My dad loves hiking and taking extended walks. I have an early childhood memory of taking a long hike with him while our family camped one year. I can hear him singing with us kids as we turned another corner on the winding path.
“What’s around the corner?…Just another corner!”
We laughed as we came around each bend and sang the little song again and again. As I think about that scenario now, I wonder if we were actually lost and my Dad was just being very successful at distracting us!
In May of this year, just three short months ago, I had no idea what was around the corner for my family and me.
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Most of us do not have enemies. We do not have actual individuals in our lives that are our sworn enemy, or nemesis as in the “arch enemy” of comic books and super hero movies. Yes, some who read this might, but MOST of us do not.
When reading the Bible and its use of the word “enemy” I sometimes replace it with the words, “my thoughts”, because my biggest enemy is right here in my very own head. Negative thoughts, beliefs and lies.
With this in mind, let’s read Psalm 143:3-12. I will just quote verses 3 and 4, you will want to go read the rest; it is pretty amazing!
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“She’s taken some breathes on her own.” Those seven words brought a dramatic and noisy change to the hospital ICU waiting room. My family all cheered and laughed after too many days of careful, cautious smiles to one another. Hope is an amazing and powerful commodity. We cannot conjure it up on our own as hard as we may try. As believers we know that God is good and that He loves our mother even more than we do. So we hung on to that very real and deeply planted knowledge.
A few days later I asked Him where He was because things were not going well for our mom… His answer came swiftly, “As close as your breath.”
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When I was a little girl, Easter meant exactly 3 things to me.
- I would get to wear a pretty new dress that probably involved a very scratchy petticoat underneath.
- There would be a big basket of candy and colored Easter eggs hidden in one of the closets in our home.
- And Jesus was alive!
I am not sure what each of those things has to do with the other, but I would never turn down a chance for candy and new clothes. If we celebrated Jesus by munching on sweets and wearing some sparkly white gloves; that was perfectly fine with me.
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My husband loves his motorcycle and I love to join him on the back and fly around our picturesque country roads.
The freedom of getting out of the house and enjoying the beauty of God’s creation always gives me a sense that all is right in my world. As I sit behind my husband, I often find myself smiling and worshiping God as we point out the beautiful sights we discover in our area. I talk to God and thank Him for His goodness to us.
One day while we roamed the countryside I heard a very quick and clear sentence from God that messed me up a lot.
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God sings over us? Have you ever thought about that possibility? Even the robotic and socially awkward Sheldon Cooper on “The Big Bang Theory” admits to needing the comfort of a song in times of stress or illness. He often asks his friends to sing the song from his childhood…
Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur.
Happy kitty, sleepy kitty,
purr purr purr.
As silly as that little song is, it was easier to believe than the whispered song that I heard during a desperate time of struggle in my life. I am not musical, so I cannot translate the tune that accompanied this song, but it is in my head and heart forever.
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Are you ready for some active participation? This was one of my favorite activities to do with the students in our small ministry school. The following statements must be read ALOUD. You can do it in a room alone or find a small group and do it together. Either way, it is guaranteed to be a powerful act. I wrote these statements from real life experience and I too, have trouble believing them sometimes. But I still know them to be true.
Faith must be engaged when we struggle to accept how much God loves us. Verbalizing His love for us is a healthy way to move from hope, to faith, to real belief.
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I told the directors of the children’s church Christmas program that my son was too young to be a shepherd. He was three years old and not one of those quiet and shy toddlers that look so sweet on the church platform under bright lights. But they insisted and I gave in.
I love children’s Christmas programs. I giggle at Joseph, stumbling across the platform in his daddy’s bathrobe, with a dishtowel wrapped around his head and Mary, serenely holding her baby by his feet. Nothing can really go very wrong in a children’s nativity scene. Everything they do is so cute.
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