Carried

As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Joshua 1:5

 I followed him up the stairs, sensing something was wrong. When I got in the door, Dad was on the floor, heaving on his side, barely able to breathe. 

“Dad? Can you hear me? Dad!” No response. I tried to think straight, despite my panic. 

“Mom! Mom!  Get in here!” I called out the window. She wasn’t in the side yard.  I ran and opened the front door.

“Mom!  MOM! GET IN HERE!”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Dad.  He’s on the floor!”

 “Call 9-1-1!”

“I did!”

She and my neighbor rushed in and saw that he was still breathing. “We should put him on his back,” Sharon said. They rolled him over. Moments later, he stopped breathing. “Mouth-to-mouth” Sharon said. Then his heart stopped. “We need to do CPR.”

 “I don’t know CPR” Mom said. Sharon told her to breathe into his mouth and she pushed on his chest until his pulse returned.  They had to do it twice. The paramedics arrived, took over, and got the necessary information before they left.

As awful as that was, I can see how God orchestrated it all perfectly.  I’d watched Dad go in the house and followed him. If I’d brushed it off and stayed outside, no one would’ve known anything was wrong.  And it may have been too late by the time we did.

Sharon had come over to see what we were up to that morning. Because she was there when Dad was down, she helped Mom put him on his back and gave her a crash course in CPR. She contacted the church, so people came to the hospital to support us.

About 10 friends stayed with us in the lobby while we waited for the doctor to come out. They walked through it with us. Over the next few days, Mom and I remarked about how we felt like we’d been carried the whole time.

God’s like that.  We all go through hard times, whether they’re financial, medical, relational or otherwise.  But we don’t go through it alone.  God’s right there with us and will carry us through. The next time tragedy strikes, remember you’re not alone. Call out to God. He’ll be there.

God’s Love and His Power

Easter fits right in with the series on our God’s character as it shows us both his incredible love for us and his power to overcome having been murdered on a cross. 

On what we call Good Friday, Jesus was forced to carry a rugged, wooden cross on his back to the top of a hill, where men mocked and scorned him, spat on him, and nailed his hands and feet to a cross where he succumbed to death.  God loved us so much he had his son die for us.  Can you imagine doing the same? I can’t.

Photo courtesy of oceandevelopment.com

 

But that wasn’t the end.  God’s incredible power shows up three days later when his friends went to his tomb, only to find it empty!


Photo courtesy of bigbible.org.uk

They’d seen his body lain in there, so they believed someone had stolen it and began to cry.

Later that day he appeared to them, blowing their minds. He was alive! Unbelievable.  Something only God has the power to do.
 



Photo courtesy of strabuchet.com

 

 

So at Easter God shows us His love for us and his power to overcome any obstacle in life.  That’s why it’s such a celebration for you and me today.  Because He lives. In me. He’ll live in you too, if you ask Him. 

 

 

 

 

 God Directs Us

 

 

Life can pull us in all different directions, not just physically, when we need to be in two places at once, but emotionally too. I find the latter is much more difficult. There are many times when our lives are going well. There’s money in the bank, our health is good, and we have friends we can rely on. We enjoy it and, if we remember to, we thank God for them, recognizing He’s provided them for us.

But when something happens that changes our lives, we’re often left wondering why and what to do next. It could be anything—job loss, health issues, death of a loved one, or any host of other circumstances.  What do we do then?

I’ve found we have to hold on to what never changes in this world and that there are three things that meet that criteria: God, God’s Word, and God’s promises.  We’re going to take a look at these over the next several weeks. I’d love to hear your feedback in the process.

First, God is love.  So everything He does is done out of love for us.  Sometimes I find that hard to believe, especially  when life doesn’t go the way it should. When senseless things like someone dying far too young.  Often God doesn’t answer our “why questions.”  Sometimes we have to wait, for a variety of reasons.  I’ve had to wait for an answer to that question for months in the past, regarding my health.  It frustrated me, but I spoke to Him more in that time than usual. Perhaps that was part of the point?   Maybe. 

Now it’s your turn. What have you been through when you questioned God?  How did you make it through?  Share your experience here. Someone will benefit from it.

 

image courtesy of www.freeditigalphotos.net

 

 

Impending storm

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

“Oh, it’s not cloudy out,” I said, sitting at my computer one morning. I’d thought it was quite stormy when I’d gone outside just a few minutes earlier.

The forecast I’d just read confirmed that it would be cloudy for the next three days. But as I sat at my desk scanning the headlines online, I looked through the blinds and saw the sunlight on the trees.

 

 A few minutes later it disappeared.  I had assumed the weather would be stormy based on evidence I’d seen and what had been predicted. Yet, a different story lay outside a few minutes later. Then it changed again.

 

Life is like that too. Circumstances can lead us to believe one thing; when then they change, we change our minds. My emotions can be fickle too. If someone compliments me, it makes me feel good. If I’m criticized and given  feedback I don’t like, I may take it personally and believe it’s a failure.

Or my health can change for the worse. Sometimes life feels unfair.  So how do we know what to think if we don’t know what’s true and what’s not? We need to focus on what’s stable, what never changes. One of those things is God’s love and faithfulness to us.

What do find to be stable in your life? Who can you count on when things in your life are flux? 

 

Photos courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

The Importance of Friendship

In today's society independence is highly valued. So much so that needing or wanting someone to walk alongside you can be seen as a negative thing. I disagree with this mindset. We were never made to walk through life alone. (I Cor. 12).  It's critical we have friends in our lives.

 

               

 

  

                   "Friends"              

 

A friend is a person who will always care

A friend is a person with whom you can share

True friends can be honest about how they feel.

True friends can be open with each other, Real.

A friend always listens to what's going on

A friend will encourage when the road looks long.

Sometimes through a hug, sometimes just a smile,

Friends will help you out when you face life's trials. 

Friends share a lot of things, both good and bad

The joys and the sorrows, the happy and sad

Life's sometimes joyful, sometimes full of pain.

But friends stick together, despite any strain.

The thing about friends is that they always try

To see the other side and understand why.

That's why the bond between friends is so strong;

They love each other; the friendship goes on.

 

 

                                    

Staying on Track

 

 

Ever think you’ve got everything on track and are doing just what God wants you to do and then you’re thrown a curve ball?  It can be confusing. We’re trying to do what He’s told us to, then things go south. Or to the right, or left. Whichever way they go, we’re off track. 

 

But we haven’t done anything wrong. Maybe we haven’t even done anything different than we were before.  So what’s going on?  Maybe we’ve kept on the straight and narrow, but the path has turned. 

If the path is God’s will for us, it’s changed. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.  That’s one reason we need to be in communication (prayer) with God—to hear what He wants us to do. 

Easier said than done.  It’s simple, but not easy.  Back to my One Word for this year: Discipline. 

What do you have to discipline yourself to do these days? How do you go about it? Don’t forget to join the conversation.

 My One Word for 2013
 

Discipline—For the longest time I thought discipline was another word for punishment. So I didn’t like it. Who likes punishment after all? But I later learned that it also means staying on task. And that means structure. I know many people, especially writer/artist types, eschew the thought of structure, believing it robs them of any freedom in their life. I’m exactly the opposite. I thrive on structure because it keeps me on track and makes my time fly.

So I do like discipline. I just don’t do it well. That’s why my goal this year, my one word, is discipline.  Thank you, Melanie, for making my one word button. Stop by her website, http://www.onlyabreath.com/, if you’re interested in one for your blog. 

In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing how my journey toward greater discipline in areas is going.