Miscellany: A Mixture of Various Things

Blessed be the Lord,
Who daily loads us with benefits,
The God of our salvation! (Psalm 68:19 NKJV)

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens. (Psalm 68:19 NIV)

Crisis, change, all the myriad upheavals that blister the spirit and leave us groping—they aren’t voices simply of pain but also of creativity. And if we would only listen, we might hear such times beckoning to a season of waiting, to the place of fertile emptiness.

Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits


It has been quite awhile since I last posted. It was almost like I gave up blogging for Lent. I had great plans of contemplating Lent. I had hoped to observe the Holy Triduum leading up to the pinnacle of Christ's conquering death on the cross, where he overcame the grave and appears alive again! These aspirations went by the wayside as life again invaded, and I found myself alternately exulting, and then lamenting the amount of work it takes to be a full-time non-traditional student.

The reason I am back to blogging. I missed it. Writing is key to how I express myself. While classes are on, my writing is usurped by papers and essays. When classes are off, I get to take back my writing juices for creative and contemplative purposes.

I won’t make any big promises, but I hope to blog more this summer. For some reason finishing things seems to take more energy. I have one semester left to complete my degree in English. I want to embrace the opportunity to learn with joy, but let’s face it sometimes going to school is a lot of work. I can honestly say, I will be glad when this season is over. Change is on the horizon. Change can inspire joy and it also can conjure up fear.

I like what one of my new “mentors” says about fear. I met her in a bookstore through her books. Not in person, but in her book. Her name is SARK. She inspires me because in her writing, she really doesn’t seem to care what others think of her, and she makes me laugh. This is what she said about fear:

“Invite your fears in, then tell them to sit down and shut up.”

See what I mean. She makes me laugh.

However, the burden of living can be very serious at times. That is why we need God, and why we need “mentors” who speak to us through their voices, their writings and their very lives.

I hope this blog will become a place where you find out that you are not alone in your current crisis. That God wants to daily load you with benefits. . . namely the benefit of having our burdens eased through His love and the people he puts into our lives.

Here is a list of miscellany God-benefits:

Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits —
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. (Psalm 103:2-5 NIV)