Inseparable
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Romans 8:38-39
Last night, I had a sudden and very debilitating migraine attack. Once it started, I had to shut everything down and go to bed, almost immediately. I took the medicines that I have and slept for about an hour, and I woke up thinking I was feeling better. However, it only took a few minutes to know that it was still there and just as bad as before. So, I decided to give up for the night. I went to bed, put a cold compress over my eyes, and tried to sleep. Eventually, I was able to fall asleep. When I woke up this morning, again, I thought my headache was better, and it was. It wasn’t as bad as it was last night, so I fed Isabella and then realized, I needed to go back to bed, at least for a little while. I slept for another hour or so before finally getting up.
While my headache is better this morning, it is not completely gone. Sadly though, I have a workshop to teach this afternoon. I can’t cancel or reschedule, and there is no one who can substitute for me. I’ll just have to persevere. The verse above is about perseverance and God’s love. No matter what life throws at us, God’s love is still there. No matter how much someone tells us that God’s love is conditional: that we cannot be gay and Christian, that we cannot have relationships, sex, or love because God has deemed it a sin, or that we are disgusting and an abomination in the eyes of God, none of these things “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” All the conditions put on us about God’s love are manmade. They do not come from God, no matter how much they may wish they do. God is a loving God. We are His creation, and He loves us, unconditionally and eternally.
I know this post is a bit shorter than many of my Sunday devotionals, but headache or not, just like the workshop I have to teach today, I think this message is an important one. I know of a dear friend of mine who is struggling with the conditions man has set upon us about God’s love, but nothing man can say or do can separate us from God’s love.
Moment of Zen: Solitude
Yesterday was another stressful day at work. It’s been quite a week. Thankfully, I was only working half a day yesterday, so I was able to go home and decompress and calm down before I bit someone’s head off for their stupidity. Sometimes, you just need some solitude.
Weird Weather
The caption I saw for the above picture said that it was Bear Grylls and apparently, it’s from his Twitter account. However, that’s not really what this post is about. If you can see past his really nice derrière., you’ll see he’s standing on rocks and green grass while the stream in front of him is half frozen and there is snow on the ground across the stream. Vermont is a bit like this right now. Yesterday, we got up to 49 degrees, and today, we are expecting a high of 46. While it will be colder next week, this isn’t the weather I’ve come to expect during February in Vermont. It’s basically mud season and people are already beginning to tap their maple trees. I was outside today without a coat. I don’t think that has ever happened in February since I moved up here.
This type of weather usually doesn’t come until April at the earliest, and more often than not, it isn’t like this until May. Everyone I know is afraid that the worst is yet to come. Not that they think it will continue to be warm, i.e., above freezing, but they think we will get slammed with lots of snow and bitterly cold temperatures before spring finally arrives for good. It’s strange because two weeks ago, we had windchills of -40 and -50 degrees. Vermont weather is always unpredictable, but usually you can count on not seeing grass from late-December until mid-April. It just hasn’t been that way this year. It’s been very mild, other than those two days at the beginning of February. The ski resorts are struggling because not only is there a lack of snow, but it’s barely cold enough on the mountains for the snow to remain.
Anyway, talking about the weird weather right now was a good excuse to post a picture of a naked Bear Grylls.
I Forgot
I forgot to write a post last night before I went to bed. Sorry. I don’t have a lot to say, but I will give a book recommendation. This morning on my way to work, I finished listening to The Best Cook in the World by Rick Bragg. Years ago, I had read his book All Over But the Shoutin’ and loved it. A friend of mine suggested that I would like The Best Cook in the World because I love southern cooking and had written and had published an essay about the recipes my grandmother handed down to me. If you have an interest in southern cooking, I think you’ll like this book. Because it reminded me of my grandmother’s cooking, there were parts of the book that brought tears to my eyes as I remembered her, and then, there were the stories of Bragg’s relatives that often had me laughing out loud until I cried. The book really is a masterpiece of southern folklore, stories, and recipes, and yes, the recipes are included in the book. You can buy the hardcover, Kindle, or paperback and have access to the recipes written down, or you can do like I did and listen to it on audiobook with Bragg reading it. In my opinion, it is well worth it. While some of the recipes are done a bit differently from the way I learned them, this book took place in the hill country of north Alabama and not in the Black Belt of south central Alabama where I grew up. I still got a lot of enjoyment out of it, and it brought back many memories of my childhood in Alabama watching my mother and grandmother cook.
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