Throughout the years we have been told God, that when you walked this earth you were a 6-foot-ripped-beauty-sash-wearing-hair-blowing-in-the-wind-tenor-voiced-blue-eyed model messiah.  Despite your execution, we paint you on sandy shores with beatific halos and an all together “go get ’em attitude”.  We imagine you presiding on polished marble altars, surrounded by pristine porticoes.  But you walked in the nasty places – through slums rife with the smell of rotted rinds, over open sewer streets, down dusty drought filled deserts, and amid the hot humid harried halls of humanity. Your feet traveled alongside companions that were worn down, tossed out, dazed and confused, hated and heckled.  And yet, where you walked, beauty followed.  Out of the ashes and muck, your step inspired beautiful music and poetic possibilities, harboring healing and hope.  So when we begin to discount the dirty places in our lives: the messy foundations, the floating footing, the out of control, “where the hell am I” Villa Nellcote flooring that we find ourselves standing on – remind us that is right where you show up.  Remind us that your feet were made to walk through the muck.  Remind us that we aren’t alone.  Amen

CHALLENGE: Danielle Miller challenges Pastor Stephanie Kershner of Grace Lutheran Church in Scarsdale, NY with:  Beard Food

No matter how well groomed or rugged the face mane, it is inevitable that those luscious locks will trap crumbs, cracklin’, candy, and a various cornucopia of food fodder.  Best case scenario, the particles are discovered immediately and appropriately disposed of.  Worst case scenario, they are found and eaten.   I challenge you to pray for the smorgasbord that hipsters, hillbillies and razor-haters alike keep close at mouth for a rainy day.