Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

      I had planned to write about something different in this post. I almost always have a few different ideas for posts that I draw from each month unless there's something more pressing to discuss. Well, this month, there was something more pressing.     On the morning of February 19, I called my care receiver for our biweekly check-in. She didn't answer, so I left her a message on her voice mail and sent her a text. I was a bit worried, especially since I hadn't been able to talk to her on the 5th either, but I knew that sometimes she had issues with her phone, so I thought that maybe that was happening again. Unfortunately, that wasn't the problem this time. About an hour later, I got a text from her number saying it was her sister and asking me how I knew her. Before I could respond, the sister called to inform me that she had died a week earlier.       I am thankful that though she is gone now, I was able to give her a sense of peace t...

"For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence ...You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness , or the destruction that wastes at noonday." ~ Psalm 91:3, 5-6, emphasis mine I'm guessing that you already know about the global pandemic of Coronavirus. You are probably suffering some of the effects, not from the virus itself, but from the panic and social distancing its path through our world has caused. Just this past weekend, the cast party for  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , the monthly Kansas Authors' Club meeting, and all services at my church were canceled. Not only that, but I found out yesterday that everything at church is canceled until April 1. I was able to go to Zumba Sunday after being gone for a month and a half while rehearsing for and performing Joseph , but before the day was over, the local YMCAs closed for the next week at l...

If you read my post, " Road Trip Reflections " you know that I listened to some older albums on my road trip to St. Louis. One thing I meant to put in that post, but forgot to, is how listening to those songs brought back memories of when they first came out. I considered going back and adding that point, but I decided not to because those songs aren't the only ones that are reminders of my past, either because of what was happening in my life when I first heard the song, a past event that I was reminded of the first time I heard the song, or what happened after I knew the song well that drove me to the comfort the song provided. Most of the time, the memories are positive, but there are a few that bring back bad memories. Here are some of the songs that take me back, starting with some I listened to on my trip. Steven Curtis Chapman-" Fingerprints of God " This song originally came out in 1999, but when it really started speaking to me was two years later. ...

(I was inspired to write this because of the song " Dear Younger Me " by MercyMe) Dear 16-year-old Amy, I'm not going to ask you how you're doing because I already know. More than that, I know you wouldn't tell me the truth even if I did ask. You hate how you feel, and you don't want anyone to know the truth, but I know. I know what you're thinking, I know what you're planning, and I want you to stop. You do still belong here. So, based on a current popular series and how many years it's been since I was you, here are 13 reasons why you need to combat the lie that your life is no longer worth living. This pain won't last forever:  I know that right now, it feels like you will never be happy again, but you will be. The pain you're feeling right now is temporary, but the solution you're considering is permanent. You are awesome:  I know you're not feeling this way now, but it's true. Behind the glasses and the frizzy hair ...

"I'll celebrate the truth, His work in me ain't through, I'm just unfinished."-Mandisa, " Unfinished " Last month, I heard about the death of Amy Bleuel, founder of Project Semicolon, and I was shocked to hear that someone who was an advocate against suicide would take her own life. There were a lot of people who found hope from her story, and I wondered how many more deaths would happen  because they lost this hope, and I thought it was horrible that she had done this to them. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I shouldn't be condemning her. I can attest to the fact that even though I have defeated the temptation to commit suicide, Satan won't give up very easily, and keeps trying to lure me back to the place where I was 13 years ago. Life doesn't magically get easier just because a person shares their struggles. In fact, it can actually get harder because sharing our struggles, and especially how God get...

Those who have read my post "I'm a What, Now?"  will know my frustration with how society defines the term "suicide survivor." Recently I heard about a change in terminology that is just as frightening: those who died from suicide are now said to have "completed suicide" rather than having "committed suicide." The reason is that "committed suicide" makes it sound like the person was a criminal, and they don't want to speak ill of the dead. However, suicide is a crime. It's a crime a person commits against themself and against God. As was pointed out in a response to the post where I initially heard about this new term, if suicide was not a crime, the police would not be able to respond if a person is threatening to kill themself. In addition, if they had used that same deadly force on someone else, we wouldn't hesitate to say they committed murder. Why should it be any different because it was themself they killed? In ...

"Judas would have become one of the most powerful witnesses for Christ, had he only waited three days." ~ Adam Hamilton, 24 Hours that Changed the World I have read Dante's Inferno  twice for a class, once in my senior year of high school, and then again in my freshman year of college. In both settings, there was a debate among some members of the class about whether Judas should be in Hell, and if so, should he be in quite the intense spot he was placed in within Hell. After all, His betrayal was necessary for God's plan to redeem humanity, and according to Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was destined to be lost. Why then, would Dante choose to place him in such a spot of torture in writing his epic poem? I don't pretend to know where Judas's final destination is, and won't ever know it this side of Heaven. There is however, one factor that could justify the theory that it's a different place than the rest of the disciples: of th...

(My post Life>Death  chronicles my struggle with suicidal depression. This story is based on the vision God used to save my life.) It all started after the knife sliced through my wrist. As I watched my life drain away, I felt a sense of peace. I knew my pain was finally over. Soft arms lifted me up and carried me off to Heaven. There I watched as my parents found my body. They started to cry, which I had expected. What I hadn't expected was what they were saying. "What did we do wrong?" they cried out. "Nothing!" I screamed. "You did nothing wrong!" But they couldn't hear me. What had I done? As my friends and other family members found out about my death, they said the same thing, and I continued screaming that it wasn't their fault. Their reactions caused me to be in agony, which struck me as strange. If indeed I was in Heaven, wasn't I supposed to be pain free? That is what I had always been taught. Then came my funeral. It...

"But you, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world"~1 John 4:4 Those of you who read my post " Life>Death " will remember that I talked about a young woman who called herself a suicide survivor because her father took his own life, and then used her status as an endorsement to talk about how suicide was not a selfish act. In my post, I stated that since she did not actually survive suicide, she was not a suicide survivor. However, I found out recently that family and friends of suicide victims being called "suicide survivors" is a thing. As in a psychologist-defined, support group namesake thing. As someone who has actually survived the temptation to commit suicide, this fact is quite frustrating. One reason is because of people like the young lady mentioned in my other post thinking they are experts in suicide because they are "suicide survivors." I don...

On August 11, America was shocked by the news that Robin Williams had died in an apparent suicide. Since then, numerous articles and blog posts have been written about the subject. Some say that suicide is a choice, others argue that Robin Williams died of a disease and it was no fault of his own. Some say suicide is selfish, others say it is not. From what I've seen, all of these articles and blog posts lack a crucial background point: none of them were written by someone who had actually survived the temptation to commit suicide. One article was written by someone who called herself a "suicide survivor," but really had no expertise in the matter other than the fact that her father had killed himself. Her claim that she is a "suicide survivor" is as ridiculous as me claiming that I am a lung cancer survivor because my grandfather died of lung cancer, and basing her article off of that flawed premise negates her argument. So how do I propose we fix this problem?...