Uplifted in a Broken Down World

This week brought my heart the, of late, rare luxury of spending time with a deeply cherished special friend. Life this past year, for anyone but Joyce, could have resulted in a well-earned pity party get together for an extremely difficult season of misfortune after misfortune in my soul sister’s life. However, this woman of God cloaks herself in counting her blessings, while refusing to count the devil’s curses.

Relating nightmare specifics is, in her own words, “not my story to tell”. What I feel called to share is the Faith, Hope and Love which graces each and every moment of her life — no matter if it’s from the heights of her dreams or pit of her nightmares. Would that we all, especially I, could tip toe through the daises and sidestep the grenades as “grace”fully as Joyce.

When clobbered by adversity, the number one tool in Joyce’s bag is her attitude — or should I more aptly say altitude! Joyce consistently and constantly hammers the nail on the head with her tribulation declaration “this isn’t going to stop me, change me, nor defeat me”. Not with any bitterness, but rather a grateful, faith-filled heart and soul, this Godly warrior stands up to whatever attempts to topple her outlook and Hope. Her fists don’t clench to level a knockout blow to the enemy. They clutch the promises of God as she wisely foregoes telling God how big her problems are, while boldly shouting at Satan how big her God is.

Joyce crosses tomorrow’s bridges tomorrow. Today, she swims the deep-water laps at hand while grasping the Cross of Christ and trusting her Lord is the only buoy needed to keep her afloat.

There isn’t any trial that pens in this spiritual soldier. She hops any, and every, fence before her. She understands freedom from God to keep reaching for miracles cannot be locked up inside any prison built by Lucifer.

When my treasured friend gazes into a mirror, she doesn’t see the shadow of a superhuman. She merely catches a glimpse of the reflection of the reality of the power, protection and presence of her Heavenly Father assuring her: “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Fear not, I am the one who helps you’.” Isaiah 41: 10-13 ESV

May we all gaze at our trials and tribulations with eyes as deep and discerning as the lady I have shared with you today.

Each and every cancer patient’s story composes its own book. While each narrative is unique, the author never varies. Satan contrives every single tragedy.

Some accounts are few in chapters. Other texts are volumes of cliffhanging sequels. All are heartbreaking memoirs.

Though the devil originates all stories, he does not have the last word. Like in all publications, the editor does. God, and God alone, is the sole (and soul) editor. Satan’s pen finishes every cancer story with “the end”. God, the editor, erases “the end” from every final page and re-writes the closing epoch with “THE BEGINNING”.

May all those left behind, who read and re-read their loves story, do so knowing and believing God does not author cancer; but He most certainly, in the ink of His own Son’s blood, stamps every earthly final page with the eternal fulfillment of Christ’s promise – THE BEGINNING.

One of my deepest treasures is a painting of daisies with the message “Trust in the Lord and give yourself a kick in the pants and get going” adorned on it. Many years ago, Rosie, a most gifted and inspiring multifaceted artist/adopted sister presented this cherished gift to me. It was her loving way of telling me I needed to put on my big girl panties and take a first step so God could lead me. Rosie knew sitting still and waiting for God to lead me, while I was parked with the emergency brake engaged, was no way to expect God to get me anywhere!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself drawn to Rosie’s masterpiece. Once more, my life needed God to lead; but, in all honesty, my being was anchored down in a long-term parking lot, not ready to soar behind God’s lead. I needed to unfasten my seatbelt, jump out of its restrictive harness and get behind the Lord, following His next course for my heart and soul.

This moment as I step into new waters, my heart and soul desire to encourage all my sisters and brothers in Christ to do the same. Don’t stay immobile, expecting God to take all the steps. I, you, we are to follow. If God has to push us to move us, then He is behind us, not leading us.

Though much time has passed, it seems like only yesterday that Rosie blessed my life in person. However, her wisdom and love continue to flower and accompany my being as I follow God. I love you, Rosie, and thank God for the adopted sister and inspiration you are to me.

