Someone worth listening to....

       To be a blogger, you have to probably be a little strange:)  My only comfort is that if this hobby of mine means I'm a bit weird, I am in good company!  There must be 40 billion bloggers out there and that being the case, I'm truly grateful if anyone reads mine.
    I realize that to ask anyone to read what I write is asking a lot in this day and time because A) I'm not succinct like other bloggers and B) everyone is so busy.  So one of my goals for 2012 is to respect the limitations of my own abilities and the time constraints of others.  Translate that to: I nearly killed myself trying to blog every day in Nov. and Dec. and it ain't going to happen agin... :)
    The only reason I'm writing so soon  again is to put the word out that there is a testimony on You tube worth hearing, or maybe I should say, there is a lady out there who is definitely worth knowing - someone I wish I could meet personally, someone I wish I could introduce to every loved one and friend I have.
   Her name is Vera Schlamm and she's with the Lord now, has been since 2008.  She grew up under the Nazis and she was Jewish so that probably says a lot about her formative years.  Her education ended about the ninth grade thanks to anti-Semitism  and her family eventually escaped to Holland. But, like Anne Frank, they still ended up in a concentration camp.  Miraculously they all survived Bergen Belsen, became part of a prisoner exchange, and then got  shuffled from Switzerland to Africa and back to Holland before the war truly ended for them. Eventually, they  made it to the States. When they arrived, although Vera had had no high school and it had been years since she'd been in a classroom, she read and understood 5 languages (some of which were self-taught) and she was accepted into a college.  From there, her professors suggested she go to med school, which she did.  And eventually she became a successful pediatrician in Glendale, California.

   Her testimony tells not only the main points of her life story but also delineates her search for truth and peace.  If you listen to her story, you will find that she is soft-spoken with a trace of an accent and more than a trace of serenity, even though she lived with health problems throughout her life due to various times of near-starvation when she was young. (For one thing, her growth was severely stunted; I  think she was only about 4 feet 9 inches tall.  For another, she had chronic edema throughout her adult life.).   A week or so ago, I found that her autobiography, Pursued, could be ordered through Amazon.  I was thrilled when I got it, not only because I could re-read her story (the first time I got it was through the inter-library loan system and they had to go out of state to find one copy) but because it was signed by her. Underneath her signature, she wrote, Isaiah 12:2.

    It takes 45 minutes to listen to her story which I know is a lot to work into overcrowded schedules.  And maybe you have to listen a little closer because of her accent although Phil and I had no trouble understanding her.  But I don't think you could find a better person to spend some time with on a long winter evening.  So if you would consider listening to the link below or bookmarking it for another day, I can't imagine that you would regret it.  Certainly, it won't be a waste of your time.  Hopefully, it will touch your heart the way it did ours.

   

Alright-okay-uhhuh-amen!

     Life can seem  - and be -so complicated that at times, even as a retiree, I wish I could "streamline" things a bit more.  At the advanced age of 57, I've decided that if you want a life where all "your ducks are in a row", you need to A) never have a job  B) never get married   C) never have kids  D) never own a home  E) never remodel said home  F) never align yourself in any way, shape, form or fashion with utilities and/or tax people. Oh, and don't buy a car... Or groceries even for that matter...
   Basically life is messy, ducks waddle all over the place, and frogs don't have wings...
   Yet, the heart - or at least my heart - often longs for simplicity, for everything to be "right", all deadlines met, nothing hanging over my head or nagging at my subconscious, everybody happy, everybody well, etc.  But that isn't the way it is here.  Two days ago I went to the grocery store and on the soup aisle no less, this total stranger, a well-dressed woman who looked to be about my age, went off on a tirade about how the soup cans were smaller but the price had increased.  From there she leap-frogged  to the proposed pipeline from Canada and assured me, with a few expletives thrown in here and there, that more people died from the Alaskan pipeline than we'll ever know because the authorities are keeping it all a big secret.
  Ummm.... I just went in there for some cans of soup...
  And being a people-person, I hated to leave the poor woman ranting and raving at thin air so I stood there, tomato soup can in one hand and chicken with rice in the other and tried to commiserate with her even though I don't believe in national conspiracies that are first brought to light in the canned-goods aisle of Edwards Food Giant...  As she went on about how wealthy politicians are stiffing the ordinary people and how Obama will sort it all out if he gets re-elected, I'm trying to look sympathetic on the outside but on the inside I'm thinking, "Get a grip, lady!  Europe has been going belly-up financially these past few months, Syria is about to go into civil war, Iran is trying to get nukes and threatening to shut off the strait of Hormuz, Haiti is still trying to recover from a devastating earthquake that happened two years ago and you think  A) we've got it bad here???  And B) one man,  be he democrat or republican, is going to straighten all this out??
   Finally, I said something that I hoped was friendly, grabbed my grocery cart and fled, looking over my shoulder after I got in the check-out line to make sure she wasn't behind me.
   Life is complicated.
  Today on the way home from running errands, I put in a CD by Rich Mullins and found myself smiling, even laughing as one of his songs cut through the complexity of life and "put the world right" again for me.  In fact, several of the songs gave me much needed perspective but I wanted to share one in particular from the album, called "Songs".  Sometimes when I think everything is said and done, it all boils down to this:
  There's been sorrow and trouble
 In the world ever since
 But there's hope for us still 
In the Word God says 
If we just be smart enough to just say yes
Smart enough to say yes to Him.
 

