You Are Somebody Special

A long time ago (remember these words), I was asked to speak to a graduating class of pregnant girls from Birmingham City Schools.  My first thoughts (unfortunately) were pregnant girls, fast girls, illegitimate babies, sexual promiscuity, bad girls.  Even though I had accepted the invitation, my big question was ... what do I say to them?  Fortunately, I slowed my wild and run away thinking down long enough to hear the voice of the Lord give me the message topic.  You may have already figured it out.  It was You  Are Somebody Special! And indeed, they were.

Read the following words, speak the words aloud, think about what you're saying -- I Am Somebody Special.  Repeat the words and know that you are.  Yes, You Are Somebody Special.  Guess who said so?  God says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).  He says that you are more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37).  The Lord says you triumph in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 2:14).  Almighty God says that you are the head and not the tail, you're above and not beneath, you're the lender and not the borrower (Deuteronomy 28:12-13).  He adds that you can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13).

It really doesn't matter what you see, hear, think, or feel about yourself, where you've been, or what you've done.  ALL that matters is what the Word of the Lord says.  You Are Somebody Special!!!

What Makes Your Heart Sing

Today on Rise@5, our early morning Bible Study, the teacher raised a similar question, what brings you peace?  We were asked to write our thoughts during a two minute timed interval.  I did and continued to write long after the call was completed.  I wrote a page full of things that both bring me peace and make my heart sing. 

 

My list in part -- the Word, speaking, reading, meditating ... quietness, peaceful solitude, soft instrumental music ... books, a good book ... lights especially night lights that seem to flicker, as seen from my bedroom view of the city ... flowers on my deck, in my yard, throughout my home, in my office, wherever ... sitting in front of my fireplace watching the flames as the burning (gas) logs seem to snap, crackle, and pop ... water whether in a pond, lake, river, ocean, observed from the deck of a cruise ship or riding the river in a friend's pontoon, in San Francisco sitting on the dock of the bay ... observing the sunset standing on a rocky crag overlooking the Pacific ocean in Lima, Peru; this gigantic ball of yellow gold appeared to be settling into the water as far as I could see both to my left and right ... the squirrel(s) that comes early morning to look for hidden nuts in the flower pots on my deck ... my computer screen with daily changing nature scenes ... projects and assignments that unfold as planned ... revelation and answers from God to the issues of life ... children ... an ongoing list ... .

What brings you peace?  What makes your heart sing, what people, thoughts, stories, memories?

But God

On this past Monday, I had a but God experience. If you're thinking, so what's a but God experience.  It's when something happens in a situation or circumstance that is normally impossible, out of the ordinary, highly unlikely in the natural scheme of things.  It's when God intervenes to alter the natural order of things.  It's when you experience what you absolutely know to be a miracle. It's mind boggling.  For me, it was all of the above and life-saving.

In the morning after the gym and breakfast and a two mile walk in the park, I was in the car on the way from downtown to get the car washed. Traveling south on 20th Street, I began to feel sleepy, very sleepy.  Let the window down, and confessed I'm awake and alert.  The next thing I heard was this loud crash, saw a concrete wall up close, and white airbags deployed, all in one split second. Oh my God, I've crashed into a wall. The impact knocked the car back into one lane of northbound traffic. Put the car in park, turned off the ignition, picked up my phone from the floor, grabbed my purse, and got out.  Heard a woman's voice asking if I were okay?  Strangely unshaken and questioning what just happened, I responded, yes I'm fine.  And I was.

What happened, I was thinking then just as you probably are now?  I went to sleep, foot on accelerator, car traveled across three lanes, two of them oncoming traffic, hit a concrete retaining wall, and was pushed back into one lane of oncoming traffic.  But God, I hit no other car, no other car hit me.  But God, the passenger side of the car hit the wall sustaining major damage from the impact.  But God, I sustained NO injuries. 

The following day God reminded me of how His Word never returns void or empty, and accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent.  I remembered my daily prayer confession of Psalm 91 for the past 15+ years.  I am especially mindful of the last three verses personalized to me, Psalm 91:14-16 -- I will rescue her, protect her, be with her in trouble, deliver her, satisfy her with long life, and show her my salvation.  But God, THANK YOU!!!

 

Pause

Pause, a button on recording equipment and an action taken by humans, means a temporary stop, break, time to reconsider, to linger, breather, interruption, lull. As we learn from Ecclesiastes 3:1, there is a time for everything. So if there is a right time for pause, there must be a wrong time.  If there is a right way or a right place to pause, there would also be a wrong way and a wrong place.  Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 8: 5b that the wise heart knows the proper time and procedure for every matter. 

Remember when Moses paused to cry out at the Red Sea and was asked by the Lord why he was crying out to him.  His command was to go forward, to move on (see Exodus 14:15). As with Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea, we sometimes find ourselves pausing, stopping, and taking a break at the wrong time.  Even when facing a formidable foe, a major obstacle or hurdle, or a mountain too high to climb, we are called to listen closely and carefully for the still small voice of the Lord telling us when to pause and when not to.

