More Than Today

I have always looked for something more in life. I learned about Jesus as a child and gave my life to God after many attempts to do so. In younger years, I thought I was pretty good and thought I would have been even if I didn’t believe in God. Then I strayed from God’s best and realized that God was the only one who would love me no matter what. I would never be good enough on my own. God still reminds me of that when I look for something more. I have discovered that God is more than enough.

It's only a few days until the Five Year anniversary of September 11. What a day that was for the United States. Two planes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and one into a field in Pennsylvania. That day I dropped off my youngest daughter at her school and then drove to work at Radio Shack to open up and then do my job, be a salesman. But the news came in about the planes hitting the World Trade Center and the day changed. People started coming in to buy TVs for their offices so they could still be at work and yet watch what was going on. I sold a bunch of TVs and antennaes...and felt bad doing it. I felt like we were profiting on the bad news. Then I just remembered that we didn't raise our prices, we just sold what people came in for. Throughout the day people came in from the other stores in the shopping center when they were on break to watch the TV. People in shock, strangers standing around talking to each other,

In a book that I read earlier this year called "Unforgotten" by Kristen Heitzmann, there are a couple of thought-provoking quotes. "What is shadow but darkness longing for light. What is fear but courage looking for hope." "There is bliss in not knowing what can happen next, not seeing a trial until it's there. Then there is no chance to run."

This coming weekend, June 10/11, the theme for worship at Friendship Community is "It Came From Within: Anger." A video clip in "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" has the Emperor taunting Luke to give in to his anger and turn closer to the dark side, which he does. (The clip starts at 1:44:22 with "Your fleet is lost..." and ends at 1:45:20 with "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!") How many times are we egged on to get angry. That's how we feel anyway. But the truth is that anger comes from within us and we can choose how to deal with it. The best antidote for anger is forgiveness, forgiving others for what they have done to us. That's hard, real hard. Can we do it? It's very difficult to do unless we remember how much God has forgiven us.

I have been looking for video and picture ideas for this weekend's theme of "Why does God allow suffering?". I got out our video of "Love Comes Softly" and found a good clip from it that deals with people having trouble and yet still having faith in God. It is a good series of movies, probably wouldn't have known about it without having daughters who read those kinds of books and then found the movies. I have learned so much from them, they expose me to all kinds of things that I might have missed otherwise. There's a great quote from the "Love Comes Softly" clip I hope to use: "In all the moments of my life, God's been right there beside me. The truth of God's love is not that He allows bad things to happen, it's His promise that He'll be there with us when they do." There's also a neat quote from "Shadowlands," a love story between a man named C. S. Lewis (who wrote, among other books, the Chronicles of