Welcome, May!

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The past few weeks have been stressful. Training new employees, dealing with difficult customers, not sleeping well, not exercising (I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last two years), getting through family drama (two life-threatening events in the same day, 2000 miles apart: my dad’s heart attack in NM and a 9 year grandchild starting the rest of his life with Type 1 Diabetes) . . .  My CrossFit lifestyle withered into oblivion when I lost my job at the University in 2020, as Covid got going. Deep depression brought me to a standstill as I took a few months to try to reset. Since then, my physical status has been on steady decline. Now my daily schedule looks something like this: Work 3-11 pm (on a good day), Go to bed at 4 am, get up between 10:30 am and noon, get booted up and go back to work. If I get one day off a week I’m fortunate. At least I don’t have to work all night for now. That was the worst.  So I haven’t had time or energy to do much, even read, much less write. And since my

One little word

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Several times in my life I've worked in the retail grocery business,and if there is one thing I hated it was inventory. You had to gothrough out the store counting and recording every single piece ofmerchandise. Talk about the most boring, humdrum, mind-numbing existenceon the face of the earth. When you got all done, you had one figure ofwhat the inventory was worth. All that work that could be reduced to asingle figure written in a very small space.

The Lord Jesus also did an inventory, but his was spiritual.After He finished, He revealed the contents of the human heart, and readwhat He found. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evilthoughts, adulteries, fornications, murder..." (Mark 7:21). It was not a pretty picture. All the parts of that heart could be reduced to asingle word--sinner! This is the load that each of us carries aroundevery day of our lives. No wonder we trip and fall into sin from time totime. No wonder we do the things we shouldn't and neglect the things weshould be doing. No wonder there was a great price to be paid for ourredemption. No wonder Paul wrote that he was "crucified with Christ"(Gal. 2:20) and "I die daily" (I Cor. 15:31).

(thanks again, Dr. Williamson, for this thought)

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