One of my favorite lines from the movie, The Count of Monte Cristo, is when Jacopo reminds the Count of the oath he took to protect him with the rest of his life. In a dramatic moment he says, “I will protect you. Even if it means I must protect you from yourself.” The point is clear – often we need to be saved from ourselves. I was reminded of this as I watched a recent msnbc.com video about a mother who had decided to follow her own dreams even when it meant abandoning her husband and two small boys. You can watch the video here:
THE GOSPEL AND YOUR TIME
How do you spend your time – your years, days, hours, minutes, seconds? The current life expectancy in the United States is 78 years old. That translates into 28, 470 days, 683,280 hours, 40,996,800 minutes and 2,459,808,000 seconds. If you take away 7 hours-a-day for sleep that leaves you with 55 years, 20,166.25 days, 483,900 hours, 29,039,400 minutes, and 1,742,364,000 seconds of useful awake time. For some, who will die younger, your numbers would be much less. What will we do with this precious time, as we spend it on this side of eternity?
LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL
What is love? Sadly, what should be a simple question has proven difficult to answer. Our culture has succeeded at making something so precious, cheap; and something so evident, confusing. Even as believers, love is sadly misunderstood or polarized. Is love a feeling or action? That seems to be the debated question among Christians.



