Jerry, Happy Belated Anniversary for yesterday, June 28th. You have been the best over the past 36 years and hopefully the next 36 years will be just as exciting!!!

Today, another great day…I can’t seem to assimilate all the info received, but here are some of the things I am learning:

1. Most of Scripture speaks to us, the Psalms speak for us
2. John Calvin says: The Psalms are ” an anatomy of all parts of the soul”. They are ” a mirror in which each of us sees the motion of our own souls”.
3. The Father’s heart is open wide and you are welcome to come in…this is what Darrell begins each class with…wonderful

Today we discussed the Lament Psalms eg Psalm 9 & 10, 22, 44, 13
How do we read these Psalms as prayer?
Lamenting is not merely complaining…not only expressing pain of the broken world…not just crying out about life…LAMENTING is crying out to God when God is the problem! Only the believer can lament…you have to know something about God to be able to lament to Him…about His silence/absence/inactivity/abandonment…when your name says “you are always with us and for us” where are the signs of your being with us…our lamenting is not lack of faith…we are just trying to make sense of life in light of the self-revelation of God…we are wrestling with God and not trying to be God…a place to express the incongruity we feel with God…the more you see what could be and should be, you mourn/lament about how life really is around you…

These are just thoughts and I have not worked through them all…some may be right off the beaten track but that is where I am right now…

Our small group of Louise, Jeff and myself met for a couple hours this afternoon and grappled with some of this stuff and then prayed together. Jeff is doing his Masters here and is a very analytical person which fits in well with Louise and I…talking about head knowledge and how that moves to our heart. Good stuff!

Walking every day…early morning it is uphill all the way so the only thing that keeps me going is that Starbucks is at the end of the walk right across from Regent.

I have to run…time running out….