Blessed are Those Who Mourn, for They Will be Comforted

As I sit here at my desk this morning, I am finding it very difficult to focus on work as I think about all the devastation and weeping going on in Moore, Oklahoma.  Literally our neighbors.  I am a Christian who believes and trust in God, I work for a church, I am a parent and a grandparent and I am a child. Even still, it is all so hard to imagine.

I have close friends who have lost children and I have seen the agony and pain that brings.  I think about my own family and I cannot even fathom it.  The thought of kissing your children as the get out of the car for school in the morning, not realizing that the next kiss they receive would be from their heavenly father.

I just wrote a blog this week entitled "Through the Eyes of a Child" thinking about my granddaughter Eisley.  I cannot even imagine the pain of my own family, of my own daughter and son-in-law in the circumstances the parents of Moore are facing.  My heart literally aches for them.

The only thing I KNOW through all of this is this, He is God and I am not.  While I cannot imagine what these parents are going through, I know that God knows.  I know that He is right there beside them, wrapping them in His arms, holding them close to His heart.  My prayer is that each of these families, will feel God's presence in ways they never have before.  That even through the tragedy, especially because of the tragedy that they will not lose hope.  That they will cling to the Father like never before and that they will be able to have some peace in knowing their children are with Him.  That they will continue to praise God even in the storm that rages around them... because the tomb is empty!

Our dear friend Jenny Bizaillion went home to be with God a little over 3 years ago.  She absolutely adored and loved children with all her heart.  Her precious daughter Malaya was everything to her.  I can see her now surrounding each and every one of those precious children with her loving arms and covering each one of them with love and kisses.  Not only are they surrounded by their heavenly father God, but they have a heavenly mother in Jenny.  As my heart aches, those images make me smile through the tears.

May God bless each family beyond measure and give them the comfort that can only come from Him.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34:18

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3

Through the Eyes of a Child

Ok, let me just start out by saying, yes I am an adult, and yes I LOVE Disneyworld!!  We recently spent 8 days at Disneyworld.  We also had the privilege of taking our daughter and son-in-law as well as our almost 2 year old granddaughter!  I cannot tell you how much that was!  Getting to see Disneyworld through the eyes of a 2 year old is special.  It's even more special when it's your own kids first time to experience it; and it is beyond amazing to see it through the eyes of your 2 year old granddaughter who is witnessing it all for the first time!  I am beyond blessed!

We have been home now for almost a week.  And as I look back through our pictures from the trip, the magic of it all is truly amazing.  Disney really knows how to do things right when it comes to kids.  They know what kids expect, they know what scares them, and they know how to react to them.  It's quite amazing.  My granddaughter Eisley, had a wonderful time.  We were all a little worried that the reality of all of the Disney characters might scare her.  But she absolutely loved it from day one.  She would get so excited with all of the anticipation of waiting for someone to come around the corner.  She loved the parades and would just clap and get excited waiting for the next character.  She loved the princesses and would just light up when she saw them!

As I reminisce about our trip and see the excitement in her face it reminds me of Jesus saying in scripture to let the little children come to Him.  Children have such pure joy and excitement.  They are not tainted by the harsh realities of the world.  They still see things with pure love and excitement.  Eisley was so excited to see and spend time with the Disney characters.  And it makes me think... as adults do we get that excited? 

There are some things we as adults get excited about.  Some of us get excited about Disney :-), some of get excited about sports, :-) some of get excited about music, some of us get excited about fill in the blank.  But... do we get excited about Jesus?  Do we get excited when we get to worship and sing praises to Him on Sunday morning?  Do we get excited when we take the time to sit with Him and soak in His word?  Do we get excited to sit and be still with Him?  Do we get excited when He opens a door for us and provides us with a wonderful opportunity to serve others?  Do we get excited when He puts people in our path that need Jesus with skin on?

