I returned yesterday from the "home of my heart" along with my youngest daughter, oldest daughter, and her husband. My youngest daughter, who is 15, drove a good bit of the way down on Wednesday night. However, I cannot take credit for all the bravado of letting her drive. My steel-nerved, chilvarous son-in-law offered to ride in the front with Lauren as she drove. Of course, I tried to talk him out of it (for about 5 seconds) and blissfully crawled in the backseat with my oldest. The only mistake was that I sat on the passenger side of the backseat, where I could see the speedometer and anything else I probably didn't want to see.
She did fine. And, shucks, about the time we had traveled halfway, it turned 9:00 p.m. (the first six months, a permitted driver can only drive from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.). Lauren is a literalist and also one of those rare teenagers that actually obeys the rules and doesn't generally ask questions. (My other two were NEVER like that!) However, when 9:00 came and Lauren announced that she could no longer drive that night, I felt benevolent enough to whomever made that rule to send them a gift card and bake them a cake!!
Now the next week looms in front of me, and I find it full of various projects and challenges. Do I dare mention bringing downstairs the pile of boxes that hold my Christmas decorations? Why does my family become paralyzed, disappear, or get down in their backs when I mention that project? I remember last year, right after Thanksgiving, feeling the "spirit" and wanting to start decorating right then. I tried every thing possible to transfer my Christmas "spirit" to all or even a couple of my family members, but they would not budge. I ended up sputtering to myself upstairs, making noise as I heaved the boxes (the heaving sounds I made were probably a little exaggerated compared to the weight of the boxes, but it felt good!) out of the storage closet, and making an attempt to bring stuff down by myself. By the time the boxes were downstairs (with the half-hearted help of my family), the Christmas spirit had sprinted out of this house!
So, this year, I will not rush it, and I will plan it better. I will set the mood, play the music, and fill their bellys. Also, considering the three others who reside in this house right now and their weakness for chocolate, I will come up with some magnificent "Death By Chocolate" dessert -- only to be eaten AFTER all the Christmas boxes are downstairs! If that sounds conniving, well, it probably is, but I'm a woman on a mission!!
27 November 2005
23 November 2005
"Permitted" Thankfulness
After living almost twenty years in West Africa for most holidays, and knowing that we wouldn't be "home for Christmas" or "go over the river and through the dale to Grandma's house", it's nice to be so close to loved ones. My folks only live 3 - 31/2 hours (depending on who's driving) from here, so it's a pretty easy hop for me to get on a nice four-lane for most of the way and head towards the pines, the swamp, and two of the most amazing people on this earth!
My husband and I usually split up every Thanksgiving, but reconcile a couple of days later! It's just a family tradition by now. By "split up", I mean that he stays with his family here while I take whichever of the girls want to go with me and head east for Thanksgiving. I come from a small family anyway - just my brother and I with our five kids collectively. Since my brother passed away four years, I feel that it's important (for me and my folks) that we spend as much time together as possible.
So this evening after my oldest daughter gets off work, she, her husband, my youngest, and I will head to the home of my heart. Usually 3 hours isn't a long trip (especially after traveling 18-20 hour treks to Africa back and forth for many years), but this time will be different - hopefully for the last time. Our youngest daughter is 15 and has her driver's permit - some of you know what that means. She wants to drive the WHOLE way to MawMaw's. This will be her first long road trip....and how in the world did we plan this on one of the busiest traveling holidays of the year??
Funny how we as parents are at times. I have already given her two ultimatums today (she calls them threats and bribes), hoping that she would fall through on at least one of them so that I could say, "Sorry, remember when I told you to do such-and-such and you didn't? Well, now you can't drive the WHOLE way to MawMaw's." But, no, this redheaded beautiful daughter of mine is both relentless and obedient! She's been a saint today, amazingly helpful and cheerful, and as focused on her goal as my husband is on a bowl of Breyer's chocolate ice cream after dinner. "So, mom, do I get to drive with you in the front or are you going to put Michelle or Frank in the front with me?" Inside I'm saying, Oh honey, I'll be riding in the trunk with the luggage, draining the last of the Nyquil bottle, so it won't matter to me!
