Uplifted in a Broken Down World

My Dad was overflowing with God’s wisdom and, at first hearing, puzzling one liners. Dad’s wisdom from God included “nothing we can ever do outdistances God’s mercy and forgiveness”. One of my favorite Dad one liners was “reaching a goal is more about a mop than a map”.

It’s pretty safe to assume all understand God’s mercy and forgiveness, no matter how far we stray, is always but a fingertip away. Our hands, hearts and souls just need to ask for and receive it. However, reaching a goal being more about a mop than a map is shrouded in confusion. My Dad having taught me well its meaning, it’s my privilege to share this now with you.

We can map out our journey to worldly goals or the eternal goal of Heaven; but being human, our mistakes will take us off course and possibly even halt our journey. Not one of us is above, at one time or another, making a mess of our journey. None the less, if we humbly do whatever it takes and “mop” up our mess, then God will lead us back to where our journey forward can, and will, resume. The proud assume they will never have need of a mop. God’s humble kids understand mopping up, not mapping out, often most determines who will successfully reach their destination.

Even now, years away from my Dad’s nurturing, a smile fills my face, and a tear fills my heart and soul as I thank God for granting me my earthly Father, who instilled in me both wisdom and one liners.

As a child, I remember soon as the snow melted and robins began chirping, my Mother would plant our family flower garden. Eagerly, I’d watch the ground, waiting for the first petal to break through the soil. My Mom always chose seeds that bloomed throughout the summer. At first, I thought her smart to plant beauty that sprang forth all season. Eventually, I realized my “smart” Mom was so much more. She was “wise” and determined to plant seeds of “wisdom” in her children.

Come summer heat, our garden not only radiated colorful flowers but also drab weeds. The weeds were fast spreading and threatening to chokehold and cutoff the life of our blooms. Mom and her band of little gardeners would set out to uproot the deadly weeds. As an army, we attacked the enemy and saved our precious family-garden flowers. With the last weed rooted out, our mission was accomplished, but Mom’s lesson just begining.

Once inside, hands washed, and our glasses filled with lemonade, my Mother began pouring into her children. Between sips of lemonade, my Mother declared many good seeds would be planted and flower in our lives. However, just as in our family garden, weeds would endeavor to grow and cutoff the flowers in the bouquet of our lives. Constantly, we would need to weed our lives of destructive, invasive and undesirable growth. If we became too lazy to pull our weeds or too oblivious to recognize weeds overtaking the garden of our being, then our hearts and souls would turn from the reflection of Heaven’s vibrant beauty to the parched vision of scorched and lifeless worldly vegetation.

As a child, this lesson was seeded in my heart and soul. As a teenager, I needed this lesson to pull me through so many weeded patches of life. As an adult, I heeded this lesson to grow in whatever soil God planted me. As a gray-haired Grammy, I pray I deed this lesson unto the hearts and souls of all my grandchildren, just as my Mother did unto me.

Who would send a mountain as a gift to her readers? I would! You ask, why such a strange offering? My answer is that you are ready to set your sights high and climb to the top of mountainous goals.

Most would try to keep earthly paths free of mountains. Not me. I’ve discovered one of life’s most valuable secrets. To offer you a mountain is synonymous with giving your existence challenge. Though peril-filled, the ascent to a mountain peak is a journey never to be forsaken for a level ride. No dream rests on flat terrain. All are found at the top of a mountain.

A life lacking a mountain is deprived of adventure, accomplishment and a goal for your outstretched fingertips to seize. Climbing a mountain isn’t easy, but what accomplishment is. A life centered around the ascent of a mountain will make you dedicated, persevering and, most beautiful of all, capable of hearing the call of your own heart.

I wouldn’t take hardship out of your climb. Only through its presence will you realize the reward of believing sufficiently in yourself and your dream to overcome all obstacles. If hardship isn’t outwardly defeated, you’ll fear it inwardly. Encounter hardship and you’ll know you are capable of overcoming it in any battle.

I know the greatest misfortune I could do you is to shield you from the reality of mountainous trial; for trial is but a door opening to the reality of your dream come true. You are capable of unlocking this door for yourself.

I offer you the wish that God sends a special mountain your way, so you can climb to the top and reach your dream — whatever it may be.

God bless, guard and guide you, always…

In giving and leading us to salvation, Christ chose not to “snap His fingers” and instantaneously reach the end result. Christ shares needed example by personally illustrating that strength and reward of a coveted prize does not come through the “snap your fingers” and receive the unearned presentation of a reward, but through the endurance and marathon of climbing a mountain with fingers “not snapping” but, rather, clawing into obstacle.

