Soup Kettle

At another time and in another place Ted and I were on the staff of a ministry launched by guys who had just graduated from seminary. Here’s how the format was set up:  A group of believers build relationships with people with no belief in a Higher Poweer.  All are invited to a discussion  in homes, offices and schools about “Life and God”. The discussion is to last only fifty-nine minutes. ...which it did   Just when the conversation was going somewhere, the time was up.  …very unsettling to me, but not to my husband.  He was far more at peace with "dangling ends" than I. 

The leaders of this ministry were of the opinion that the human soul contains only a MIND.  I have wondered how many of their marriages ended up in divorce. …or murder.  One more of their conclusions went like this: All around the globe, people have only twelve most asked-questions about “Life and God”. I have double that number of questions every morning before breakfast.  

God’s pilgrim-children, down through the ages have been allowed to ask God all kinds of questions about Himself and about Life. All have expressed the gamut of their emotions. Not very often has He struck them dead.

In the Soup Kettle of my mind this morning simmered a mixture of feelings and thoughts. Then a wisp of a scripture intruded:  “Take every thought captive.”   “Absurd!” I thought.  “Utterly absurd!”. …then came another bit of scripture: "Whatsoever is worthy of praise, THINK on these things”. 

Now, that’s the tricky part: Deciding to praise Him in the midst of awful situations, and then actually doing it. I think that must be the meaning of offering to our Lord "the sacrifice of praise."  What do you think? 

Love,  Jo