Remember when you were a kid and felt one with the forest and the flowers? Maybe there was a reason for that. Maybe that was the truth, and you just got distracted or deceived.
And why you lost that? For me, depression blocked that door for years. It kept me flat and surviving. There was no room in my view for anything beyond what the present world had to offer and what it demanded of me.
And there were many other things that prevented me from experiencing reality as pregnant with meaning, alive with possibility, and numinous and redolent of the inscrutable extraordinary.
The narrative of our culture?
The depersonalizing of human beings?
The driving force of getting things done?
The stated focus on technical and practical skills which society demands?
The lack of time to exist within the world outdoors?
The overpowering siren song of the next tap of the screen that I hold in my hand?
The seemingly unavoidable demands of the next task on the list?
In a word–yes.
But when those bonds crack open, what is still there and what is available for me to freely enjoy? The world is there, at every level, alive, full of beauty and power and mystery. I’m still able to walk into a forest and know that all around me the community of trees are sustaining and supporting each other. The wondrous energy flowing through the xylem and phloem in the trunks around me beats on. The life force powering the ant civilization below me is real and living. The expanse of the heavens above me, the Milky Way spilling across the sky above me, is resplendent.
My thriving on this planet and my joy in the creatures around me is an astonishing thing, and it’s real. My ability to comprehend the nature of the forces and reactions that scientists define as physics and chemistry is limited, in the same way that it is impossible for me to remember all the different families of living creatures. That inability, however, doesn’t inhibit my connection with the living world and my willing accession to the truth that it–is–good. And I am one with it because that is who I was made to be.
If you grew up in a conservative or evangelical church you have probably heard about this idea from the pulpit. You might even have come across the not so many verses in the Bible where this analogy is drawn. But you may have been puzzled by the idea that this isn’t just an analogy; at some level, this is real. The body of Christ is also the bride of Christ. The church is Christ’s bride, waiting for him to return, and longing for the eternal bridegroom to come and get her. And when he does, they will dwell together eternally in such joy and intimacy that–well, we just cannot imagine.
That’s pretty heady stuff.
But it’s difficult to feel that it is true or to even begin to grasp what this really means. An earthly relationship between two people no matter how much they love each other is filled with failures and imperfections and losses and even betrayals.
And it is so human, so earthy, so physical and so broken.
How can this practical day-to-day “please take out the trash honey” possibly represent the infinitely powerful love of Christ for his people? much less fully embody that love?
I have listened to the rare references to all believers as Christ’s bride and his beloved since I was a part of a conservative denomination where the sermons worked through different books of the Bible over time, explaining what it all meant. Maybe there was that sense of something deeply personal when we sang this song when I was a child, “He calls me to his banqueting table, his banner over me is love.” That’s from the Song of Solomon 2:4. Again, this is spoken by the bride of Solomon, but, if the full meaning of the book holds true, this love poem reveals just how Jesus is crazy about us and how passionately he longs to be united with us.
So it’s not that I was unaware of this motif in the Bible. But if you’re like me, it generally made you somewhat confused, and if discussed at church, possibly uncomfortable. Or at the best, you were fine with it, but just didn’t get it. This idea just wasn’t real to me, despite living in a good marriage characterized by respect, care and mutuality.
No marriage can fully embody that eternal truth because it is by definition mortal and flawed and because by definition, spiritually speaking, we haven’t had the immortal wedding yet and we don’t yet know what it is to be truly eternally married to the Prince of Peace.
But one thing I do know. I’ve been married for almost 34 years now. For most of that time, the idea that Christ is pursuing his bride just didn’t speak to me. Yet recently, over the past several years, as my marriage has continued to season, and my husband and I continue to practice really loving each other, our companionship has strengthened and deepened in ways that are frankly completely impossible to fully explain. We rely on each other completely. We trust each other fully. There is no joy like the joy of the return to each other at the end of the working day. Our total emotional and physical companionship cannot be explained by mere words. But I can assure you it is more amazing than any other experience I have ever had.
We’re still here, in the not-yet, but I now believe we can trust in the truth that the union God’s people have with him is like the marriage of the most faithful, long-loving couple we know, but multiplied. Exponentially. Infinitely. Supernaturally. Gloriously. Perfectly. Eternally.
And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
A special treat we enjoy during blueberry season when we have an abundant supply of fresh blueberries from our picking at Bryant’s or Huber’s is blueberry crepes. I don’t make them other times because crepes are kind of fussy to make and definitely time consuming. You cook them one at a time in a medium sized skillet, not like pancakes on a huge griddle or coffeecake all at once in the oven! But–
They are worth the time. Nothing else tastes quite like blueberry crepes.
