with a deep sigh

** We interrupt your regularly scheduled happy-child-post to bring you this strange and depressing post. Your regularly scheduled blog will resume at a later date. **

I usually enjoy turning on the computer and seeing all the things I have missed while I slept during the night. What did my friends blog about? what encouragement might have come from across the ocean? what interesting news event might have occurred?

But you know, it seems that lately, turning on the computer just leaves me with a heavy heart.

I'm not a politician, nor do I care to be one. I am certainly not an analyzer of current events. I leave that to my capable husband and my capable friends paul and john.

but truly! Who can stand watching one more christian leader fall? Who can continue working through the emotional turmoil of deceit and betrayal? How many times must we grapple with issues of the faith that result from these situations? But I guess one question that surfaces in these situations that I cannot get out of my mind: where is the accountability?

Have we truly strayed SO far from being the body that we insulate ourselves from relationships in which we are genuine? Are we so afraid that our sin will turn others off, are we so paranoid that others will think less of us that we refuse to present anything less than a perfect front? Or is it that our platform of pride is so tall and towers so high above the rest that we think we are immune from a catastrophic fall?

What of those who placed so much trust in these men? What of their families? and their children? and the legacy of the gospel in their lives? and the call to holiness? and what of the fallen world that watches it all happen...?

Will people like my papa - who died at after an abundant 78 years on this earth being wholly faithful to one wife - be in the minority?

Yes, I take heed, lest I myself fall. If the people we have all seen fall are not immune, then certainly we ourselves are not.

My friends, I tell you honestly: we pray for you. We pray for your marraiges. We pray that your hearts would be soft to the sweet promptings of the Holy Spirit, nudging you to be more and more in His image.

And let this community of believers determine that in this year that has brought so much personal heartbreak and frustration of spirit to so many of us, we will lay down a milestone in the spiritual realm - we shall put on His armor, standing firm until the day of Christ Jesus, and take back the task of pursuing his holiness.


Whew. Now that that is off my chest, I'll post something a bit lighter next time.