Let the Sonshine in !

We are in Illinois today visiting our son, Ken. He has taken a new position with a church in Freeport. We are excited for him.

We arrived rather late last night and everyone else is still asleep. Ken rented a darling little house and I decided to get up and watch the news. I'm sitting in what will be a very nice living room surrounded by unpacked boxes and several remote controls that take more talent than the pilot of a 747 could provide. Realizing that there will be no news I grab my laptop so I could write my friends.

I get a daily e-mail from American Family Association. I appreciate the way they keep me informed of Christian injustice. Sitting here in a quiet, semi-dark room with all the blinds drawn I read an e-mail about an 86 year old woman who will not be allowed to receive and display an angel on top of her Christmas tree. I clicked the button to send my hot little e-mail to a senator in hopes that I can keep this elderly woman from experiencing such a ridiculous attack on her freedoms. I whisper a simple prayer for her circumstances.

Feeling somewhat connected to a larger cause, I let out a sigh and look through a maze of half opened boxes into the adjoining dinning room. All the blinds are drawn giving the house that I'm not quiet awake feeling. The sun was trying to work it's way through the blinds. It danced and played games with the leaves revealing shadow pictures that invited me to a different world. A world that was bright and full of sun. Just outside that window a new and different experience awaited me. All I had to do was get up, get dressed and walk outside and everything would be exciting and new. Everything I was experiencing now would change.

Trees full of color and adorned with the brilliance of fall would welcome me. Crisp air that signaled a change of season would fill my lungs. The sun that I watched dancing through leaves would pour into my space and warm me with each touch. There would be no boxes, no quiet and no darkness. Light would open new spaces to be explored and would invite me to enjoy my new freedom and skip through the day.

What I felt sitting in a dark house surrounded by uninviting boxes would instantly change if I would only step outside.

That's the Christian life in a nutshell!

We must support our global Christian family by joining efforts to keep our freedoms alive. But we must also step back from time to time and realize just what we are fighting for.

We are fighting for the right to take some one's hand and say, "Come with me. Come see the son. Come feel the Son. Come know the joy that I know."

That's the real problem you know. People who think ridding the world of all Christian thought will make their lives easier and will give them the permission to do anything their hearts desire. What they don't realize is that they are choosing to sit in a dark room filled with boxes containing all the junk from their lives. It suffocates and leaves their heart hard. Functioning in this world with a sad heart becomes an impossible burden.

All it takes is one person saying, "Come with me. Come see the Son. Come feel the Son. Come know the joy that I know."

It's not about the fight. It's not about you vs. me. It's not about some governmental change or passing some law. It's just about getting up and walking out of that dark room.

"Do you want to come with me? I'm going outside."

God loves you,

Debbie