Little do we realize we are innately wired to choose the “no snap” process over the “snap fingers” immediate bestowal. However, I believe, that is exactly how we are created. Maybe we can get prospective of whether we are made “to snap” or “not to snap” from Scripture. Christ proclaimed, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”. Matthew 18:3 (NIV)

Recently, I headed to South Carolina to help care for my granddaughter, Rosemary Jean, while her mommy was in the hospital delivering baby brother. Since big sis has developed a love for baking, like any GaGa (Grammy) I packed some little girl baking utensils and what I believed were easy, “snap your fingers” recipes. In complete honesty, they were recipes where I could do the hard work, and Miss Rosemary could “snap her fingers” and put my results into easy, finished, yummy masterpieces. Let me openly admit, this completely backfired. Rosemary didn’t want my “snap fingers” plan. She wanted to, herself, do every step of preparation and assembly of her strawberry pie.

No matter how hard (and softly) I told my little baker that GaGa would just do what was too difficult, and time consuming, for a four-year-old, her reply was the same. “I need to do that, GaGa, because this is MY pie to make, not yours. Thus, the kitchen got messy from floor to countertop, but the reward of personally changing challenge to merit was learned that day — by both Rosemary and her GaGa.

It’s inborn in children to choose to learn by doing each and every step themselves. They don’t desire for someone else to do the hard work and then hand the finished product to them. In this regard, we adults might need to become more like a little child.

Next time I nod my head in disgruntlement, asking Christ why something’s not a “snap” to have rectified, accomplished or received, I’ll remember Rosemary and HER strawberry pie. Whether it’s as simple as making a dessert or as difficult as finding a way through a desert, wisdom and reward only grow through fingers folded in prayer (not snapping and expecting instant success) and grasping Christ’s hand. Challenge cannot grow us if we seek to jump over it and land on the podium. Christ walked, step by step, to the Cross. He did that to save me and you. He could have “snapped His fingers” and avoided worldly suffering and death. He didn’t. How then can I complain when called to walk, step by step, my life’s challenges?

It was pre 7:00 A.M., and I was on the last half of my daily walk. Florida humidity had already soaked my attire, and I rejoiced that I was, so to speak, on the home stretch. In the far distance, my gaze caught a little girl (I’d guess 9 years old) who was wearing a backpack and crossing the road. The first week of summer vacation dawned as the first week of summer school for her. However, she was not the focus of my attention. I was riveted on the teen (probably 15 years old) who was riding his bike and leading her path.

What teenage boy would be up riding a bike pre 7 A.M. on the first day of summer vacation? A brother, that’s who! I picked up my pace, hoping to reach the siblings before they were gone. That morn the school bus outran me. Before my legs reached their side, the little girl had boarded her transport, and the young man had ridden off from where he came. I thought maybe tomorrow, if it was meant to be, or so I prayed.

Imagine my delight when 24 hours later, I once more witnessed this same brother/sister blessing. This time they were in near distance. Turning on my after burners, I power walked to this duo’s spot. Praise God, I arrived before the school bus.

I thanked them both for being “HOPE for the FUTURE” for this old lady. Confirming they were brother and sister, I affirmed the brother for being the loving and protective arm God calls an older sibling to be. I offered him praise for answering God’s calling. He thanked me as his little sis instinctively hugged him. It was the picture of family caring and sharing.

What picture has this week left you remembering — a world torn apart by fighting differences or a big brother lovingly protecting his little sister? For me, there is no question. Praise God for family love and caring outshining all worldly hate and destruction.

Today has found me paging through volumes I wrote when much younger and far less learned from life’s failures and successes!!! To you they might not make sense. To me they are worth millions of reflections on how far God has carried me and how much he has harvested in me. I share a few now, not that you will flower anything but thought, and maybe even laughter or a tear, from their bouquet.

