Intentional Encouragement

     I wrote this post a couple of years ago, but since this is the weekend that we celebrate the resurrection for 2014, I have spent a little time meditating on the importance of that fact.  I hope it's a blessing to you and an aid in letting Resurrection Sunday be powerful for you this year.           It all seemed so small; a brown outline with little dots of blue and one larger empty brown area.   What am I talking about?   Why, the Grand Canyon , or course.   For many of you who have flown over it at 30,000 feet as you crossed the US for some reason, you may remember the first time the pilot said “now out on the left side of the plane, you will notice the Grand Canyon …”   Somehow, since you were so far removed from it; it didn’t seem so grand.      There are a lot of times in life when this is true.   Even the events that are important to us see...

            It all seemed so small; a brown outline with little dots of blue and one larger empty brown area.   What am I talking about?   Why, the Grand Canyon , or course.   For many of you who have flown over it at 30,000 feet as you traversed the US for some reason, you may remember the first time the pilot said “now out on the left side of the plane, you will notice the Grand Canyon …”   Somehow, since you were so far removed from it; it didn’t seem so grand.             There are a lot of times in life when this is true.   Even the events that are important to us seem to be reduced in magnitude as time moves us further and further away from them.   That time I got knocked down and took a licking from a bully in 3 rd grade…the first girl I liked, but wasn’t sure she liked me…those stitches that came from jumping on hay bales on the back o...

     I want to challenge your Biblical memory about the story of Easter as it is found in the Bible.      We have all seen movies about people who find some means of going back in time to change something about the future.   The basic story line is always that if you change any one thing in the past, it inevitably changes the future.      Try on these “what-ifs” with the story of the Passion of Jesus and see what you think would change: What if Jesus had not ridden into Jerusalem (Matthew 21) but had stayed in Bethpage and Bethany ? What if Jesus had accepted the applause of the people on Palm Sunday and had taken over as the long awaited King? What if Jesus had not gone to Gethsemane (Matthew 26)?   He could have gone somewhere else.   Then that legion of soldiers would have had the wrong address and Judas would have looked like a fool. What if Jes...