Moving, part 1

I’ve often heard it said that when you let God write your story it will be miraculous. This is something that we have experienced recently with all the changes that are going on in our life. Talk about perfect orchestration!! The Lord truly is our caring and powerful God. Our journey into Chaplaincy has begun and the first part of our story goes like this… In obedience to the ministry God called us (yes, us) to, we put our house up for sale the first week of December. God was moving us and we felt we had no choice but to follow His leading. The house was shown to a few people over the course of the month, and then a few days after Christmas the house was shown to a woman who eventually ended up being our buyer. We had an offer the first week of January. For those of you who are keeping up, that is exactly one month from the ‘For Sale’ sign going up until we got an offer…all while the economy is in the worst downturn since the Great Depression, according to economists. Through God’s provision, we were allowed to stay in our house until a month before our time to depart for North Carolina. We were blessed by Christian friends who helped us repair everything from a “shakey” toilet to rotted boots on the roof, all for free or drastically reduced cost. We were again blessed by Christian friends who helped us move virtually everything into storage in one day. And now Dylan and I will have time to rest and recuperate before we depart for the next leg of our journey. We are all adjusting to our new living quarters at my in-laws, another blessing we were given along this journey. We humans are settling in nicely; the dogs, however, are not happy campers. They want to go back “home” and are breaking out of their pin in an effort to do so!! I am a somewhat organized person and I really like planning things, but even I couldn’t have put this together any better. I am reminded again that there is no better place to be than in the center of God’s will!!!

Give me your eyes

Looked down from a broken sky

Traced out by the city lights

My world from a mile high

Best seat in the house tonight

Touched down on the cold black top

Hold on for the sudden stop

Breath in the familiar shock

Of confusion and chaos

All those people going somewhere,

Why have I never cared?

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

Ones that are far beyond my reach.

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

Step out on a busy street

See a girl and our eyes meet

Does her best to smile at me

To hide what's underneath

There's a man just to her right

Black suit and a bright red tie

Too ashamed to tell his wife

He's out of work

He's buying time

All those people going somewhere

Why have I never cared?

I've Been there a million times

A couple of million eyes

Just moving past me by

I swear I never thought that I was wrong

Well I want a second glance

So give me a second chance

To see the way you see the people all along

~Brandon Heath

Sunday thoughts

This has been a tough week for me to stay tuned-in spiritually. I felt so distracted all week by so many things vying for my attention. The longer I went without feeding myself spiritually, the more my attitude suffered and the guilt set in. I found myself so looking forward to church today and what the sermons and lessons held. And God didn't disappoint. In spite of my lean spiritual diet this week, God was faithful to show me:

• Peter was asked by the resurrected Christ "Do you love Me more than these?" Now it's hard to imagine that after seeing your Lord crucified, buried, and resurrected you could even conceive of answering "no" to that question. Yet we worship the resurrected Lord (resurrected is the only way we've known Him) who sent his Spirit to live in our hearts, and to this day he still begs that same question. How many of us allow ourselves to be asked that question? Let alone, to say yes to it, and mean it? It hit me this weekend as a great reminder of what my family is in the midst of. As I laid down for a moment's rest, with boxes piled high around me, I read that question: "Do you love Me more than these?" More than this house, than these pleasantries, than convenience, than comfort, than the American dream, than your kids, than your husband? I have answered these questions before in my heart, but reflecting on them was a well-placed reminder, Lord.
• It's all about Jesus. IT'S ONLY ABOUT JESUS. Everything else is vanity and temporal. Without Him, all is meaningless and lost.
• Christ seeks to effect us in the smallest of ways of our life (i.e. attitude, conduct, character) that He may be seen in the biggest ways of our life.
  

Musings of a pregnant woman

There are certain things that run through one's mind when one is gestating. These things are random, but real concerns. Things like:

1. Do the folks at Post Cereal know that their "Grape Nuts" have been successfully tempering my 'night nausea' for over 3 weeks now? If so, I think they would begin to advertise it on the box.


2. I am told that my baby is now the size of a peanut (the nut or the shell, I know not). Which I'm sure is right. However, how can something that small demand that I eat double portions of everything in sight? That "peanut" must be generating an inferno of nuclear fusion in there to need so much fuel!!


3. Should one really "need" maternity clothes at 10 weeks? I mean, come on, really.


4. I am terrified of "dry heaving" in public. Vomiting, the general public can handle. But dry heaving, what is that about? Men can't interpret that!


5. Whoever coined the terms "Estimated Date of Confinement" and "Full Term" must have really understood the similarities between pregnancy and a jail sentence.

The bottom line is that babies are wonderful, God-created beings. And pregnancy is a means to that end. An often non-glamerous, nauseating, weight-gaining means to that end. Pregnancy tests our will as women. A will that only that child can test more. If having babies were easy (i.e. no pregnancy), then I believe we would be unprepared for the child that pops out. Also, I believe, we cherish our babies more because of the fight we have endured to bring them here. As unpleasant as pregnancy is, God knew what he was doing. Gestating is a process of preparation...undoubtedly for the baby, but also for us moms. And God, I think you are preparing me well!!!