Truth served better with Relative

If I hurt/offend my wife, does it really matter what is "truth" about what happened? And if we both disagree on what "happened" - does an outside, objective "truth" really matter?

If I hurt her, then the relationship needs repair. Does Tara (or do I) need to know what "really" happened or does one need restoration. If Tara rightly discerns what "actually" happened, does that make me feel all-better? Nope. I want to know that she is concerned about ME, about my heart!

The "truth" is, I would much rather have someone who loves me and is concerned about me before the "truth" of the situation. [Note: this is NOT relativity but rather a move of priority from "objective" truth/reality to "personal" truth/reality]

Does the truth of a human (which changes over time and is different from human-to-human) weight less than truth observed, third-party point-of-view, objective? Or am I saying that the truth of Love First is more valuable than Truth Observed?

The Gift of Chronic Pain

I work with a good man named Mike Wallace who is a little younger than me and in a wheelchair. He broke his back in his teens (?) and is paralyzed in his legs. He lives one of those half-handicapped lives in that he drives (a "normal" car that has an accelerator/brake add-on - but anyone else could drive his car fine), etc. And he talks about the past (pre-accident) just like a non-broken-back would.

His legs hurt, though. All the time. We were talking the other day about chronic pain and he concurred - either it hurts or one is waiting for the pain to return. My lower back still hurts, usually. Sometimes a lot, but almost always at least some pain. It has become a part of my world, limiting what I can do (or at least forcing me to choose between what I want now with pain later today or saying, "no").

It has become so common for my back to hurt that when it doesn't, I notice. My back has become my vision, my world. Every thing I do or plan has to go through the "back filter" to get approval. My back is how I think. Always.

But therein lies the gift. I now know what it means to have one, single thing be the defining factor in my whole life. I am always either afraid of it, enjoying reprieve, thinking about how to improve my "back situation." Even last night as I sat with Tara talking (my favorite!), I was also thinking about my back (should I get up, should I move, is this posture okay, should I be doing some kind of ab. 'flex').

The gift of knowing what it is like to have one, solitary "thing" define my everything. Now I know, as well, what it can mean to have my one "thing" be "I am a child of the living God, I am under the mastery of Jesus."

Having lived with and without chronic pain, I am afraid I must say: for me / from my history, I don't know that it was possible for me to enter into 100%, all-day every-day Child of God without chronic pain. It is much easier, then, to be a chronic follower of Jesus because of my experience being chronic.

Its official

It’s official. We are “in” with OC International!! After praying with friends and family, we (all just mentioned plus OCi) are sensing that God is leading us in a new direction. Not fully new, just a new expression. Thanks to all who pray(ed) for us, challenged us, gave us insight, etc.

We desperately want and NEED continued connection, influence, and love from all as we begin a somewhat vague future (that begins with mountains of paperwork!!). At the risk of seeming co-dependant, Please don’t leave us now :-)