Impacted By Grace

There is currently an epidemic of loneliness among adults in the United States. A study published by Cigna found that 46% of adults report persistent feelings of loneliness either “sometimes” or “always.” Young adults are the hardest hit, followed by the elderly. Only around half of Americans report having meaningful in-person social interactions on a daily basis.  This situation leaves me pondering friendship and the question: What is a friend? A lot of people would agree on some level of definition that involves “someone you hangout with” or “spend time with” or even a flowery “do life with *twinkle* *twinkle*.” However, many can also agree that there is a difference between the kind of friend whose company one simply enjoys and a “real” friend.  So, then, what is a “real” friend? Many articles online list various traits one should look for in finding a "real" friend or for being one. Even more articles list ways, in click-baited fashion, that you can divine...

Image Credit: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Media Resources     As some of you may or may not know, September is Suicide Awareness Prevention Month. Most of you probably know someone or know of someone who has attempted or completed suicide. In 2017, an estimated 1,400,000 people attempted suicide according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. As a counselor, that number is all too real. I want to share with you all warning signs, what to do, and what not to do with someone with suicidal ideation. The definition of suicidal ideation is a person who has thoughts, intentions, a plan, and/or the means to commit suicide. What you need to know: Asking about suicide does not increase a person’s chances of committing suicide. It actually could help save his/her life.  Suicidal ideation can affect anyone regardless of his or her background.  Typically, people do not commit suicide out of t...

One of my favorite paintings is Diego Rivera’s mural at the Detroit Institute for the Arts titled: “Detroit Industry North Wall.”  I grew up with this painting because my Dad had a copy of it hanging on the wall in our garage for as long as I can remember.   I love the detail, the colors, the energy, and just the power of the men and machine working together to build automobiles.   Granted… my dad’s copy of the mural is not the full mural, and it was backwards… but needless to say when I saw the whole mural for the first time, I was shocked to notice immediately that something was not right. The mural was just slightly off center!   Look specifically at the fresco border at the bottom on either side of the five workers who are pushing an engine along the assembly line.   Do you see how the fresco border is longer on the right than it is on the left? Granted, maybe this just means Rivera wasn’t OCD like me!       But silliness aside, I b...

Generation : (noun) (a) a body of living beings constituting a single step in the line of descent from an ancestor; (b) a group of individuals born and living contemporaneously.   Grace : (noun) unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification   Words are so interesting, don’t you think? And now within an instant we can search for a word’s meaning, origin, synonyms, antonyms, and anything else we could want to know. I love finding the definitions of words for two reasons: first, I like to see all the many different explanations of the word; and second, I like to see where those explanations fall short.   Take those two words up top for example. Yes, that’s a definition of generation, but don’t you feel like that word means so much more? It’s our people we are connected to, the ones we share memories with, the ones we understand, the ones others never will. And as a Christian isn’t grace so much more than divine as...