Where Else Is There To Go?

Feb1

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. I write for 5 minutes on a one-word prompt. No heavy editing. I just see where it takes me. Today’s prompt is “where.”

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In the Gospel of John, chapter 6, we are told the story of Jesus feeding the 5000. There were actually more than that, because that was just the number of men. Amazing story. Truly incredible.

The very next story is about Jesus walking on the water. Wow. OK, so that’s pretty awesome.

After that, we are told of the hard things that Jesus told the crowd, and then things He said to His disciples alone. These things were so difficult, that John records “After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (6:66).

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How heartbreaking that must have been for Jesus. They had just seen what He had done. In the next couple of verses, this conversation takes place: “So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God’” (6:67-68).

In other words, “Where else is there to go?” Jesus had said He was the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one could come to the Father except through Him. He was the bread of life. He was the living water. No one else had made the claims He had. No one else was offering eternal life.

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It was either walking with Jesus and having life and joy, or walking away into eternal sorrow.

Choose life and joy.

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Home, Sweet Home

Jan29

This post is a part of my 10-Minute Tuesday series. I write for 10 minutes on a one-word prompt, without heavy editing, and see what happens. Today’s prompt is “cross country.”

I have a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on my Discover Card, so I get to see it often.In 1991, my husband, David, and I moved from California to Florida. We were working as missionaries with Campus Crusade for Christ (known as Cru in the U.S.) and the leadership had decided to move our headquarters.

I wasn’t in favor of the idea.

IMG_8307I’m a Californian born and raised. All of my family lived no further east than Colorado. I was leaving everything familiar to relocate across the country. Even my husband wasn’t yet all that familiar. We’d only been married for 6 months.

But move cross country we did. The organization provided a moving company that packed up what we wouldn’t need in the immediate, we had both our cars loaded on to transports, and we headed to the airport in Los Angeles with my kitty in a carrier, drugs at the ready to keep her calm.

Only, we missed our flight, so the drugs wore off halfway through the trip. The stress finally got to me, and I cried there at the gate of the airport.

IMG_5453But, we made it to Orlando and found our way to our new apartment sometime in the wee hours of the night. We were starving, but this was in the days before there were so many restaurants on the road from the airport, so we couldn’t find anywhere to eat.

When we got to our apartment, we noticed that it was not the one the complex had promised us. The teal carpet gave it away the minute we walked in the door. So, we somehow camped out on the floor (the details are fuzzy after 27 years), my cat hiding behind the washer and dryer, and tried to get some sleep.

The next morning, we visited the office and notified them that they had given us the wrong apartment. After asking whether we could live with the teal carpet (no, it would clash with every piece of furniture we owned), we were relocated to a slightly bigger apartment with a lake view at the same price because it was their error.

Everything worked out and we lived that first year plus a few months in that apartment with the grey carpet and the lake view. And we have now been in Orlando for 27+ years. My parents have passed away, my brother is my only family left in California, and our 3 kids call themselves Floridians, though each one of them seems to think they were born for a colder clime.

Go figure.

I love my house, I love my church, I love my friends. I still long for California.

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If I could pick up everything that I have here (minus the humidity) and move it back to the hills of Oakland, I would do it in a minute. But that’s not where I’m supposed to be. Everything that matters is here in hot, humid, flat Orlando. I can allow myself to be discontent, or I can embrace my space and trust that I am exactly where God wants me.

After 27 years, I’ve lived in Florida almost as long as I lived in California. My heart would be very cold and hard if I allowed my yearning for a state to overshadow my joy at being “home.”

I can always pretend the cloud formation in the distance are mountains if I squint long enough.

 

What Do You Mean It’s Not All About Me?

Jan25

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. I write for 5 minutes on a one-word prompt with no heavy editing. Today’s word is “convenient.”

It’s very rarely “convenient.”

I’m very selfish with my time.

p1000653But I made the commitment to say “yes” more often to the things my kids want to do. Of course, I only have one kid still at home full time, but there are many other daily decisions that poke at that idol of convenience that I wrestle with every day.