This is just my current season of life here on earth. Change is brewing, and direction, for me, is uncertain. I’m not fearful. I’m unclear, unsure and unresolved. Thus, my nature has pointed me to God’s compass for both my solution and my “soul”ution.
Not only have I heard God’s voice leading and guiding me, His articulation has also, authoritatively, reminded me that I am IN His hand, NOT ON His hand. Ouch, I both deserved and needed this reprimand.
There I was begging God to direct my life. Now, this was what I correctly grasped and carried out. Trouble was I also executed the mistake of exerting my human leadership direction, instead of the comprehensive soundness of following God’s will and way.
Yep, I was whipping around my pointer finger – sort of showing God the direction of my will and way. Let me assure all that this is not the path to be travelled with expectations of being delivered to where God wants and needs you to be, nor where you can be of any service to God or any of His children.
Loud and clear, God yanked me back on course. Simply stated, if I want God to carry me in His hand and lead me to where I’m called and destined to be, then I need to realize and accept MY pointer finger is not a part of HIS hand. God’s hand comes complete with HIS own Devine pointer finger, and it usurps mine, if I truly want to, and do in fact, rest in His hand.
Maybe we all, not just I, need to remember to tuck our pointer finger inside our own hand when asking God to carry us in His hand.

Amidst the hurry and scurry of this week, a new friend stopped me in my track. Sounding congratulatory she uttered to me, “Wow, you possess blind Faith!”. Totally confusing her, I replied, “Nope, it’s impossible for my Faith to be blind, but often my trust is blind.”. Therein began a soul reflecting conversation.

From the time I was a little child, I’ve known God’s presence – not just His existence but His presence. I grew up talking to God. Often times, this was because God cared and made time to listen when the world felt my little girl, chubby, awkward being was not only a never was but, also, a never would be. God was never a fairy godfather to me. He was, and is, my very own Father God.

I firmly believe in God, and my Faith in God is never blind. For as long as I can remember, I’ve seen God active in my life. My Faith is in whom I know and love and in whom knows and loves me. Thus, in no way is my Faith blind, nor is it capable of being blind.

Trust, however, must be (and is) at times blind. Trust is the limb (anchored offshoot) that branches from the trunk of Faith. In honesty, trust is found in what currently cannot be seen. Trust is not in God, but in what God can, might and will do. If we could see trust, then there would be no need to even have trust. Trust can be built upon what we have seen in the past, but every time trust is needed, it is because we cannot see what is currently needed, prayed for and hoped for. Trust is blind.

Because my Faith is not blind, my trust does not need sight to believe. Maybe, I’m splitting hairs here, but as God’s heir to heaven, my journey back home is navigated by seeing Faith and blind trust. For me, in view of this rests my peace and joy. The eyes of my soul see God enabling my heart to blindly trust my Heavenly Father to guide, guard and deliver me beyond all I cannot see.

Bombarded by a multitude of Satan scenarios in loved friends’ lives, my prayers have revved up in slowing down to deeply ask God to intervene. This morn, a tad worn down from feeling more need than gratitude, I asked God why so many cherished ones’ lives seem so impossible? Needing not even a micro-second to respond, God declared: man sees impossible; I, your God, speak “I’m Possible”.

Immediately, I realized instead of laboring in prayer, I should be praying without labor. The weight of the world should not be drowning my prayers in heaviness. The promises of God should be uplifting my prayers in buoyant faith, hope and love. Not I, you nor anyone else can keep Satan’s handiwork from touching our lives. However, I you and everyone else can choose to replace Satan’s impossible with God’s “I’m Possible”; and, from here, trust God to carry us not only through, but also, beyond all trials and tribulations.

At least for me, it’s beyond time to stop bringing “dead” prayers to God. My prayers need, instead, to be “thread” prayers, woven into the fabric of God’s might. In doing so, I must clearly remember man’s might is maybe. God’s might is absolute strength that overpowers all.

Bringing our loves ones’ needs to God is one of our greatest Christian callings. Whether we do so depressed by Satan’s theatrics or inspired by the reality of God’s unlimited promises is our choice to decide. For me, this is now written in stone by Psalm 34:17-22. “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of His servants; none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.”

Blessed and grateful, I’m in the midst of visiting my year-old twin granddaughters. As I flew towards them, my thoughts wondered how much they had grown and learned since last I held them. What I came to discover is how deeply the Lord uses a baby to remind us grown-ups of many a lesson. Truly, this last week has added new insight to the truth, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”. Matthew 18:3 (ESV)

For instance, may I share Becklynne and her “uppa blub blub” – her passey hanging from her tiny stuffed giraffe. Her treasured “uppa blub blub” is her port in all storms. Passeys may be a dime a dozen, but only “uppa blub blub” dries her tears, brings her security and comforts her when the world brings scarey moments. She clings to “uppa blub blub” as God created all, regardless of age, to cleave to Him.

