Sucker Punch

You can check out my story on page 22 of Praying from the Heart:  True Stories of Extraordinary Answers to Prayer from the editors of Guideposts.

TMOTC Summer Blog

No, I didn't take the summer off...read through the New Testament with my Prairie Lakes Church gals in Cedar Falls, Iowa. My Bible Study ladies from Tuesday Morning on the Corner (TMOC) shared throughout the summer. We would love to have you join us!

Click here to read the blog

Safe

I have this beautiful antique rocking chair. Salvaged from a loft over our garage. Stripped down and refinished by the skillful and loving hands of my grandparents. It was love at first sight for me and I was a preschooler when we found it.

Each time we have moved--and we have moved around a lot--we take the chair with us. Other treasures would get stored away, but the chair was always given a place to rest in a room, usually tucked snugly into a corner of my study. Reserved for special times. Reflective times. Insecure times. Times when I was in need of special comforting.

This move was different. We moved in June and our new baby was due in August. My daughter was the one who was pregnant, but we were expecting a baby! So, when we moved, I placed the rocker in the corner of the master bedroom, awaiting the arrival of our first grandchild and for the rocker to serve the purpose it was created for.

August arrived and so did our granddaughter. Perfect and precious and loved beyond measure. But even perfect and precious babies have problems falling asleep sometimes, and one evening she was particularly agitated. I decided to retire to my bedroom and rock her in my special chair.

I cradled her to my chest and sat in my beloved chair. CRASH! My world came tumbling down swiftly, noisily, and without a single warning. I could not keep us from falling. What I had been relying on for support was in pieces beneath me.

And the bundle in my arms? Still in my arms. Still gazing up at me with wide, wakeful eyes. Unfazed by the splintered remains around us. Unfazed by the vicious corner of the dresser we had miraculously avoided on our way to the floor. Her focus was on the one who held her...not on the circumstances surrounding her.

Not only is she precious and perfect! She is also wise!! Where is my focus when circumstances are crashing and crumbling all around me? Am I frantically scanning the horizon for jagged corners and splintered remains? Or is my gaze locked onto the One who is holding me in His loving embrace?

Let me live forever in Your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter
of your wings. Psalm 61:4 NLT

Do the Shuffle!

Times are tough! Did I hear an "amen"? Today my son tells me there is going to be a lockdown at school because of a rumored gang fight. Yesterday I read that China is joining the chorus for a global currency to be established. Unemployment is up. Stocks are down. Punches are being thrown right and left. Even nature is joining in the fray. Blizzards in the West. Flooding in the Midwest. Twisters in the South.

What's a body to do when one of the punches lands? Like a phone call. One that announces that your income has just been reduced by ten percent. Of course, that is on top of the drop of your stock portfolio that came earlier that wiped out retirement funds. An ole "one-two punch".

Well, I chose to dig out the Nikes and take it to the road. I chose to clip on the iPod Shuffle loaded with praise music and do a little worship on the run. So I chugged down the road working up a sweat and a beet red face (those who know me know what that looks like!!! Not a pretty sight...) I thanked God that we still had a job. Promised Him that their ten percent was not His ten percent. Thanked Him for letting us spend the winter at the beach. Thanked Him for our family and our health. Thanked Him for the baby blessing that will be delivered in August. Thanked Him for His goodness.

Then, I started to formulate a plan. Here is how it went...when I finished my out-and-back, I'd do my cool-down walk along the boardwalk. (yes, stinky and beet-faced.) And when I reached the end, I would walk out to the edge of the sand and sing whatever song shuffled onto my playlist to Him at the edge of His ocean. I was getting kinda excited about this! I liked this plan. Decided whatever the song said, I'd do it. If it said "with lifted hands", I'd raise 'em high. If it said "down on my knees", I'd bow down (after a run, I might not get back up, but I'd get down there!!) If it said "I will dance", I'd do a jig.

Man, I was feeling good! I couldn't wait to make my offering at the ocean! But do you know what happened. None of what I had planned. Not a single thing. I walked down to the edge as a song wound down. My heart raced with anticipation. What would the next song be and how had God chosen for me to worship Him?

The song started. I had never heard it before. Couldn't sing a single word. Had to be still and listen. And you know what happened? God sang a song over me!

The LORD your God is with you,

He is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

He will quiet you with his love,

He will rejoice over you with singing."
Zephaniah 3:17

I have a choice!

Would you agree that things are pretty crazy right now? Headlines shout that things aren't the same anymore. Check these out "Iconic Corporate Giants Crumble", "Russian Scholar Says US Will Collapse Next Year", "Analysis: Goodbye Coke and Oreos". Coke and Oreos!?!? Say it ain't so!

Yet, the God of the universe who sits upon the throne tells us in Deuteronomy 30:19

"Today I have given you the choice...

Everyday we are given a choice. Not just a once-in-a-lifetime. Not a now or never. Everyday. Yes, even when today is like no other day we have seen in our lifetime. I have a choice and so do you.

...between life and death...