Here are the recipes for first the blueberry filling, which I start first, and then the crepes.
Blueberry Filling (from Theresa Millang’s The Joy of Blueberries)
3/4 cup sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
4 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
In a heavy large saucepan, mix the sugar, cornstarch and salt. A whisk is helpful here. Stir in the water until it’s smooth. Stir in the corn syrup, and then add the blueberries. Cook this over medium-low to medium heat, depending upon the performance of your range, until bubbly and thickened. This takes me between 5 to 10 minutes; yours may be faster. Do stir the mix several times, so it doesn’t stick to the pan.
Then remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice and the vanilla. Refrigerate if not using immediately.
In the meantime, start on the crepes.
Crepes (recipe from Betty Crocker cookbook)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
2 T melted butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, preferably in a batter bowl. A whisk is definitely recommended here, as you then add the liquid ingredients. I start with a little milk and whisk that in, and then add the egg, butter and vanilla, returning to the rest of the milk afterwards in an effort to get this batter as smooth as I can.
Heat a 6 to 8 inch skillet over medium heat; then drop in a little bit of butter, maybe a 1/2 tablespoon to keep the crepe batter from sticking. Repeat adding butter to the skillet before each new crepe.
Then, for each crepe, pour a scant 1/4 cup of batter into the skillet; immediately pick up the skillet and tilt it so that the batter runs around the pan and coats as much of the surface as possible. You don’t have to measure the about 1/4 cup, just whatever reasonably coats the bottom of your pan.
Let the crepe cook a minute or two. Run a spatula or flipper around the edge to loosen it, then turn over and cook the other side for maybe another 30 seconds, until it’s light brown. Take it up and stack in on a plate or warm baking dish that you can either pop in a very mildly warm oven or simply cover the crepe stack with a towel. Whatever you do to keep the crepes warm while you’re doing the rest of them, layer the crepes with sheets of waxed paper to keep them from sticking to each other, as they are somewhat delicate.
Once you’ve got them made, or potentially as you go if you have hungry family members gathered around, roll a couple spoonfuls of the blueberry filling up in the crepe, place on a place, top with some whipped cream (or I just drizzle cream or half and half over them if I don’t have any whipped, same taste), and serve with some hot, tasty pork products!
The other thing to note is that you can always halve this recipe for crepes if you don’t need that many, because the full recipe makes 12 and would take me probably 40 minutes.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this little acronym, RSVP, it represents a short French phrase that means “Please respond.”
You will see this on invitations for events such as weddings, graduations, parties and birthdays. The act of response to it lets the hosts know how many people to expect at the event they are planning. Even better, it can bring joy as they can anticipate celebrating with you! And if you can’t attend, they will receive the pleasure of communication with you, knowing that you are still at the same address and that you received the card and it did not get lost in the mail.
All you need to do when you receive communication that asks for an RSVP is to respond by text or a phone call. Usually the invitation states the best way to contact the host. If you can attend, you can tell your host if there are any factors that will make you late, or any special circumstances he should know about. If you can’t attend, thank him for the invite and tell him you are unable to attend. You don’t even need to explain why you can’t make it, unless you feel like it. Now the host knows whether or not to set a place at the table for you. Simple!
Not necessary to RSVP you say? I already know about the event, and the host knows that I don’t have time to respond to invitations. He knows I wish I could be there, and that I don’t have time to tell him so. She already knows that I can’t be there. Or on the other hand, perhaps you think he already knows that you will be there.
Actually, not being a mind-reader, he doesn’t.
When there is an RSVP in front of you on a piece of mail or an e-vite, you’ve been included in a party or a celebration or a ceremony. It might even be a big life landmark. That’s pretty neat. Someone wants you to be there. That’s not something that happens every day. You work, you do chores, you make dinner, you fill up the gas tank–life goes round and round, but not every day do you receive an invitation to a celebration.
And with an RSVP, that’s not a connection that exists in the fog of online anonymity. It’s not a piece of junk mail that you can toss. That’s an actual invitation, printed, written and addressed to you, or it’s a Facebook invite, directed specifically to you, because the sender of that invite is in a relationship with you, an actual person to an actual person.
Here’s the analogy: when you choose not to RSVP, it is as if you walk up to a friend smiling and ask him to come to dinner at your house, and he doesn’t respond. His face doesn’t light up or frown. He doesn’t speak. He appears to be looking at an object that must be behind you, somewhere above your right shoulder. Instead, he walks away in another direction, and goes about his own business.
