alot. We moved to a new home, hosted our first Thanksgiving, went to too many funerals, and celebrated many wonderful birthdays. I ran my first 5K and the following year, shaved 5 minutes off my time. I gained weight. I lost some people I loved. I've made new friends and connected with old friends. I've read ALOT of good books, and seen a few good movies. I gave up sugar. It has been action packed 9 days out of 10, and I just didn't find the time to write. But I intend do that now. Find the time. Make the time. Because I do enjoy writing.

I was going to interview my daughter Abby for today's blog post, but she answered every question with "I'm not telling you." Makes for a pretty lame interview. Her older sister was not interested either. So for today, I will leave you with a repost from several years ago.

And welcome back :-)

http://www.rhondajeanne.blogspot.com/2009/05/questions-questions.html