Ten on the Tenth....

     We finally all succumbed to the requisite cold bug for wintertime in Arkansas.  David is almost over it; Phil and I are in the throes of it.  So this blog comes to you by way of Stopped-Up-Heads and Tissues-R-Us in the capital city of the great state of Woo Pig Sooie.. .Razorbacks... (And, no, I don't have any cold medicine in me as I write....Ha!)

     Things the cold bug has made me appreciate...
     1. First on the list would  be my sister-in-law and niece who brought us OTC cold medicine tonight and chocolate cake.  This may not sound like much. But neither Phil nor I feel like hunting for cold meds right now and we're running low.  Plus, my sweet sister-in-law can be within a 5 mile vicinity of a sinus germ and get sick.  So she went above and beyond the call of duty and we are grateful.  We never doubt her love for us.

     2.  I actually appreciate being able to breathe - something I take for granted every day. Now that we are all walking around with our mouths open, looking like Nemo underwater, I appreciate the effortlessness of daily breathing and feel for those who are permanently dependent on oxygen and other devices to help them breathe.

     3.  I am grateful that when I snap my husband's head off, he doesn't snap back.  (He says there is a reason why he doesn't but I don't think I'll go into that...)

   4.  I'm grateful that none of us had to go to work today. Work is a blessing but being able to lay in bed guilt-free when you could work but really don't feel like it - that is also a blessing.

   5.  I'm grateful for the rainy day we had.  Almost like mother nature is in sympathy with our blowey noses and our watery eyes... almost like the weather is cavalierly saying, "Take the day off!!  There's nothing you can do out here anyway in all this mud and such."  So.... we did!

  6.  I'm grateful for a warm house and electricity, blankets and also for  little dogs who curl up by your feet when you feel like heck.  Also for the two bird feeders in our front yard and the ability to watch the little guys come out in the rain to feast - a Cardinal against a grey sky, a small black-and-white Woodpecker hanging on to the small feeder.  Blessings...

  7.  I'm grateful for all the days when we don't feel like heck and for the fact that this is our first really bad cold of the 11-12 winter.

  8.  I'm grateful for the internet and the fact that I can listen to neat stories through Dr. Dobson's Family Talk Radio - people like Ravi Zacharias, people that I would never be able to meet or hear without electronic devices.  Being sick gives me the desire and the time  to sit still and listen.

  9.  I am grateful for the way the Lord meets me every morning when I open my Bible and prayerfully start reading.   This afternoon I was thinking that I didn't really have any friends to talk to and even if I did, they couldn't understand me since my head is clogged and I'm not exactly speaking English right now...:)  Then I remembered how He meets me every day and has lifted my heart every time over the past week or so and I felt joy, knowing my best friend is ready to visit  with me at the drop of a hat and I don't have to worry about Him getting my germs or understanding my words...

10.  I am thankful for all the blessings that God gives, both in this life and in the next.

A Prayer for Every Day of 2012...???