There is profound wisdom in recognizing a baby, before the world can train her to have a stiff upper lip, possesses a soft, instinctive need to hold onto a chosen source for security and love. Is not this a beautiful picture of how we all should cling to God all the years of life? Why in our grown-up moments of trials and tribulations do we forget God, as our mainstay, is all we need to survive downfalls, defeats and destruction.

Good thing I have two pointer fingers. Both sisters reached for one when strutting in their faux fur trimmed cowgirl boots. The little misses are fascinated by their boots and want them on 24/7. However, the clumsy weight on their baby feet makes walking quite an off-balance task. It takes their baby hand wrapped around Grammy’s pointer finger to balance enough to walk without tumbling over. Are we not all created to hold God’s hand as we walk through all that throws us off balance too? A baby instinctively reaches for a finger before they take a step. This is a first action, not last effort. A wise lesson can be garnered from this.

Ellanora’s and Becklynne’s tiny bottoms have only to touch their highchairs, and their sweet little arms stretch out to hold those next to them. They pray before they eat. Would that we grown-ups would take as much delight in praying as they do.

To say the least, my visit with two one-year olds has been a blessing beyond measure. The hugs and snugs will forever warm my heart. The insight into their baby beings sharing Godly lessons will always burn brightly in my soul. And yes, this proud Grammy knows for sure these little ladies are God’s wisest of baby angels.

Goodness gracious, from a corner of an American mega airport, I’m thoroughly entertained by the parade of mankind passing by me. My initial reaction was are these people from planet earth? Getting overwhelmed with the flow of folks going against the stream of conventional attire, my mind wandered back to the olden days when clothes were a symbol of respect, not a statement of disregard. Nostalgically, I smiled as I remembered my Mother teaching me white gloves were a necessity for all little girls (big girls too) to don for Sunday church. God deserved worshippers to dress up before we knelt down in His glory. Honestly, I miss those days.

My mind next meandered to the realization that many, currently, are devoted more to proving they are free thinkers in what they wear and what they believe in than they are to claim the cloth of Christ as their robe of identity. The lengths to which humanity goes to establish their personal identity and purpose by looking outlandishly different from others is mind boggling.

Being overloaded with gazing at the preposterous, I retreated to grazing in the pasture of my soul. I asked God to weigh in on why society thinks being different leads to achieving supreme purpose in life. Yes, the world is in dire need of changing, but why does humanity think that to choose to outrageously stand out in a crowd is the path to contentment, harmony, self-assurance, soul assurance, or any significant leadership and accomplishment?

Delivering my query to the Lord, I fell back into His wisdom and listened to His enlightenment. Softly, my soul heard God’s rejoinder: My daughter, My creations (your fellow inhabitants of earth) are correct in realizing the world needs to change and in wanting to change the world. However, their means of doing so is totally wayward. For you see, to change the world, My children do not have to be something they are not. They just have to be the someone I created each to be.

God’s words spoke volumes. Our society has lost its grasp on holding our Heavenly Father’s hand, being beautifully dressed in His righteousness and fashioning our world back into mirroring the reflections of His image.

In my eyes, the sight of the crowd of “out of this world” travelers pacing the concourses of an airport suddenly changed from comical to pitiful. In my heart, the change went from a comedy to a tragedy. In my soul, I now pray the runways of life become a parade of God’s children clothed in the cloth of Christ and leading the wayward prodigal back on track to the greatest destination of all – eternity with God.

As my flight began to board, I put my pencil down and took up a new appreciation for the white gloves my Mom taught my fingers to fill and for my knees, which my Mom showed me how to bend in awe of God, in whose cloth I long to be covered.

“…Clothe yourself with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:24 (NRSV)

Struggling to re-establish a normal inner peace in my life, I started by taking time with the Lord. Actually, my relationship with God never took a beating as life spun out of the norm last year. However, being a firm believer all starts with the Lord, I went first to soul time to jump start my settling back into my normal existence. O.K., I realize those who know me best are laughing cause my norm can only be defined as abnormal. Still, I needed to retreat from my total chaotic 2024 and seek 2025 to be what even heaven might declare as my abnormal over what hell declares abysmal.

