CONFIDENCE!

Yesterday morning, I received a strong message I know I am supposed to share.  It began with a quote I read:

In faith, we stumble along, toward where we think we're supposed to go,
bumbling along,
and here is what's so amazing --
we end up getting where we're supposed to be.
--Anne Lamott in Traveling Mercies

It stays with me.  I need to open my heart each morning to the gifts that will come during the day ahead.  I vowed, with God's grace, to pay attention to what's happening in the daily events of my life, and to delight in the lovely things that will unfold.

I also see that God is taking all my loved ones and friends to exactly where He wants them too -- through all their stumbling along too. I find myself praying for you all in a different way, a more HOPEFUL way, reinforced with the truth that He's along all your journeys too!  I am praying for you all, and all my family too, with a smile in my heart, SURE that He is getting all of us to where we're supposed to be!

A scripture reading yesterday was Hebrews 10:32-39.  God telling us to remember that after we have been "enlightened" (for me, this is the reception of the baptism of the Holy Spirit) then we endured a great contest of suffering.


I certainly have seen this in my life!  Oh my goodness, let's don't go there again!  I am still not out of it.


But the reading goes on to say:

THEREFORE, do not throw away your confidence; it will have great recompense!  

God added:  

You need endurance in order to do My will, and receive what I promise. Hold to CONFIDENCE in My promises.  Look into the future and act on THAT instead of what appears now!  For after a brief moment I WILL come, I WILL NOT DELAY!

My friends, I know this is for you too! Pray with confidence!  We will all end up exactly where we are supposed to be.

 

Saving the world through our gifts.

Hello!  

Thursday and Friday everything worked out for mother's little lawsuit.  All because of Josh and his goodness. Josh always wanted to be a superhero when he was little, and in my eyes, he has accomplished his goal.

He knew I was crazy and busy with our last weeks of wedding planning.  He did some calling around, found a lawyer in the county where the suit is filed, talked to him on the phone about the whole thing, and yesterday that lawyer did what was necessary at this point for mother. So Josh called me in the morning to say it was done.  I will be glad to get the bill in the mail, whatever it is!

I know that God's will is for us to take what talents and gifts we have been given, and use them to make the world better.  I have confidence that Josh will be doing this all his life. 

Jerry always joked about wanting to "save the world through mathematics."  Actually, that's what we are all called to do.  To "save the world through you-name-your-gift."  People tell me that mine is encouragement through story-telling.  With a little prayerful thought, each of us could name the unearned gift(s) that God has given us, with this end in mind -- to help others, to spread the good news of faith, or hope, or charity!

I look at you, my friends, and I see the gifts!  The gift of intercession, the gift of perseverance, the gift of laughter, the gift of entertainment, the gift of serenity, the gift of faithful friendship.  

Today I thank God for all of the gifts He so generously has bestowed in all the people He has created!  All for the good of the rest of us!  Alleluia!

The truth will set us free.
I know that.  I believe it. This weekend, I lived it, and I still do today.


The back story:  Grandma (little sweet 90 year young Grandma) got a lawsuit delivered in early January. I read and re-read it, and realized that this has to do with a well that Daddy was part of planning in 1973. The suit is really against a large oil company, but because my father had a tiny percentage-of-a-percentage of royalties on the well, which helps to support my mother still, mother was named in the suit. There were pages and pages of questions mother has to answer and send back before the end of the month, and I couldn't make any sense of them!


The wording of the suit was threatening, and I knew mother would know nothing about it, and I didn't want to upset her, so I started asking a few people, but mostly I did nothing.  A phone call to an oil company went unreturned, another phone call to the big one being sued led to a couple re-routings, and the last one went unreturned.  I looked at the calendar going by, and was just frozen with fear.  Trusting God, but not knowing what to do next.


So our dear dear son-in-law (in the last semester of law school) insisted on making the drive to San Antonio to look at the bulk of papers they had delivered, in spite of my protests that it would be too hard on Beckie and the baby to drive over.


Josh read it, told me what to get ready for any lawyer I might talk to.  God had prepared me, because last week I was driven to straighten up mother's papers that we had moved into my dining room when she moved to assisted living. Josh even did some online research and found a legal group very near to our neighborhood.  He let me know the serious nature of the suit, but also encouraged me and urged me to call them and leave a message over the weekend.  So I am sitting here waiting for a return call this morning.  These people may help, or maybe they will direct me to another attorney who knows more about our issue.


So the truth isn't all good, but it isn't all bad, and I don't need to curl up in a ball of fear!  


I thanked Josh for coming and told him that FEAR had had me paralyzed, but knowing the logical truth of the situation had freed me to be fearless and trusting that God and smart lawyers can clear up this situation.


