Paul recognizes this spiritual truth in 2 Corinthians 12:10 “It is when I am weak that I am strong.” Paul came to understand the necessity of suffering in our lives that turns us away from our self-sufficient strengths toward accepting the gifts of God that come from suffering and weakness.

“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” Luke 15:4

Love never forgets. Love always includes the excluded, restores relationship with the isolated. In God’s love, we always belong to one another and are never forgotten.

Choral music in worship is a gift of God’s Spirit, the opportunity for all who lift our voices to give our whole selves, body, mind, and spirit, to God, and to be received and accepted by God through that spiritual, artistic expression. I know of no higher experience in life.

Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.” Genesis 28:15

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”