Hurting

My heart aches tonight.

I've heard from three of my closest friends in the last day or so, and they're all hurting.

My heart aches with my own ongoing struggles, but also with the pain of those I love.

I re-read one of my favorite passages of scripture last night, just before sleeping, and from it comes the cry of my heart, and the breath of hope for healed lives, and the commitment to continue to press towards Jesus.

I love the LORD, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.

Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.

(Psalm 116:1-2)

In the News

Lots of headlines catching at my heart today:

Regina School Hostage Taking Ends Peacefully

Finnish College Gunman Kills 10

Egypt Hostages Location Known

BA Halts Flights After Hotel Bomb

Germany Lists Holocaust Victims

Auschwitz Survivor Comes of Age

Evening

I went to church for the first time in a while tonight, with my brother, and a friend of ours.

I badly needed to meet with Jesus tonight.

I got home from work in a particularly bad mood.

Church was well.. ok.

But I did meet with Jesus, for a few fleeting moments, during the worship set, and again as the church prayed for a family that's been struggling mightily.

It was a non-eventful evening.

Non-eventful, but full.

My thoughts are racing. Not things that are ready for public consumption yet.

Goodnight.

We became those people

I have to laugh. It's 2o past nine, and all of us in our house are in our bedrooms, with the doors shut, in bed. At 20 past nine.

We have become the people we used to mock. The ones who are quite young, but insistent on needing rest. "I need rest for work."

ah, well...

I'm okay with being one of those people for the moment!

Sunday

It's been a mostly quiet day.

I actually slept a bit last night. It took a while to get there - the fears from the previous night's nightmare were strong - but I eventually got there (and thankfully didn't have any more nightmare's either).

I got the oil changed in my car this morning.

I bought a new nose ring.

I picked up Chinese take-out and ate it curled up on my bed, wrapped in a blanket.

I went out to buy a birthday gift for my dad.

We have a big extended family party tonight. Never my favorite activity. We're celebrating something like 6 birthdays that have happened in the last 6 months or so. We used to be able to get together for all of the birthdays as they happened, but these days we just have two or three big parties a year.

I love my family, but they excel at the fine art of talking about nothing for hours on end. And I find I have little patience for that. But hey, there'll be fantastic food, and probably lots of laughter, and for a few hours I can definitely pretend to be interested in the random minutiae of the life of my grandma's sister's neighbor.

And then, hopefully early to bed, because tomorrow starts another busy week.