Grains of Sand

Only what functions perfectly can understand how terrible dysfunction is. If we think that dysfunction is a modern phenomenon, we are wrong. Dysfunction is as old as sin. Only perfection can feel perfect pain. You and I think we know what pain is, but if we were capable of feeling pain as God feels it, its weight would crush us underneath the load. God saw the dysfunction and felt the pain.   “ The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. ” (Genesis 6:5, 6, NIV) We are inoculated against dysfunction because all of us are, to one extent or the other, dysfunctional. We don’t fully feel the pain of sin because we are, saved by grace or not, sinners tainted by sin and still prone to a certain level of rebellion against God. But God sees it all and feels it all. There were exceptions du...

Well, I finished the book I posted about yesterday. It's titled: Lemon and was written by Ryerson professor, Cordelia Strube. It's a little ironic that I started reading Ecclesiates in my devotions this morning, the morning after I finished reading Strube's book. Far from being even remotely Christian, the story echoes Soloman's words as he begins to write: " 'Meaningless, meaningless!' says the Teacher. 'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless' " —Eccesiastes 1:2, NIV. Lemon, or Limone, as she was named as a baby, is a teenager with more issues than a white rat has babies. Strube brilliantly develops her character. The girl doesn't know who her father is, has more "mothers" than she knows what to do with, all of whom have issues of their own. The book is a treatise on dysfunctionality at its highest level. There isn't a "well" person anywhere in sight. Lemon had built up enough defenses behind which sh...