Jesus Jenga

Do you know the game Jenga? It’s the one with the blocks… you stack them up to form a tower and then remove as many blocks as you can without the tower falling. As you play the game you find out which blocks are pivotal to the whole structure. Remove one of the essential blocks, and the whole thing comes tumbling down.

We each have our pivotal blocks – parts of us that stack up to form our whole being. Think of them as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual building blocks. To have each in place is to have the Jenga definition of health and wholeness. But without all the essential blocks in place, life is just a mess of blocks on the floor.

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It’s ok to scream.

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Mark 1:12-13

One of my sons had night terrors when he was little.  The first time it happened I thought maybe the monster under the bed was actually real – I’d read too much of Stephen King I guess.  My son made a sound like the blood-curdling, echo-through-the-halls scream of horror movies. Being Supermom, I bound over toys and leapt two steps at a time (I’ve got short legs) to find my beloved child deep asleep and screaming at the top of his lungs. It was damn scary.

I held him tight till he felt calm and safe again. And then I watched over him through the rest of the night.

The next time it happened I was more or less over my fear of being bitten by a monster hiding under his bed…but still…

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