1. To carry a firearm, even openly, you need a license. To get a license, you need a background check.

So if one plans to share Christ, they must first have a background check. We look back to remember who we were, so that when we present Christ to others, we remember more specifically, that we are no better than the person with whom we share.

I have an argument with myself every Sunday…go to By Heart or not? I list the pros and cons. The cons come thronging, crowding in: I haven’t practiced much, so haven’t progressed; I am bored or discouraged with what I’m learning; I will never know as many verses as Marla; I am in the middle of a project I don’t want to put down for that hour or so; I’ve already been to church once today, isn’t that enough?; my friend whom I haven’t seen all week called and she wants to have coffee and catch up; Sunday afternoon is the best time for a nap…and on and on.

Somehow, the pros are never as compelling – fellowship, the satisfaction of training my mind, enjoyment of a slowly growing storehouse of verses committed to memory. Usually – albeit grudgingly – I decide to go anyway. Did you catch that? Not the ‘I go’ part, but the ‘anyway’ part? The ‘in spite of reasons, not because of them’ part? I wonder, what is the struggle here, and why is that struggle perpetual?

Normal.

I often mock the pettiness and downright silly decisions of the Israelites throughout Scripture.

“C’mon man! Moses was having a one-on-one with the Almighty! You couldn’t wait, like, just a few more days before making some golden calf to worship!”

“So Jonah, you’re just gonna sit there and pout because God is merciful to more than just your people?”

The Israelites are quick to grumble more than once. However, through a conversation with my husband I realized that one of their first times to complain was more human than I had expected.