Saturday, March 17, 2012

Days 20-21: Miracles, Miracles everywhere

Do you believe in miracles?  Have you ever heard God's voice?  Has there ever been a moment when the unexpected practically drops you to your knees in wonder and gratefulness?

I love days like that.

It used to be, these things happened, but I must have brushed them off as coincidence and luck.  I think I am just becoming less blind in my older age.  Thicker glasses.  More awareness of my inability to truly control a darn thing.  Enough stuff that I've survived to have an acute awareness of my need for community.  Mainly of my need for Christ.  And my desire to be good friends with Him.  It's the friendship that makes Him easier to hear. 

So...Two days ago, on the same day I found out about sweet teacher, my husband had to take our old car to the shop.  For a new transmission.

We have been saving up to buy a house, and had just put an offer on house number five.  Houses one thru four fell through.  So point being, as we are waiting to hear about buying said house, our car starts begging for some attention.  This would not be the month or season we want to have to pay attention to old car.

Well...Between the car and the house, I called good friend to ask what God might be thinking?  Had he, perhaps, let her know and just not told me?  She didn't have a clue either, but she also told me about sweet teacher.

And that just ruins my day a little bit more...I mean seriously?  Why? 

I love sweet teacher, as you know.

And....wait....heres the good stuff.

God finally decides I have waited long enough.  No more torturing me with my own pit of wallowing self pity and doubt.  (And, yes, I know I made that pit all by myself...)

Husband calls.  The car shop decided to hook up old car to the computer, found a transmission leak, fixed it, and filled up the fluids.  For free.  But only if we come back in a week so they can check it again to make sure we are safe.

Real estate agent calls three hours later.  We got house number five.  No counter offer.  Just - we got it. 

Twenty four hours later, friend texts.  Sweet teacher is sitting up and eating.  Going to make a full recovery.  Doctor is still in awe, because he has never known another in his whole career to survive the rare stroke sweet teacher endured.  Never.

So, Praise Jesus.  Praise God.  Praise the Spirit.

I really do love miracles. 

And... my thicker glasses are pretty cool too.


Matthew 13:16

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.




Thursday, March 15, 2012

Day 19: Sweet Teacher

Dust to dust, and between the dustings, we are to be Jesus to each other.  I wrote something similar last year at Lent, and that has stuck with me, turning round and round in my head, and popping back to the forefront from time to time. 

This morning I found out that a sweet, vibrant, young teacher in my boys' school suffered two strokes yesterday that may indeed take her life.  She is being held here with life support for the moment.  She is much younger than me and single, her whole life supposedly ahead of her.

Yet we cannot know God's plans.  We cannot know our time.  And we cannot separate ourselves from death, try as we might.  If I wanted to, I could ask about sweet teacher's family genetic history or health issues that could differentiate me from her.  Show why she might die that I live to see today.

But I would be fooling myself.

There is no difference from me to her.  From you to me.  The one certainty of life is death.  In this we are not separate, but together.

Yesterday I heard the question posed that usurps all other questions. 

What do others think you feel for them? 
a.  They know I love them.
b.  They think I care about them.
c.  They think I do not care.
d.  They think I hate them.

The only correct answer is a.  It is the only one that truly shows our neighbors, our family, our friends, and even our enemies, Jesus.

If I am honest with myself, there are probably more people in the b, c, and even d category than are in the a category.  And it makes me pause to wonder what I have been doing between these dustings of mine.

So, it stands to question, that between sweet teacher's dustings, was I ever Jesus for her?  Even for a moment?

I pray today for her.  For her family.  I pray her world is filled with a's, and I pray that wherever she journeys, she knows it.


And this is His command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.  Those who obey his commands live in him and he in them.  And this is how we know that he lives in us:  We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
I John 3:23-24

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Day 12: Hymn - Give Thanks

Give Thanks

by Henry Smith

Give thanks with a grateful heart,
give thanks to the Holy One,
give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son.

Give thanks with a grateful heart,
give thanks to the Holy One,
give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son.