For all practical purposes, it looks like he didn’t see or hear you. Either that, or he did, but he didn’t feel like validating the connection between the two of you with a response.
If you think that analogy is an unfair exaggeration, what do you think is happening when you get an invitation with an RSVP? How would you define that interaction? When you get an invitation and you don’t respond, it’s not exactly that rude, because you aren’t really with the sender, seeing the person and choosing to ignore him.
But by that logic, maybe all communication transacted remotely isn’t significant, because the person isn’t really there. Perhaps it is normal to disregard communication from your relationships extended by letter, phone, email, text, messaging and social media. Maybe by that definition we can all be confident that we have no reason to respond to communication. Perhaps that way is the simplest; all communication is as transient and unimportant as the last email you blew away.
If it disturbs you that social media and the overload of digital information have led to fewer friendships and more disconnected people, as has been documented by research over the past twenty years, reject the steps that led to the reality in the first place. If you are bothered by the uncivil society in which we live where ugliness, disrespect and hate toward others is the new normal, fight back. Choose to ignore the tidal wave of input you get from electronic sources since you must: advertising, streaming services, junk texts, spam, social media. But make the decision to prioritize your communication with people you know. Strengthen your connections with the humans you care for.
This mutuality and interconnection, my friends, is what the humble RSVP is all about.
There’s nothing like a buttery, flaky scone, warm from the oven, with just a bit more butter spread over it, melting peacefully into it. Because these add fresh blueberries, you won’t want to stop eating them.
I use the fresh blueberries because they hold up better when you are kneading them into the batter. If you don’t mind streaks of purple juice on your hands and all through the dough, then feel free to use frozen berries, but definitely don’t thaw them first.
The recipe is simple, even if you don’t have much experience baking. This makes basically a double batch, so you can freeze half and enjoy them again later.
3 1/2 cups flour
6 T. sugar
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cups plus 2 T cold butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
In a bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a bowl, whisk eggs and the milk; add to dry ingredients until just moistened. Gather the dough together and turn onto a lightly floured surface, and gently knead in the blueberries. That just means fold the dough over on itself, then pressing down and out repeatedly until you have worked the blueberries in. For this recipe, I’m thinking that means somewhere between 10 and 20 folds.
Divide the dough in half. Pat each portion into an 8 inch circle. Using a pizza cutter, cut each circle into 8 wedges. Place them on greased baking sheets. Then brush the tops of the muffins with a little bit of milk to get a crusty top.
Bake them in a pre-heated 375 oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Serve warm with butter! This makes 16 scones, more than enough to enjoy and share with others for breakfast or brunch. I like them as an afternoon snack, too.
Today, I will give an endorsement, which is something I haven’t yet done in my blog. I don’t get any monetary benefits from promoting this item, though. The benefits to me are many, but they aren’t monetary. I share the details because I really am grateful for it, and it’s one of those things that once you experience it, you want other people to experience what it provides as well.
It’s a simple little app. It’s not cluttered, and it’s easy to use, aside from the occasional glitches that have come up. There isn’t any tech support, so that’s a bit annoying. But because the app is free and beyond that, because it is not a hardship but a joy to use almost all the time, even when I have had to reset my account (happened twice, once because of an update), I wholeheartedly promote the One Minute Pause app. Did I mention it’s free?
It’s a meditation app. I have never previously had any luck with meditation. I know it’s recommended. I know it’s supposed to be fantastic for your mental health, lowering your blood pressure, and finding inner peace, but I never did find it. My mind just wouldn’t empty!
What I like about the One Minute Pause is that it does not demand that I first empty my mind to become completely quiet inside so that I can start to benefit from the meditation and the peacefulness it is supposed to induce. No, the app provides refreshing background music that truly is peaceful, and photos of amazing landscapes, and something to think about! I’m meditating, but it’s not forced. I listen to what the speaker is saying and basically follow along with it in my heart and head.
I believe the pattern that the pauses follow is based in psychology and common sense, but I couldn’t say, as I have not read the book that is promoted on the app (I don’t find the promotion obnoxious, it’s just a box that says “based on the book by John Eldredge”). What I do know is a couple things.
First, the guided meditations align with what I learned from my therapist about how to give things to God and not take them back. The teaching of the meditations is also spot on theologically sound. The content is really, really good. There’s things to think about here that you may not have heard before, or just may not have realized how important that truth really is for living peacefully.
