We would sit around my grandfather’s red leather chair, on the floor, as he smoked Tiperillo or Huntington cigars. We would beg him to tell us family stories. We would ask him over and over how different relatives were connected into the family tree. Family, we long for it, even though all of them have issues. The Bible celebrates family—with all its pluses and minuses—with all its beauty marks and warts. As we read the fifth chapter of Genesis…
Read MoreOur lives are not Disney movies. As followers of Jesus, we sometimes forget that. We even project to people who are not following Jesus, that “if they just followed, they would live happily ever after.”
At times we quote a verse, Jeremiah 29:11 and note that God has great plans for us. He does. The point however is that His plans may not involve us having the perfect lives we are dreaming of.
Why do I say that? Lots of reasons, but one is that, if you know anything about Jeremiah’s life on earth (from whom we so often quote), you would know it was not prosperous by human standards—quite the opposite. I also say our lives are not Disney movies for another reason: our sin has consequences—generational consequences.
