Chen Chronicles

Marriage is an art form like no other. It often requires much sculpting, shaping and sometimes completely erasing the images from the past and starting anew in the same relationship. Our late pastor who married us, used to say, "One Life, One Wife." Sometimes you just want to quit and leave and this is the devil at work in your heart. We must guard our hearts daily  against this. When someone does something wrong to us, we are called to forgive them immediately, whether they ask for it or not. This is no easy feat; I am the first one to admit that. But this is forgiveness.  In a Tenth Avenue North Christian song entitled, "Remade," the artists sing: "You are more than the choices that you've made, You are more than the sum of your past mistakes, You are more than the problems you create, You've been remade. Cause' it's not about what you've done, But what's been done for you. This is not about where you'v...

A very wise woman recently compared the brain to a computer hard drive. She said when it's full, it is very much like that of a person who worries and internalizes everything . I am that person. That realization is shocking.  I suppose you could say I have just experienced the ethereal "blue screen of death," we all hate.  Sometimes the awareness that this has happened is all we need to fix the problem. Sometimes, it isn't just as simple as black and white.  The simplicity in this idea cannot be understated, but sometimes I have to be slapped upside the head with something to conceptualize and apply the principle(s) to life.  Admittedly, I have lain awake many nights with so much on my mind that I could not sleep. A friend once told me that anxiety isn't a sign of  weakness   as a Christian, but a symbol of our own deep-rooted insecurities. Those are hard to change , but it doesn't mean I shouldn't strive to change them. Now, this isn't to sa...