Refreshing Our Spirits With Scripture

"Redefinition is a nightmare--we think we've arrived, in our nice Pottery Barn boxes, and that this or that is true.  Then something happens that totally sucks, and we are in a new box, and it is like changing into clothes that don't fit, that we hate. Yet the essence remains.  Essence is malleable, fluid. ...one more thing that you don't have to grab with your death grip, and protect from theft or decay.  It's gone. We can mourn it, but we don't have to get down in the grave with it." Anne Lamott, Small Victories

Yesterday, I started the day thinking everything was going okay with everyone.  During the day I had an old friend I reconnected with who had lost his wife to cancer.  Next I conversed with a business owner who said her life had been extremely hard and the business she started almost folded.  Later, salesman I spoke to told me that he had a nice house in a rich section of North Richland Hills and worked internationally. His wife, who was taking care of her mother, had a stroke and lost many of her abilities and much kidney function.  He told me that when these things happen you "live in the moment".  I had just finished reading a line in Anne Lamott's new book, Small Victories,  which I shared with him. "When you are on the knife's edge--when nobody knows exactly what will happen next, only that it will be worse--you take in today."  She quotes Wendell Berry​ "it may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and ...

Mark 3. 20  Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered,  so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.   21  When his family [ b ]  heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” 22  And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem  said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul!  By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

Mark 3. 14  He appointed twelve [ a ]  that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach   15  and to have authority to drive out demons.   16  These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter),   17  James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”),   18  Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot   19  and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Mark 3. 13  Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.   14  He appointed twelve [ a ]  that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach  

Mark. 2. 14  As He passed by, He saw [ g ] Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting in the tax booth, and He *said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him. 15  And it * [ h ] happened that He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and [ i ] sinners [ j ] were dining with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many of them, and they were following Him. 16  When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and [ k ] sinners?” 17  And hearing this , Jesus *said to them, “ It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Mark 2. 4  Being unable to [ a ] get to Him because of the crowd, they removed the roof [ b ] above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. 5  And Jesus seeing their faith *said to the paralytic, “ [ c ] Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Mark 1. 40  And a leper *came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” 41  Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and *said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” 42  Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

Mark 1. 35  In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house , and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.