“If it wasn’t for bad luck…”

“…I wouldn’t have any luck at all.” As if my life had not been shaken up enough (that’s a joke), I decided to end the day with a bang. Lying in the hospital bed, my mom sitting beside me, she says the above song title, and it clicked – yes, that is exactly what it feels like. Maybe that should be my new theme song?

Hustle and Bustle - From Charles' New Book "What Christmas Really Is All About" - Available now at Amazon

“Be still and know that I am God…” Psalm 46:1 

Christmas is a wonderful time of year – but it is also very hectic. On top of the normal busy schedule that everyone seems to keep these days, more is added in the months around this holiday. People pack event after event into an already overcrowded and bursting schedule. Christmas “requires” so much. As people rush from thing to thing, they become stressed, frazzled, and overwhelmed. 

What does not kill you...Really, another kidney stone!

What does not kill us, makes us stronger! Boy I have heard that so many times, I even kind of like the 
song. But as I lay here, trying to pass the 4th kidney stone in 4 weeks, I wonder, do I really want to live through this. Not sure I will make it into that second category, and dealing with this pain, I am not sure I want to LOL. 

Why exactly am I in the woods?

I am not a camper, and I am a far cry from an outdoorsman. Don’t get me wrong, I like being outside, but I also like coming in from the outside. What in the world is a person like me, with all my health issues, doing living the “outdoor life”?

I do not usually “rough it”, yet here I lay, at the crack of dawn (actually before dawn), in a tent filled with people, listening to my dogs whine at the birds that have started chirping - how did I get here?

What’s Knocking At The Door Of Your Spirit

 We all have something that is knocking at the door of our spirit, but we choose how to face it. I encourage you today choose hope.

"It" Wins By Making Us Feel Alone

 

I stood beside him on the hill, watching streams of people go by. He looked at me and simply said, “I have never felt more at home. It is as if all of those rejected or left out by society have come together.” In that one small statement, I saw his pain, as he expressed a truth so many battling chronic illness feel.

Content, Whatever Lot I See

Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine,

Nor ever murmur or repine;
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since it is Thou that leadest me.

-from the hymn “He Leadeth Me, Oh Blessed Thought”