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A Chicago area girl born and bred, I've lived in Mississippi, Montana, Michigan, and...ten years in the wilds of northeastern Indiana, where I fought the noble fight as a book editor. Now, I'm back in Illinois once more...for good. (At least I intend to make it that way!)

Saturday, February 27, 2010

A moment's comfort on a snowy morning

Just listening to various tunes on the iPod this morning and thinking about the fact that at least one of these artists I listen to, Isaac Guillory, is no longer with us. On this, his birthday, I said a prayer for the repose of his soul...and hoped that, as he made his musical way through life, he found peace with God as well.

(Ditto for Dan Fogelberg, whose birthday it is not...but whom I'm thinking about in the same vein.)

Many of us who trust Christ as our salvation live, to one degree or another, in a shadow of sadness for loved ones--and let's face it, these guys are "loved ones" to fans, even if we never met--whose salvation we're not sure of. Especially in the case of famous people, if we're not in their inner circle, we really have no way of knowing what the states of their souls are. And for those of us who want every decent musician in heaven that we can get :-), this can cause us a small pang of wishing, hoping...yet fearing the worst.

But if it's any comfort, maybe we don't have to fear that worst quite as much as we think. Because one of the things that Our Lord said to St. Faustina during His many talks with her was that, at the moment of each of our deaths, He reaches out His mercy to us. Not once. Not twice. But three separate times. He gives souls three separate appeals, three offerings, three chances, to take His mercy onto themselves and be covered in His glorious grace.

So if that is, in fact, true...and some of these souls desired that approach...we can rest assured, Jesus made it. He said so, and He cannot lie.

If this isn't reason for hope and rejoicing, maybe nothing else will ever be. But it's a heck of a good thing to think about, whenever we're saying prayers for those loved ones about whom we won't be sure until eternity.

We have every reason to hope that these beloved musicians--and many more of our loved ones with them--recognized that wonderful face of Jesus, that smiling mercy, and appropriated it all the way to glory. And that He welcomed them with open arms.

How merciful is our God!

Hope always,
Janny

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Enough spamming, already!

To all the "Anonymouses" out there who want to sell me something, advise me that they have a great offshore pharmacy that can get "drugs I need" at cost, tell me about the Next Big Home Business, or pitch any other product, service, or obscene suggestion...


BUG OFF!

I don't know WHY, precisely, I'm getting these spam comments in the box. I've had blogs for something like four years now, and until a few months ago, I NEVER got Spam in my combox.
Now, the only comments I GET anymore are Spam.
I could, of course, turn commenting OFF for awhile. That might deter 'em. But who wants to do that?
Who wants to be held hostage at the point of malicious e-mail pens?


Just remember this, all you abovementioned pests:
You're being reported, every single last one of you, to your ISPs.
Yeah, I know, that doesn't scare anyone anymore. But it might keep you busy finding new URLs to spam from, and in that case, at least it'll keep you off MY blog for the time it takes you to find more aliases. Hey, anything that works...right?
The rest of you? Yanno, those five people who actually read this?
Start commenting, already. If we fill up the box, those pests can't get in. :-)


Janny