 
   You never know what you will find on the net.  I've just spent an hour probably, looking at pictures posted by a girl I've never met, had no clue she even existed.  Her name is Jessica Joy Rees and she just graduated to Heaven two days ago at the age of 12.   The info. at her website and the pictures on her Facebook page pretty much tell it all, although I think maybe I learned more from her FB photos than the webpage.  (http://www.jessicajoyrees.com/).  And I think it's because under each FB picture, Jessie posted comments that spoke volumes about her family, her faith, her mission, and her joy in life.  Usually she just wrote a sentence or two, sometimes just a phrase but each entry gave a day by day snapshot of who she really was (and is).
   Perhaps the thing that amazed me most were the pics she posted of other children with cancer.  Underneath each pic, she had words of encouragement and/or a request for prayer for each child.  Clearly, she struggled with her own cancer at times and went through things most of us hope we never ever have to endure.  But her motto was Never Ever Give Up (NEGU) and she not only  lived that motto but, even as ill as she was, spent her time encouraging other children to live the same way.
   Romans 8   says:  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?
   Jessie had hope that she would be totally healed and that hope is now realized in ways she could not have imagined.
   Her parents had hopes that she would be restored to health here on earth. Their hopes were not realized and now they have a hard road ahead of them to walk as do her siblings.  
   As I read about her (and thought about other children/young people who  have also gone to Heaven way before their time due to this illness), this is what I felt:


   1. If we are blessed with life, we need to use it.  The quality of Jessie's life as she fought an inoperable brain tumor was diminished  but she appreciated the life she had, however limited,  and used what little energy she had  to pour life into others.  If she could do that, surely I can get up off my arthritic knees and do something as well.  Bottom line: it's not the quality of life that we have, it's life itself that is the gift.  And it's not how much energy we have, it's how much motivation we have that drives us.  

  2.  Her father is a pastor and I'm guessing he's a good one. Certainly the entire family pulled together in love and faith, rallied behind Jessie and reached out to thousands of kids right along with her.  I'm sure they prayed in faith for her healing and did everything right.  But God chose to heal her in Heaven.  Sometimes His ways are past finding out here on earth and to think that faith always protects us from hard times is a lie that does much damage.  When my mom had cancer, someone sent her a quote from a missionary's talk. The quote said, "We know that God delivers us from trouble .. but not always.  We know that God delivers us out of trouble... but not always.  We know that God sustains us in trouble... always."  Jesus Himself said in John 16:33   “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  Or as Beth Moore put it:  God may deliver you from the fire, or He may deliver you out of the fire, or He may deliver you by the fire to His place in Heaven.  He always delivers but not always in the way we want and if He delivers one child of cancer here on earth and not another, it has nothing to do with the children, their parents, or their faith - it has everything to do with His sovereign plan which we simply aren't able to grasp at this time - never having seen the other side of the curtain.

3.  One thing I need to do - and I hope others will do also - is to commit to pray regularly, faithfully (daily, I hope) that childhood cancer will be eradicated.   When it's gone, when there is a reliable cure, there will be one less evil in our sin-cursed environment.   I hope others will join me in this. I know there's a ton of things to pray for every day but my plan is to put this plea on my daily list. 

4.  Another thing I need to do is to support kids here in my area who have cancer. And, if I can figure out how to do it, I think the best option right now would be to purchase a Joy Jar so that a child here would be able to get the gift of joy that Jessie herself would give if she were here to do  it.  And then pray that all the cancer kids in this area get their own jars in the near future.  What a neat thing that would be to have happen - if it hasn't happened already.  Honestly, that would be something to blog about!

Amazing how a random headline on Yahoo can change my thoughts entirely. And this time, for the good!

Now how else can I end this blog but with the motto of her own heart?

NEGU!!!

Random moment...

     Okay. I think this is probably very un-cool...  But I filched a little bit here and there from a book I did not buy in the Christian book store - but I will... I promise!!!  I didn't rip the pages out of it or anything... Just read snatches of it here and there and then thought, since I'd already gone over budget on books in Dec., that I'd wait until later to get it.   The book is called The God Pocket by Bruce Wilkinson and I can't recommend it one way or the other... 'cause I clearly haven't read the whole thing.  But I grasped that the idea is to take one pocket (or compartment in a purse?) and  carry money (I'm thinking) in it and then consider that "God's pocket".  The next thing is to ask God to lead you to someone  He wants to bless and then when you feel Him urging you to do that, you give whatever is in God's pocket to that person and make it clear that gift came from Him.