No, seriously, I like the permit concept (even though when I was 15, I saw it a little more constricting). If we as parents will use those 365 days as the potential training ground that it is meant to be, more kids would be better prepared and have more confidence when it's time to cut the string and let them on the highway alone. (Why does that always bring cold chills to me?) But instead, many either hardly ever allow their teenager to drive (because it's never the right time or the parent just can't take it today) OR we spend the entire time they are behind the wheel making wheezing sounds, bellowing noises like bulls, screeching, and wearing out the carpet on the passenger side. We develop heart arrhythmias, ulcers, and migraines during that year. Grant it, it's a very difficult time for all!
Add that to driving in the dark, in the rain, the snow, and the nightmare of all permit-jangled parents, ICE, and you can develop symptoms of strokes, digestive problems, and Parkinson's disease all in one hour!! But, if they don't learn how to drive in those treacherous situations WITH us, how will they react in those same situations when they are WITHOUT us?
So, tonight, for three LONG hours, in the midst of holiday traffic, 30 miles on a windy country road, and darkness, I will rise to the occasion (gulp) and give thanks for this teaching opportunity that could perhaps potentially help save my daughter's life one day!
How thankful I am for all my family!!
My husband and I usually split up every Thanksgiving, but reconcile a couple of days later! It's just a family tradition by now. By "split up", I mean that he stays with his family here while I take whichever of the girls want to go with me and head east for Thanksgiving. I come from a small family anyway - just my brother and I with our five kids collectively. Since my brother passed away four years, I feel that it's important (for me and my folks) that we spend as much time together as possible.
So this evening after my oldest daughter gets off work, she, her husband, my youngest, and I will head to the home of my heart. Usually 3 hours isn't a long trip (especially after traveling 18-20 hour treks to Africa back and forth for many years), but this time will be different - hopefully for the last time. Our youngest daughter is 15 and has her driver's permit - some of you know what that means. She wants to drive the WHOLE way to MawMaw's. This will be her first long road trip....and how in the world did we plan this on one of the busiest traveling holidays of the year??
Funny how we as parents are at times. I have already given her two ultimatums today (she calls them threats and bribes), hoping that she would fall through on at least one of them so that I could say, "Sorry, remember when I told you to do such-and-such and you didn't? Well, now you can't drive the WHOLE way to MawMaw's." But, no, this redheaded beautiful daughter of mine is both relentless and obedient! She's been a saint today, amazingly helpful and cheerful, and as focused on her goal as my husband is on a bowl of Breyer's chocolate ice cream after dinner. "So, mom, do I get to drive with you in the front or are you going to put Michelle or Frank in the front with me?" Inside I'm saying, Oh honey, I'll be riding in the trunk with the luggage, draining the last of the Nyquil bottle, so it won't matter to me!
No, seriously, I like the permit concept (even though when I was 15, I saw it a little more constricting). If we as parents will use those 365 days as the potential training ground that it is meant to be, more kids would be better prepared and have more confidence when it's time to cut the string and let them on the highway alone. (Why does that always bring cold chills to me?) But instead, many either hardly ever allow their teenager to drive (because it's never the right time or the parent just can't take it today) OR we spend the entire time they are behind the wheel making wheezing sounds, bellowing noises like bulls, screeching, and wearing out the carpet on the passenger side. We develop heart arrhythmias, ulcers, and migraines during that year. Grant it, it's a very difficult time for all!
Add that to driving in the dark, in the rain, the snow, and the nightmare of all permit-jangled parents, ICE, and you can develop symptoms of strokes, digestive problems, and Parkinson's disease all in one hour!! But, if they don't learn how to drive in those treacherous situations WITH us, how will they react in those same situations when they are WITHOUT us?
