Please Stay Tuned

I'll be right back. I am on vacation and will be back with renewed vigor and vim next week.

Blessings to all.

The Greatest Love of All

Today is the day of love. It is the day that we set aside to celebrate our love relationships. The holiday may have started with the greeting card and candy companies (I don’t really know the history of how it started) but the holiday did not create the reason we celebrate – Love. God did.

Whether you are in a relationship or not this day, know that you part of a completely, thoroughly, head-over-heels “I-Love-You-To-The-Bone” relationship. You already have the greatest Valentine a person could ever hope for or dream about. An eternity-long valentine. This One brings riches on His date far better than the best chocolates or prettiest roses. You are His, He is yours and He desires you. (Song of Songs 7:10). Good word - desires.

He rejoices over you with all His heart and all His soul. (Jer. 33:41) That’s a lot of heart and a lot of soul – it’s God size. So as you enjoy the day with your significant other or on your own, my prayer for you is that you also feel the desire, feel the heart and feel the soul loving you of the One who loved you first and the One who will love you last.

Happy Valentine’s Day

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Whistle While You Work

I hate chores. I did when I was little and I do as an adult. Getting me to make my bed as a kid was like pulling teeth for my Mother. Every morning she would ask me at breakfast if I’d done it and I would always roll my head and neck (a mere eye roll did not convey the enormity of my distain for the task), harrumph, and trudge back upstairs – ever so slowly, and make my bed. It took me, what all of 3 minutes to do it but it was a tortuous 3 minutes.

I also was assigned the duty of feeding my dog, Patches, and the family dog, Fawn. And feed and clean out the cage of my parakeets, Daiquiri and Scooter. The nerve of my parents, expecting me to feed and care for my own pets. What were they trying to do, teach me responsibility or something? Well, I didn’t have to like it. And I didn’t have to do it with a good attitude – there that’ll show ‘em.

After all, who did my parents want me to be, Snow White? Boy, she was a real case. Her stepmother sends her off into the woods with the woodsman who has secret instructions to kill her, and bring back her heart. Nice. He decides to take the high road and let Snow White live, telling her to run away and he’ll fake out the Queen with the heart of an animal (like ‘ol Queeny knows a human heart from a pig’s heart). Snow White, as we know ends up at the home of the seven dwarfs where she is offered free room and board if she does all the cooking, cleaning, sewing and washing.

This is where the Princess and I diverge off each other’s tracks. She just lights right up at that invitation. She acts as if nothing would please her more than to spend her life cleaning up after these seven messy little men. Birds start flitting in, squirrels jump in the window and soon the whole forest is lending a hand in the joyous chore-a-thon.

Does Snow White fail to realize what got her into this predicament? Has she forgotten the whole “kill her and bring me her heart” mandate by her stepmother? And what about her life? Doesn’t she want to get on with her life? Meet somebody and settle down with her own family? She seems so content to stay put and be the mistress of this little chore-filled house.

She doesn’t even recognize her stepmother when she comes to the cottage and gives her the poisoned apple. She is so cheery and welcoming, oblivious to her impending doom. (All that dust has gone to her head.) Finally, evil seemingly prevails and Snow White falls under the spell of the apple’s poison. (Evil is sneaky that way.) The dwarfs think she is dead. Luckily, she isn’t and we know that love revives her (and saves her from a life of chores – my favorite part).

Hard to admit as it is, I think Snow White has it right all along. Whistling while I work is the better way. Harrumphing around while doing boring chores is just what Satan wants. He is trying to steal my joy at every turn. All day he is at my heels following me around seeing where or when he can grasp an opportunity to put me in a bad mood or create strife.

Satan isn’t after my stuff; he’s after my joy. Nothing makes him madder than to see me having a dodge ball kind of day yet still be smiling, laughing and whistling a happy little tune. And nothing would please me more than to displease Satan. (I’m kind of contrary that way.) So excuse me for a second while a take a lesson out of Snow White’s play book and go wash the dishes in my sink - with a song on my heart and a smile on my lips.

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work I go!


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What Remains

My mind is a crazy place. Thoughts zig-zag past each other at dizzying speeds. And rarely do they have anything in common. Daydreaming is a favorite hobby. Night dreaming is too but those can get a little scary, and weird. Lately, my thoughts keep returning to things past. Events and days and people gone by.

If you are a regular reader of this blog then you know that I have a penchant for telling stories of my life already lived. Memories keep bubbling to the surface. I’m not exactly sure why – or how – I come up with some of the things I do. But they do and so I am forced to deal with them.

The late author and speaker, Corrie ten Boom, once wrote that memories are events that God is not finished with yet. “Memories are the key not to the past but to the future. I think the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them become perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do.”

