Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.
Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.
Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as He said would happen. Come, see where His body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and He is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see Him there. Remember what I have told you.” Matthew 28:1-7 NLT
Today I’m honored that an everyday epistle post is being featured on The Couture Cowgirl.
Celeste Settrini, the site’s creator, is blessed with a positive outlook and energy for life.
She is the founder and president of Couture Cowgirl Communications and fashion editor of Equestre Magazine.
You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter @couturecowgirl7. Or catch her on Rural Route Radio with Trent Loos hosting Fashion Friday.
Or speaking to school children in San Francisco and business people in Sacramento about farming. Or leading the charge as a past president of California Women for Agriculture. Or working on her family ranch in Salinas.
She’s a busy bee. And I’ll bet she wouldn’t have it any other way.
I hope someday when I meet Celeste in person she’ll show me the ropes of being a real cowgirl. But first I need her advice on a good pair of gorgeous cowgirl boots!
Now mosey on over to The Couture Cowgirl, meet my friend Celeste, and read about my favorite fashion strategy in Many Happy Returns.
Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. Ecclesiastes 4:9 NLT
Regardless of how you feel, how you’ve been treated, what you’ve done, or what’s happened to you. You house a soul.
at Panache Chocolatier in KC
Asking life to “respect” you and not “squeeze” too hard is a nice thought. Nice, but ineffective. The squeeze is going to happen.
You may be experiencing the squeeze. In the doctor’s office. At work or home. At the gas pump, like I did yesterday.
Or when you hear three Milli Vanilli songs in two days after not hearing them since 1989 and you become painfully aware of your age.
One day this life is going to squeeze so hard, we will die. Illness, age, accident, crime, tragedy, or injustice will kill us. Harsh reality.
Easter celebrates the reality of Hope. The triumph over the squeeze.
At Easter, we remember Christ died to pay the penalty for our sin. And He came back to life again to pave the way for his people to follow Him in life. Full life. Forever life. Not as hollow cores.
He knows your name. He knows your soul. He offers life. High time to take it.
bunny on the plaza in KC
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 NIV
I Know Your Name by Michael W. Smith is a favorite of mine. Love the lyrics. And Michael doesn’t lip-sync. Girl, you know it’s true.
Sliding while the big kids speed around like heavy freight trains.
boy follows
Skater boy meanders close to their paths. “Stay back,” I say, “out of their way.”
stage mom
He zooms down lesser hills. Turns and jumps. “Mom, this is my best move!”
best move
Skater boy. You’ve stolen my heart.
zoom
“It’s really complicated,” he says. As complicated as 1986, I think.
Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with Him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of Himself to us. Love like that. Ephesians 5:1-2 The Message
To make a long story short, I decided to read Rachel Held Evans’ book Evolving in Monkey Town after reading her blog a few weeks ago. See this post for more.
Evans’ 2010 book is a memoir of her faith crisis. She was raised in a Christian home in the Bible belt. She’s lived much of her life in Dayton, Tennessee, a town famous for the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. Hence her book’s title.
Evans began questioning her faith during her college years. The spark of the crisis seemed to come when she watched a Muslim woman being murdered by the Taliban in the 2001 documentary by Saira Shah entitled Behind the Veil.
This Gen-Xer won’t hold it against Evans for being a Millennial. I like Millennials. They understand Twitter which confounds me more often than not.
I won’t even hold it against Evans that I disagree with some of her reasoning and find parts of her book troubling.
What I like about her is that she boldly questions in the first place. And she will accept “I don’t know” as an answer.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far way, I sat in a church Bible study circle when a newcomer asked a difficult question. Something to do with personal tragedy resulting in doctrinal confusion.
Fresh from my own angry rounds of questioning God after my mom died, I believed there wasn’t a definitive answer to the newcomer’s question. So I spoke up and said, “We don’t know why that happened.”
Then I sat quietly. It would have been wise to add, “We have to go by what we do know. What the Bible tells us that we can understand.”
I didn’t get the chance. The study leader panicked, fumbling to answer the woman’s question. To him, an insufficient or unsatisfactory answer was better than admitting, “I don’t know.”
I can’t fault that leader. Questioning makes me nervous, too. Throughout Evans’ story, I found myself wanting to say exactly what her theologian father said. “Rachel,” he said gently, “be careful what you say (p. 100).”
There are strong passages of assurance in Scripture. And there are instances where God doesn’t explain to our liking or understanding. Much as we need to know, some answers remain hidden.
The thing is, no matter how harrowing the questions may be to us, God can take it. He knows what we’re thinking anyway. With honest hearts, open to hearing Him, let the questions fly. Pursue Him and His Word, and the places of “I don’t know” might just lead to a deeper faith.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1 NIV1984