What???? Not between Coke or RC and Oreos or Kroger brand cookies. He's talking life and death. I don't know about you, but the Coke or RC was hard for me. Life and death? That seems like a no-brainer. Yet the world seems to place brand name versus generic above adoption or abortion...marriage or divorce...forgiveness or bitterness...truth or lies. Now wait just a minute. Those are hitting closer to home than I want to admit. How about you?

...between blesssings and curses...

So now it's saying that my choices have consequences? What I choose makes a difference? And that those consequences can be beneficial or detrimental?

Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make.

Can't I just make these choices in the privacy of my own home? or head? Do I have to have an audience!?!?!

Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

And that it is not "It's my life. I can do what I want." The choices that I make affect others? I have to consider long term effects for me...and them?

How are you feeling right now? Take out your thermometer and take your psychological temperature. Are you dangerously cold right now? Maybe at a fever pitch? Dangerously high and risking damage to the brain?

Consider this. In a world that is spinning out of control, our good Shepherd, our Abba Father, our Counselor says, "I AM giving you a choice today that can give you life and blessings and can be beneficial to you and your children. And we are watching. And We are for you. Not against you."

Now that is a hope I'm willing to invest in!!

How about you?

...Is it ABOUT ME?

Have you been to church? Churches have all kinds of names...not to mention all kinds of denominational labels which may or may not be part of that name. Churches have all kinds of meeting places...big cathedrals to quaint little chapels, large public venues to hillside amphitheaters. To movie theaters and school cafeterias and a person's living room...

If you haven't been, I invite you to go check it out. It can be quite entertaining to see how many different ways people do this thing called "church". If you have been, but never been outside your own setting or denomination, I challenge you to go check out some of the others. It can be interesting. People really do this thing called "church" many different ways.

There are a few key elements that seem to remain the same...most have a message, offering, music. They may do these three, but the way they do them can be WAY different. Who delivers the message? A guy in a robe, or maybe a gal? Maybe someone in shorts and a T. Is it live or video feed? Do they pass a plate, a bucket or have a drop box in the back?

Then there is the dilemma of music...traditional or contemporary? Instruments...now that can get interesting. An organ with pipes? A guitar with amps? Voices only? Voices shouting or lips syncing? And how demonstrative do the participants get? Hands waving or clutching a hymnal? Toes tapping, dancing a jig, or digging into the carpet?

Moving around all over the country has forced me out of my comfort zone and into a variety of other zones. It has challenged me to consider and reconsider how I do this collective thing called "worship".

Now we all have our personal preferences. But this thing called worship...is it about my personal preferences? Am I worshipping me? Or should it be about the preferences of the One I am worshipping?

Love God, your God, with your whole heart:

love Him with all that's in you, love Him with all you've got!

Deut. 6:5

Sing praise-songs to God. He's done it all! Let the whole earth know what He's done.

Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out...

Isaiah 12:5a

God, I've heard what our ancestors say about You,

and I'm stopped in my tracks, down on my knees.

Habakkuk 3:1

"Teacher, get your disciples under control!"

But He said, "If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise."

Luke 19:39-40

Then Ezra praised God, the great God,

and all the people responded, "Oh Yes! Yes!" with hands raised high.

And then they fell to their knees in worship of God, their faces to the ground.

Nehemiah 8:5b

Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine,

and all the women followed her with tambourines, dancing.

Miriam led them in singing, Sing to God--what a victory!...

Exodus 15:20

Hannah prayed: "I'm bursting with God-news! I'm walking on air.

I'm laughing at my rivals. I'm dancing my salvation.

1 Samuel 2:1

And Mary said, I'm bursting with God-news;

I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.

Luke 1:46.

...from The Message

GPS

I didn't need one in Indiana, but I don't know what I would do without it in North Carolina. Maybe it's because I'm new to North Carolina, and I knew Indiana. My GPS in not a luxury it is a necessity here in Wilmington. I'm telling you, I love my GPS!!

As I look back over my travels and relocations, I'd have to say that while I was doing the thing, it all looked like a road map to me. Not a nice, neat, spiral bound Atlas. Not a laminated version. A crumpled up, can't-figure-out-how-to-fold-this-darn-thing paper map.

Which way do I turn? For pitty sake, which way do I even hold the thing? I'm the person that looks at a map and has to rotate the map when we make a turn to keep it straight in my head. So, I need a GPS.

I also need a GPS for life, but it seems all I have is a ratty old paper map. I try to keep twisting and turning it with each new crossroad, but somehow can't seem to fold it up all nice and neat. Where is my GPS!??!?

Yet, when I look back over my travels, it seems to all make sense to me now. In Indiana, God did some extensive training. He sent me to college to be a teacher and to Big Brothers Big Sisters to learn the importance of mentoring.

Then in Coastal Georgia, He whispered a calling to minister through one-to-one relationships. On up the road in North Georgia, He challenged me by expanding the vision to include adults as well as children.

When the northern trek continued, He took me to Iowa to start merging the knowledge with the vision. And as I returned to the South and the Coast, He allowed a returning to my roots with a school-based mentoring ministry. The scene through the rearview mirror might look clearer now, but the front windshield sure was pretty fogged up along the way.

Of course, you were probably screaming at me the whole time you were reading this, "God is your GPS, fool. Shut up and listen!!" And if you were, you are right.