I watch my 1-year-old grandson for his parents when they go to work in the evenings 5 days a week. It’s not convenient to have my days interrupted, but there’s no higher use of my time than helping to raise this tiny image bearer of God.

nqlflrg5to+idg0qntanygMy daughter does not yet have her drivers license, so if she desires to go clothes shopping or anywhere else that isn’t within reasonable walking distance, I am on the hook for taking her there. Her timing isn’t always convenient for what I want to do, but I know that I won’t always have the responsibility and I treasure the time we can spend together.

Sometimes I have friends that need a favor which could look like picking up one of her children at school if she’s running behind or is with another child on the other side of town. Or maybe it’s the use of a car if hers is in the shop. Or maybe it’s visiting her in the hospital. The list goes on and on.

True, these things are rarely “convenient,” but, honestly, it’s not all about me.

Shocking, I know.

Each daily interruption is a chance to affect the lives of those around me. And that’s what really matters in the end.

 

A Rare Moment In Time and Space

Jan22

This post is part of my 10-Minute Tuesday series. I write for 10 minutes with no heavy editing on a 1-word prompt. Today’s word is “gaze.”

Sunday night was a super blood wolf moon, which, to my untrained self, meant January’s full moon (wolf), that was going to appear bigger and brighter because the moon was at its closest point to Earth during the month (super) and there would be a total eclipse making it look red (blood).

I think I got that right.

I didn’t even attempt pictures this year. This is from March 2011

Anyway, my astronomy-loving son was home from college for the long weekend, and we were looking forward to watching it together, late though it would be on the East Coast. We also had my 1-year-old grandson with us, but he should be soundly sleeping at that hour.

Or so I thought.

Turns out, just when things were getting interesting with the eclipse, baby Zayne woke up crying. When this has happened in the past at this point in his sleep cycle, calming him and then putting him down to go back to sleep didn’t work. But I figured he should be picked up by his parents soon and would be on his way home before the totality of the eclipse occurred.

Again, or so I thought.

As I held Zayne and he slept in my arms, the clock kept up its unrelenting march across time, and I saw my opportunity to watch this rare phenomenon in person slip away.

And then I gazed at Zayne.

His breathing steady, his little breath ever so slightly whistling through his tiny nose. And I marveled. And I thanked God that I had this opportunity to be with Zayne. Eclipses and wolf moons and super moons would all come around again, but there would be only one Zayne. Only one January 20th, 2019, when I could hold him and rock him and let him sleep.

I ended up being able to see the moon just past totality as my eldest son came and picked up Zayne a little after midnight. So I stood in the front yard while my younger son pointed out some stars that he had been able to identify and we shivered as we gazed at that marvelous night sky with that bright, blood red moon.

And I rejoiced.

Yes, the glory of God can be seen when we gaze at the heavens, but He is right there when we gaze at the face of one made in His image.

Under The Influence

Jan18

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. I write for just 5 minutes, no heavy editing, and see what comes out. Today’s prompt is “influence.” Check out all the other posts here.

I’m easily swayed, I admit it. Maybe it’s part of my people-pleaser personality, but it’s easy for me to see many sides of an issue and not be able to make up my mind as to which is better. But maybe that’s not a bad thing when it comes to issues that tend to divide.

Current issues like immigration, the government shutdown, racial injustice, or women’s equality. I tend to take a non-polarizing middle ground. I really can see the issues from either side. I come from a family of immigrants, just a couple of generations back. Yet I also think that we need to secure our borders.

I think women should be treated equally and get the same pay as men if they’re doing the same job and should be treated with respect. But I also know that men and women are different, created by God to BE different. Otherwise we wouldn’t need each other.

The fact is, I need to make sure that I am not being unduly influenced by those I consider authorities on certain subjects, because even authorities can differ in their opinions.

The Apostle Paul understood this. When he was writing to the Thessalonians, he said this:

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (I Thess. 5:21 ESV).

Test everything. Don’t be unduly influenced by those who may be charismatic speakers. God is faithful. If you ask Him for wisdom, He will surely supply it.