    Honestly, I wasn't thinking about the book today when I went out to run errands. I did have a good quiet time this morning and  at the same time figured out one reason why I needed to retire.  I'm finding  that it takes a bit longer than 15 or 20 minutes to get my head straight, my heart quieted, and my will yielded to His.  So now, after running most of my life on low-grade spiritual octane (with a lot of secular ethanol thrown in there I'm sure), I'm finally, on some days, spending enough time with the Lord to actually look (and sound) like I've been hanging out with  Him instead of chilling with Maxine.
   At any rate, today I headed to one of my favorite places in the whole world - Chick Fil A - and when I got there, it was lunch time which meant the line for the drive through  was gi-normous!!!  So I had time to think and as I did, I remembered that one morning when my husband was going through McDonald's to get his breakfast,  (yes! I know I need to cook more...) he got to the window to pay only to find that the person ahead of him had already paid for him.  He was puzzled  but also happy that someone would do a random act of kindness like that; it really got his day off to a good start.
   So here I am with a gazillion cars in line in front of me, trying to remember how sweet the Lord was to me this morning in my quiet time instead of becoming impatient and berating someone (anyone!) for the fact that I was having to, of all things, wait for my fast food, when I suddenly remembered how Phil was blessed months ago by a total stranger.
   I felt a spiritual nudge, which I thought/hope was from the Holy Spirit, to do the same to the people in the car behind me.  Only their vehicle was a lot more expensive than mine and so I wasn't sure I had heard right!  The feeling, however, persisted.  So I began to think about how a person would go about doing this.  I mean, when I got to the window, what would I say?  I'd like to pay for my order and also for the order behind me as well?
   I mean would that cause the young worker to get confused?  Or look to see if I was acting like I had an "invisible" friend, like Harvey the Pooka, in the back seat of my car?  Would he or she then turn to another co-worker and roll their eyes around while making circles near their head with their index finger?
   Or would they simply have trouble understanding what I was saying and ask me to repeat it several times, clogging up the line and causing the people behind me, whom I want to bless, to get ticked and honk their horn at me???
   Really, I guess the big question behind all this was: am I crazy?  (Never got an answer to that one...)
   When I got to the window, the young man told me the total due  and I handed him my card. (Love how things don't cost real money anymore.. ha!)  Then before he turned away, I said, "And I'd like to pay for the car behind me as well."  He did a double take, raised his eyebrows momentarily, and then almost instantly regained his composure, simply saying, "Alright."  He ran my ticket and handed it to me and then ran the other and handed it to me, along with the card. As he did, he told me the second  total. (Thank goodness the people behind me weren't big eaters!  That was one relief!  For a minute or two, it had crossed my mind - what if they are picking up an order for 10 people in their office or something?)
   As I was starting to drive off, the young man  quietly said, "That was nice." which was another relief!  He didn't think I was crazy!  We wished each other a Happy New Year at that point and honestly, it felt great.  The only thing was,I realized later that  I forgot to say something about having a blessed day or whatever to clue him in as to why I was doing it.   But at least it went off smoothly, without any real hitch and I was very happy.
  However,  in the few minutes it took me to cross the freeway to get to  Wal Mart, I was thinking, "Cathie, that was stupid!!!  Those people probably have a lot more money than you do and you don't even know them.  For all you know, they could be total boors who would just take the free food and laugh at how the world is full of suckers...  You can't be sure God impressed  you to do that!!"
   As I was walking across the lot to Wally World, the Jimmy Stewart part of me started coming up with answers to silence the Maxine part of me... :)  And as I was mentally batting the pros and cons of what I'd just done back and forth, it suddenly hit me:  yes, the people behind me could have been louts even though they looked very decent to me; they could have been ax murderers for all I know, although I doubt it seriously.  But by the same token, they could be the salt of the earth, people of the highest caliber, good people who were having a down day and needed a little lift, a blessing out of the blue. And since I don't know them, I can choose to think the best of them!
   Bottom line: I realized sometimes it's easier to give to people you don't know than it is to people you do know, oddly enough.  Sometimes when I buy gifts for people I know, I think, "Why am I doing this? I think they just re-gift the stuff I give them! " or "I'm pretty sure they made Santa's bad list this year but... if I don't give them something, the fat will hit the fire and I don't want that, etc..."
    And then my thoughts went a step further.  I thought of all that God has given me, knowing every crevice and crack in my heart, every selfish deed and every nasty remark I've ever made or ever will make as well as all my unspoken judgmental attitudes, fears, and whiny thoughts.    He knows me.  He knows us. And yet He generously lavishes gift upon gift, pours out grace upon grace knowing full-well who I am, what I am, and how I'll act in any given situation.
   He knows me.
   And yet,
             still...
                    He gives.....
                         That's pretty awesome!
 