Major Marker: Alone with God

After six days Jesus took

Peter, James and John

with him and led them up a high mountain,

where they were all alone.

There he was transfigured before them.

Mark 9:2 NIV

Then Jesus went with them

to a garden called Gethsemane

and told his disciples,

"Stay here while I go over there and pray."

Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee...

Matthew 26:36 MSG

If for one second you have ever been tempted to think that living life with Christ would be boring...well, I'm here to tell you that you are flat out WRONG.

OK, so I went to Coastal Georgia. Saw the ocean. Cast my sins to the ocean floor and haven't the slightest desire to jump in after them. Not to say there aren't times the thought crosses my mind. But that's where it ends. I've seen the power of the ocean and a few of the creatures in the sea and have decided I like staying on the beach!!

But then God said to pack my bags...and suggested I'd need a world atlas for this next jaunt. That's right. I lived the next year out of a suitcase. It took me north to Atlanta, and further still north to Michigan. If that were not enough, we then traveled west to get to the Far East.

From famine of biological family and feasting with spiritual siblings, He took me further still for some one-on-one time with the Father and the Word.

The Word became flesh

and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory,

the glory of the One and Only,

who came from the Father,

full of grace and truth.

John 1:14 NIV

Guidepost: God's Word and His family

Noun
1. A rule or principle that provides guidance to appropriate behavior.
2. A post bearing a sign that gives directions or shows the way.Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

When you have lived forty years in the same general vicinity you don't have to know much about reading maps...no need for a GPS...never have to stop and ask for directions. You just know how to get there. Don't even pay much attention to the road names besides the signs they are written on. Maybe that is why God said "We're moving to Savannah. It's high time you learned how to read My map."

Now I knew that Savannah was in Georgia. I'd read Gone with the Wind five times and watched the movie at least that many times. But I had to get out a map to pin point its exact location. Coastal Georgia (can't say I knew Georgia actually reached the coast.) Awesome!

It wasn't just corn fields I was leaving behind in the Hoosier state. I was leaving family...biological family. I was leaving my mom! Most of our immediate and extended family lived in Indiana. In the same county even. It was huge for me.

But the guidepost God erected for me in Georgia was the importance of my spiritual family. He allowed a famine of biological family so that I could feast at the table with my spiritual family.

It took us awhile to find a church home. We'd go camp out at one. Pitch our tent. Feel obligated to stay--didn't want to hurt their feelings ya know. Then we gravitated to another. Repeat scenario. Finally, God got us where He wanted us and just in the nick of time. I'm not sure I would have made it through that leg of the journey if it weren't for my family of Grace.

My new family introduced me to in-depth Bible study and Beth Moore. I learned to love God's Word and Truth there. Learned that God had a purpose for my life. I learned what it meant to have someone walk along side of me...a spiritual momma who had walked a similar road. I learned that it was okay to be authentic and flawed and still be loved.

So I started reading the road map that God gave us for the journey. Gave Gone with the Wind a break and started reading the Bible.

The "Go" of God

Set up road signs;

put up guideposts.

Take note of the highway,

the road that you take.

Jeremiah 31:21

Signs along the road. They were put there to be ignored, right? I mean, we all know that the speed limit isn't really 65 (except maybe in Virginia!) Stop seems to mean yield to most drivers. Oh, and only in Savannah does the pedestrian crossing sign seem to matter. On Long Island they told me I was crazy to think that the walk sign was really for pedestrians--only if you were willing to take your life in your own hands did you dare believe it really meant it was safe to walk now. Seems like a big waste of tax payers dollars to keep putting up all of those signs. They clutter the landscape. Ruin the view.

Now the one sign that I have noticed that most drivers give credence to is the traffic light. We seem to like electronic devices better than mere print material. Ever tried to ignore a green light? The driver behind you often takes a personal interest in that decision and reciprocates with a decision of his own to lay on his horn. I've also seen the horn used to chastise someone who thought the red light surely wasn't meant for him.

So let's take this discussion from the highway to the Most High's way. The sign I am most enamored with at this point is the "go" of God. What does it mean when He says "go"? We often hear the "no" of God preached from the preacher's pulpit and the parent's lips. But what about His "go"?

I remember telling Him at one point that I would go wherever He wanted me to go. I must say in my brain I was thinking short term mission trips to exotic countries. I must admit that when I look back on that, I was thinking in terms more like a vacation than a vocation. He, however, took me at my word and asked me to go to Georgia...not the country, the state. Now moving to Georgia from Indiana has a lot of perks. Savannah is a beautiful city that offers history, art, and an ocean view. Not too shabby, I'm thinking.

But then He asked me to move from an ocean view to a mountain view. Never was a big fan of the red clay of north Georgia or the big city of Atlanta, but, hey, I was near the foothills. I soon found out that was a mere pit stop on the journey. Just a quick rest stop on my trip further north to Iowa. In case you don't know, there are no ocean views or mountain vistas in Iowa. But I had promised God I would go when He told me to go; so I went. Even if it was cold.

I've taken note of the road I've been taking. I'll share a few of the guideposts I've put up along the way if you care to check back.