Illumination

 I had a dream and I wanted to share....

Government "people" were announcing in many ways TV, radio, even driving around with loud speakers that people needed to pick a number. They didn't care what it was, a football jersey, a grade on a school paper, a receipt, they wanted everyone to claim a number. As more and more people began to comply, the world was getting darker and darker until it was always dark and in the dark the mean creatures like cougars and panthers and bears were getting more and more bold until finally they would call out a number and if your self chosen number matched...poof... you were gone in the dark with the night creatures. Mickey and I stood and watched under a street lamp that continually kept us illuminated but we kept saying, "Stop picking numbers! No one is making you pick numbers! The dark only comes for you if you pick a number! Stop picking numbers!!"

Then a stranger nonchalantly, not bothered or scared of the dark, walked up and said to us, you need to use the wind. We saw a little girl trying to pick up a number, but she couldn't hear us crying for her to stop. I told Mickey we need to use the wind! He said then send a 100 mph wind! I said no! that will blow her away! Send a 3mph wind...and the wind came and gently blew the number away out of her reach and the dark night creatures tore off after the number while she joined us under the light.

Stop Look and Listen

 In case someone needed to hear this today.....

Psalm 37:7

Be patient and wait for the Lord to act; don't be worried about those who prosper or those who succeed in their evil plans.

I watched this poor fella struggle against the invisible barrier he couldn't understand. He could see where he wanted to go, but some force was keeping him from going that way. I kept thinking relax Friend and it will all become clear. If he had rested on the solid foundation, the pathway to freedom would have been clear, but instead he was angry, chaotic, frantic, and exhausted. Woah... how many of us can say the same?? How many of us have become angry, chaotic, frantic, and exhausted by the things of this world? If we pause, rest on the firm foundation and wait on Him our path to freedom would become clear too. Instead of focusing on the horizontal success or apparent success of others, rest and focus vertically, and wait for the Lord to act.

Big Belle and Doc MacBeech

 Big Belle and Doc MacBeech

No one really knew which one came first: the tree or the light, the light or the tree. Perched on a windswept rocky ledge was Point Pendulum lighthouse with her impressive Fresnel lens and Daboll foghorn. She was affectionately known as Big Belle. A weathered and knotty coastal pine also stood on the point with a long scabby tendrilled branch that had completely encircled Big Belle earning her the name of the Carousel Tree.

The old timers down at the Spit and Blade would tell a legend that the tree came first. Anytime a newcomer would chance upon them, they would start grinning wide enough to see their chew stained teeth and elbow each other like school boys. They would tell of a ship in dire straits off the coast and of the “kind” Native American locals that climbed on the branch of the Carousel Tree waving torches and saving the ship. Then the grins would turn to a sick hilarity and with tobacco colored spittle running out the corners of their mouths, they continued darkly about how those same Native Americans died of smallpox after the ship landed. Then they would disperse back to their shadowy corners laughing at what they believed was brilliant commentary.

In contrast, an old Scotsman would say the lighthouse came first. Doc MacBeech had a grizzled beard, and even though his beard had long ago lost its fire, his personality had not. He was a tree doctor and in a town that depended on logging as much as fishing and shipping, that position was well respected. He believed the strong sea wind constantly pushing and swirling around the lighthouse had over time wrapped that Carousel branch around Big Belle.

Perhaps it didn't really matter which one came first, because when the Keeper sent for Doc after a particularly frightful storm, the entire community of Port Pendulum collectively gasped. Doc climbed the point taking each step partly filled with dread at what was waiting for him and partly in agony as his old joints grated heavily. As he crested the rise, his relief at seeing Big Belle was quickly displaced with a heavy sigh. He could see from the distance the Carousel had splintered. The Keeper came to meet the doc and in low grave tones they discussed the severity of the tree's injury. Doc MacBeech agreed to wrap the limb with gauze and plaster like a splint on a broken bone, but in his heart he knew the tree would need an amputation to be saved.