 

Living and learning...

 

 This morning as I was trying to have a quiet time, our rat terriers were not so cooperative.  And I had bribed them already!!!  Each dog had already  had his/her moment in the sun: they'd been outside for a short time so that they could take care of business, bark at the neighbors (maybe not such a good idea since one is bi-polar and likes to smoke weed.. but... I digress...), and chase an elusive something-or-other that apparently lives in the bushes next to our porch.  I say elusive because they sniff around the hydrangea bush every day and every evening and have for the last two years or so... without ever catching anything.
    Then I let them back in the house where each has his/her own pillow beside my chair and each dog has a leather chewie.  So now that they are settled, I can have a little peace and quiet, right?
    Ummm.  No.
    Lilly doesn't really like chewies.  Buddie is addicted to them. So she tries to keep her treat solely in order to prevent Buddie from having it. Which means that she spends minute after eternal minute, digging at her pillow  in an infuriating fashion, trying to "bury" her treat  in plain sight.  (She could be a poster-dog for the word "futility".)  After Buddie finishes most of his treat, he sidles over next to her pillow, where she hunkers down and begins to growl at him.   All this for a treat she doesn't even really want.
    Eventually, she decides that there is something she wants and so she abandons her post to stand in front of me and whine.  I try to ignore her but she continues.  So, eventually she wins.

   I get up and let her out only to see her sniff around the Hydrangea bushes and the Ivy  for the billionth time  and even though I know she speaks no English, I advise her to give it up. (I'm sure there is a lesson here somewhere... ha!)   I mean, two years of sniffing around the same foliage??? Come on!  Give it a break already!!
    When I let her back in, lo and behold, Buddie has snitched Lilly's chewie and is back on his pillow tearing it to pieces, his own half-eaten beside him.  What a pig!  (I mean, dog...)   So I take his left-over chewie and put it on Lilly's pillow where... she proceeds to try to - you guessed it - bury it!
    Meanwhile, the lizard or whatever (pretty sure it's not an anaconda - think we would have seen that by now) is still meandering around the bushes and it's only a matter of time before Lilly remembers her nemesis still lives and abandons her post to go after it, leaving yet another prized possession vulnerable to the high thievery that goes on around here.
    As I was sitting here feeling superior to my dogs, which is not too hard to do, by the way, I tried to persevere with my prayer time.  There are names on the list that are easy to pray for; others not so easy.  (Lord.. (whine, whine)... they stole my chewie.. Ooops, where did that come from???   I mean, they stole something that was rightfully mine...)
    Or as Ann Voskamp puts it in her book, One Thousand Gifts, "Though I can hardly whisper it, I live as though He stole what I consider rightfully mine: happiest children, marriage of unending bliss, long, content, death-defying days.  I look in the mirror, and if I'm fearlessly blunt - what I have, who I am, where I am, how I am, what I've got - this simply isn't enough.  That forked tongue darts and daily I live the doubt, look at my reflection, and ask:  does God really love me?"  p. 14
   Wait a minute!  She's not talking about someone on her prayer list who has what she feels is rightfully hers; she's talking about God as the someone who has withheld what is rightfully hers. God described as someone who... owes her. In her heart, that is what she believes.
   Wish I could say I've never been there  but.. I can't.  I frequently,  earnestly  petition God to give me what I feel deep inside is mine by right.   Happy, healthy, productive kids; the perfect marriage; long life with no joints that ache or vision that blurs. And if I feel He isn't giving it to me or won't promise to keep on giving it to  me, I can get angry, upset, depressed.
    Today I started a second list for 2012 (in addition to my 1,000 Things to Be Thankful For).  This list is just snippets of things that I learn about God - who He is - as I read through the Bible.  Among the things I wrote down today are:
    Who is God?

