studying yet again

I am on a sleepless study binge and anxious for the moment when these exams will be completed and I can quit the excessive coffee and SLEEEEEP.

Two things struck me this morning in my sleepless haze:
1 :: Satan is such a liar and sin is a toxic destructive force. Oh! He makes me so mad! He is convincing and we ought to watch out for him. I know we all know this: Satan = father of lies. But, I was just struck this morning as I glanced at an individual life of a woman I have known through many life shifts and changes. She has been supremely lied to. She has bought the lies. Her life has spiraled perilously into depths of destruction I cannot imagine. I have not lived a perfect life (obviously) and I am well aware of the insidious tentacles that were woven deep into my life through my sinful actions. I know how long it took to extract those tentacles, how painful it was and how much more time was needed for the scars and the damage to be healed by the refining power of the love of God. Sin and its lingering effects are like a poison! I am just filled with a righteous anger for her sake, because I know (in a limited way of course) the destruction and havoc being wreaked upon her soul and the pain and the wounded-ness that results... I want the light of truth to pierce her darkness! I want the light of truth to pierce the darkness in every heart!

and on the flip side...

2 :: The Blessed Virgin Mary is so ridiculously awesome. Any time I spend 5 minutes pondering her life, I find myself simply awed. WOW-OW-OW! I mean... I REALLY want to spend more time with her. Such beauty. Through her womb, God brought forth life itself definitively reversing barrenness and lifelessness. He intervened in the life of his people in a most unexpected, impossible way to bring life itself to all. God shows us in her that he can do the utterly impossible and all the while says, "I am with you." His being with us makes even the impossible possible. Like Mary, he gives us a totally unmerited, totally undeserved gift of grace. Let us be like her in this Advent: surrendering to the perfect, pure, free gift of grace and allow the perfect plan of God to be brought to perfection in us. By the beauty of His grace, we too are enabled to bear Christ to the world.