Going Crazy...Wanna' Come Along?!

Last Wednesday was filled with unexpected interruptions...not the fun kind, but the frustrating, pull-your-hair-out, grit -your-teeth kind!  My dryer decided to die mid-way through the morning...a second wash load had just finished the rinse cycle when it began making screeching sounds and then abruptly stopped...silent.

I realized late in the afternoon I'd forgotten lettuce for croissant sandwiches - a must for a perfect bite, so I made a mad dash to the store, getting back with just enough time to prepare the fixings and cut fresh fruit for arriving friends.

Rushing to clean out a refrigerator drawer of past due items, I managed to clog up the disposal with old coleslaw, (You'd think I'd know by now NOT to put it all down at once) and after several minutes of trying to plunge it down, the water level not descending, I knew I'd have to loosen the piping under the sink to find the clog!! UGH!! 

Tom would've done it with record speed, as he's done many times before, but he was in Atlanta, so I'd have to muster the courage to go it alone! I had one hour to find the clog and finish making dinner before my friends arrived--so taking everything out from beneath the sink( a major  feat!)  I set my big  turkey pan under the pipes to catch any water and began to unscrew the connectors, one pipe at a time.

So in a state of frustrated desperation, I began talking out loud:  "Lord, you know I'm totally deficient when it comes to fixing this kind os stuff, and I know you're in the small things, so please lead me to the pipe that holds the clog."

Within seconds one of the loosened u-shaped connectors simply popped, exposing the hollow opening, and I had complete confidence that if I could get my finger into it, I'd find a mangled mess of coleslaw lurking inside!  I was euphoric!! Talk about his amazing grace!
In no time, I had the coleslaw out, all the connectors tightened, everything put back under the sink, and the goo scrubbed clean with 15 minutes to spare!

A few minutes later my friends called saying the roads were getting icy and slick. Peering out the kitchen window, I was flabbergasted to see a blanket of fresh, deep snow!

"We're still a good hour away as traffic is crazy!"

"Don't  want you to be driving in this...it's really starting to come down here!  Just head for home, and stay warm!" I replied.

 After laying out my wet clothes from the washer in every nook and cranny available, I couldn't wait to get into my jams and enjoy a cup of steaming tea by the fireplace. I thought of what Alexander from one of my favorite children's books, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day would have said about this day:  "Some days are like that...even in Australia."

Praising through Disappointment

A friend of mine has been dealing with much hurt and disappointment in her life.  Trying to make sense of it has been difficult, and she has cried many tears in the last year.  


I've been following the blog of Joanne Heim, a beautiful woman of God who suffered a stroke on January 11th.  Thousands are praying for her and her family, and there has been much praise lifted up to our sovereign God these past weeks as she shows signs, however small, of coming back!  You will find much humor, wisdom, and inspiration in Joanne's words, and I encourage you to check out her blog at:  www.thesimplewife.typepad.com.


Her husband and friends continue to post updates on her blog daily regarding Joanne's condition. Several of her family and friends are posting some of their favorite past blogs which Joanne wrote, and today's blog spoke to my heart in a special way.  Joanne was speaking of a disappointment her oldest daughter experienced when a weekend  she had planned with a best friend didn't work out.  Her daughter tried to come up with all sorts of ways to make it happen-to force it to work out, desiring to take control over it.  


Joanne wrote how her daughter reminded her of herself--"trying to force things to fit when the answer is no and realizing that to force it means compromising what you really want." And then God laid something on her heart:  Praise for everything.  The bad as well as the good.   
She was reminded of a quote from one of her favorite books, Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard:  "For DISAPPOINTMENTS accepted with PRAISE always seem to turn into EXTRA-RADIANT BLESSINGS."
And in the book, Winged Life, by the same author, these quotes:
"The secret of the victorious Christian living...is to go through each day praising God for everything--the bad as well as the good." 
"Don't try to hold onto anything in this life, but willingly let go, in order to be able to receive new enrichment from the Lord."
"Everything that is willingly laid down into death will be raised to life again in some more glorious and perfect form."


We've all had times in our life when we were given the chance to put all these words into practice.  It's rarely easy, but God knows best. We have the choice to to praise in the midst of disappointment, and trust him for the outcome. Those things that appear to be seemingly bad to us are part of that best...God's good and perfect will, even when we don't see the whole picture!
In Joanne's words, "It is never hypocrisy to act as we earnestly desire to feel, even though the feeling may be very contrary at the time." 


I plan to share Joanne's words with my friend tonight.

Rewind...

I've been putting off converting twenty-some years of VHS tapes to DVD for too long!  So today I took the plunge--beginning with Christmas 1988.  
Watching our two boys at the age of eight and two and a half on Christmas morning brought an onslaught of emotions. I was aghast at how young Tom and I looked! 

As I made my way into 1989 and viewed one of Josh's basketball games, my motherly pride swelled as I watched him dribble with deft skill and make a basket for the "Green Hornets!"  My parents sat cheering on the sideline - both just about the same age I am now!

The emotional roller coaster ride I experienced was not what I'd expected.  My plan was to plow through at least a dozen by noon, and finish another twelve before dinner.  I was a train wreck by mid-day! 


The lyrics to the John Lennon song, "Beautiful Boy," came to mind as I continued to glimpse various moments in time: (How did they pass so quickly?) 

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."  

I yearned to place myself inside that video, push "re-do,"and re-live the minutes. Life is made up of moments that turn into hours and become days, and too many times as a mom, I missed it. 

If we aren't living in the present, in the here and now, we will miss it - those ordinary days that truly are extraordinary.

