Advent day 11...three things...

greetings!!!

number 1...i got a text from one of my most brilliant and creative friends today...

i love him...all of him, but especially his mind...

what a blessing he is...

i will quote his brilliance...

"i thought a lot about the hard heart and the ideas of watering the soil...

the image of a water balloon expanding as it fills up, from a hard raisin heart to a juicy grape heart...

i am praying for that kind of refreshing expansion to the hard areas of my heart..."

i join him in this prayer...

what an image!!!

wish my old brain worked like this!!!

i am so proud of you JS...

i am thankful god has allowed me to sow seed into your life...

so glad we are sharing the journey together...

number two...i have been thinking of valuing the simple...

over the complex...

over the crowded...

over the competitive...

soren kierkegaard once said that "purity of heart is to will one thing..."

ben haden said "the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing..."

the main thing is jesus...

loving him...

receiving his love...

loving others who love him...

and loving those who are yet to love him...

the main thing is NOT...

religious skubala...

prominence, prestige and popularity...

gorging the false self...

glittering toys and stuff...

pleasure as our god...lust as our idol...

the weapon we need is simplicity...

not the easiest option in today's cultural press...

we will have to be a riptide...

going against the flow of our prevailing culture...

number three...i love my patient mr w...

i have been given the privilege to serve him in jesus name for over 2 years...

blessed to meet his most basic needs...

food...

clothes...

blankets...

tv...

companionship...

a couple of weeks ago, i saw his right foot for the first time in two years...

gross out...

his sock had not been off for well over two years...

we have no clue when he had his last bath...

not lately...for sure...

when i came by a couple of fridays back, he was pulling dead skin off his foot -- there was a whole big pile of yucky skin stacked on his floor...

i was worried...his foot looked hideous...

i contacted the nurse...

she went by, with a tech, to check out his right foot -- and maybe even his left one...

they had to cut the sock off his left foot...

a layer or two of skin came off with the socks as they peeled them off...

his feet were cracked and infected...

he needed antibiotics...

he needed care...TLC...he needed cleansing...

he needs ongoing soaks for a couple of weeks [which he will get]...

he needed new socks [which he already has]...

he needs LOVE...

i am so happy for the way my hospice team lavished love on mr w...

BUT, my hope is still very future-oriented...

mr w is a child of abba -- he is royalty...

he doesn't look it...

or smell it...

his hideous flat in the hood does not look it...

BUT, the kingdom will come for mr w...

he is one of the least of these that jesus will present with honor to abba...

one day, he will live like the royal heir that he truly is...

and, so will we...

i can't wait!!!

it really is pretty "simple", isn't it???

later...

guy