Dropping the Right Kind of Weight

     Have you resolved to lose weight this year...to get in shape...exercise more, as I have? This morning God reminded me that an even more important goal would be to seek to drop the weight of the world from my shoulders...to lose the fat of vapid and vacuous entertainment..or that which even burns violent and immoral images in my brain....To, instead, spend more time exercising my spirit and strengthening my soul by speaking forth the truth of His Word....To do a cleanse of my spiritual liver, which has gradually accumulated the toxins of anger, resentment, bitterness, discouragement, and deception which each year holds....To rediscover both His sense of humor and His joy, despite the circumstances around me....To meditate on and come to truly know Who He Is, drawing as close to His tender heart as possible, where His Shalom* of body, soul, and spirit lie.
    Yes, Lord, our bodies are the temples of Your Holy Spirit, and we should respect them and treat them well, in order 'to run the race to which You've called us.' But how we respect and treat the Time You've given us is even more important to our well-being and the fruitfulness of our numbered days on this earth. May we delight and please You by the way we unwrap each one of them, allowing You to pen future, meaningful chapters of our story.

*Shalom: "peace, tranquility, safety, well-being, health, contentment, success, comfort, wholeness, and integrity"

"Saw You Never in the Twilight"...an Advent Hymn

A little-known but beautiful hymn for Epiphany (today, January 6)   [tune in video below]

"Saw you never in the twilight, when the sun had left the skies
Up in heaven, the clear stars shining through the gloom like silver eyes?
So of old the wise men, watching, saw a little stranger star
And they knew the King was given, and they followed it from far.

Heard you never of the story how they crossed the desert wild
Journeyed on by plain and mountain, til they found the Holy Child?
How they opened all their treasure, kneeling to that infant King;
Gave the gold and fragrant incense, gave the myrrh in offering?

Know ye not that lowly baby was the bright and Morning Star?
He who came to light the Gentiles and the darkened isles afar?
And we, too, may seek His cradle; there our hearts' best treasures bring;
Love and faith and true devotion for our Savior, God and King."

--Cecil France's Alexander, 1853
5th Century French Melody