Children see things in such a unique way.  Their excitement is genuine!  Their joy is contagious!  What would it look like if we looked forward to spending time with Jesus in the way Eisley looks forward to seeing Pooh and the Disney princesses.  What would it look like if we were always that excited to run to Him and spend time with Him by studying His word.  What would it look like to be that excited to sit in the quiet and be still with Him.  If we got half as excited about spending time with Jesus as we get watching sports, seeing a concert, spending time at Disney, etc, we just might be able to experience Jesus through the eyes of a child.  We just might get to experience Jesus in a whole new way.  We just might be able to experience the pure joy of being in His presence, the joy of knowing that He is in control of our lives.

The thing is, once you begin to spend more time with Him, the more you "want" to spend time with Him.  The more you spend time with Him, the more excited you get when you get an extra chance to be with Him.  The more you spend time with Him, the more you will choose Him over other things.

I pray that we will all be able to experience Jesus with the eyes and excitement of a child.

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.  

May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

Blessings!

Choosing to Love...

Working in a church you see all kinds of things come through the mail.  Some times things come through the mail from other churches or "religious leaders" that just have me scratching my head.  They claim to be all about Christ and living the way Christ lived, yet their entire publication does nothing but put labels on people who do not worship "exactly" as they worship and do not "do things" exactly as they do things.

This is going to be short because I do not want to be one of those people.  What I want to say is this... If those who stand back and critique or criticize and judge others, would spend one fourth of the time they spend talking about others and start reaching out to their community, reaching out to help the poor, just treating people with kindness and love, they would not have the time to write such judgemental things.

Yes, we may have differences in styles, we may have differences in many things, but if we are all following God's word, the "style" in which which follow God's word is not what's important.  What's important is that we are following God's word.  It is important to follow Jesus and His teachings, not teachings of men.  It is important to love others and not to judge them, that's God's job.  It is important to help those in need, not to judge their reasons for that need.  Jesus says to "Love One Another".  He doesn't say love them if they look and smell like you.  He doesn't say love them if they do things the way you do them.  He doesn't say love them if they have the same social status as you.  He doesn't say love them if... fill in the blank.  He simply says, "Love Them".  Our job is to be Jesus with skin on to the world. Our job is to Love as Jesus loved.  I just don't see Jesus in some of the publications I see.  If we start with Love, all the other "stuff" won't matter nearly as much.

 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34,35

 

Blessings!

Reflections on Easter

I have been reflecting a lot the last few days on this Easter season.  I am so grateful for my church, Highland Oaks Church of Christ for many reasons.  The people there are amazing, their love for God and His people is evident and this Easter and the week prior I became event more grateful.  The way our ministry staff continually chooses to think outside of the box and the way in which they allow God to speak through them blesses me everyday.  But this Easter season was amazing.

One thing we have done the last couple of years is offer a prayer experience the week prior to Easter.  There are 8 stations set up in our Fellowship Hall that intentionally and purposefully direct you to Jesus and the cross.  Some of the stations are listening to specific music while allowing God to take you into His space, some of them are reading God's word and then asking yourself specific questions about what you've read, some of them require you to use different senses, but all of them require you to sit and be still with Him.  It takes about an hour to go through all eight stations. I finally was able to participate in this experience this passed Thursday.  I cannot tell you the blessing it was to me.  To be able to take an hour and go through the stations and just spend time resting with God's word and allowing Him to fill my soul was amazing.

On Friday, we had a Good Friday Memorial Service called "an there was darkness".  It was more than I could have ever anticipated.  There was funeral procession of "the family" of Jesus.  One of our ministers lead the procession carrying a cross with a veil draped over it that was placed at the front.  Then we heard from "the prostitute" who Jesus saved from stoning, "Simeon Peter" who denied Jesus 3 times and "Jesus' mother Mary" as each one told their story and how they felt like it was their fault that Jesus was dead.  We were also told to go through the service imagining that we did not know that Sunday was coming.  To imagine as if we were there on that day not knowing what was to come.