And there is the lesson...FEAR is horrible. It bound me up with irons and shackles and I couldn't make myself move. But TRUTH is like a key to unlock all that stuff and I can move again.


God is teaching me something here. Like the fear that sometimes keeps us away from confession...fear of speaking aloud the things about our wrong choices, things that we would rather not hear.  Yet, when I go to confession, I always come out of that door ready to run and jump and celebrate, and move forward!

Thank You, God for another good lesson.  I have to LIVE them to LEARN them.

Heaven on Earth

All the way to heaven IS heaven, I was reminded this morning!  Even the yucky stuff.

Yesterday I had an divine appointment with a friend and God!  Neither of us expected it -- it wasn't planned -- in fact, I hadn't planned even to be in that spot, yet unexpectedly we found ourselves alone and uninterrupted.  In that sacred moment, I shared stuff, she shared stuff, and we took our problems together to the Lord!  Moments like that are just amazing to me, that God sets it all up, and there you are, sharing faith and feelings, comforting, bonding in His love, and letting the moment heal us!  

That visit (God gave us more than an hour!) was a little piece of heaven, and I am so grateful. We shared the good, the bad and the ugly, I am reminded again this morning of the quote I read in a book months ago:

Someday, this too will be a pleasure to recall.

Hard to think that the worst things we experience fall into this category...but they DO! To believe this is really to trust God, isn't it?

My friend Mary Jo has a favorite prayer she prays daily: 

Dear God, thank You for my life EXACTLY as it is.

This morning, I heard a little heart message for my new faith-sharing friend, and I know it's for us all:

Go to Mass as often as possible.

Let it be your ICU ward when you are in pain.

You go to Mass with all your brokenness and sin, and offer it with the gifts on the altar.

There is no room in the words of the liturgy for your moods and emotions, 

but in the Mass, all the focus is on the PRIMARY TRUTH of My perfect love and perfect sacrifice.

You give yourself into My Hands totally, 

and receive yourself back transformed and consecrated.

So now, of course, I need to get dressed and over to daily Mass myself! :-)

Thanks be to God

Oh, my goodness! 

Everything that tried to make me anxious yesterday dissolved like dew in the sunshine!  Let that be a lesson to me!  

While I was writing yesterday, I was interrupted by a beautiful phone call, wherein I found that I had HELP with one of the issues from my wonderful son-in-love, Josh.

Then the miracle I had begged for yesterday was answered when we really thought there was NO WAY.  I couldn't believe it!


So this morning when I woke up, there was a little demon of dread just waiting to start me on worrying about other things.  But the memory was just too great, and I shushed him off with "This is the day that the Lord has made.  I will rejoice and be glad in it!"


How are you doing with anxiety?  Is this sharing helping?

ack!

Ack!  Just realized that I have to go with Maryclaire for her fitting -- the wedding is a month away.  I can't be here at 9:00 am myself!  Carry on without me. :-)  Or plan on checking in later!

What a morning! Awake around 3:45 and already obsessing and dreading the day ahead.  Worried about everyone else's expectations of me and all that I need to be and do for the people around me, realizing that I fall short, and wondering how it will all go!  What a way to start a day!

I knew what was going on, God was calling me to get up and come spend time with Him in prayer. In my mind I told Him it was too early and I needed sleep...but the "dread" wouldn't go away, so I knew what I needed to do. :-)

There came the scripture verse from Philippians again:

Have no anxiety at all, 

but present your needs to God in prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving,

and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding

will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

So I got up around 4:30 and made my coffee, snuggled into my comfy chair with my notebook/journal and a pen.

I decided to take it like a homework assignment.  

Ok, Lord, thank you for life, for air and water, for creating us, for all the good things in the day yesterday, a good long phone visit with a friend, etc...

And thank you for all the things required of me today...Thanks for the good and the bad, the things I don't want to do and the things and reactions of all the people around me today.

I heard the scripture words in my head again,--PRESENT YOUR NEEDS TO GOD --and wrote:

I sure am tempted to be anxious about everything today. Please take care of it all. You have it all in Your hands, and You hold me in Your arms, and You protect me from everything negative.

The more I wrote, the more I started to see that I was hanging on to OTHER people's needs and somehow thinking I was responsible for everyone else's attitudes around me all the time!  It was a good eye-opener, sort of like God reminding me that I'm not everyone's savior.  Only Jesus is a Savior!  I realized again that this attitude of mine is just something left over from my childhood, and it's pretty entrenched in me.