Faith is strange. No matter how much you believe in your heart, there comes a time when someone else’s heart must believe in you. 4/72

At times a sheared thread of faith is saved only by knowing that you can look to tomorrow before it becomes today; and total despair is avoided only by being too afraid not to hope in tomorrow before it becomes today. 6/30/70

Take a bow, sir. Your guidance is helping this jester come to life again. You’re right. It doesn’t take a perfect back to “laugh” or “climb a mountain”. Above all, I’ve decided tomorrow’s greatest hope could flow from yesterday’s despair; and today is the bridge I alone must construct to join my past and future. 1/75

I want to live; but what is life? I want what’s right; but how do I know? That’s just it. What I really want is to know; but I’ve so much first to find. I can’t be sure. I’m caught in a whirlpool going round and round and round, seeing many things but unsure exactly what are the concrete ones to which I’m meant to grasp. I want to face reality; but I can’t find it. I can see many hazy visions of it in different forms. Which is the one for me? Maybe, I’m searching too hard. Maybe, I can’t find it but must let it find me. I’m capable of letting different things happen in my life. This is what scares me. How do I know I’ll let the right ones happen? For so long I’ve been trying to mechanically draw my life and not let it be done by free and heavenly guided sketching. Now, having sensed this to be wrong, where am I meant to belong? Am I lost? Or am I just beginning to be found? 6/83

These are glimpses into my past and yet maybe, also, reflections of someone else’s present. So let it be spoken that no matter where any of us are today, God’s promise of tomorrow is all we need to grow and flower into all our hopes and dreams. Thank you God for throughout my many years granting me this very bouquet.

When I was but a child, my Mother taught me, not only, many of life’s lessons, but also, God’s greatest lessons. My Mom, many times, unfolded the pages of the Bible not by opening up God’s Book but through unlocking God’s Word through unzipping my soul to the symbolism within worldly chores. One such instance was the day my Mother decided I was ready for the lesson of polishing our family, heirloom silver.

Like any preteen, I was not excited to partake of this task. In fact, I was blatantly bummed. Personally, I didn’t care if tea was served from a tarnished or a shiny pot. I didn’t like tea, so why should I be concerned over what its serving kettle looked like. My Mom was about to change both my attitude and my lack of wisdom.

Mom’s tutorial began by declaring my eyes saw teapot, but my insight needed to view any, and all, treasures of life as a gift from God. God would entrust many treasures to my life — just as my ancestors had passed on the inheritance of this teapot. My Mother continued her nurturing by clarifying time can tarnish, not only, worldly treasures, but also, the divine ones which God hands down to His family of believers. Neither our material nor spiritual blessings should ever remain dulled by the mire of grime. We are called to the task of accepting the challenge (and our ability) to restore glorious shine to our tarnished possessions — especially the dreams of our human hearts and divine souls.

Illustrating this point, my Mom placed a polishing cloth in my hands. Guiding my fingers, she showed me how to, over and over again, rub hard the tarnished surfaces in order to bring back deep-down glow. Her words re-enforced this process was not magical but the result of hard work and not stopping until outer tarnish was worn off and revitalized inner luster was illuminated.

My wise Mother proceeded to bring home the most important (yet most overlooked) lesson within her polishing cloth. How often we think it takes wealth, rare talent or lottery-like luck to accomplish a goal. On the contrary, what it takes is desire, determination, durability and deliberate deeds.

Years and years have passed, but my Mother’s words seem like today’s proclamation. Never think nor believe you are not good enough to shine or bring your dreams to full illumination. The power of a polishing cloth is not that its material is magical but that its fiber is composed of the power of the miraculous. A polishing cloth is solely nothing more, nor nothing less, than a rag that believes and trusts its soul.

At “3:00 A.M. this morning, I woke to these words: For God to be “HERE” guiding me, I have to earnestly “HEAR” Him. Thought crossed my mind that maybe God was composing my weekly blog message. Before dozing back off, I jotted down the sentence in my phone’s reminders app. Post Church service and on my daily walk, I wondered if, indeed, the sentence should be my topic. Not convinced, I tabled my decision till I finished pool exercising, which followed my walk. Once back in dry clothes, I reached for my phone and notebook.

First thing I did was pull up my reminders app. The sentence was gone. For certain, it was there at 3:00 A.M.. Now, it was not. Immediately, I sensed God saying this was not a mistake but His needing to lead since I was not convinced to follow. In truth, there was no human rhyme nor reason to what I did next. I will not doubt that it was fully Divine direction. I opened my emails. Blaring me in the face was the reality that between 5:36 A.M. and 5:38 A.M. this morning, eleven emails flooded my box. Each and every one solely contained the soul message I’d woken up to at 3:00 A.M.. For God to be “HERE” guiding me, I have to earnestly “HEAR” Him.

The sentence’s significance I was pondering, God was unquestionably declaring. Not only did I feel compelled to listen, I felt directly discipled to share. As I take up my pencil to do so, I pray God does the talking and I’m merely His scribe cause to be forthcoming, I obviously haven’t yet prayed over this sentence and reaped its harvest. Thus, the words now jotted down are His, not His servant’s.