So, tonight, for three LONG hours, in the midst of holiday traffic, 30 miles on a windy country road, and darkness, I will rise to the occasion (gulp) and give thanks for this teaching opportunity that could perhaps potentially help save my daughter's life one day!
How thankful I am for all my family!!
20 November 2005
Mock Trial
Yesterday (Saturday), I spent a good part of my day at the county courthouse with my youngest daughter as she participated with her "criminal justice team" from her Public Speaking & Debate class. It was a somewhat well-organized event with ten local schools competing for the accolades of being the best team to perform in a mock trial. For weeks all teams at the ten schools reviewed the same case, created questions for the witnesses, and practiced their procedures and court protocol in class. Day after day after day. There was a team of three prosecutors or three defense attorneys and three witnesses from each group. Everything was rehearsed except for the cross-examination questions from the other "lawyers" from another team. That's when the rubber met the road. It's easy to learn by rote memory, learn by experience and practice, but then the unfamilar, the unexpected, the unrehearsed comes and we are in a completely different ballgame.
I was not a judge, but I would imagine that a good majority of the points given would come from the ability to handle the pressure of being cross-examined. The witnesses that could handle the pressure, would not buckle under the scrutiny of the "opposing" lawyers, could keep their cool and stick to their story, would be the ones that would gain a hefty amount of points. In addition, the lawyer who could redirect questions after a particularly harmful cross examination in a powerful and pointed way, would take the competition to the next level.
Our kids represented themselves well, even though they did not win any accolades (other than from the extremely biased parents present). I talked with my daughter on the way home (always looking for those powerful parenting moments) about the rehearsed and the unrehearsed things in life. When we are absorbed in Christ and His Word, even the unexpected can be handled with dignity and a grace that cannot be defined any other way except - incredible!!
Life is not a mock trial. It's the real thing and even though we may do everything to prepare ourselves for it, there are those times when the cross examinations can be baffling, overwhelming, and downright cruel! Thankfully, we have a Savior who has lived through his own real criminal trial, perhaps the cruelest and most unfair in history, but He also has the answers before we even know the questions! I personally want Him on my side in the courtroom of life!
I was not a judge, but I would imagine that a good majority of the points given would come from the ability to handle the pressure of being cross-examined. The witnesses that could handle the pressure, would not buckle under the scrutiny of the "opposing" lawyers, could keep their cool and stick to their story, would be the ones that would gain a hefty amount of points. In addition, the lawyer who could redirect questions after a particularly harmful cross examination in a powerful and pointed way, would take the competition to the next level.
Our kids represented themselves well, even though they did not win any accolades (other than from the extremely biased parents present). I talked with my daughter on the way home (always looking for those powerful parenting moments) about the rehearsed and the unrehearsed things in life. When we are absorbed in Christ and His Word, even the unexpected can be handled with dignity and a grace that cannot be defined any other way except - incredible!!
Life is not a mock trial. It's the real thing and even though we may do everything to prepare ourselves for it, there are those times when the cross examinations can be baffling, overwhelming, and downright cruel! Thankfully, we have a Savior who has lived through his own real criminal trial, perhaps the cruelest and most unfair in history, but He also has the answers before we even know the questions! I personally want Him on my side in the courtroom of life!
17 November 2005
Undone
This week I have been in somewhat of a fog. There's probably several reasons for that, but the fact remains that I settled into it way too easily. By yesterday, I was straining with the flesh and losing. Last night after a planning meeting with some of our college singles who have great vision, I drove home smiling at their passion and enthusiasm for Christ. I popped in one of my favorite CDs by "Mercy Me". They have a song on their CD by the same name, "Undone". The chorus goes like this: "I run to the cross lifting high my chains undone, Free, free to be what I've become -- Undone." It was a poignant reminder that we do not have to remain in the fog, we do not have to live defeated, we do not have to live tired and sluggish. There is a Savior who has freed us from ourselves and the chains that we keep putting back around our hands.