That service was more overwhelming that I could have ever imagined.  To put yourself in a frame of mind of not knowing that Sunday was coming and to witness the testimonies of those who walked with Jesus, and to imagine that His death was the end was something I really cannot describe.  There is such darkness, such hopelessness, such sorrow when you have no hope of a savior.  Our family has gone through some personal struggles over the last several years.  The thought of having no hope during those times was overwhelming.  I would not have made it without my faith; without knowing that God is control; without knowing that the tomb is empty and that because of that truth that all things are possible!

On Sunday, we had an amazing message and testimony of God's grace and faithfulness working among us.  We have windows that surround the balcony of our worship center.  As the message concluded and promise of the empty tomb was proclaimed, the shades to those windows were lifted and the light burst forth and shined brightly across the worship center as though Christ himself had lit up the room.  It was amazing; it was emotional; it was evidence of the empty tomb!

The hope that comes from the resurrection is the only thing that gets me through on days when it seems like God is silent, when it seems like he's far away.  And it's because of that hope that I can look back and see that even when I thought God was silent, He right there every step of the way.  Some things can only be explained by the grace of God.  Without the hope of the resurrection, there is no hope.

I am thankful and grateful for that hope!  I cling to that hope always!  The tomb is empty my friends!  And because of that, we all have hope... always!  That's truth!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you!  

1 Peter 1:3,4a

Blessings!

Do We Live in the Twilight Zone?

It seems like every year during the holidays there is ALWAYS a Twilight Zone Marathon being played on TV.  Chris and I have always loved the Twilight Zone.  Some might say we were obsessed with it!  At one point before we had kids the Twilight Zone came on fairly regularly on TV.  We used to record every episode so that we could get the collection of all of them.  I know this really dates me, but this was back in the days of VHS tapes and there was no such thing as being able to "buy" TV shows!  (Who knew!!)

Even today, every time we see an episode on we get totally engrossed in the episode.  I know this is weird, but we usually even know the name of the episode just by seeing what's going on without looking at the info button!  So... when there was a marathon on over New Years, we found ourselves watching numerous episodes.

Most of the original Twilight Zone episodes, were made it black and white; which tells you how long ago they were made.  At the end of every episode Rod Serling always had a moral to the story that had just played out on the screen.  What was interesting to me in watching it this time was how relevant the "topics" and "morals" of the stories still were today.

From people being forced to have plastic surgery to look like everyone else, to a librarian being called obsolete (even back then) as well as others being called obsolete just because certain people didn't deem them necessary anymore, to people so afraid of what might be happening to them, that they chose to believe everything that came out of a physic machine, to people thinking that because they looked different than everyone else that somehow meant there was something wrong with them that needed to be fixed, and on and on I could go.

Who would have thought that all of the topics from a TV show in the 1960's (actually it started in 1959 - which by the way was before I was born!)  :-) would still be so relevant today.  Who would have thought that you could watch those shows 40+ years later and still find great value and ways to live in them.

Any yet... isn't it the same with God's Word?  The bible was written about events that took place thousands of years ago and yet if we take the time to read it, it is still relevant today in every aspect of our lives.  From teaching us how we should treat others, to telling us how to help those around us, to telling us not to judge others because they might be different than we are, to showing us the many ways that God worked and still works today, and on and on I could go.

It's really easy to get caught up in a TV show.  Maybe it's time we get just as caught up in reading God's word.  It's still relevant today.  It can still teach you a great deal.  You can read a passage that you thought you knew and it can mean something totally different to you based on what's going on in your life which makes it fresh and new every day.  It still tells us how to love others and that above all things God is about Love.

Maybe in 2013 we can get back to what God commands.  To Love everyone, to not judge others, to put others before ourselves and again LOVE!

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, 

it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 4-8, 13

Blessings!

Words Matter...

Predictive text on my phone usually drives me crazy.  It's always "predicting" things that are no where on my radar!  Today something happened in predictive text that has happened to me before, but today the word caused me start thinking about the word it chose instead of the word I was typing.