Our children are with us for such a short time.  What I would give to have one more day, one more hour with my boys. The cleaning and laundry and dishes will always be there, but our children will not. Seize the day!  Live in the moment before the moment's gone. Recognize the immeasurable worth of what's right in front of you!

Linger a bit longer as you tuck your kiddos into bed tonight and gaze back on those elfin faces as they sleep...tomorrow they'll be graduating high school and you'll be watching DVD's, longing to rewind!










 
     

If He does not...

For many years I've wanted to delve deep into the prophetic book of Daniel, as I yearn for Daniels' resolute faith & courage, and unwavering trust in God.  I've become more conscious of the Babylonian mentality in our world today...greediness, over indulgence, our obsession with aging, beauty, position, and wealth.  Through its reading, God has given me an awareness of my own Babylonian mindset which creeps in subtly in daily life!

This last week, I've been impacted by the stanch loyalty of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to God in intense times of trial. Most of us have experienced  times of testing in our life, and our Godly loyalty - our ability to stand firm in faith, deeply tested our character and convictions.   

When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego  were thrown into the fiery furnace, they had already predetermined their loyalty to Jesus.Their resolve was firm; their integrity apparent no matter what the circumstance.  Everything they were on the inside was obvious from the outside.  

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king (Nebuchadnezzar).  But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

They knew there would be one of three outcomes:  

God would deliver them from the fire, and their faith would be built.

God would deliver them through the fire, and their faith would be refined (proved genuine-1Peter 1:7)

Or...

God would deliver them by the fire into His arms, and their faith would be perfected!

They knew that any of the above three was a win/win situation! 

...the God we serve is able to save us from it (the fiery furnace), and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.  But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.

I know that as we draw closer to the end times, my faith will be tested like never before, and it is my deepest desire that like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the last mention of my name would bring God fame!  Please Lord, may it be so!

 

Morning has broken

Mornings are my favorite time of the day!  Sitting out on our back patio this past summer has given me a keener knowledge of the wildlife all around me.  Surrounded with morning's quiet and nature's sounds, I've observed young crows learning the ins and outs of swooping down on their prey, woodpeckers with brilliant black feathers and clean white stripes hard at work pecking out beetles on the pine bark, a lone red tail fox darting into the woods with the first morning light, a doe with spotted fawns grazing in the tall grass, and squirrels and rabbits tromping through the grasses gathering food...always busy!

But this morning I was awed by the great pine trees that border the acreage behind our home -  here long before I was born (really old!). Grand and  majestic, there are several close by that have come together in pairs, as if they yearned for company! Each one forming an almost perfect half for the other, and yet together making one full, perfectly shaped whole. So much like two people coming together as one in marriage; each complimenting the other, making life full and complete!  Life is always reflected in the nature surrounding us, and this morning, God provided me with another beautiful example of harmony in his creation - in my own backyard!

Set apart

Lately, and more than a few times in these last months,  I have felt disconnected and detached, even among friends.  I've always been a leader; which has proved frustrating to me at various times throughout my life, and I've had only a handful of "like-minded" friends cross my life path. 

A good friend once shared with me that growing older and hopefully wiser has it's up side, and in these past months God has put me smack in the middle of several situations in which my perspective is definitely contrary to popular opinion!  I've been troubled by an attitude prevalent among believers that justifies worldly values and  compromises spiritual ones.

We're bound to face temptation in this life, simply by virtue of being human, yet so many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to endure, simply because we've refused to let God lift us to a higher level.
Temptation easily confuses us for a while- we don't know whether something is right or wrong.  We can't escape temptation- it's essential to the well-rounded life of a person, yet it constantly shifts our point-of-view and makes us lose what God has put into us through His Spirit.

As believers we have the idea that we should shield ourselves from some of the things God brings around us.  May this never be, as it is God who engineers our circumstances!  Whatever the circumstances, we must face them while continually abiding with Him in His temptations --temptations to the life of the Son of God in us.  Jesus' honor is at stake in our bodily lives.  

Yet what I've witnessed in recent years is a mind set that diminishes the circumstances God brings to us by deeming them harmless and nontoxic, when in reality they are an attack on His life in us! Temptation should never to be taken lightly, or dismissed as nondestructive.

Being in the world and not of the world  is what sets us apart.  God doesn't save us from temptation, but  He sustains us in the midst of it and grows us leaps and bounds in the process. Raising the standard as believers  sets us apart, in a world that would rather have us conform to the norm.

To such as these...

I witnessed the compassionate love of Jesus in one of my four/five-year-old  music classes today. One boy in the class, Christian, has been absent for several weeks. His dad is the new hitting coach for a Major League Baseball team, and so the family accompanied him to spring training.  For a four-year-old, coming back after many weeks of absence is hard--classrooms and classmates seem like strangers. 

As everyone chimed in, singing and moving to the music, Christian's eyes swelled with tears.  "I miss my mom," he sobbed.  

The petite figure standing next to him cuddled her tiny arms around his.  "It's alright, Christian.  It's hard coming back when you've been gone.  I cried when we had to leave my grandma's house to go home from vacation.  I know you miss your mom, but we're glad you're here,'cause we missed you. Do you want to sit down awhile?" Nodding yes through his sniffles, she guided him to a near-by chair, continuing to embrace him, as all gathered 'round to console.

And in that time-stopping moment, God's words came to mind, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."   

Leaving familiar surroundings for the unfamiliar is never easy for the big or the small.  There are times when we all need a little help from a friend.  And today, Jesus stepped in; personified in the diminutive form of a young girl.

I remember seeing a picture of Jesus smiling in one of our school offices.  Children were gathered around him, a few sitting on his lap. His face radiated joy as they clambered for his attention.  

I'm certain he was smiling like that today, watching "such as these" bring the kingdom of God to room 142.