Easy Yoke, Light Burden and Sufficient Grace

Two days after making my last post our lives changed dramatically. On Friday, Sept. 18, my mother-in-law suffered an ischemic stroke. To say we have been on a roller-coaster ride in the past week would be an understatement! We have literally lived at the hospital, and in the past two days at the assisted living facility where she will be staying for some indeterminate length of time. We have been away from her to work, to change clothes and sleep and little more.

Last Friday morning when we got up, we had a long, long, long list of all the very important things we had been putting off and absolutely needed to get done by Sunday in anticipation of the week ahead.

Our family was anticipating with great joy and excitement and reveling in God's blessings upon our lives as we looked to the week ahead: Second wedding anniversary of our beautiful daughter and wonderful son-in-law; my birthday, our son's victorious graduation from Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, my husband having been offered a full-time job after more than 2 years of working multiple part-time jobs simultaneously while looking for full-time employment. We had planned a marvelous, joyous, yes, perhaps even a bit rowdy, family celebration this weekend!

Since shortly before our daughter's wedding we have been through a refining process. My husband was laid off from his job. I wasn't working full time. We had planned that I would be able to pursue my writing full time. But God decided we needed further refining in order to fulfill His plans for us. That's how we have viewed it. I went back to work--we needed health insurance and a steady, assured minimum income. We offered up to God all of our desires and dreams, all of our hopes and plans, even our very survival. There were days, weeks, months where it was our absolute and complete reliance upon God alone that allowed us to make it at all.

These were not only lean years financially, they were lean in terms of our control over circumstances--very literally we hung by a thread for a long time, hoping, praying, trusting, and ultimately believing without question or hesitation that God held our very lives in the palm of His hand and that he would sustain us. We were ready to accept whatever He planned for us - even losing everything we owned. We knew that He would provide for us what we truly needed and that He would never leave us on our own. And we were okay because we had our family and our faith.

We had learned to rejoice, even in our adversity, lack of financial security, lack of certainty about what the future held. God's grace transformed our lacking by the world's standards into an attitude of abundance only possible through belief in Jesus Christ. And our faith has grown strong and deep roots. And God has refined us and reworked and reshaped and revitalized us. And we have rejoiced that He has considered us worthy of His time and effort.

His yoke became easy and His burden light. Then Audrey had a stroke.

I could write a book about just the past week. Some of it, no one would even believe. Some of it would be just too hard to relive in the writing of it. Some of it, God isn't done using to teach us about yet. But this much we know: All of it is written in God's book of plans for Audrey and for us. He is in it all and He is in control. And we rejoice in that! We are grateful for Jesus' easy yoke and light burden. We continue to rejoice in all the "worse case scenarios" that could have played out that didn't -- not just for Audrey but for us in the past two years -- no, for us in the past 50+ years we have been alive.

One week out: we are grateful beyond expression for God's grace and mercy. We rejoice that He is in control and we are thankful for the prayers and expressions of kindness from friends and strangers regarding Audrey. We don't know the prognosis for Audrey, beyond our assurance that she will one day be in heaven - and hopefully, we will be there too. Until then, we are leaning on God and relying upon His strength, trusting in His mercy, rejoicing in His grace and coveting prayers on her behalf and ours. Oh, and we're going to have that family celebration:-)

"Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you" (Philippians 3:1 NIV).

"But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed" (1 Peter 4:13 NIV).

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4 NIV)!

Blessings on your journey

I Can't Wait For Heaven!

I've been thinking a lot lately about Jesus. I guess that's not surprising to anyone who knows I'm a Christian. Ideally, Christians do/should spend a lot of time thinking about Him!

For some reason though, I've been thinking about the divine/human aspects of Christ and how the fact that were He only one or the other, there would be no story to tell. Or the story wouldn't be nearly as powerful. Yes, Christ was both human and divine.

He was born to a human woman - God's handpicked vessel for entry into our world. I believe too that he was "more" human than divine--at least at first. By that I mean he was probably a precocious, wise and serious child, yet he was still a child - like any other child. I doubt he went through the "terrible twos" or teenage rebellion - did children 2000 years ago have the luxury of exerting their individuality or expressing it as children today seem to?

To me, His humanness is what evokes my gratitude. He had a human will. Even on the Cross, He could have called down the angels to minister to Him--more, to carry him to heaven away from the evil and sin on earth. He chose to suffer as a human man, die as a human man - a terrible, painful, gruesome death.

Jesus set aside His "God-ness" to be like you and me. Just stop and think about that with me for a moment. Have you ever heard of anything so incredible? Can you even imagine it? The creator of the universe, of time and space itself, dared to step down from heaven to walk among us as a human being. It really makes me cry when I fully grasp this truth.

The first question I am going to ask God when I get to heaven is why? Why, God? Why?
I know: he loves us, he wanted us to know how much he loves us. But it is more than that. There is a desire for an intimacy that He doesn't experience any other way, I think. It is with mankind, His most prized and beloved creation that He was willing to expose Himself, to allow Himself to be seen and felt and heard and experienced. And then, as if it were not enough, He died on a cross. And then . . . ! Then . . . ! He sent the Holy Spirit!

I don't know why I'm so filled up with awe and gratitude and wonder and deep, deep aching longing for my God--I began this post several days ago, thinking perhaps if I waited a bit I would know what has prompted this "sentimental" train of thought!

I think sometimes when we stop long enough to really think about it we begin to grasp how incredible is the mystery and truth that God not only thought of us, created us and purposed our lives, He waits for us in Heaven. I have no doubt He has guided, protected, loved and cared for
me every instant of my life upon this earth.

I can't wait to get to heaven so I can kneel at the foot of His holy throne for the rest of eternity.