Dear Reader:

What a beautiful thing morning is! Birds chirping, the sun peeping through the shutters, as the day calls us to come out and play! Or as Willie Nelson says: “I woke up this morning and I wasn’t dead again.” A Hallelujah Moment!

Willie Nelson was interviewed on the CBS Sunday Morning Show and he just makes us smile. We can all agree he has musical talent beyond measure, especially as a writer, but what makes him so endearing to all his many fans, is his humility. In a Shakespearean play he would be a “flawed” character which also makes him the most lovable and touchable.

Willie openly admits his mistakes through life, but also his ability to pick himself up and keep going…always with a quirky sense of humor. At his lowest point one time, he laid down in a street in downtown Nashville and told God if it was his time…he was ready.

But then Willie grins and says that it was after midnight and no cars appeared. He figured he might as well get up, brush himself off, and get back in the game of life again…. right back “On The Road Again“…and his career was off again!

“Flaws do make us human.” God, particularly, is drawn to “flawed” characters too, when it comes to choices of leadership. There’s a list a mile long from His Chosen Leaders: Here are just a few samples:

• Martha, the worrier
• Job – Went bankrupt.
• Moses – Had a speech problem.
• Gideon – Was afraid.
• Samson – Was a womanizer.
• Rahab – Was a prostitute.
• Noah – Was a Drunk.
• Jacob – Was a cheater.
• David – Was a murderer.

“If you ever feel like you aren’t worthy enough, remember that Jesus used a bunch of flawed people to share Hope to a flawed world. In HIM we find renewal and mending. Jesus didn’t call the equipped, He equipped the called. And no matter what you’ve been through in life, remember that the same power that conquered the grave lives within you.”

—Jarrid Wilson

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I love the idea that we are never too “flawed” to be considered useless to God…in fact the opposite is more closely true. The more flawed we are, the more impact we have speaking to others who can connect with our shortcomings and feel worthy of being a Child of God.

I think the Japanese have it right. We should use “gold” to fix broken vessels in our lives because flaws are part of our unique history and universally our beauty.

So until tomorrow:

“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” C.S. Lewis

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh (“I woke up not dead again.”)

Walsh got this shot of me trying to figure out if the one in-door bathroom (at the Holy City Brewery) was occupied…the handle wouldn’t turn but time went by while I hopped on one foot…waiting, waiting, waiting. Then I heard it…the sound of a commode flushing…music to one’s ears.

The  mystery was solved…a young girl came out apologizing for the long delay…her zipper had gotten stuck on the lining. It happens to all of us at one time or another. A “flawed” zipper.

*Ah…finally some pictures of Lynn Gamache’s home in British Columbia….just beautiful. Lynn and her husband have a small cottage on a 5 acre tract of land her son owns….so they are close to family and beauty.

Brooke, Pap’s daughter, is computer savvy, besides pretty, and she taught me the secret of how to unlock Lynn’s pictures to “Save.” Hallelujah for young people and their computer smarts! Thank you Brooke!