Going deeper then catchphrases

I am finding lately that I repeat myself often. Not because of memory issues but because I like to say many things over and over again. I feel kinda like the Beav or Arnold or The Fonz... maybe it has been the influence of TV in my childhood but I am enjoying my catchphrase phase of life.





My favorite is "If you can't see the Son, be the sun." This started out because I live in the grayest place on earth. The sun seems so distant here in the northwest. Whether we like it or not, the gray rainy weather affects us. So I would enjoy putting on a bright color; a sunny yellow shirt would be my way to celebrate the spring yet to come. But then I realized this applies in other ways too. In a time of the world that seems bleak and dreary or in a place it seems to be lacking hope, it's our opportunity to be like Christ, to love or shine the light Christ has planted in us. On dreary days, I am grateful for the holes that line my life...I think God put them there to let the sun out.





I also enjoy saying "Jesus is for everyone." You see Jesus is for everyone because if he is not...well he wouldn't be Jesus now, would he? I see this regularly in the special needs ministry I coordinate at church but I also see it in my everyday life. I am not worth saving and I definitely need help to hold my head up daily. Because of Christ, it gets easier and easier to do so. When I am saying Jesus is for everyone, I don't just mean all of you...I really mean me (man, that sounds selfish and if it wasn't that it's hard for me to believe some days, I would say it was). I struggle with believing in myself, forgiving myself. My friend read me a quote from CS Lewis: "If God forgives us we must forgive ourselves otherwise its like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him." There is nothing higher than God. Jesus is Jesus. He is our savior and He saved each of us in the same way: by dying on the cross and God forgave Him for our sins. I read once that being childlike in your faith is to believe in the definition of who you are in God and knowing that without Christ's love you wouldn't be able to attain the fullness of who you are. I am hoping that daily I grow younger in my faith, that I accept how God defines me and attain it daily, not by my effort, but by the grace of the Man on the cross.