proof that God is better than we deserve

I believe that so many things in my life are gifts to me...way better than anything I deserve. It keeps it all in perspective when I'm crying about life not being fair.

here's some of my joy. Ellie (3yrs) and Aria (6 mos). far more than i deserve.

white lies

i came across an interesting article on CNN.com this morning. It was all about how people say they hate lying and they find it absolutely inexcusable, but most of those same people admit to lying themselves.

(full text go here)

it reminded me of something my friend bob blogged on the other day ( go here) where he talked about the paradoxes of our faith and in the Bible.

I became very interested in our own personal capacity for paradox. We act like paradoxes in the Faith are so crazy but then we can do things ourselves like say, "lying is absolutely detestable" and then 1 min later say "yes I lie sometimes"

that's not to say i'm surprised by our own paradoxes, i'm really not. The Bible talks about the tension we live in, especially those of us who are found in Christ... we are sinners and saints at the EXACT SAME TIME. But i guess I wonder why we pretend to be so stumped by seemingly contradictory things in our faith when we live 90% (or more?) of our lives IN contradiction?

Furthermore why are we so shocked when we find out that someone else has been living in contradiction?
the conservative talk show host who likes pain meds
the preacher who talks about immorality but can't keep his own nose clean
the serial-killer who was an upstanding member of his local church, even the congregational president
the great theologian who teaches the world a lot about God's love and yet has an awful streak of hate inside
the mom who teaches her kids to stay away from drugs but who uses them herself just so she can keep up with life
etc., etc.

i'm not trying to excuse ANY of these things, they are all wrong and sad... but i think our outrage betrays the fact that these kinds of contradictions all hit way too close to home. And maybe realizing that isn't such a bad thing, because then maybe we'd be more apt to rest in God's Grace (undeserved love brought to us through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection), rather than our own public "face" (no cheesy rhyme intended)

enough for now, what do you think? (other than the people who normally comment on my blog who have probably already commented on this similar topic on bob's :)) peace.