•      He is the One who makes ungodly people righteous.... Romans 4:5. (That's great when He does it for me; not so sure when He does it for obvious reptiles-skulking-in-the-bush or for the ones-who-growl-at-me-and-steal-my treasured possessions.  Or even for the ones who honestly come by treasures that I honestly, although secretly,  believe should really be mine!).
•      He is the One who used His unmatched power and wisdom... to  predetermine, plan and carry out the crucifixion of His only, beloved Son.  For me.   Acts. 4:28
•      He is the One who took Am-ha'aretz*  (men like rough, uncouth fishermen such as  Peter) and transformed them into persons of stature, men of power who caused the educated not just to glance at them, but to turn and stare at them, impressed.  Acts 4:13  
•      He is the one whose glory will someday cover Mount Zion like a wedding canopy, a chuppah; once again showing Himself by smoking cloud during the day and as a shining, flaming fire by night. Isaiah 4:5

Sooo... on second thought, maybe I should quit beating around the same ol bushes, quit thinking in terms of what He (and others) owe me, and get on with living in the light of His glory.

Hoping I'm someone who can learn.. even from a couple of Rat Terriers...  But... just in case I can't, keep your paws off my Cheetos, my Kindle, and whatever you do, don't come callin' on Sunday afternoon 'cause that's my nap time...Ha!

*(Am-ha'aretz, according to The Complete Jewish Bible means people of the land. But in the time of Christ, it carried a bad connotation, basically meaning boors back then).

   

Suiting up...

     I think I'm fairly upbeat. By that I don't mean that I can't get down, that I don't complain or get ticked. All of those things are true about me. But it usually doesn't take long before I'm trying to see things from a spiritual point of view,  looking for the Romans 8:28 side of things, searching for God's hand in whatever situation I find myself in.  So while I'm not likely to ever be found singing, "The sun'll come out tomorrow... tomorrow.." like Little Orphan Annie, I pretty much believe that the Son will come out if not now, then soon, and show Himself in the midst of our situation, whatever it may be.
      It seems right now, however, that since I've determined that I'll see each person I meet as someone Christ died for, most of the people I've met casually over the past few days maybe don't have horns on their heads... but... you could have fooled me! (And I daresay they have thought the same thing about me probably!)  So why, now that I'm determined to meet everyone with a sort of kiss of grace to shine upon their face, do the ones I encounter seem mostly like toads?  (And I've already got my prince, I'm not looking for another...)
    But that's not all.  I started my list of a thousand things to be grateful for about a week ago, was going strong and then somewhere around a hundred I just... bottomed out.  Not only lost any and all sense of gratitude but it's almost like I've been studying for the last two days to become a stand-in, not just for Grumpy, but for the plum roll of the Wicked Queen  from Snow White.
   Why is that?

My idea of spiritual warfare..:)

    Why do we determine to do something that we know is good and then it seems like everything conspires against it, including our own desires?  I read today that as believers, we are living, standing, loving, breathing - in the middle of a battlefield. A titanic conflict between good and evil.  A war that we can't see but is none the less real.  And if, when things are good, we forget that, we will sooner or later be blindsided.
   And that, I think, is pretty much where I've been the past couple of days...blindsided. Expecting that since I have these two goals, it will be, um, easy to keep them???

   Hmmmm...
   Now I think it's time to get real.
   Not give up on showing the love of Christ to others or on my desire to keep track of the things for which I'm thankful.
   But at the same time, realizing  there is something in the universe that doesn't like a grace approach to everyday encounters and ditto for thankful hearts.  At 57, I'm still learnin', obviously:    it's not enough to set a goal; you've got to suit up for the game as well. :)

Phil and DAvid's idea of spiritual warfare...
Either way, I'm sure you get the picture...:)