Now that you are totally confused....!  I was typing the word praying into a text message and predictive text popped up the word orating.  While the obvious first conclusion is that I can't spell, or more accurately I am beginning to have trouble seeing the letters :-) it was really strange to me that the word orating was the word that it chose.  And, I have noticed that every time I typed the word praying wrong, the word orating comes up.

So... I decided that since I keep seeing it, and even though I know what the word means, maybe I should look up the actual definition.

The actual definition of the word orating means to "speak pompously"!  Wow!!!  That really got me to thinking.  So, I looked up the word pray in the dictionary (also knowing what pray means) and saw the following...  too offer devout petition, praise, thanks, etc. to God; to offer; to bring; to make earnest petition; crave.

That is even a bigger WOW!!  To think that the word orating comes up every time I "mistype" the word praying and yet they are such complete opposites and contrasts to each other.  And yet... How many times do we "orate" instead of pray.  There is nothing about prayer that should ever cause us to "speak pompously".  God already knows everything about us and everything we are going to say.  To "orate" our thoughts to God reminds me of the scripture in Matthew and how God warns against it.

⁵ “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

I find it equally interesting that in the definition of pray not only are there words like "to offer petition, praise and thanks", "to bring", but the word "crave" is also there.  Crave by definition means... to long for; want greatly; desire eagerly.  And the most interesting part of all to me is that those definitions for crave are not only what we should feel when we offer prayers to God, but those are also what God's feelings for us are! 

I do not want to be the type of "pray-er" that orates, but rather one that seeks God's wisdom in all things.  I want His ways to be my ways.  I want to look and smell like Him.  I want to have the compassion for others that He does.  I want to get out of His way and let Him work.  I want to crave Him as much as He craves me!

Lord help us all to be the type of people that move past ourselves and begin living into the passions of God;  The type of people that have the passion for loving all people more than we love ourselves; The type of people who have the ability to see others the way you see them.  And help us to realize that You are God and we are Not no matter how much we "orate" our thoughts out in public.  And most of all, help us to crave you as much as you crave us!

1 Corinthians 13 

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails.

 

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 

Blessings!

Perspectives from 50 Something

 Well, I hit the big 5-0 last week.  And I must say, I have been dreading that number for a while.  But... it came and went and I'm still the same... at least until things start falling apart!  I realized that the most important thing about being 50 is that I have my husband, children and precious grandchild still with me on this earth.  I know for some of my dear friends that is something they long for.  I have family who loves me and I have friends (our small group) who would literally walk through fire with me.  I know they are always there no matter what life holds and I know that I can call all of them at a moments notice and KNOW they will be there!  For all of things I am extremely grateful!  And I realize extremely blessed! So because of these great blessings, I realize that 50 is just another number.

For my 50th birthday Chris and I had planned a trip to New Orleans.  We have been once before and love the history of the city and the amazing food! Initially we had planned to ride our bikes, but when they started forecasting rain, we decided we would drive. But then, Issac decided to blow in so we had to cancel our plans literally the day before we were supposed to leave.  Since we were initially supposed to ride Chris decide to just plan a spur of the moment ride away from the storm!  He said, "It may be a tough ride."  I said, "Let's do it!"  So, we began our trip Thursday, August 30th, which just happened to be my 50th birthday!

We left Dallas and headed out towards Oklahoma.  A friend had told Chris there was a good hamburger place in Meers, OK so we made that our first real destination. (It's not a bike destination if there is not food involved!) If you ever happen to be traveling that way, stop in!  You won't be disappointed!!  From there we traveled on to Dodge City, Kansas and stayed for 2 nights there.  Another worth the stop place if your passing through!  We hit the road again around 5:30 am on Saturday and headed for Colorado.  We had planned to stay in Pueblo, CO because it was on our path, but they happened to be having their state fair so everything there was booked. So we drove about 40 miles out of the way of our destination and stayed in Colorado Springs for the night.  The next morning we were up early again and traveled to Roswell Mexico and then headed home on Monday morning back to Texas.

