The Plumbline

10  The Lord loves those who hate evil; he protects the lives of his people and rescues them from the wicked.  11  Light is sown for the godly and joy for the good.  12  May all who are godly be happy in the Lord and crown him, our holy God. (Psalm 97:10-12 TLB) How do we actually "crown him" Lord of our lives? I think it is in the small ways, like when we choose to be kind when a hurtful word would be easier or quicker to say. It might be in the moments when we give of ourselves unselfishly to help another who is struggling to figure something out. It could be in those moments you offer yourself for 'whatever needs to be done', knowing someone is having a hard time keeping up with the tasks at hand. It is definitely in those moments when we actively choose to worship him, but it is also in those small things that might not seem to matter all that much, but that make all the difference in the lives of another. Someone once said you can get happy in the same pants

As I photograph things, I don't look for the "perfect", but am willing to accept the "imperfect", for there is something of great beauty in the tree set askew by the wind, the broken branch protruding from the gentle waters, or the windblown dunes of the ever-changing landscape.  Some of us think of "being perfect" as what we are attempting to attain - as though it is a destination at which we arrive at some point in time because of some effort we take in life.  The truth is - we will live in imperfect bodies, in an imperfect world, with other imperfect people all our lives!  The pursuit of perfection is kind of over-rated!  What we fail to see is how God sees each of us - as made perfect through the blood of his Son! God looked at the "imperfect" in each of us and saw something of beauty he just didn't want to discount, or turn away from.  Just as I capture those photos of the broken, ever-changing, and kind of askew in nature, God reac

There are definitely times when the struggle to just continue on mount and mount.  The pressures seem to be unnecessarily complicated and kind of like weights around our necks.  When it comes to standing up for Christ, we often just don't have the stamina to face it because all the other stuff just gets us so overloaded, we think one more thing will be our undoing.  Paul was an apostle in the New Testament church, founding new churches in the first century just after Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.  His mission was to be "on-duty" for Christ 24/7.  He was a tent maker, but he didn't fall back on this trade unless a church he was working in could not help to support him while he was there getting them established.  I can only imagine he faced many a day himself when the mounting pressures of balancing work life, church planting, making disciples of new converts, and the like were just about to overwhelm him.  He has an interesting attitude though - he ca