Here I Am

I was reading recently about the thirty three Chilean miners who were trapped underground in a copper-gold mine in 2010. They were underground for a total of 69 days, do you recall the story? For 17 days the rescuers did not know the status of the minors, were they alive or were they dead? Nobody knew.  The rescuers used a drill to go down to the approximate area of the miners to try to find them. They tried day after day but found nothing. After 17 days they drilled down and brought up a note indicating that all thirty three miners were alive and okay. What a glorious feeling that must have been, they had been found! Can you imagine being trapped underground, 2,300 feet, and not knowing if you would ever see your loved ones again? The miners longed to communicate with the rescuers on the surface so they learned to tap on the drill bit to communicate. It must have been excruciating to tap waiting for a response. You would strain to hear, desperate to communicate.  This is the ...

When I was in my 20’s I had a cat named Spunky. Spunky loved to play, in-fact, I was able to teach her how to fetch. Yes, you can teach a cat to fetch, it just takes a little more time and patience than with a dog. I would throw out the little cat ball to Spunky and she would bring it back to me again and again, she loved to play.  When thinking about Spunky fetching I thought about how our spiritual lives are much like playing fetch with God. He throws out his love to us, we catch it and bring it back to him. But just how important is it to show God our love and return it to him? It is very important! God gave us free-will and sometimes we stray from showing God our love and devotion. While deciding whether or not we’ll show God our love, we sometimes hold onto that ball when he throws it out to us. Sometimes for many years we don’t throw our love back to him.  If we don’t return our love to God we may find ourselves straying from him. Daily activities can distract us pulling...

When I was in high school I remember thinking about what would make me a success. I thought that if I married a doctor, lived in a brick house and could put fresh flowers on the dining room table then I would be a success.  When I got older, in my 20’s, I thought that having a new car and a house would make me a success.  When I was in my 30’s I thought that being a success would be having lots of money.  I found throughout the years that my definition of success always changed and involved material things.  The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes success as “the attainment of wealth, favor or eminence”. This unfortunately is what our society sees as an accurate description of success. Now, some 30 years later I find my definition of success to be much different. Today I find my success resides in God; it is what is most important to me. In the Bible there are many stories that tell of success. In the book of Esther, Queen Esther finds success when she defeats Hamen...