I was seeking God’s peace and direction. Logically, at least to me, my route was to find God in new ways. My Bible in a year, daily devotionals, small groups and weekly Church service were already my life’s staples. My hunger desired to witness God being the thread running through universal Christian lives. My decision was to take the second day of weekend services and visit different churches and reap the blessing of peace as other congregations praised our universal, one and only God. In doing so, I sought the gift of seeing (and understanding) though surroundings vary, God is the norm from whence peace reigns (and rains) for all Christians. He is who adds routine stability to our crazy (at times even out of control) lives and world. Simply stated, God, alone, is the center of all that is normal. He is the common fiber that sustains us in both peace and balance of mind and soul.

Regardless of the open Church doors through which I walked, every Christian denomination I partook of was uplifting, Scripture enlightening and brought unity amongst all worshippers. The tragedies of the current world were prayed for; and while earthly chaos was not instantaneously quenched by the congregations’ intercessions, all worshiping experienced release from the fires of worldly turmoil in praising God’s power to forgive all trespasses and deliver all from evil. Universally in every Church, spending time with God stopped the onslaught of worldly pandemonium and replaced the atmosphere with harmony, peace and blessings.

Denominations might have outward differences, but inwardly all praise of God results in our Heavenly Father being honored and mankind being immersed in the normalcy of God’s peace and protection. Time with God is the sole way for our souls to switch the normal chaos of the world into blissful normalcy. Maybe we can’t escape the world, but we can escape its chaos by falling at our God’s feet and praising Him whose power dispels all evil and brings unto all the regular presence of calm amidst all storms. Herein is the finding of the norm all children of God seek and savor.

Driving away from my last visited House of Worship, a chuckle and a sigh escaped my being. I had been seeking a normal, peaceful routine to embrace my life. My chuckle was grounded in my realization that in this world the norm is tumultuous chaos. My sigh was rooted in the absolute truth that only in both God’s presence and hands can the touchstone of normalcy be founded and grounded in the orderliness of peace and harmony. Looking up to the calm skies of heaven, I quipped to God, “There’s a double purpose of the Sabbath, isn’t there? First and foremost, You created it as a normal time of praise given You. However, You engineered it, also, as a fueling station for Your children. For in praising You, the normalcy of Your peace and harmony are interjected into the lives of Your wearied children. The tranquility resulting from praising You becomes the petrol we need to remain in normalcy of faith, hope, love and trust as we routinely maneuver through the normalcy of chaos in our fallen world and lives.

Not only the clock is ticking away, but also days and weeks. Foremost on my mind is why is God taking so long? With deep and sincere intercession, my prayer was offered. A tad frustrated from waiting, I asked God, why the delay? What’s taking so long? God’s answer was discovered in His question – Why, my child, don’t you think about timing in Christ’s life? Therein, lies the patience you lack and the understanding you need.

The following comprises the enlightenment God shared with me as I pondered where His question led me.

Christ came down to earth from the throne of Heaven for one purpose, to redeem mankind. Christ is God. God can accomplish all immediately. Is there a missed message in it taking thirty-three years for Christ’s redemption intercession to be answered? Never once, in all of Scripture do we hear Jesus complain His route for the accomplishment our redemption was taking too long. In both obedience and patience, Jesus waited over three decades to have His intercession for our redemption to be granted.

Ouch, I am convicted! It’s pretty pompous of me to expect (and even, at times, demand) my desired prayer outcomes happen immediately.

Christ’s entire life on earth is a blueprint for us to follow, but often details are overlooked. Before now, never have I questioned why redemption wasn’t an overnight accomplishment. Nor have I realized Christ’s example found, and inspiration garnered, from contemplating how long Jesus waited for fulfillment of His intercession for my redemption.

Yes, my human nature still prefers spontaneous granting of answers to my prayers; but my child of God’s soul now holds peace as I trust God’s timing to deliver fulfillment of my intercessions. Of even greater hope, until at least thirty-three years pass, I’ll never stop believing God’s answer is on its way!