When the traffic signal changes to green for you, have you taken a pause which kept you from being broadsided by the driver speeding through a red signal?  Have you paused or hesitated before responding in a conversation, and that pause kept you from saying the wrong thing?  On the other hand, has a pause or too long a stop caused you to miss a God ordained opportunity?  Holy Spirit leads you to pray for another, and your pause, your wait keeps you from making the call?  A pause as simple as hitting the snooze button when the alarm goes off causes you to be late for work, miss a meeting, get caught up in the traffic rush, make your child late for an important test in first class, be late for church and miss a move of the Holy Spirit who showed up at the appointed time? 

Selah – pause, stop and think about it!  I pray for hearts of wisdom to know the proper time to pause and the proper time not to pause.

Lord Prepare Me

Lord prepare me.  For what, you may be thinking?  Consider this season when we remember Judas' betrayal of Jesus, the unjust trials that followed, Peter's denials, the 39 stripes, the cross and His crucifixion, His preparation for burial, and the resurrection.  What trial, what temptation, what difficulty, what are you now experiencing that you need to be delivered from?  Is there an area in your life that for all practical purposes is dying, if not already dead?  Have you been unjustly accused?  Is there one that you have poured your best into that is now denying or turning away from all that you have given?  Are you transitioning from a place of comfort to a place of the unknown?  Is there a dead relationship that needs to be resurrected? 

Are you ready to say and see what Paul wrote to the church in Corinth that "the old has gone, the new has come" (see 2 Corinthians 5:17)? Is it time for your prayer to be Lord prepare me for the new that is coming?  At times when either I am entangled in a bunch of deadly emotions, have spoken foolishly or acted/reacted really stupidly, I've found myself praying repeatedly words written long ago by then King David.  They have become an integral part of my follow-up to Lord prepare me.  "Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).

May Jesus' resurrection remind us all that the darkest hour is just before the dawning of a new day.  Because He lives, we can live an abundant life.  Because He forgave from the cross those who crucified Him, we have been enabled to forgive no matter what the situation or circumstance.  Lord prepare me for my new day and my fresh start, for an abundant life, to forgive others so that you can forgive me.  Lord prepare me to love others just as you have loved me.

Lord Have Mercy

As a child growing up in the home of my grandmother, I remember three words that she spoke when she heard of catastrophic events, untimely death, storm damage, sickness and disease, hospitalizations, wrecks and other accidents, arrests and jail or prison time, marital problems, church fights and splits, and the like.  Sometimes with her head down, body bowed over, her left hand rubbing her forehead, sometimes needing to sit down if the news came while she was standing, wiping her hands furiously on the apron she always wore at home, she muttered three words -- Lord have mercy.  I didn't realize she was praying. I just thought she was saying something.  I came to realize that she was at a loss for words, so she almost always said the same ones -- Lord have mercy.

I have now learned that the three words are an often prayed prayer in the Bible. David, the man after God's own heart (see Acts 13:22), prayed these three words probably more than any other person in the Bible. David wrote what we know as Psalm 51 when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, killed. The opening statement in that psalm is "have mercy on me, O God." Throughout the Psalms, David repeatedly speaks the three words -- Lord have mercy.

Oh, that we might be more like my grandmother and David.  When the issues of life are all around us and seem so overwhelming … when the news reports yell at us the atrocities that abound, not only in our neighborhoods but around the world … when as a nation, we defiantly shake our fists at God's laws and create our own to murder unborn babies and to affirm same sex marriage … when we neither know what to do or what to say or how to pray, these three words work all the time, every time -- Lord have mercy.

 

Expect the Unexpected (2)

Recently, I coordinated blood drive number 11 at church.  This one was on the heels of two blood drives a year for the previous five years.  In partnership with the American Red Cross, they would send staff for both an inside collection site and their mobile unit.  The drive day arrived -- beautiful, bright, sunshiny; started with more pre-sign-ups than ever before; tee shirts had been delivered early; Red Cross supply truck and workers arrived on schedule; volunteer workers arrived; everything was falling into place.  I expected to exceed our goal.

 One thing was missing, the mobile unit which was the second collection site.  This was unexpected to say the least ... a first time occurrence ... mechanical difficulties ... out of the ordinary ... unplanned for ... prayers for the unit to arrive went unanswered.  Why?  What to do?  Why this unexpected turn of events?  How to make the best of the situation?  Had I been expecting the plans to succeed my way or God's way? Would I trust God's ways when they were different from mine? Was my definition of success limiting or disregarding the Master Planner?  Did I really expect the unexpected?

 What happened?  Romans 8:28 happened.  A Red Cross staff team worked steadily and diligently to accommodate as many donors as possible.  While some prospects left, many waited patiently to become donors as committed.  Though we missed goal, the collected units were no less than had been previously collected on a couple occasions using two collection sites. 

Expect the unexpected.  Be ever mindful that God's promises never change.  "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  (See Romans 8:28.)