JohnPalmieri.com

My Beloved,

 Thank you for opening your heart and life to me…I treasure our special time this morning – your tears. You are a sweet and dear sister…I hope that I can handle your heart gently…I wish that I could…I’ve dropped it so many times…too many times…but there is one that will never abandon it…He is the one to run to – finding your deepest fears calmed…shelter in the midst of the raging winds and peace in the center of long uncertainty.

Thanks for being faithful, loyal and loving (1 Corinthians 13:1-13). You are the Spring in my Winter…the warm sun in my isolated cold. You are, indeed, God’s greatest gift to me. I wish I knew that more often…I wish that I lived it. God help me to hold her heart…to value it above all things…yes just things…of no value compared to her heart. Amen.

Love Forever & Ever.

John

I do not subsist on activity and mission – God, my Father, energizes me. My life in Him and His in mine, this ignites my activity and mission. Intimacy with God is what comes first – empowering, clarifying and sustaining my role in partnering with him in his mission.

Works based mission flows out of a “performance based mindset”. For example, Jihadists benchmark intimacy with their god based on mission (aka Jihad/holy war). On the other hand, Christ followers base mission out of relationship with God. Genuine Christian mission always flows, first, out of intimacy with God - the God that sacrificed his Son Jesus.

Today is for honoring my mother (Phyllis Palmieri) (Eph. 6:2). Not too many people know that my mom became an orphan at age 4. She was adopted into a very abusive family and after one too many beatings she ran away at the tender age of 16 — never to return. I can’t tell her story as effectively as she can, but I do want to take time to thank her. Mom, I can’t find the right words to express my gratitude for reaching through your wounded-ness and touching my life. I know that there isn’t another person in the world who feels as deeply for me as you do. Your love is relentless, sacrificial, consistent and passionate. You’ve loved from the heart of an orphan – one who is acquainted with sorrow, abandonment, loss, and loneliness. You taught me how to love. The saying; ‘he who loves much hurts much’ is surely true in your life. All your pain will one day make sense and the journey of your life will be seen as significant…for your hands and smile have touched many. You’ve done this by serving the ‘least of these’ (Mat. 25:40). People who know you, I mean really know you; don’t need to be convinced that you are a very special person. I love you mom and I’m proud to be called your son!