Colorful Characters

By Cynthia Ruchti

Consider any troupe of sit-com characters. What makes the blend work? Their differences linked by a common bond.

For example: the quirky young people with vastly different internal conflicts, all struggling to become full-fledged adults in the big city environment.

The unique family dynamics that often erupt in a firestorm that keeps us laughing because, though exaggerated, the mother-in-law seems like our own…the brother’s phobias sound familiar…the grandpa’s caustic comments show up at our own Thanksgiving dinners.

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Changing the Enemy

This past Christmas’s theme of peace on earth was a bit interrupted by the extremist Muslim dude trying to blow up a plane. What is often overlooked in such conflict is the need for changing minds. One news item that didn’t get nearly enough press was what happened in Libya. Officials of the Libyan government, which once sponsored terrorism, met with imprisoned Al Qaeda affiliates and learned to understand them. Then they convinced the terrorists that blowing up innocent people was not nice and that this activity should stop. The terrorists eventually denounced violence, were released, and are now propagating across the Arab world a concerted message of peace and reconciliation.

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Be and Do

By Gina Stinson

Christ was always busy doing the work of His Father. Whether he was performing miracles, learning from the priests in the temple, spending time in the Garden with the disciples, sharing a meal of remembrance or dying on the cross. He was busy…doing the will of God. In the world that we have made for ourselves, it’s difficult to imagine living such a singular purposed life (after all, there’s a mortgage, jobs, kids, pets, stuff, bills, schedules), yet as Christians it’s the singular purpose of JESUS that should keep us focused on finding a way through all that…to share Christ with others.

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The Cupboard is Bare

Isn’t it amazing how we can have a cupboard full of food, yet can hear the cry from our families, “There’s nothing here to eat?” We know there is plenty of food in the house. No one is going to starve. But then they know that, too. They’re not really saying they can’t find anything to eat. What they’re looking for is something that will satisfy. Our souls are like that. We long for something that will satisfy our inner hunger. We look into the cupboard that is filled with all the world has to offer: movies, relationships, big houses, fast cars, and nice vacations, and yet see nothing to eat – nothing to satisfy. But God knows how to satisfy our hunger pangs.
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The Spring of Hope

Tomorrow is my Mother-in-Love’s birthday. Lula Mae Willis always joked about being born on Ground Hog’s Day. My husband was also due on that date, but stubbornly waited until February 8th to arrive. This way, his mom got a day all to herself.

Mom Willis was one of my role models. I’ll never attain to her skills as a homemaker and penny pincher. But she gave me her heart for helping tween and teen girls. She attentively listened to them—not just hearing them, but enjoying their company, and always had two or three “adopted” well after her own girls had left home. She sang hymns with gusto and listened intently to sermons. She was uncomfortable in the water, especially before moving to a home that had its own pool, and it was a real act of faith when she was baptized by immersion. She always said as long as her feet could touch the bottom and her hair didn’t get wet, she could deal with being in the water-obviously baptism broke those two rules! She had a giving heart and loved seeing and meeting needs, often sensing someone was hurting when no one else noticed.
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