A few years ago, my family sat down to watch the movie “Marley and Me.” The movie is about how John and Jenny Grogan, a newly married couple, adopt a yellow Labrador retriever puppy in order to see if the couple is ready to become parents. They name the puppy after the reggae singer, Bob Marley.

You may have heard the story of how Canning, two weeks shy of her eighteenth birthday, moved out of her New Jersey parents’ home. Canning had moved in to her best friend’s home and with the financial support of her friend’s parents, sued her own parents for financial support. 

Comedian Paul Reiser wrote once about mother’s spit: “I saw a kid who had some dried-up food on his face. His mother took out a tissue, spit on the tissue and rubbed it into the kid’s face. This goes on, in communities around our country, on a daily basis. It is disgusting, but it sure does work, doesn’t it? There’s something in Mother Saliva that cleans like nobody’s business. 

As an adult, you can look back at certain events in your childhood and remember them with complete clarity. And yet, some of the particulars surrounding those events may be a bit foggy, so in retelling your childhood, you fill in the gaps with exaggeration and embellishment.

Have you ever lived in a tent while in the military? Or slept in a tent for the weekend while camping? Or set up your tent in the backyard for you and your little kids in the summer? It’s not very nice, really. 

Early on a summer morning two years ago, I woke up and started my day as usual. But before long, I started to not feel so well. Then suddenly, I was doubled over in pain on my hands and knees. Something on my right side felt like it was killing me – literally. 

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” Those are the words of Alice to her cat, Dinah, in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.  Wonderland is most certainly an upside-down, inside-out, topsy-turvy world. 

After completing high school, Molly, a Christian, managed to break into the work force. The first day of work showed her she was hardly ready to deal with the things the “real world” was going to direct her way. The lurid language of her fellow employees, the ungentle jokes of her boss as well as the cruel comments made by almost everyone shocked her. 

In His beatitudes, His statements of blessing, Jesus represents a radical reversal of almost everything we have ever been taught about the meaning of happiness!  We have always been taught to define happiness in terms of wealth. Jesus teaches, “Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor.” We have been taught that sinful behavior is fun. Jesus teaches, “Happy are those who mourn.” We have been taught that we get what we want if we are noisy and demanding. Jesus teaches, “Happy are the meek.” We have been taught that God, church, and the Bible are boring. Jesus teaches, “Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”