My Mom's Here

We all need to be rescued from something.  I need to be rescued from gluttonous eating and checking my phone while I'm with someone else. Last month I was not able to swallow or talk well, so I needed to be rescued from being malnourished and the limitations of myasthenia gravis. My children need to be rescued from the agony of defeat when playing a family game.    My friend needs to be rescued from the fear of her son possibly having a bad infection.  I have many, many friends who need to be rescued from anxiety, self-consciousness, and fear.  The list can go on, I'm sure you can relate to something you need to be rescued from.  We have a Rescuer.  This sermon by Jared Mellinger is my initial source for our Lord being our rescuer. Jared highlights the excerpt from Acts 12 where Peter was rescued from prison; "and the chains fell off his hands" while he was basically sleepwalking. So, I'm not literally in prison, but as I go

Ambush.  Dread.  They’re coming. Are you waiting for the refuge? Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy. Psalm 64:1 My prayers are usually: preserve me, preserve my family, preserve my friends. It is a rare occasion that I pray: preserve me from dread. Preserve me from the enemy? P reserve me from dread of the enemy finding me.  Preserve me from my to-do list? Preserve me from dreading my to-do list. Preserve me through my upcoming surgery? P reserve me from dreading my upcoming surgery. Preserve me from failing this exam. Preserve me from dreading failing this exam. So often our minds and emotions can be led by dread,  and it is exciting to know that the Lord is able to preserve us from dreading something.  He is able to preserve us from fear. Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers,  who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,   shooting from ambush

I’m feeling compelled to identify a name of Jesus for each day until Christmas. Hopefully, this will give me more insight to the reality of Jesus as a person, taking on roles just as any of us would. So here it goes. When the same Psalm comes to you multiple times in a few days span,  it’s time to pay attention. Psalm 23 had this repetitive effect on me throughout the month of November. My friends would start texting me a song or tell me excerpts from Psalm 23, and my vivid recollections of being a short little woolly sheep, not able to see over a fence and trusting in a watchful Shepherd came flooding back. My favorite messenge about Psalm 23 was when one of my sweet aunts wrote it out, to me. Joanne, The Lord, your Papa, is your Shepherd, you shall not be in want! Your Papa makes you lie down in green pastures, your Papa leads you beside quiet waters. He WILL restore your soul!! Joanne, Your papa guides you in paths of righteousness for His name sake! Even thou

One of the most tricky places to be in is to think you are alone.  No one understands, no one knows.  No one cares. No one could possibly be going through this.  Just me.  Alone. Thankfully, this thinking is not true and I'd like to offer 4 pearls of wisdom you can speak to yourself. You can thrive in a community that comes along side you, suffers with you, and you can know that the universe is not complete without you, just as you are. I enjoyed teaching this "alone" feeling to high school actors who played the roles of Jojo and Horton in a production of Seussical the Musical.   I had the students write down names of great minds of the past--inventors, visionaries, and people who were famous for something great.  They then had to figure out how each person must have felt proposing his or her idea to others. Like Leonardo da Vinci,  Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell, how must have they felt when someone rejected their ideas or told them they would

There should be a mandate that we speak with people with gray hair frequently, with depth, quality time, and purpose. Of course, I waited until I was 100 miles away from parents and grandparents to ponder what wisdom was said from our family members and friends who have gray hair, and now we are 200 miles away. Please know, I do not intend to say "gray hair" with any kind of degradation, but rather as a compliment, and a position of esteem, knowing that my baselines are:  Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life. Prov 16:31   The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair. Prov 20:29 In a culture where we try to cover up the gray hairs by getting our hair dyed, shaving heads,  putting in highlights, and ripping out the darn crooked coarse strands when they pop up during a quarter-life crisis, there has to be something said for the life learned and the wisdom of experience that comes through the grays.