the Mighty One and

Ps73 contains some breathtaking lines of worship. v25-28 especially:

"Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works."

God is called the "strength of my heart." In a world of Hummers and steroids and UFC matches, in a society that values power above all else, God is the strength of my heart. The power He has is the power to love and to encourage and to provide hope and to provide meaning and to still a man in his tracks to still him with an overwhelming sense of smallness compared to the bigness that is eternity.

There is strength, and then there is strength.

why are you sleeping

Distracted all day today by another fallen asleep. Mused all day on 2Cor1:3-5. The Lord is blessed for being a God of all comfort, and then Paul points out that the reason He comforts us is so that we can comfort others. Eternal sleep sans the context of eternity makes no sense, and being a light in that darkness is certainly worth having endured prior darkness. Heard that death comes in triplicate, but this is beyond that number by some amount. Holding fast to later in 2Cor1 where God who raises the dead is "He on whom we have set our hope."

quiet, but he shouted

Inertia is a funny thing. When headed down a path away from discipline, it is extremely easy to slip into a defined road that never returns to that careful structure of the will you had taken such great pains to erect. Although I suppose inertia involves action by definition and long periods of inaction don't qualify as inertia so much as falling back into your original state of disorder. The opposite seems to be happening with thoughts. Thoughts, at least my own, already move around in chaos. Instead, they've been tending to buck the laws of science and move to ordered silence. Trying to reconstruct the structured will. You'll know whether or not I'm successful by the radio silence.

belong to your father

"How to be a Dad Your Kids Will Love"
* Accept their uniqueness
- Must accept before can help
- Prov22:6 one of most misquoted/misused v's in Word
- Not a promise; principle
- "Way he should go" refers to child's way not Lord's
- Way appropos stage of life
- According to their unique strengths
- No comparison {Gal6:4}
* Affirm their value {Ps139:13-14}
- Pay attention
- Show affection
* Correct w/o condemning {Eph6:4}
- Prov13:24, Prov19:18
- Never in anger
- Watch words
* Love unconditionally
* Focus on being a Godly person
- Give life to Christ
- Ask children for forgiveness as necessary
- Be in fellowship w/ other believers

but went away from there

Been a surreal few weeks. Going to be a few more surreal days before all is said and done, I am sure. Will update in a few.