Wednesday, May 7, 2014



Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
‘Til it's gone…

(Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi, 1970)



Life is so ironic.

After a year’s (inexplicable) absence, I finally got the nudge to resume writing.

There was an intense Mother’s Day post in the works.

Sadly, I received an email last week stating that my Margery domain was in trouble because of a credit card change.  (We were among the thousands who were messed up because of the Target debacle at Christmas.)

I’ve spent over 8 hours today trying to renew Margery’s domain. I even went to the Apple store in tears.

They couldn’t fix it, either.

They did give me the super-secret insider Google phone number. Even that didn’t work.

Google is absolutely impossible to deal with. There are no (decent) words to express the extreme frustration I feel. But it looks like this may be the sad end of Margery, just as I planned a new beginning. (Unless they screw up.) Now I am in the process of saying goodbye.

After re-reading some old posts, the main emotion I feel is an intense sense of gratitude.

To those faithful readers who gave me grace when I didn’t deserve it: 

Thank you for listening. Thank you for caring. Thank you for wanting me to continue sharing my random observations. I appreciate you more than I can ever express... even when I didn’t respond to your comments.

I am embarrassed at some of the things I’ve shared, but realize that, in some ways, I didn’t share enough. Recently, I’d been hoping for another chance. I realize now (too late?)  that this platform has been a great privilege.

We’ll see what happens tomorrow, after the deadline for renewal has passed (at midnight tonight.) I pray that the whole past Margery thing won’t be erased. (I’m woefully ignorant about the workings of these things.) Even if no one else got anything out of it, I learned a lot in articulating my thoughts.

If this is an end, I pray that there will be a new beginning.

One with “fresh fire.”

Thank you for your loving support of our family over the past 6+ years.  It means the world to us.

Love, Kim


(P.S. If I post again on a different site, I’ll ask Katherine to let you know.)








(Just in case this is my last post, this is Pirate Night on the Disney Cruise, Spring Break, 2014.
BEST TIME EVER!!!)


Friday, April 18, 2014

The Mystery of the Cross







This is the marvelous mystery of the Cross:

WE ARE FULLY KNOWN, YET FULLY LOVED.


God knows every single secret sin of our hearts.

He knows that we miss the mark each day of our lives on earth.

He sees the lack of love… the loss of empathy. He sees the spirits of judgment and criticism and prejudice. Our inability to forgive. He knows all about our addictions and lusts. He weeps as He witnesses the self-destruction, self-pitying, self-absorption, and narcissism. He is well acquainted with our hypocrisy.  He is saddened by our envy and avarice, and stricken by our sick self-righteousness and self-justification.

He grieves over our pathetic attempts at medicating the pain of living life in a broken, bleeding, hurtful world. He sympathizes with our doubt, defeat, despair, and lack of faith.

Above all else, He is brokenhearted by our great and fatal pride, which keeps us from seeking the help that we desperately need.

Yet…

He loves us just the same.


Listen to this (almost) unbearably Good News:

“He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross, so that we can be dead to sin, and live for what is right. By his wounds, you are healed.” (1 Peter 2:24 NLT)


All our past failures, indiscretions, and humiliations…

All our current inadequacies and insufficiencies…

All the future faux pas we've yet to make on the path of pilgrim’s progress…


Have already been carried in His body to the cross!

Where they have been put to death for once and evermore.


He gladly took all of my sin and shame upon himself, and paid the price for it in order to purchase my eternal freedom.

(He did this for you as well, if you believe it and receive it.)

It’s that simple.


"Amazing love, how can it be
That you, my king would die for me..." (Chris Tomlin)

A mystery, undecipherable on earth.

But it is true.


The Good News is just too good to be true.

But it is.


Truly.


***************

 A Russian Orthodox Easter Greeting:
“Христос воскрес!”  (Christ is risen!)
Воистину воскрес!”  (Truly risen!)


***************


The picture at the top was taken by my husband in our back yard. It reminds me of this scripture: 

"Let the trees of the forest sing, let them sing for joy before the Lord..." (I Chronicles 16:33)


(This one's for A.)