The people of the port eagerly awaited his return. “How bad is it Doc?” One after another asked and asked as the people jockeyed for position to hear his response. “Aye, ‘tis a muckle break. Her life is cooming to a closs if we dony coot the branch soon.” “NO,” the people gasped and shouted. Impulsively, the mayor shouted, “It’s the infernal light!” “Nae, Nae it isny the light, but the storms, the wind that doon her in,” answered Doc. “Not true!” “Is true!” The townspeople began to split. The mayor incensed by the thought of losing the tree shouted, “Take down the lighthouse! Save our tree!” Others shouted back “Save the lighthouse! She saves lives! It’s not her fault!” In their consuming rage and discontent, they failed to notice the growing winds and the sea boiling on the horizon. The protests grew louder until shouts were heard “TO THE TREE!” “TO THE LIGHT!” No one heard Doc MacBeech “Nae! Nae! Stop! The branch canno’ be saved!”

Wielding axes and sledges and tools of all kinds, the people stormed to the ledge and attacked the unsuspecting Keeper and Big Belle while others scrambled to protect them. The cacophony was horrendous with neighbor against neighbor, fathers against mothers, brothers against sisters, peaceful friends turned to bloodcurdling enemies! The cracks and blows against the lighthouse were sickening, and the screams of the people deafening. As the lighthouse began to quaver and sway from the immense assault, the ignored and intensified storm sent up a gale that caught the toppling lighthouse and sent the timbering debris toward the edge of the rocky cliff collecting the entire Carousel Tree. Together they plummeted to the beach below.

Instantly the people froze. “What have we done?” they gasped in disbelief. In the distance barely to be heard over the rising storm, a ship was sending out a distress call. The people frantically looked at each other then hastily and sheepishly retreated from the peak and refuged in their homes. Helplessly, they could only image what was happening to the ragdoll ship being tossed on the Leviathan Sea.

When the storm had passed, the people emerged. On the beach lay a mass of twisted tree and lighthouse along with rows of bodies and cargo washed ashore. It was obvious the ship had not survived. Doc MacBeech, along with others, searched for survivors. As he approached a couple of bodies, he sunk knees to the sand and moaned “Nae, Nae, ‘is me own wee lass, me bairn.” The lifeless girl had entwined her hand in that of the boy that lay next to her. The mayor came upon the scene, “My Boy!” he wailed. The two had been wed and were coming to share their news when the ship had been sacrificed to the angry sea left without a light.

As mourners all along the beach wept with sobs of remorse and regret, a seagull went unnoticed to the last pinecone left on the remains of the Carousel Tree. He eagerly plucked the prize as if it were a priceless treat. In his haste to escape with his booty, he failed to see the diving eagle. Coming fast, the eagle seized the gull and quickly ended his dinner's life. From the beak of lifeless gull, the cone hurtled back toward the earth, but this time coming to rest in the hole where the lighthouse had stood.

A Different Kind of Semicolon

 A Different Kind of Semicolon

Do you see it? The unfinished row of Christmas lights on our fence? As my husband and I put the lights up today, I was reminded of why this row of lights is left unfinished. Last year when we bought the lights and put them up for the first time, we discovered we had miscalculated the length and needed one more set. No problem! We planned to pick up that set the next weekend, but that never happened. Instead, my sister in law, Wendy, had a brain aneurysm and that weekend was spent in the ICU. Her life was altered drastically. Our lives were forever changed. Gratefully, God spared her life despite a month in the ICU. It's as if the devil handed her a period and God smiled, said watch this, winked and turned the period, an ending, into a semicolon. Her life, our lives may have paused, but a year later we all seem to be richer for it. With her, I have found a new closeness, a soul sister, a bond that wasn't there before. Over this past year, we have shared walks, adventures, secrets, school girl giggles, and even the same baptism day. But more amazingly, I've watched her hunger for the word of God in a ravenous and impressive way. It's as if she took that semicolon, that break in her sentence and has run full speed like a warrior queen brandishing a two edge sword, but no longer down a treadmill trying to prove her earthly self worth, but instead seeking to expand the kingdom of God using the incredible gifts she possesses. Overall, our family seems to have gained a strengthened connection, a unity that had been abandoned. So as I gaze at the inopportune end of our lights, it no longer seems like a glaring error, but a reminder of Genesis 50:20 "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." We don't have to look at the obstacles in our lives as burdens and endings, but a semicolon, a chance to readjust, refocus. After all, as a Christian there never is a period to the sentence of our lives because we serve a risen Savior who paid for our period and gives us an eternal semicolon. Spread the news!

