Spiritual Alzheimer's disease

God has been speaking through three blogs today about walking and sharing His grace with my immediate family on a daily basis and with people in general.  One of my long time favorite bloggers is Matt at The Church of No People.  He wrote about how Americans are becoming more intolerant.  Jon Acuff at Stuff Christians Like discusses why Christians are such jerks.  And at Prodigal magazine, Michael Perkins confesses that he is the problem  that causes the Christian church to get a bad reputation (though I think I make equal contributions).

All this as a song resonates in my brain as the possible solution to Christian jerkiness, intolerance and judgement.  I have tried unsuccessfully to embed the video several times (the embedded information seems to disappear when I hit "update", so I am providing the link here.  Please watch the video before continuing to read.  Pictures are provided so that you don't "peek"  :-).

Kyle ready to make a play.  This is what
you wear in October in AZ

Staying warm in the early morning
before my first 10K race.  The kids needed it, not me.
Elz is thrilled as you can see.

Finishing my first ever 10K run.  My "partner in crime"
is the woman on the far left of the picture.  Finishing was my goal.
Mission accomplished.

And now back to the original thought, involving man's jerkiness...

The video speaks of belonging to God, being his beloved child no matter what I do.  And this awesome love and grace is what can flow out of me when I keep my focus on Jesus Christ throughout the day and on his grace and mercy and love.  But I forget, as if I have a spiritual Alzheimer's disease.  And in another video, the singer says that he wrote this song because he, too, forgets and needs to be reminded of his position in Christ.  And I think every Christian out there has the same disease, as well as every human on the planet.

The Good News is that God can reverse the debilitating and destructive effects of this disease as well as its progress.   It is called "the work of the Spirit" and it happens when we shift our attention from the fleeting shadows of this world and fix our eyes on the solid light of Jesus, our ears to God's still small voice, and relax to let the Spirit lead us.

John 15:5--I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.  Apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:9--As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.  Now remain in my love. 

Galatians 5:22-23, 25--The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.