Broken Legs

Sheep are interesting animals to be compared to. I love how God relates us to sheep in the Bible because it is seriously such an apt description. Some sheep have problems going where the shepherd wants them to go. They will go their own way, try to do their own thing, time and time again. The shepherd will first steer the sheep in the right direction, leaving the 99 to find the one. He will use his crook, he will use his dog to lead them toward safety. Eventually, if the sheep continues to be wayward, he will have to take extreme measures. He will actually break one of the legs of the sheep. But he doesn't just leave it. He carries it around with him for sixty days, the time it takes the sheep to heal. He carries it on his chest, next to his heart, eating, walking, shepherding, sleeping, with it on his chest. The sheep comes to know his master, feels his heart beat, feels the vibration of his voice, hears his breath, and when he is healed and put down, he never leaves his side. He doesn't want to go anywhere else; after having spent every moment for sixty days with him, no where else seems like home. This is a true story; shepherds actually do this. It spoke so much of the love of the Father to me, of His care and compassion. How what may seem like trying times in my life, a series of very hard circumstances, perhaps is the broken leg I need so I don't keep going off on my own.

"After this, many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." John 6:66-69

Jewish Holy Days

I just bought a book today called Inviting God In by Rabbi David Aaron. It is about "celebrating the soul-meaning of the Jewish Holy days". It has been on my heart recently to learn more about Judaism, as Jesus knew and celebrated it. He was Jewish, His life and identity, and I want to know everything I can about Him. So I am looking forward to reading and discovering what He, His family, His friends, His community would have done 2000 plus years ago.

Blessed is the man...

I named my blog Jeremiah 17:7-10 because that is what I want to be, what I want my life to be. In that vein, most of what follows is an almost completely honest recording of where my heart and mind were at during some instances in my life, and how the Lord has dealt so kindly and faithfully with me in spite of all my failings and turnings-away. I say ‘almost completely honest’ because some thoughts were too horrible to put down, too irrational to believe, or just too dumb to even put to words. So, it is somewhat censored. But, truly, His love is incomprehensible and amazing, and I pray that He increase my fear of Him and His Word daily, if not minutely.
Jeremiah 17:7-10
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the LORD (Yahweh).
He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does
not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand
it? “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, and give to every man
according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

I'm hoping to go out East to grad school in a few months, but it is all subject to what God wants. I set up this blog mostly because I am notoriously bad at keeping in touch with people, even people that I dearly love, so this will be a way for me to say once what I want a thousand friends to know. Since it is still more than nine months until I go, if I do, this is a bit premature, but I figure, this can be a record for me, too, of all the events and decisions that led up to my hoped-for departure.