Claude King's blog

We have seen and heard things that people do and say that we cannot quite explain, but deep down in our hearts and minds we know why they happen. It may be that we have acted and spoken in similar ways even though we know that to do so goes against the Godly part of us.

We each have a calling placed on us as God's children and believers in God. Many of us are motivated to bring as many souls to the full knowledge of and lifelong faith in God through Jesus Christ as we can. Others of us are driven to help make better the lives of as many of those who have been left in economic poverty, social isolation, and termed undesirable, as possible.

Who are you to your family and friends? I am asking for the simplest characterization that the people who you know the best use to describe you. Are you a truth teller, a trusted person that most people can count on to get the job done, or the one who lights up whatever room you step into? Maybe you are seen as the smart one, the funny one, the quiet one, the loud one, the stylish one, or the complicated one.

There is a hymn that makes an impassioned plea to Jesus. The first verse of the hymn goes: "Pass me not O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry; while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by." The refrain goes on to say, "Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry; while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by."

I remember going to a lakeside retreat and getting in a boat to enjoy some fun in the water. I eventually decided to have fun by being while riding on a car tire inner tube that was tied to a rope and pulled behind the boat that I was in.

Have you ever heard of the term "fictive kin"? "This idea is referred to as chosen kin, fictive kin or voluntary kin. Sociologists define the concept as a form of extended family members who are not related by either blood or marriage." (Wikipedia, 5.22.21) What do you think about those who you see as fictive kin in your life if any? I feel that we need to be more concerned about fictive kin and its meaning for us now more than ever before.

I have questions for you. How close are you to God? If you are not close to God, are you open to God's teachings? If you have a close relationship with God, what type of relationship is it? How does it manifest itself in your daily life? How do you see yourself in relationship to God, what type of believer are you?

I came across a quote that I thought was both true and sad at the same time and it stuck in my head. It goes like this, "It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright." from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 1791. I have visualized an empty sack that was somehow able to move on its own power, trying to stand upright. It is a funny thing to imagine, and the more I thought about it the funnier my imaginings of it became.

What should we be considering that we need to focus on as we end the liturgical season of Easter this Sunday? Each year we have several Sundays to think, pray, and act upon God's word and then put it into practice. What have you taken away from these past Sundays where we celebrated and worshipped and put into practice?

Is it possible that people can change? I mean change from who they were at one point in time, to someone genuinely different? Not completely different, but genuinely different. Change that is completely different, so often for some of us, conjures up images of a huge weight gain or a huge weight loss.