My daughter, I commend that for months you have focused on the present of My presence being “HERE” with you. However, you are trapped in “HERE” and forgetting My seeds of wisdom and direction are rooted in “HEAR”. Be it My personal voice or Scripture, “HERE” results in unbudging proximity, and “HEAR” evolves into moving in togetherness. In your life’s journey, getting from “HERE” to there flowers not from “HERE” but from learning to “HEAR” Me, which leads to release of fear, direction becoming clear and never doubting I am near.

Your heart has mastered “HERE”. Now trust your soul to “HEAR”. “HEAR” does not belong on a reminder app. Its essence needs never to be forgotten. Over and over again, “HEAR” should flood the messages of your life. And by the way, those weren’t emails. They were ME mails!!!

One more thing to “HEAR”, My daughter. You are not lost. You are beginning to be found.

It’s one thing to pray for wisdom. It’s a completely different thing to ask God to open your eyes (and heart) to seeing, accepting and following the wisdom He shares. Since my life has God as its core, my navigation system’s compass is glued to God’s guidance. The result is honest knowledge of both my limitations and God’s abundant predominance — i.e.., my need to back off so God can move all forward.

The hard pill for me to swallow was letting God cure me of my trying to play doctor where only His cure can make well. In short, God recently handed me a sharp, yet very blunt, prescription to take daily till my urge to meddle was completely suppressed!!! My daily dose of God’s medicine worked. God (from inside out, from heart and soul to mouth) brought me to understand that sometimes my worldly doctor bag can’t change anything but could destroy everything. So instead of trying to be a miracle doc, I sure better concentrate on not being the medical quack who ends up destroying everything -and possibly everyone.

The Prayer of Serenity, not my exuberant desire to get in and fix the broken, is what needs to replace my bag of “personal” tricks. “God grant me to serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”. (Reinhold Niebuhr)

I’ve learned praying for wisdom is strength not weakness; and more wisdom often translates into stepping back so God can step forward and shutting up so God can prevent shutdowns. Most important of all, before I spurt out all my answers, I better ask myself one question. Can I change anything or destroy everything? Finally, I need to get myself behind God’s lead and let Him (not my bag of worldly fix it tricks) mend and heal the broken.

At best, my ability is only to help nurse along others according to God’s plan. God alone is the Almighty Healing Physician. Gladly, I now release myself from randomly giving orders to others and, gratefully, submit myself to taking orders God directly sends my way. “Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight or understanding”. Proverbs 3:5-6 (AMP)

My mother’s heart jumps for joy. This morn, my two newest grandbabies were dedicated in their respective churches. On top of this, my any moment to arrive eighth grandchild is keeping us all in baby ecstasy. Added blessing is my grown children and their better halves are the epitome of Christian mommies and daddies. This ‘ol mom/grammy heart is grateful beyond words on this Mother’s Day. However, my soul is also heavily burdened. Some of my fellow moms/grammies are immersed in tears of sorrow this day. My heart cries with, and for, them.

“R”, “J” and “L” are inspiration to me. They are the absolute core of motherhood as God created it to be. Long before I was blessed with my own children, I witnessed, through their hearts and souls, the epitome of mother love. Yet today their mother hearts are filled with tears, loneliness and self-declared failure and loss. The celebrations of this twenty-four hours ring empty for them. Never have I felt less able to change wrong than when I measure my inability to bring a “Happy Mother’s Day” to their worthy hearts.

For so many there is a deep sadness this Mother’s Day. Their hearts have loved. Their knees have bent. Their souls have prayed; but their sons and daughters have strayed — not because of their mother lack but because of Satan’s knack.

Today is a day of celebration. May each and every joy filled mother rejoice and be honored for the fruits of her labor. However, may each and every one of us proud mommas, also, be filled with God’s encouragement and compassion to hug a mother who has given her all but whose child remains lost. Don’t let the sun go down on Mother’s Day hallelujahs before uplifting the SON of comfort to fellow Mothers whose hearts most need to know they are loved and appreciated. May we all mirror the message that a mother’s success is not solely the reflection of a child’s triumphs but “soul”y the genuflection of a mother’s being to instill her Lord and Savior in both her child’s victories and defeats. This Mother’s Day may we all genuinely honor the downtrodden and discouraged moms who most need, and deserve, to be hugged in love and appreciation.