I just needed that last night. I am so thankful to be Undone. Undone from the chains of sin and defeat. The power to live above my flesh and this world is with me all the time. I just have to remind myself to ask for it and then take it!
Undone. The potential of that one word is huge.
I just needed that last night. I am so thankful to be Undone. Undone from the chains of sin and defeat. The power to live above my flesh and this world is with me all the time. I just have to remind myself to ask for it and then take it!
Undone. The potential of that one word is huge.
15 November 2005
Dream On
Do you believe in dreams? Perhaps even that question gives you the hibby-jibbies (is that how you spell that?) to think of the mystical world of dreams. As a fundamental Baptist (since I was in the nursery), I will admit that I had a hard time coming to grips with the possibility that God could still use dreams for His glory.
I would like to qualify upfront that I do not believe in dreams as taking the place of God's Word. God's Word is final. No amount of prophesying, or "words from the Lord" should ever replace or usurp the Word of God. After saying all that, I will relate that I believe God still can communicate to mankind in any form He chooses.
Please refer back to a recent blog named "Being in Place" to read a true-to-life story that happened to me back in 1997 while a missionary in a small town in Ivory Coast, West Africa. The man that asked me to show him the way to God only knew to request that of me because of a dream that he had almost two years before that.
Amos was sick with TB and was being transported to a Red Cross clinic in a nearby town. It was nighttime and he was lying in the back of a pickup truck. He said that he was feeling very sick and began thinking that he might die soon. It scared him to think that he didn't really know the Creator that he had always believed existed, but never took the time to seek out. However, that night he cried out to this Creator. He told God that he didn't know how to find Him and that he wanted to live long enough to do that. Soon he was lulled to sleep by the motion of the truck on the gravel road and he dreamed. In the dream, he said that he was in a small town, and he walked past a blue car. Beside the blue car was standing a white woman holding a Bible. Amos said that it was clear that this woman standing beside this blue car would be the one showing him the one to God. Almost two years later, he was passing by my blue car at the same time I was walking to it. I will never forget the look on his face as he quickly looked from me to the car and back to me. Amos said that he didn't even know that white people lived in that town, but that anytime he saw a blue car, he did always look for a white woman! This was my first understanding that God will reveal Himself and communicate to those who truly are seeking Him - in whatever way He chooses.
Back about four years ago, we were in another larger town in Ivory Coast. This town was large enough to have actually three grocery stores. I dreaded to go to the grocery stores because you had to deal with the endless numbers of beggars perched by the parking lots; and then there were the young teenage boys who made their living by helping you find a parking spot and then "guarding" your car while you were in the supermarket. Actually, it is more like, if you didn't pay them a little bit, you might come out to find your car damaged in some way. To simplify my life, I chose one young man and told him that he would always be my "car guard". His name was Gameau. There were days that I even got agitated with Gameau, but it was better than dealing with different ones every time I needed to shop.
One night, after a particularly difficult shopping experience where I left without giving Gameau anything except a piece of my mind (gasp! missionaries losing their tempers on the field??), I slept and dreamed that about 10-15 years had passed and a man came up to me, carrying a Bible under his arms and smiling at me. He said that he was Gameau, and that he was now a pastor. He thanked me for telling him about Jesus those many years ago. Then I awoke, crying and feeling utter shame because I had NEVER, up to that day, told Gameau anything about Jesus Christ. I was always so intent on my discomfort when I arrived at the supermarket; Satan had used that as a shield to what should have been the most important thing to ever relay to Gameau -- or any of those boys! Good news: I went straight back to the store the next day and invited Gameau to church. He started attending the French services and was soon saved! Since then a civil war has erupted in Ivory Coast, but I'm assured that if Gameu still lives, God is still preparing him for great things. Whatever the reason for the dream, call it my conscience or bad pepperoni, I am thankful for the message relayed on that night in that way!
