Your Power Bird

My power bird? Good grief! Oh well ... why not ...

http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyourpowerbirdquiz/

Your Power Bird is a Vulture

You are always changing your life and the lives of those around you.
You aren't afraid to move on from what holds you back.
Energetic and powerful, you have a nearly unlimited capacity for success.
You know how to "go with the flow" and take advantage of what is given to you.

Beloved

Romans 1:7: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

What a great word: "Beloved." I just had to look it up ...

Beloved

As an adjective: dearly loved, admired, cared for, cherished, darling, dear, dearest, doted on, endeared, esteemed, favorite, hallowed, highly regarded, highly valued, loved, pet, pleasing, popular, precious, prized, respected, revered, sweet, treasured, venerated, well-liked, worshiped ...

As a noun: angel, apple of my eye, darling, dearest, favorite, honey, light of one's life, loved one, object of one's affections, pet, sweetheart, the pet, treasure ...

Supposedly ... I am beloved by Him … by God … the Great I Am, Mighty Warrior, Wonderful, Counselor, and so on. Somehow that doesn’t sink in. Me, beloved? I say it to myself every once in a while "You are My beloved." Feels foreign and weird. Put my name in front of it and it is even more uncomfortable Tim, YOU are MY beloved. Wow. Not sure how to handle that. When I think about what I consider beloved, my children, my wife ... I can’t even express the depth of my love for them. Yes, I care about a ton of people, but "immeasurable" love pretty much only goes to those I mentioned. What it gets down to ...

If God knows me as well as He says He does, how can I possibly be His beloved? He knows what I was thinking about at work this afternoon. E-Gads! He was there when I told that joke, when I lost my temper ... when I lied ... I have done the unthinkable (or at least thunk about doing it!). I just can’t grasp that I am His beloved. I can’t believe it. I wonder what would happen to my life, my heart, my family if I really got hold of that. I mean permanently and securely ... not just a glimpse every now and then.

Anyone else feel that way? Anyone believe it?

Thoughts on a Tuesday morning ....

Reflections on St.Paul

Been going through Pauls letters of late … We owe to St Paul some of the most beautiful and profound reflections on the mystery of how God acted in Jesus and the meaning of that action for humanity.And who can skip over that 1 Corinthians 13 thing ….

And there are just those times when I intensely dislike the Apostle Paul — his wordiness, his tendency toward braggadocio, his schoolmaster scolding tone. There are times I think, if I met this guy at a church conference, I would do whatever it took to get away from him! He was intense to the point of creepiness; a little whoo-hoo for me , for a lack of a better word. I’m disappointed at times by what I read as his concessions to the mores of the dominant culture that seem to go against his own vision of the Reign of God.

On the other hand … Sometimes I admire Paul. I think he was probably much more socially radical than what he gets credit for. I admire his grasp on the concept of God’s grace, and his chutzpah in arguing for full inclusion of Gentile Christians in the Jewish/Christian community. I admire his relationships with female leaders in the Christian community; very revolutionary stuff for a former Pharisee. I admire his rhetorical skill … And sometimes, when I think about the things that annoy me about Paul, it occurs to me that many of them are probably the same things that annoy me about…me. Oh my … Just some thoughts …