So I wrote: 

Here. I present this to you, Jesus. I need healing and I need Your forgiveness.  I need to be made new.  You're the God who parted the Red Sea, who created all the universe out of NOTHING, who rose from the dead, who ascended into heaven (I even got a kick out of imagining the apostles watching Him go up. Can't think how I would have reacted!)

And guess what? In those 15 minutes of writing, no situation had changed, but I was more peaceful. Really.

I let God guide my thinking while I was writing, and I actually saw some of the nonsense in my thinking, and some of the sense too. Writing it out slowed me down and it was GOOD.

I totally recommend it!

 

God's Presence

Another echo this morning.  This time both meditation books mentioned God's presence.

The first one I read is Daily Guideposts.  You can get this online at www.dailyguideposts.com or even find it on Facebook.   The story today talked about a little boy playing with his toy people, acting out a scenario where they were in a snake-infested jungle and it was dark and they were scared, and then said loudly, "But God was with them!"  

It was a good little thought, that no matter what is going on, how dark and scary it might be, God is with us. Made me think about the book of Revelation in Chapter 20.  It talks about the terrible things going on in the world, and the picture you get is little encampments of God's people, huddled in little circles here and there...all the tumult around them.  And then the words of scripture say, "but God brought them out of it".  PERIOD.  We don't know exactly how or when, but HE WILL.  He always does.  

In my life, there have been times when I was in such darkness!  And God always brought me through.  And I learned much during these times...
the most important lesson was to TRUST in Him.  I always say that you can't manufacture trust in yourself.  It comes from the experience of going through one problem after another, and seeing that God never leaves our side, even through the worst things.  Then the TRUST happens because we have experienced this often enough to know that He will always be there.

In the dark moment, it's still easy for me to fall into the panic mode, but I need to remember that I am never alone.

So that leads me to the message shared in The Word Among Us today (wau.org)...it was about our need to PRACTICE remembering the presence of God all through each day!  The call was to be pro-active throughout the day, remembering God, seeing Him in every situation, every person's face, every piece of creation.

To PRACTICE by thanking Him for everything, and by reading some scripture daily.  I pray with a journal, and I always begin by writing down and thanking God for the blessings of the previous day.  It helps me to pay attention to the prayers that were answered and the good things that happened, because sometimes I tend to live through them and never say thank you, and just go on to to the next thing.

I think God might be asking us to set aside a real appointment to spend some time with Him every day.  If you don't already, try to find a time each day to do this.  You will be amazed and delighted, because He is so anxious for you to give Him time, He will really bless you because of it!  

And when He does, I hope you will share it with the rest of us!

Persevere

This morning I got a "God Echo."  My friend Father Steve R said once that when you hear the same thing echoed two or three times, pay attention, because it's usually a message from God.

Today it was PERSEVERE.  First, in one meditation book, the quote was to "forget what lies behind, and press on to what lies ahead."

What I "heard" was that when our souls are weary and our faith tends to fail, PRESS ON.  I wondered about this, because, while I am usually feeling "weary" with everything in life, today I was feeling pretty good.

The next words I read sparked this little message from Jesus:

Stay focused on Me.

Lift your gaze to heaven, and deepen your grasp what I did for you.

Persevere

Don't be afraid, don't get paranoid.

When things are easy or difficult, keep your focus.

Desire for Me, 

Focus on Me will eclipse your problems

Trust in My mercy overcomes your fears, your sins, your guilt.

So you can run the race without stopping.

I am close to you all day long.

It occurred to me that perhaps someone else might need this thought today, so I am putting it out there.  I am going to be focusing today.  

I welcome your thoughts.

Welcome to Prayer Group!

Hello everyone!  

This is your invitation to come to Prayer Group.  

In 1999, a year after we moved to St Louis Mo, the Holy Spirit started giving me all these "holy coincidences" that led me to start a prayer group in our home.  It was the best 9 years of my life!  Our prayer, care, share group was a way we all linked arms and walked the path on which He led us!  The gifts flowed!  We all learned and loved and laughed and cried together.  It seemed that God taught me all sorts of things during those days, and many of His lessons were the messages He wanted us all to share on Friday mornings.  
So here we are Jan 11, 2011 (1/11/11)!  And He seems to want the Flock That He Shepherds to go high-tech. (Although it's not that high-tech by today's standards, it's a new thing for me to blog!) So at best I plan to keep this blog going daily, after my prayer time each morning,  and at least, to show up on Friday mornings, to open the door, put on some coffee, and see who wants to show up!  


I didn't know how to start a Prayer Group in 1999, but He asked me to do it anyway.  I don't really know where this is going to take us in 2011, but I am here anyway.  I know we can comment on postings, and maybe we could all meet at 9:00 CST and make it "live" with comments.  

Would you like to join a prayer group???? :-)

Terrie