Three Things I am Thankful For:

1.Some friends of friends are on a pilgrimage on the El Camino in Spain. (It's the same extended walk/hike that Martin Sheen did in The Way). One of the gals, Sally, is having an especially hard time of it... blisters, sores on feet, swollen knee, head cold, stomach flu and then food poisoning. All in the first 18 days of hiking 20 - 40 kms per day with her pack on her back. Today? Her tooth fell out.

I? Am so thankful that I am not on that trail. Because, especially if I had done it last year? I would be her. Or an even worser version of her.

2. Are you a Christian? Have you sinned? Are you now 'defined by that sin'? For example, did you have sex before you were married? And now you're 'that person'? Here's a letter for you to read:

To the girl who feels guilty for sleeping with someone.

Why she wrote the letter: I am writing this because during my years as an unmarried woman having sex, I felt that everything written, spoken, or preached to me was solely to persuade me to stop having sex. I desperately wished someone would have abandoned the topic in order to speak to me where I was at, without their desperate attempts to end sex in my life. Even when most had good motives, I needed someone to write a letter to me, Lauren, and not to The Not-A-Virgin-Anymore. This evening, I rallied my past and my present, and wrote the words I craved for years and years.

I am thankful for inspiring blogs that bring healing and hope.

3. My friend, Andrea, posted this blog excerpt on her blog, and I'm going to as well:

We’ll all finally make it to our finish lines but the cliffhanger along the way will be this: will we keep our faith? That isn’t the same thing as keeping our salvation. I don’t believe my salvation is something I can give back. I received it by grace through faith from Christ Himself and my works don’t secure it no matter how my woes obscure it. His grip never loosens. Nothing can snatch us out of our Father’s hand. What’s at risk is our active belief in who God says He is, what He says He is like, and what He says He can do.


I am thankful for words. And people who use them wisely.

Gnite, friends. Shalom.