Both Amos and Gameau will be in Heaven with me one day. If those specific dreams helped to etch the way for them, then I say Glory to God.
I would like to qualify upfront that I do not believe in dreams as taking the place of God's Word. God's Word is final. No amount of prophesying, or "words from the Lord" should ever replace or usurp the Word of God. After saying all that, I will relate that I believe God still can communicate to mankind in any form He chooses.
Please refer back to a recent blog named "Being in Place" to read a true-to-life story that happened to me back in 1997 while a missionary in a small town in Ivory Coast, West Africa. The man that asked me to show him the way to God only knew to request that of me because of a dream that he had almost two years before that.
Amos was sick with TB and was being transported to a Red Cross clinic in a nearby town. It was nighttime and he was lying in the back of a pickup truck. He said that he was feeling very sick and began thinking that he might die soon. It scared him to think that he didn't really know the Creator that he had always believed existed, but never took the time to seek out. However, that night he cried out to this Creator. He told God that he didn't know how to find Him and that he wanted to live long enough to do that. Soon he was lulled to sleep by the motion of the truck on the gravel road and he dreamed. In the dream, he said that he was in a small town, and he walked past a blue car. Beside the blue car was standing a white woman holding a Bible. Amos said that it was clear that this woman standing beside this blue car would be the one showing him the one to God. Almost two years later, he was passing by my blue car at the same time I was walking to it. I will never forget the look on his face as he quickly looked from me to the car and back to me. Amos said that he didn't even know that white people lived in that town, but that anytime he saw a blue car, he did always look for a white woman! This was my first understanding that God will reveal Himself and communicate to those who truly are seeking Him - in whatever way He chooses.
Back about four years ago, we were in another larger town in Ivory Coast. This town was large enough to have actually three grocery stores. I dreaded to go to the grocery stores because you had to deal with the endless numbers of beggars perched by the parking lots; and then there were the young teenage boys who made their living by helping you find a parking spot and then "guarding" your car while you were in the supermarket. Actually, it is more like, if you didn't pay them a little bit, you might come out to find your car damaged in some way. To simplify my life, I chose one young man and told him that he would always be my "car guard". His name was Gameau. There were days that I even got agitated with Gameau, but it was better than dealing with different ones every time I needed to shop.
One night, after a particularly difficult shopping experience where I left without giving Gameau anything except a piece of my mind (gasp! missionaries losing their tempers on the field??), I slept and dreamed that about 10-15 years had passed and a man came up to me, carrying a Bible under his arms and smiling at me. He said that he was Gameau, and that he was now a pastor. He thanked me for telling him about Jesus those many years ago. Then I awoke, crying and feeling utter shame because I had NEVER, up to that day, told Gameau anything about Jesus Christ. I was always so intent on my discomfort when I arrived at the supermarket; Satan had used that as a shield to what should have been the most important thing to ever relay to Gameau -- or any of those boys! Good news: I went straight back to the store the next day and invited Gameau to church. He started attending the French services and was soon saved! Since then a civil war has erupted in Ivory Coast, but I'm assured that if Gameu still lives, God is still preparing him for great things. Whatever the reason for the dream, call it my conscience or bad pepperoni, I am thankful for the message relayed on that night in that way!
Both Amos and Gameau will be in Heaven with me one day. If those specific dreams helped to etch the way for them, then I say Glory to God.