The other thing is, these meditations or pauses really work. I’ve gone online and seen reviews for the app from other people, and what they say agrees with what I have experienced. Just stopping to sit with God, for one minute, or 3, 5 or 10, or doing the new “30 Days to Resilient” program, which is 10 minutes twice a day (and you can redo any of the pauses that you want–take your time), really increase your peacefulness. When I forget to do one of the meditations with the 30 Days program and so get off kilter with morning versus evening, I just redo the previous one to get back in the daily pattern. Why? Because it’s literally fun. It’s refreshing. It’s healing. I WANT to use this app!
Even if you are not into Christianity, or not particularly excited about using an app that specifically talks about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all the time, you may want to try this one anyway. Yes, it is about your connection with God, and yes, that is emphasized in each pause. I don’t like heavy-handed presentations myself, and I never have. I feel like this one isn’t. In the last module there is a direct invitation to faith; however, it is within the context of developing resilience. It’s as if the prayers and thoughts are just offered…and you are welcome to think them through, or pray them if you want to.
For me, the results have been solid. This app has literally changed what I do when I start to get worried about something. It has helped me to give those cares and concerns back to God. Really. And it has made my day-to-day thought life more peaceful. Staying in the present is a lot easier than it used to be. And me? peaceful?? I never thought that would happen. Others have tended to perceive me as a peaceful person but nothing could have been further from the truth. I worry about everything and I always have. But using this app has very much been part of my recent journey that has turned that around.
I hope you’re sold on trying this app. You won’t regret trying it. And it may change your life.
This is one of the two best coffeecakes I’ve ever had. I hope you will find that to be true as well.
Here’s the recipe, which I got from Theresa Millang’s cookbook The Joy of Blueberries, which my mother gave me years ago. I made a couple changes, including adding raspberries. I don’t know why this improves the cake, but it does, and I definitely recommend it. Also, I always use butter in baking and cooking. The flavor is better, and all things considered, it is actually better for you than margarine.
~~~
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 – 3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen raspberries
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Topping
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. cinnamon
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Preheat the oven to 350. Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl, and then make a well in the middle and stir the liquid ingredients together in the middle of the bowl. Then mix it all together. Fold in the blueberries and raspberries. Pour the batter into a greased 8×8 or similar sized baking pan.
Mix all the topping ingredients until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the batter. Bake 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes 9 large pieces and is so delicious served warm with coffee and some bacon!
It is early July and now is the time to pick blueberries at Huber’s, or if you’re lucky, your own back yard! Personally, I recommend Bryant’s Blueberries, but I know they are already done picking for this season. I have been enjoying the fruits of these labors and I wanted to share how we’ve been enjoying freshly picked blueberries at our house.
I eat them on cereal, in fruit salad, with plain yogurt, for lunch and by the handful straight out of the fridge.
Many people really like a good blueberry muffin, and I can’t argue with that. Crepes with blueberry filling are a delightful, unusual breakfast when topped with a bit of whipped cream and served with some bacon or sausage. Blueberry-raspberry coffee cake is another nice breakfast treat in blueberry season, although with muffins, coffee cake and pancakes, you can use frozen blueberries just fine instead.
But when it’s time for fresh blueberries, it’s time to enjoy them as much as possible in their natural state, and use them in recipes that call for fresh berries. Sometimes you will not get the same results with frozen berries, examples being in fresh blueberry filling for crepes or pies, and with blueberry scones.
I will share all the recipes for those in future posts.
Today, I want to talk about my very favorite way to enjoy fresh blueberries, one that my grandmother Helen shared with me.
We sat in the dining room of the simple three bedroom home she and my grandfather bought when my mother was a junior in high school. There in the solid heat of an Oklahoma summer night, with the sound of passing cars thumping on the pavement of Northwest 19th street and the ubiquitous buzzing of cicadas, we ate vanilla ice cream with blueberries on top. There is nothing more simple or more tasty, and for me, few things bring back better memories of my times with my grandmother than eating ice cream with blueberries every June and July.
Now you can make some good memories with berries from a U-pick place, and this homemade vanilla ice cream. The consistency of this is better than any commercial ice cream, because I don’t use half and half. If you prefer ice half and half, by all means, but I recommend just going for the cream.
Also, this ice cream is better than Häagen-Dazs. Why? Because that brand is plain, simple ingredients. It’s homemade, just not by you. You can do better than Häagen-Dazs in your own home, and it’s not complicated.
Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
1 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 T. pure vanilla
7 cups heavy cream
Scald the milk in a large pan until bubbles form around the edges and the milk is lukewarm. You don’t want to make it bubble or boil. Stir in the salt and sugar until dissolved. Then add the vanilla and cream. Chill at least 30 minutes but preferably several hours. If you chill it longer, it should take less time to crank. When you’re ready, put it in your ice cream maker and freeze.
I always thought that judgment in the Bible, a really difficult and unpleasant topic that nobody wants to address and for good reason, was difficult because it presents a harsh, judgmental God. Nobody wants to hear about a harsh, judgmental God, and that’s understandable. I have always felt that judgment seems incompatible with the truth that God is love. It doesn’t seem to match up. How can he be like this, when we also hear he’s not like this?
Then I heard this passage this morning. It’s not one I remember ever hearing before, and maybe gets overlooked because of the verse just after which is often quoted in sermons about people’s sin nature.
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:5-8
What’s different about this contrast of curses and blessings from how I always saw God’s judgment? It reads as thought the situation described by Jeremiah is a statement of fact. It is present, current fact, lived reality. Have you not experienced life as a parched place? hasn’t it been an uninhabited salt land for you at some times? have you not seen people around you whose lives shrivel like this? When I choose to focus on myself, when I believe that I my plan is best, when I work hard to make my circumstances what I want, I find that life is like this. Over and over, when I set myself up as the center, this parching is exactly what happens to me.
But what good news follows! The one who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord, is a whole person. He is a resilient, whole person, resting entirely in the sufficient grace of Christ, and in his incredible, mighty power. The water of life rolls over and through this person. Not only that but he still bears fruit. Without anxiety, even in the dry seasons, through no apparent power of her own, the one who trusts the Lord pours blessing on others, sometimes without even trying. She just does the work in front of her that she has been given the ability to do–and fruit happens.
Consider the truth of these verses in your life and the lives of others. If this vision of what happens to people based on their focus, their direction, and their trust is true, these verses aren’t written from the will and heart of a God whose primary goal is judging you. What if God isn’t a God whose primary purpose is to blast people for their wrongdoing?
What if he made us to live with him and to be whole and full and new in him?
What if when we live without him, we are blasting ourselves?
This is the overall message of the Bible, I believe. True, God hates evil and wants no part of it–he can’t be false to his nature and say that evil is good. He is unable to ultimately stand in the same room as evil because that is not who he is. So in that sense, God does discern. He does judge.
But although God hates evil, He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, as Ezekiel 33:11 says. Ezekiel asks the people who rely on their own ways, “Why will you die?” God sent messengers and Wisdom herself throughout history to turn people toward him and away from dryness and death. God speaks reassurance to his children: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 shows a God whose heart is healing and restoration.
The old Testament prophets returned repeatedly to the theme of God’s love and his longing to bless, not curse. Micah 7:18 says, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.”
Isaiah too is famous for revealing the merciful character of God: “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isaiah 1:18 He also urges, “Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.” Isaiah 55:7
And consider Jeremiah, often called the weeping prophet for his grief over the stubbornness of the Hebrews to whom he preached, who offers this truth about God in the book of Lamentations, “For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.”
The New Testament probably needs less explanation as a source of good news, since Jesus said that’s what he came to share, and he focused his most powerful teaching on the subject of love. Few could argue that Jesus came to show mercy and grace. In fact, he even claimed to be the water of life, the source who could keep them from drying up. In Matthew 23:37, Jesus called out to the people of Jerusalem, telling them he longed to love and care for them, like a mother hen gathers her chicks. His grief? The people wouldn’t let him.
The apostle John had this to say in chapter 3, verse 17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Even Paul’s teaching in 1 Timothy 2:4 acknowledges God as a Father who “wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Second Peter 3:9 says this: “[The Lord] is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
When I make my own flesh my strength, the natural result is my desiccation. When I turn away from God’s love and the good life he offers, I get nothing. I get worse than nothing! But also naturally, when I turn to God and seek my life in the one who made me, knows me and loves me, I get life and life more abundantly. I don’t mean that living in the life of God means I don’t face suffering; far from it. Just, even in the suffering, my roots don’t dry up.
Seen from this view, the curses and blessings given in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 look much different. It is not God’s pleasure to see you dry up and blow away. No, his pleasure is to see you fully alive.
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
I want to thank John Eldredge for his One Minute Pause App, https://www.pauseapp.com/, for the introduction to the verses in Jeremiah 17:5-8 and for his insights about living life in Christ and how we are meant to have resilience. I recommend this app for overcoming fear, anxiety and depression.
Joy in the Journey 