Oh! YouTube

 My thought today is that I truly believe YouTube scans your entire video to find the absolute most awkward pose possible for your thumbnail. This is a very humbling experience for me. I am not fond of being in photos and in the last few weeks I've been forced far out of my comfort zone to post silly photos and endure the YouTube curse. Yet, in the wake of wondering who may or may not be mocking my physical appearance I have cared less and less what people may be thinking and caring more and more that God doesn't make fun of my wrinkles or ridiculous faces. He is just pleased that I am doing what He has asked me to do! We may be out of our normal comfort zones right now, but lean in and be open to listening to what God is asking. I know the reward will be far greater than we can ever imagine!

Woah! I'm Awake!

 Woah! I'm awake! Just had a gnarly nightmare where a friend of mine was lying on a bed possessed by a demon and there were several of us (including a priest) laying our hands on her to drive the demon out. True to Hollywood style, it came out like a vine of fiery light, seared a hole in the house wall, rumbled around, and then was gone leaving the room bright and cheery as if nothing had gone down and my friend happy but tired. We all left the room feeling puffed up and pretty proud of ourselves. I left the house only to be confronted by her dog, Vanessa, who obviously was on the receiving end of the demon just cast out. Now the cool part is when the dog grabbed me and lifted me off my feet as it stood up like a large human, I just said, "Help!" one time and God had me outta that dream, wide awake, heart pounding.

Even in a nightmare, God comes to our rescue! 2 Thessalonians 3:3 NIV says, "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one." Yet, as I tried to concentrate on prayer to calm me physically and mentally, I realized I kept thinking about the dream. I kept telling myself, "Stop thinking about it!" I said it over so many times that it started to feel like a mantra I would teach the preschool class! That cool show and tell plane is safely in your cubbie until recess, "Stop thinking about it!"

It makes me wonder, how many times do we surrender an addiction, a bad relationship, an unhealthy choice only to pick that baggage up again because we simply keep thinking about it! So, "Stop thinking about it!" I know, easier said than done! Maybe this is one lesson a demon could actually teach us. When it was cast out, it had to go somewhere else. Matthew 8:31,32 teaches us, "The demons began to entreat Him, saying, 'If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.' And He said to them, 'Go!' And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters."

If we, "Stop thinking about it!" then where is that thought going to go? What will fill the air space? So how about we start thinking about God? God called Samuel in the night, a quiet time that Samuel could actually hear God instead of God fighting over the din of a busy day. When do we start beating ourselves up over what we think are bad mistakes, failures, or regrets? Of course, in the quiet times. Otherwise, we are too busy to hear those thoughts! "Stop thinking about it!"

Genesis 50:20 NIV says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Now there is something to think about! In the quiet, start thinking about why God lead you through a certain season and what does He want you to do with the knowledge gained? Stop thinking about it as bad or negative and start listening for God's positive directions instead! I know right now I am grateful for God's peace, my heart is calmed and I'm sleepy again so I stopped thinking about it and followed God's direction to write this moment down. Colossians 3:15 GNT says, "The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the decisions you make; for it is to this peace that God has called you together in the one body. And be thankful." I AM SO VERY THANKFUL!