And now,
let the weak say "I am strong."
 Let the the poor say "I am rich"
because of what the Lord has dome for us.

And now,
let the weak say "I am strong."
Let the poor say "I am rich"
because of what the Lord has done for us.

Give thanks.
Give thanks.
Give thanks.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Day 11: Laying on of hands

Sunday we went to church.

We heard a sermon.

We prayed.

We took communion.

And then.

My favorite part of the service comes right after communion.  Everybody is singing praise music and the priest stands front and center.  He holds this little vial of what appears to be lip balm.  It's really an ointment he rubs on the forehead of a person wanting healing or prayer - not actually lip balm.  He doesn't say a thing.  Doesn't have to.  No altar call.  No nothing.  Just standing there, people flock to the front and lay hands on each other and gather in a mass, heads bowed, all praying for each other.

I play the role of spectator each week, being that I think if I stood up to walk down front I would be way too self concious that everybody in the room would be staring at me wondering what is wrong that I would need healing.  It is what I wonder about everybody already up at the front.  Of course, I am not noticing their panty lines or whether their shoes match like I am so concerned that they would notice with me.  So, every week I sit and watch and pray.  Usually I get teary eyed because it is such a touching scene, and there is always some sweet child up there with his hands on an older person's back.  Seeing those little fingers reaching up out of that mass of people always gets me.  Just does, and I can't help it.

So there I am, spectating like usual, and I feel a little hand.  Right on my shoulder.  I look over, and there is my little Kelly being Jesus to me.  He can tell without words that I love the healing and that I am not about to walk up front no matter what.  And so, he lays hands on me right where I am.  Right there in our seats.  I ask Kelly if he wants me to pray with him, and he just nods yes.

And so we did, Kelly laying hands on me and me praying for him. 

Sweetest thing of my whole darn day...



Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Acts 13:3





   

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Days 7 - 10

Dear friends,

When I committed to write every day, I thought it would be like last time.  Difficult, but doable.  Highly motivating in my reconnection with God.

Instead, it has been sporadic and difficult and a bit short of doable.  And on days, such as today, when I have the time and inclination and access to my computer (my main hurdle this week), I feel nothing useful to share.

But I have felt God around me.  And I have seen Him all week in others.

Wednesday I found out that the bible teacher is planning to teach one more year while he plans to move to Azeria.  I think that's the place.  It is in the middle east.  Of the continent, not the U.S.  Moving to the middle eastern U.S. wouldn't be cause for concern.  But the middle east next to Iran and a bunch of other muslim countries that don't particularly like us a whole lot?  Much more need for prayer and preparation.  He and his wife and his infant daughter will be going as missionaries.  I find that particular life choice to be quite daring, and I have realized that while I can pray and collect stuff and send care packages and dollar bills, I am not a drop everything and go kind of gal.  Luckily, the Lord has use for all of us.

Thursday I had the pleasure of helping friends work out differences before they started solving issues with fists.  And, being I was teaching third grade, I had the surprise of being told that one child was explaining S.E.X. to the other children in the class.  One boy was upset at such a word, and while he admitted he wasn't sure what that word meant, he wanted me to make the others stop talking about it.  Apparently one girl's parents had decided to have "the talk" with her, and she felt inclined to share her newfound knowledge with the rest of the third grade during lunch.

Friday I got to join the fifth grade once again, and since I have been with these students a few times, we really did have a fun day together.  They are at that awkward stage where they are preparing to grow up soon, and they roll their eyes at me while asking me to pray for their pet dog that has a cold the next.  I love fifth grade.

And all throughout this week, my husband and I have tried, in vain, to buy a house, and my kids have had endless soccer lessons.  None of us has been home, and I think the kids have worn the same t shirt for three days now.

But we're happy.  We have prayed together.  We are leaving our future in Christ's hands.  And we get to go to church tomorrow for the first time in four or five weeks.

So, there's an update on Lent.  I pray in all of your daily journeys, Christ is meeting you. 

Love and blessings,

Patty