04 November 2005
God's Sense of Humor
Not even 48 hours after I had written that last blog did I experience one of those defining moments when my day was derailed right in the middle of the busiest, most crucial part of it!! I was at Sam's buying last minute items for our on-campus Bible study. I had dropped my youngest daughter and a friend off at a nearby dollar store to finish their Operation Christmas Child shopping. As I was loading the cases of bottled waters, salsa, Velvetta cheese, and other items into the trunk, I laid my keys down IN the trunk along with the receipt. (If this sounds familar, it's because you have been reading my blogs for the past three weeks!! see:When It's All Locked Up Inside) And, yes, once again my hand reacted much quicker than my brain, I closed the trunk, and within seconds, gasped and sputtered all over the parking lot as I realized what I had done. It was 4:30 and I knew we needed to leave from our house in 75 minutes, all packed up, ready for the Bible study. Sheepishly, I called and told my husband what I had done, and quietly, very quietly, he asked where I was and said he was on his way. (He really does deserve a medal for how he handled that)
So, there I stood in the Sam's parking lot, looking idiotically, but accurately like a woman who had locked herself out of her car. Then it hit me. The previous blog, the derailment of our plans, and what God might want to do through me. My heart rate intensified as I again had a purpose. I scanned the parking lot like a hungry person would scan a dumpster behind a restaurant! Who needed me in the parking lot of Sam's? What did I have to offer this moment of time?
I watched an older black woman slowly push her buggy to the trunk of her car. As she started loading her half dozen large cans of baked beans and other large items, she looked over at me and said, "So, you're locked out, are you?" (Well, I knew it was obvious, but really!!!) "Yes, ma'am, I guess it's easy to see that, isn't it?" She laughed as she heaved another can from her buggy. By this time, I had meandered my way over and had started helping her with the loading. "Oh, don't worry about it, honey. I did the exact same thing the other day. Locked those keys right in the trunk with my load. Now, I gots me a spare key in my pocketbook, 'cause I always has my pocketbook on my arm." (great idea, I mused) We talked a little more, and I found our conversation both comforting and strengthening. She blessed me without really doing anything particular. Just by being a warm, friendly, encouraging person.
As she started to get in her car, she smiled at me and thanked me for helping her. In my heart, I was thinking, No ma'am, I think you helped me today. So, okay. Another lesson learned today. Sometime the hiccup in my schedule might not be for me to bless or help anyone; it actually might just be a moment that God wants to reach down and touch or bless me through the life of someone else. How could I EVER be too busy for that??
So, there I stood in the Sam's parking lot, looking idiotically, but accurately like a woman who had locked herself out of her car. Then it hit me. The previous blog, the derailment of our plans, and what God might want to do through me. My heart rate intensified as I again had a purpose. I scanned the parking lot like a hungry person would scan a dumpster behind a restaurant! Who needed me in the parking lot of Sam's? What did I have to offer this moment of time?
I watched an older black woman slowly push her buggy to the trunk of her car. As she started loading her half dozen large cans of baked beans and other large items, she looked over at me and said, "So, you're locked out, are you?" (Well, I knew it was obvious, but really!!!) "Yes, ma'am, I guess it's easy to see that, isn't it?" She laughed as she heaved another can from her buggy. By this time, I had meandered my way over and had started helping her with the loading. "Oh, don't worry about it, honey. I did the exact same thing the other day. Locked those keys right in the trunk with my load. Now, I gots me a spare key in my pocketbook, 'cause I always has my pocketbook on my arm." (great idea, I mused) We talked a little more, and I found our conversation both comforting and strengthening. She blessed me without really doing anything particular. Just by being a warm, friendly, encouraging person.
As she started to get in her car, she smiled at me and thanked me for helping her. In my heart, I was thinking, No ma'am, I think you helped me today. So, okay. Another lesson learned today. Sometime the hiccup in my schedule might not be for me to bless or help anyone; it actually might just be a moment that God wants to reach down and touch or bless me through the life of someone else. How could I EVER be too busy for that??
01 November 2005
Being In Place
It's finally dawning on me after all these years! It's not always what I know or even what I say; it's IF I am in the right place at the right time. God can do amazing things without me, but He delights in doing them with me. So often the detours of a day turns us into huffing-puffing, palpitating, out-of-kilter humans who could not see a God-sent opportunity at that moment if our life depended on it! However, it is often when we find ourselves displaced and disoriented by a sudden turn of the day, that God desires to use us. Let me repeat that - for it's good stuff: at the precise moment when we are scratching our heads and trying to figure our way out of a situation, it is often at that moment, when we need to stand still, cock our heads, listen and observe what God is doing. It's an ecliptic moment when we could perhaps see God move in an almost tangible way.