Deconstructing a Bully

 Deconstructing a Bully by Mary E Ryan

My heart aches for a mother’s loss. A mother that had a near miss of losing her son at the Las Vegas massacre, lost her son in a California massacre. But it was her plea that I found the most heartbreaking, “I hope to God no one sends me anymore prayers. I want gun control. No more guns!”- mother of shooting victim Telemachus Orfanos. Her quote itself shows the disillusion that is compounding problems in today’s society. My own dear cousin asked, “How do we stop the killing?” Anne Graham Lotz has said, “For years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?" Therein lies the solution, not gun control, but a renewed faith and devotion in God and with the faith will come a respect for persons, unborn, young, old, victim, and perpetrator. To breakdown the first quote, she said, “I hope to God no one sends more prayers. What an incredible discombobulation of emotion. I hope to God by definition is, “the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness.” Yet, she is denying the only way to communicate with God which is through our ceaseless prayers. Again, referring to Anne Graham Lotz’s statement, we want the protection and providence of God without committing ourselves to a relationship with God.

Is it possible, we don’t want to commit to God, because then we feel the full weight and responsibility not of the victims, but of the actions of the perpetrator? Because we failed to protect “him” from the viciousness of the world that created a person so misunderstood and desperate that he found the only option was to give in to evil and lash out in senseless violence. My cousin also asked, “Why didn’t God at least protect the innocent?” Perhaps, He did. If you are a believer in Christ, then being called home to Heaven is a glorious day for you. It’s interesting that if a person has battled cancer and lost that earthly battle, we rejoice that they are no longer suffering here on Earth. We reassure our grieving selves that, “they are in a better place” and so true that is!! Yet, in actuality, if the victims were also believers they too are in a glorious place with no tears or suffering and far better off than their best day here on earth. For a Believer, dying is certainly not the worst thing to happen to you no matter how untimely it may seem to those, the grieving, that are left here. We are the ones that intensely feel the loss. In a way, we are the victims, because it rattled our grasp on earth. It is hard to let go of people because we think they are missing out on life. We cling to the earth as if it were our true home instead of focusing on the real glory that waits for us. In truth, the best and ultimate protection of that innocent believer is to be called home to that glory. Yet, here we are still stuck on Earth and faced with all the ugliness and we cry out, "Why?" and "Gun control!" All the while another perpetrator is in the making, because we are ignoring the needs of our fellow man while demanding vengeance for the departed which in truth are far better off than we.

So, where does a killer come from? No doubt filled with evil unchecked, but when did it start? When did we drop the ball? When did we let that person down? When did we turn a blind eye to their hell on earth? Rightfully so, we focus on victims, but do we do it at the neglect of those crying out for help? Is our focus too late? A bully, so often the recipient of abuse and neglect is begging to be noticed in a most convoluted way. Isn’t a shooter no more than a bully with a weapon? If we are loving our neighbors as ourselves, how is neglect and abuse possible? If we can’t provide adequate mental health to our adults then we have to start earlier, at the source, childhood. We devalue children from their very conception and spend more time worrying about accepting the children from other countries while the babes under our very own care are slipping through the cracks ignored and unloved. We are more interested in coexisting with whatever anyone wants to identify as or with because we want to paint the exterior of our personal protective force field with the facade of love and caring. But God was pretty clear...Love your neighbor and I’m pretty sure that love was used as a verb! The definition of neighbor according to Webster’s is, “1) one living or located near another 2) fellow man.” Webster’s actually refers to Matthew 19:19, (NIV) “honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Is it possible we put more emphasis on detained children separated from their illegal parents because we know we won’t be asked to babysit them? If I love my neighbor, will I have to actually speak to them?! Caring will take so much work!

After coming home from a 12 hour day at school of planning, teaching, nurturing, caring, and loving, I sat down to read the news. An article talking about the government’s plan to shore up the troubled education system boldly showed a comment stating, “Preschool is a joke!” Boy, I certainly don’t feel that way! Eighty-five percent of brain development in a child is before the age of five. How many times has a child been exposed to such negativity before they even make it to preschool? And we wonder where our killers are coming from? Children model our behavior. They hear what we say, they do as we do. What message are we sending? Is it of real love? The verb love? If we are filled with the same Holy Spirit that had the power to resurrect the Lord Jesus then we have the power to deconstruct a bully before a killer is born. Are we willing to take on that responsibility or wait for a government agency to do it? I say there is less of need of gun control and more of a need for self-control and all the rest of the fruit of the Spirit that God has given as a guideline for us to live by. Do you live by Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”