Memories, overcoming bad ones in particular, are keys in letting God resurrect and restore us and the dreams and plans for our lives. While we are not to cling to the past, we are told to “remember the days of old” (Deut. 32:7). I think this is because we can learn from our past and the past of others. When we place our past in the hands of our Heavenly Father He opens our eyes to things that we never saw before. Beautiful things that can only be uncovered by His hand and in His timing. (Is. 61:1-4).

Recently, I was taught this lesson most beautifully by a dear friend. I have known Barbara for about 35 years. She is the matriarch of a family that is very close to my family and our families’ lives have intertwined most of my life. I know Barbara to be a beautiful, loving and gracious woman. I love her like a second mother. But I will now sadly admit I did not know as much about her as I could have.

She sent me a very innocuous looking email recently. The body of the email had just five words “Click here: Hope Group Notes”. So I clicked. What I read next transformed me; brought me to tears and gave me amazing insights into a woman I admire and adore (and now I know why) and taught me true-life lessons about God and His boundless love.

Barbara gave testimony about her life and the notes from that testimony were put online by the chapel where she spoke. What she sent me – with no forewarning of any kind that she had even given a sermon – were the notes of that testimony. I am going to give you that same link in a moment but what I want you to know first is that the woman who stood before that congregation and told her story has told this story to very few others. I never knew her story until I read it. It took a world of courage to stand up and give this witness of her past. But as you will see, if you choose to click and see, is that God will redeem us, He will restore our past, wash away the hurt and He will heal the brokenness. We just have to let Him.

Memories can be transformed. They can transform us and they can transform others. What remains is God's abounding love.

Click Here: Hope Group Notes by Barbara Adams

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Letter to a Friend

Dear Friend,

I saw you recently at our local coffee café. You said it was good to see me after so many months. I said likewise. You asked how I was and inquired as to what I was doing and if anything were new. I reported that I was doing well and that lots in my life had changed since we had last seen each other.

You then asked if my “situation” had improved. And I replied that indeed “it” had not. You said, “Well, if that hadn’t changed then nothing had.” And I disagreed with that assessment and before I could go on – you were “shocked” and asked how I could “sit here looking so good and calm and pretty and relaxed?” “You must be an idiot!” you stated flately.

I sat there for a second and then replied that I was so sorry to disappoint you. You again said there was something wrong with me. That if the situation was reversed and it was you “in my situation” you would be a raving lunatic. You would be bald from having pulled out all your hair, you would be at home curled up in a ball in a corner where no one could find you crying and hiding in shame and dieing from the stress of it all. Why was I not doing the same? Did I not care? Do I not understand my situation for heaven’s sake?

Then, thankfully, your blackberry bleeped and you were called away on some important errand. To spread more of your uplifting joy, no doubt. “But we have to get together again soon!” you said as you strode out of sight. I can’t wait.

In the meantime, I am posting this “open letter” to you because you left before I could respond to your questions.

I am not doing the same as you because I have already done the same as you allegedly would – and it did not work. First off, there is no shame in my situation. Secondly, yes, I care. I care more than you can possibly imagine. That is why I changed my plan of action. And hear me when I say this I understand my situation far better than you as I am the one in the battle, fighting the fight, 24/7/365. You, my self-centered friend gets to peer into my life for snippets at a time and see a snapshot of something you cannot possibly imagine or understand. So, please let’s allow only those who can see the whole picture the right to judge – and baby that ain’t you.

But Friend, you did get one thing right – I am an idiot.

Because only an idiot remains peaceful when the world tells her to be full of strife. Right? Because only an idiot thinks she is strong enough to face her fears and overcome them when the world says otherwise. Right? Because only an idiot maintains courage in the face of worldly enemies much larger, more numerous than she. Right? Because only an idiot thinks she has the endurance to go the distance when the race lasts much longer than she ever thought possible and the world tells her to quit. Right?

Friend, during “my situation” while trying it your way I also tried it another way. I asked my Heavenly Father for several things – one being to end the situation – but until that He answers that one, and He will, I also asked for a few others. I prayed for Peace during this time instead of the anxiety which was consuming me. I prayed for strength to handle the fears and stress which surrounded me at every turn. I prayed for courage to overcome the enemies that battled my insecurities. And I prayed for endurance to get me through to the end and withstand it all.

Those prayers God has answered. Those prayers are what you saw the fruit of when you saw me looking so “idiotic” the other day. But you were too self-centered to see it and understand it. The sad thing is is that you were one of the people who has said she was praying for just those things for me.

But Friend, I don’t blame you for not seeing. We all run so fast it’s easy to miss the blessings and answered prayers right in front of us. In fact, He’s probably answered a few of yours; you just need to sit still long enough for Him to show you.

So, yes, I am an idiot. I will happily be one until the good Lord brings me home.

And I have you to thank for it.

Love,
Your Idiot Friend Dee

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