The first time I took a real hike in the mountains was when our church youth group was going backpacking and camping at Twin Lakes above Darrington, Washington. I so wanted to be able to just “do it” and not look too much like a novice. So, I took off at a good speed and all was going well until I felt I couldn’t keep going anymore. I stopped to get my breath, leaning over, really spent of energy. The Boy Scout leader accompanying us, came up to me, put his hand on my heaving back and simply said, “You’ll do just fine. Just remember to take   one    step    at    a   time!”

Cutting out the prejudice from your life gives you a new way of seeing not only those who were the target of your prejudice but also the view of life that flows together unencumbered by a negative or obscured attitude. One of the best ways to do this is to get to know the other person, understand what makes him or her that way, and pray constantly that God will help you see others as God sees them!

In Africa the same plight awaits anyone who has leprosy. There was a Leprosy Center near where we lived in Bong County, Liberia in the 1980s. I went there once a month to be with the Lepers, to bring them God’s Word, Holy Communion, and to sit beside them and touch them as they suffered not only from their leprosy but from being ostracized from society.

Families. Sometimes they are difficult, yet always a blessing. A family may be dysfunctional or difficult, just like the families in the Bible. God gives us family so that we are not alone, have people to care about, protect, and forgive when they behave other than what God would have them be. Give God thanks. Do your best to bring goodness and hope to those you love—to your family.

To be amidst evil, victims of power struggles, and thrown into political, economic, and cultural clashes is difficult. It is to those who suffer the most that God reminds us that God is in our midst. Through the prophet Zephaniah, God says, “I will deal with your oppressors…I will save the lame and gather the outcast…I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth…”

In the book of Ezekiel, the phrase “Then they will know that I am the Lord” is repeated at least 65 times.  Ezekiel wants those who hear his message to acknowledge that God’s initiative and control is over all creation. God is in control!

The difference we make in other people’s lives, or in the work of our community, and the joy that comes to us just for trying, is worth all the effort it takes.

So many of us are just like Jonah who knows God has a task for us to do and just don’t want to do it. In this case, it would interrupt Jonah’s life, so he takes off to a place where God won’t find him! That is where the storm at sea and the whale come into the story…

And why is this sensual love in the Bible? God intends that such love be a normal part of life in his good creation. God intends that when we find someone with whom to share our life, no matter who that person is, we see in them the hand of God’s creation, we honor them with commitment, and we lift them up as special.

We intended and planned a four-week road trip to Alaska.