However, it is true what they say that "hindsight is better than foresight" and it's no less true with this scenario. Tomorrow we might look back on what happened and analyze the players in that scene; suddenly realizing that we probably were supposed to have acted it out in a different way. "Carpe Diem" is perhaps the best advice that can be given here. Seizing that very moment with both hands, both ears, and with our whole heart, is a sure way of "making much of Jesus" during those times when our daily train is derailed by unexpected dilemmas.
Almost ten years ago I found myself in that kind of situation. Stricken with an acute and fierce plight of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) while serving as a missionary in West Africa, I struggled to eat balanced meals and keep my blood sugar level at a healthy high. We were in the middle of an evangelistic campaign, teaching the Africans how they could witness to their neighbors. I had taken a group of four ladies on a two-hour teaching session, going door-to-door witnessing to other ladies. Soon I broke out in a cold sweat and my insides began shaking from the plummeting blood sugar level. Knowing that I would be in bad shape if I did not get something to eat soon, I graciously (or at least I hope it was gracious) left the four ladies to finish the rounds. They most likely did not understand my need to eat in the middle of the afternoon, but there was no changing it. As I walked back to my car, I kicked some pebbles in the middle of the path and succumbed to an extreme case of self-pity. The book of Lamentations could not have exuded more sorrow and hopelessness as I whined to God (in my heart, thankfully, not outloud). But, as I reached my car, a man passing by me, stopped short and turned to face me with a look of disbelief on his face. He told me (mind you, he did not ask me) that I would show him the way to God that day. On another day, I will explain more about how he knew that I could show him to God.
But the point to this blog is that I was there at the exact time when he was passing by my car. The need to eat and bring my blood sugar back up to par was the reason for me going back to my car. God's timing is always impeccable, and all He asks of us is that we be in place. Be in place to watch Him weave His amazing work through us to a world that is in desperate need of something amazing!!
However, it is true what they say that "hindsight is better than foresight" and it's no less true with this scenario. Tomorrow we might look back on what happened and analyze the players in that scene; suddenly realizing that we probably were supposed to have acted it out in a different way. "Carpe Diem" is perhaps the best advice that can be given here. Seizing that very moment with both hands, both ears, and with our whole heart, is a sure way of "making much of Jesus" during those times when our daily train is derailed by unexpected dilemmas.
Almost ten years ago I found myself in that kind of situation. Stricken with an acute and fierce plight of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) while serving as a missionary in West Africa, I struggled to eat balanced meals and keep my blood sugar level at a healthy high. We were in the middle of an evangelistic campaign, teaching the Africans how they could witness to their neighbors. I had taken a group of four ladies on a two-hour teaching session, going door-to-door witnessing to other ladies. Soon I broke out in a cold sweat and my insides began shaking from the plummeting blood sugar level. Knowing that I would be in bad shape if I did not get something to eat soon, I graciously (or at least I hope it was gracious) left the four ladies to finish the rounds. They most likely did not understand my need to eat in the middle of the afternoon, but there was no changing it. As I walked back to my car, I kicked some pebbles in the middle of the path and succumbed to an extreme case of self-pity. The book of Lamentations could not have exuded more sorrow and hopelessness as I whined to God (in my heart, thankfully, not outloud). But, as I reached my car, a man passing by me, stopped short and turned to face me with a look of disbelief on his face. He told me (mind you, he did not ask me) that I would show him the way to God that day. On another day, I will explain more about how he knew that I could show him to God.
But the point to this blog is that I was there at the exact time when he was passing by my car. The need to eat and bring my blood sugar back up to par was the reason for me going back to my car. God's timing is always impeccable, and all He asks of us is that we be in place. Be in place to watch Him weave His amazing work through us to a world that is in desperate need of something amazing!!
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