JanBeek

How Ya Doin’?

Be authentic. 

That was one of the comments Bob Goff made this morning as I listened to him. It was my Bayside Devotional for today – and he was the guest speaker. I love Bob Goff. Do you know him? He wrote “Love Does,” one of the most inspirational books I’ve ever read. Google him! 

In his morning message he concluded, “People who know how they’re doin’ seem to have the ability to give away more hope.” That resonated with me. And he emphasized the importance of our interdependence when he said, “I won’t know how I’m doing until I know how you’re doing.” He was referring to his daughter, his wife, all the people he cares about who are on his daily prayer list. 

I have a hundred people on my prayer list. Really! I put their faces before me and bring each one to God each morning. He knows how they’re doin’! God sees each one and cares for them. But, like Bob Goff, sometimes I gotta know, too. Really know. I whip off a text or an e-mail, make a phone call, write a card, or do a quick “What’sApp” connection. I gotta know. How ya doin’? I won’t know how I’m doin’ til I know how you’re doin’! Be authentic. 

“I’m fine” ain’t an okay response – unless you are! Get real. I really care.  I do!

Camouflaged

Look very closely – 

Slow down so you can see

Camouflaged around you

Nature’s treats for you and me. 

How often in our hustle

Do we pass by unaware

There are sights of untold beauty

Astonishingly visible out there?

Acts of Courage

Standing up and surviving when others around you cave in and die (if not physically, then spiritually it seems) takes courage. What is courage? This quote is attributed to John F Kennedy:

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

It not only tells us what courage involves, but what its results can be, too. I want to be part of that ripple of hope – the daffodil with the will to survive when all around me are shriveling up. Stand up! Speak out!

Instead of building walls of exclusion, let’s erect gates for inclusion. Instead of mass deportation, let’s reinstate “Give me your tired, your poor, your hungry masses yearning to be free.” Instead of bemoaning our ills and sending up rockets of fear and hopelessness, let’s join together with energy to create the Justice and Hope we all long for. 

Are you with me?

Snow in May

All my sisters have withered

In the snows of Montana’s May,

But I’m a winter hold out –

Here to brighten your life today.

Mother’s Day – Hope

Happy 22nd Birthday, Hope,

Granddaughter full of joy.

Thanks for sharing your special day

With Grammy & Grampy.

It was a special day for us, too –

Mother’s Day always is.

Someday when you’re a mother,

You’ll understand what

Sharing this day really means!

National Day of Prayer

May your National Day of Prayer

be a day when your heart strings

are connected to God’s heartstrings

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And may your prayers be answered

with all the love God, in grace and mercy, can muster.

Amen!