As I begin to write this month's Notes, my head is blocked and my body is aching from the flu. The world does not seem quite real. Sound comes through dully; the brain feels slow in processing the intake. 

On the news I see and hear discussions on the controversial movie "The Passion." I also saw an  interview with the head of a seminary who does not seem to believe that Christ truly existed on earth, much less back the claim that he was the son of God.

The next story was gay marriages. I can take no more. So I turn the television off.

I set this aside and pray for the Truth. 

"But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the anti-christ - - he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. " I John 2:20-23

This is the season Christians reflect on Christ's sacrifice for all of mankind. The Abundance of the Heart is a reflection on this time in a pantoum. A pantoum, a poetic pattern, is "based on an oral form from Malaya (now known as Maylaysia) called 'pantun.' ....The basic form of the pantoum is the four-line stanza...based on...repeating lines."* The form is intended to evoke and express emotion.  "Going to Gethsemane" beautifully reflects emotions of that fateful night.

This season also encourages us to look forward to how we should live our calling.

I hope you will enjoy this issue and learn more what it means to be "Set Apart for God"
 

*Quoted from Writer's Digest March 2004, Page 65, "The Pattern of the Pantoum" by Miriam Sagan.