Inside the Royal Gorge

We traveled 1905 miles, across 5 states, in 5 days! We even traveled on more than 150 miles of the historic Sante Fe Trail! And it was absolutely one of the most amazing things I have ever done!  We saw the hills and windmills of Oklahoma, we saw corn galore through Kansas and passed more manure farms than you can imagine!  We were literally holding our noses through about 15 miles or more of Kansas.  In fact one area we passed literally had a cloud that was settled over the land!  Yes... it was bad!  We saw corn fields, cantaloupe fields and chili pepper fields and the most amazing mountains I've ever seen through Colorado.  We saw the hills and mountains of New Mexico and then traveled through over 125 miles of cotton fields in Texas! 

As I said, the trip was amazing!  What was even more amazing were the things we were made aware of or reminded of while traveling through all of these places.  The insights into history and the recognitions of God were amazing .  I start spending some time with the spiritual formations minister at our church a couple of weeks ago.  Sometimes my schedule gets so crazy that I either don't have the time or I'm too exhausted to spend what I call "real time" with God. She helped me realize that the times I am closest to God are in nature, the outdoors, the smells of things around me. She challenged me to start "seeing" God in all of the things around me.  I am convinced that God caused just enough to happen with Issac to cancel our trip.  Because He had something much grander in store for me.   

It began in Oklahoma, just seeing all the hills and yes small mountains.  (I know it's Oklahoma, but they do exist!!) It continued all the way through the trip and even into the Texas heat the last day.  About 90 percent of our trip was off of the main highways!  That in and of itself was a blessing! We traveled through the farmlands of Kansas and felt like we could hear the faint calls of Auntie Em through the wind. We traveled on roads through the mountains for hundreds of miles with mountains literally every where you looked in Colorado.  Sunsets and sunrises that were incredible.  We traveled through a stretch in New Mexico called Apache Springs with incredibly flat top mountains.  You could just picture the Indians sitting all along the top ridges of those mountains. That was the one places we could not take pictures.  There was literally no place to pull over. So we just traveled in awe!  We traveled through a lot of open prairies and you could just imagine the covered wagons and horses riding across the land. There were amazing stretches of over a hundred miles at a time when we would see maybe 2 other vehicles on the road!  It was like we had stepped back in time 200 years.  Totally amazing!  

Some of the gorgeous mountains in Colorado!

The entire trip was the most surreal thing I've ever experienced. When you travel by motorcycle (at least when you take the roads that we did) you see things you would never see in a car.  You travel roads that are off the beaten path.  It's about the experience not about how fast you get there. As we traveled through the quiet mountains of Colorado and the prairies & mountains of New Mexico where those before us traveled so long ago, it was if God had given us this incredible gift!  There were no cars on the road, the wind was so tight around you it was as if God himself had His arms wrapped around you saying, "Behold, this is what I created just for you!". It was as if were traveling someplace that was private, some place sacred, that had been saved just for times such as these. God's presence was everywhere and it came at a time when I needed to be reminded that He is everywhere.  In fact there was one time when we were riding along the road and I started feeling this overwhelming awe of the gift that was all around us.  Tears began flowing down my face as I thanked God for all that is His and all that He has given to us.  

Colorado Sunrise!

We can make sure a mess of things in our busy, sometimes messed up world.  But out there, on the bikes, in the presence of the Almighty, His creations and nothing more, we were reminded... How Great Is Our God.

Yes, at now 50 something, I am blessed beyond measure and God gave me the greatest gift of all for my birthday weekend.  The incredible gift of seeing things as He created them, before we messed them up.  It was an incredible gift and an incredible trip.  One I will never forget!  Thank you Chris for coming up with it at a moments notice... and thank you God for your amazing gift.

For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

Psalm 95:3-5

He who forms the mountains,
who creates the wind,
and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord God Almighty is his name.

Amos 4:13 

Blessings!