Month: March 2010

I had the privilege of having a five year old girl put her hand upon my shoulder and pray for me this afternoon. Honestly, these are my favorite prayers! I understand what they are speaking is coming right out of the purity of their heart. Inwardly I was beaming with delight as I listened to her words intently. I felt as though the greatest gift under the sun was being given to me

My deepest hunger is to have that same pure heart; to come to prayer without my own preconceived thoughts or opinions. What mighty things to be done when we have the faith of a child. If we truly want to shift our mindsets we just need to spend time in the presence of those still without fear of man or man’s opinions. They have the boldness to speak out the possible to our “impossible” thinking. Their words will change the world as we know it and we should offer them as our own.

The most innocent of children offer trust, acceptance and love. It’s easy to understand why Jesus loves them so.

Mat 18:1-6a (The Message)  At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who gets the highest rank in God’s kingdom?” For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me. “But if you give them a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t.

I left a large group of people where I longed to stay, but my pumpkin hour was approaching. My husband walked with me and I stopped, asking him to look upwards. The moon was bright over this city, over this home, and there was a ring about it. I wondered at this crown and surmised the angelic host had been dispatched this night for our benefit.

I long for the scales of my eyes to drop to see the fullness of this hour that I, and many others, walk in.

“even though I’m in love

sometimes I get so afraid

I’ll say something so wrong

just to have something to say” *

I am deep into my marriage with my husband, and I understand these words for truth in the many ways I have responded without wisdom. More truthful still, are those words I speak out to my heavenly Bridegroom. How often I have been quick to make a promise I can’t keep, rather than be silent and merely listen to His promise?

* Billy Joel – Leave A Tender Moment Alone

Most fairy tales begin with the line…”once upon a time”….

I don’t live in the era of needing to hope for the fantasy. I am living in the era of a promise delivered.

Over a week ago heavy rain poured and I became lost in it’s saturation as I drove home. The traffic was slow because of it but I didn’t mind being held up. It gave me time to be still and be quiet. I wondered at the blessing of having so much water fill our reservoirs and rivers. My heart was flooded again with a tenderness I couldn’t define but it just didn’t matter. I let it come, not holding myself back with needless self-control; another private moment of privilege unexplainable.

My speed began to pick up as I neared my exit and the rain took on a different look. Everywhere I looked it was as though I could see white rain, like the very clouds themselves were in liquid form visually. This was special and I hadn’t seen it until I was coming off the freeway into my city, my home, my place of rest. The hills are green again from soaking in this special rain.  I am looking with eyes of expectation upon this place. The blooms are going to be gorgeous this year.

We were on our way out of town for the evening when I had asked my husband for a caffeine connection. He stopped at a café we knew while I stayed in the car to read for a few minutes. He came back to tell me it was closed and I was so immersed in trying to read the pamphlet in front of me I barely heard him, or the voice that was crying out.

“Can you please help?” As we were stopped for cars passing, I heard the voice again. She came to our truck waving to us through our windows. When my husband let down the window, her story was quick and seemingly desperate.

She needed enough funds to catch the Amtrak train home to see her mother. I don’t typically ask this question up front, but before I thought about it, I asked her, “Do you believe in God?”

“Yes, I just prayed a minute ago” she answered.

My husband handed me a bill to give her and I asked him to pull over so we could talk to her for a moment. He gave me enough to meet her ticket needs so getting out of the truck he went to an ATM to replenish our own immediate needs for the evening. While he was gone I prayed with her, but there was a sense she was merely being polite so I didn’t say too much and stopped to just talk to her.

Her clothes were nice, even her makeup perfect. She had on sunglasses and I longed for her to take them off. I wanted to see her eyes. She was hiding behind them in some manner. I asked her name and that of the mother she wanted to go see. She shared them and some other personal information. It was obvious this young girl did not understand the moment she was living.

She was chattering still when my husband came back and it was time for us to leave. She thanked us and again told me how she had just been praying. My reply was, “and He answered your prayer”. It was only then that she stopped talking and fell short for what to do or say. I watched her as the realization dawned upon her. I hugged her and got into the truck with my husband.

Driving away I looked to him and asked, “Well what are you thinking?” Without even looking at me he said, “scam!”

I agreed with my husband’s discernment but I was curious why he would still give away money? He didn’t have an answer, but we prayed for Kim, the young girl who was so lost in this life. My encouragement came from her realization. Although she didn’t deserve it, in His great mercy, God answered her prayer. I got to see that seed planted. I also understood with greater clarity how I myself had been given this kind of grace and favor while I was yet far away.

Kim is going to share with the world she lives in….God answers prayers. Those prayers are going to change her.

It was mid-seventies and the sun was gorgeous. I was stuck in a car line and the breeze picked up. Suddenly the white blooms began to snow in force. I couldn’t be bothered to roll up my window to keep out spring’s promises. I reached over to turn up the song and then leaned back watching the show. It’s going to be an amazing year.

His name was Samson and he was our first “superman”; also the only one of truth. All other fantasy characters we make up are derivatives of this supernatural man whose strength was incomparable.

It would seem Samson’s kryptonite was women; the wrong women. A life changing event is when he is lulled to sleep. In this slumber his strength is removed because God has departed from him. He ends up having his eyes taken and is imprisoned, spending his days now grinding grains. (Gives a whole new meaning to our slang about being in “the grind”)

After a time Samson was called in to perform like a circus act for his captors. They gloated over having subdued him. They began to revel and party at this accomplishment but they forgot the most important aspect about this man’s life. His God was redemptive…… Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars which support the temple, so that I can lean on them.” Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there-about three thousand men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed. Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!”

It is so easy for us to be distracted by our various kryptonite poisons; those things which distract and drain us of strength. We chase them more than our life force. Whatever our drug of choice, we become lulled into a stupor until we can no longer see or hear the voice of our hope.

Our hour is at hand to be awakened to the strength we walk in. Our eyes will not be removed from us but rather we will be given greater vision. Our movies, books and comics follow a familiar theme. We have a hero who starts out invincible, but then succumbs in some weakness or another only to be redeemed to offer hope.

Our greatest hero was one who had no weakness at all but succumbed to His love for us despite our weakness as a human race. He loved us enough to be our hope, our redemption and our salvation.

We prayed for her daughter who was dying of cancer. I had faith and my friend had desperation to hope in these prayers. She lost her daughter to this disease almost six months later despite all possible treatment options. During this time my friend stopped me in the hall one day to ask if the sins of her past might be a reason for the things happening to her children now. I didn’t even have to think about my answer to assure her forgiveness was absolute and grace was more than enough.

The day I heard of her daughter’s death, I was devastated. My faith filled prayers in agreement with hers of desperation did not get answered in the way I wanted. I had to leave my desk to pour my heart out alone in my car for a while. I knew my Father could have healed this woman but the question remained, why didn’t He?

I still don’t have that answer but my faith is not wavering. I continued to pray for my friend and loved on her as gently as I could. This was a major trial in her life. Would she turn from a God who didn’t answer her desperate plea to save her child ? It’s been over a year now. My friend confesses her faith to be stronger than ever despite yet another trial to her own health this time.

She tells me what an inspiration I am to her. I am choked up even typing those words because she has no idea what she has given me in encouragement.