rambling rosemarie

I miss the flying dreams of my youth. When I was young I had great flying dreams. If I could climb on something a few feet off the ground, I could push off it, stretch my arms out and be soaring. If I saw something interesting, I had to evaluate if there was something I could use to take off from again before setting down to have a look. It was exhilarating! When I went to bed I always hoped I would have a flying dream. As I got older the flying dreams became more difficult. I had to be able to jump up high enough to pull myself into a cannonball shape, arms tucked tightly around my knees. If I could do that before I began to fall, I would be encased in a clear bubble and I could stay aloft. I would be able to hover in that protection until it dissolved and then gravity would take over. I would fall to the ground softly most of the time. Sometimes I would crash land, falling into places that were scary and always far from home. I don't have flying dreams any more. Why is th...

Ever notice that things tend to go wrong at the worst possible time? My dog never gets sick when I have a few extra bucks in my pocket that aren't spoken for. He gets sick when my check engine light is on, my semi-annual payment for car insurance is due, the bills for the endoscopy I had at the hospital are coming in and my kidlet is unemployed and could use some help with groceries for my ridiculously cute grandson. My take on that phenomenon? Sometimes the worst possible time is ultimately the best timing. I have mentioned before that I love earthquakes. I love severe weather. I like it when lightning strikes so close by it makes the hair on my head and arms raise slightly. I love it when the rumble of the earth moving wakes me up in the middle of the night. I like to see the rain come down in sheets. I don't like it that people get hurt or lose their property. I am not sadistic. Having lost all I own in a flood I know the feelings of emotional bankruptcy that come with th...

I have had a series of topics I have thought about blogging. I haven't had the energy to sit down and write them. It really has been all I can do to sit and relay stories. That has actually been helpful to me, even if I am the only one who reads them. Writing stories about my life is cathartic. Cathartic catharsis. I wonder why writing is such a pressure release valve? You would think it would have something to do with connecting to the reader and yet blogging is for the most part an impersonal action for me. I have a few people who read what I write, but most folks stumble across my page in search of something else. According to my statistics it takes them less than a minute to discover I am not what they were looking for. I envy their discernment. I often thought I wanted to be a writer. I have had people tell me I should sit down and write a book. I don't know what I would write about if I did. There are so many things to read on the net, so many books available here tha...

As so many celebrate His resurrection, I thought I would list what I learned in my reading of Colossians. It seemed fitting. He is the visible image of God ( Col 1:15 ) He is agent of creation ( Col 1:16 ) He is the Sustainer (Col 1:17 ) He is the Head of the Church ( Col 1:18 ) He pleases the Father ( Col 1:19-20 ) He reconciles us through His death ( Col 1:21-22 ) He lives in us as our glory of hope ( Col 1:27 ) He is the source of all treasures ( Col 2:2-3 ) The world and its philosophies will not conform to Him so we should guard against them ( Col 2:8 ) We are alive in Him ( Col 2:11-13 ) We are saved from legalism and ritualism by Him (Col 2:16-23 ) He is our life ( Col 3:3 ) Because of Him, we can avoid immorality and serve Him as by being blessings to others. ( Col 3:5-14 ) We have the responsibility to know Him through the Scriptures and to counsel one another with the Word, demonstrate our gratitude to him by doing all things as in His name ( Col 3:16-17 )

Ever notice how painfully time moves when you're waiting to hear how someone is doing? Each second feels like coarse-grained sandpaper moving slowly on sunburned skin. It is agonizing. Yesterday my sister had bilateral lumpectomies. Her four hour surgery turned into seven hours. Her outpatient surgery turned into admission and being on a ventilator. I am approximately 2400 miles away from her as the crow flies. As the heart loves I am right there beside her. (Post Script: She is off the ventilator, alert and talking. Thanks be to God!). I should be grateful to God that she is receiving good care. I should be thanking Him that her cancer was found early. Our mother's wasn't. I should be doing a lot of things that good Christians do, instead I am doing what I do best. Worrying. Worrying because I am not there. Worrying because if I was there, those doctors and nurses would really have to act right, that's my sister they are treating. But I am not. I am worried f...

I have had a particularly bad day. In fact, I have had several bad days strung together. Weeks and months of bad days sprinkled with just enough hope to believe that something is going to change. Hope that I will, in fact, sit down and blog about having a particularly good day. I am not asking for a string of them, just one. One would get me over the hump and it's not too much to ask, or is it? I get so confused. Expecting suffering and joy at the same time is hardly a recipe for happiness. Jesus told us the cost of following Him was that we would have trials and tribulations. The world will despise us, because it's full of God-haters who despise Him. Yet we are also told that joy is ours. The joy of being one of His own, saved from the unimaginable torments of hell. The worst day here being better than one nano second in hell. Reconciling the two truths seems difficult today... a bit too heady for me to attempt. I am not going to try. One of the things that I say t...

Recently I had the privilege of giving some seminars to the women in our community bible study. The topics were the biblical concepts of fear, hope and peace. Of the three, hope is the one I dreaded giving the most. Hope had been something I despised. Our God is a very clever and economical God, it's the natural outcome of His sovereignty. When I met with the leaders of the bible study, I was the one that suggested hope as a topic. I could scarcely believe that the idea came from flying from my lips because I was really repelled by it. Of course, it was exactly the topic I needed to study and one of the top areas of my life that needed repentance and reformation. My friend Carla Rolfe had helped me by making some gorgeous PowerPoint slides to go along with my presentation. Carla is extremely creative and you should really check out her stuff . Well, you know the old saying; "No good deed goes unpunished." As Carla's reward for helping me I let her listen to t...