I swear

A lot has happened the last few days. A lot of wonderful things happened. First, Tina was released from the hospital on Sunday. Praise God for that. She is slowly recovering from home. We had two graduations this past weekend. School is out. Oh yeah, we had a family wedding. My cousin Sa got married on Saturday. (I have a friend that didn't want a big wedding. He told me, "All I gotta do is go to the judge and say I swear, and it's finished." I didn't want to tell him it's I do. LOL

The scripture reading from Sunday's sermon was Romans 8, one of my favorite chapters, out of one of my favorite books. Romans is the heart of Christian theology written by Paul to expound on Christ's teachings. Far from being an expert on the Bible, I have always found it fascinating. The one verse that I go back to often is verse 18: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. This is a verse that I cling into in tough times. There are more verses like these in the Bible, but Paul puts it into such sharp focus. We've discussed before the concept of putting things in perspective against the backdrop of eternity. This is the Biblical underpinning of that belief. Whatever we are going through, no matter how rough or tough, doesn't compare to our joy in heaven. Often times, our suffering is due to our walk with the Lord.

At the wedding on Saturday, the familiar "marriage" scripture in Corinthians was read about love. How love is patient, love is kind, it endures everything. The couple recited their vows, how to love each other in times of health and in sickness, in wealth and in poverty. Sometimes I feel we should have vows with God. That we should promise to love Him when we are well and when we are sick. When we have jobs and when we're laid off. When we are happy and when we are sad. A lot of times, our love depends on our circumstances. But we are told that we should love IN SPITE of our circumstances. To love God in spite of our circumstances. To love our spouses in spite of our circumstances. Wow. That's a notion worthy of saying I swear to.