The New Year Starts Well

2019

What's New, 2019

My word for last year was "structure."  2018 ended up being anything but structured. I had high hopes of finishing my various writing projects. Nada. I did get a couple new manuscripts completed though not fully edited. But I did learn something. I learned to go with the flow.

This year? Not so sure. I'm considering a couple of words but not settled on either one. I have one New Year's Resolution, though.  I will keep it to myself for the time being. It's a spiritual discipline, which I intend to be vigilant in keeping regardless of circumstances, Lord willing.

I want to enjoy 2019. I choose to be on the happy side. I 'will' myself to be positive in spirit. The rest will take care of itself. With a cheerful attitude and a 'giving' mindset, and with God's intervention and enabling, it's going to be a good year. 

 

2018, Year in Review

One big positive happened in 2018. I lost 20# last year. I am going for another 20# in 2019. Starting to wear some of the clothing I wore as a teacher back in 2012. Becoming less active physically as a writer was not good for me. I was ignoring my overall physical health.

Changes were needed. Health improvement and its maintenance are becoming a priority with me. It feels pretty nice to be losing weight instead of gaining it.

We also lost Mom. She is with her heavenly family now. I especially missed her during the holidays. I was sensitive to her missing presence as I cooked and prepared the dishes and decor. My mother was at her happiest when entertaining family. I'm glad she is now at peace. Rest In Peace, dear Mama.

Northern California's fires made for suffering and loss. I drove in the dark cloud of ash that day. It was scary around here. In 2018, national crises were playing out as they did, which also caused pain and unpleasantness. The good that came in response was from people helping each other, 'The Helpers' as Mr. Rogers liked to call them. Kind and resilent, we overcame and went forth.

 

And Now What?

I like fresh starts and new beginnings. The beginning of a new year is all that. These days I'm helping my dad a fair amount. I call myself Dad's Personal Assistant. This role keeps me in balance and not so self-focused.

In addition, my friends and I drink a lot of coffee while having one-on-one conversations at one of our homes, or New Earth Market, Starbucks, Maple Garden. I'm thankful they want to meet with me. Our conversations are meaty. Sharing our hearts with each other brings out the best in us.

 

Life is Good. 

You all are wonderful. Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you are well. I can't complain. Now, on to more to be discovered. I'm ready.

How about you?

TRUE SPIRITUALITY ... Makes a Difference

A few thoughts of mine that reveal my take on spiritual life and how it should impact our lives. If our spirituality doesn't make a difference in how we live our lives there may be some clues as to why embedded in this short essay.

Another way to say what spiritual life should look like:

Your spirituality should make a difference in your life. Real spiritual life will impact your interior self: how you think, choices you make, your deep down true desires.

Take it a step further, Spirit-led spirituality is like having a living being in you that guides you and speaks to your soul, and that has the capacity for greater beauty, higher levels of joy and peace, and tremendous hope and courage.

The truth is, the liveliness of God in the soul also desires purity, truth, and goodness and lives its internal life in you with hope, faith, and love.

Relationship with God, a true spirituality that is not human-based but God-based, speaks life to the soul. The person tuned to this life in them makes a daily choice to live and thrive, or mute and ignore, the Beauty within them.

Our spirituality is easy to see. One only has to look at what matters most to us, what our pursuits are and why, and how we react to life in general, with its joys and sorrows, goods and bads, relationships and amusements.

We have problems we need to solve, wounds we need to heal, and heartaches we need to repair. But we also have resources to help us. Our spirituality is one of those resources. No matter how bad it is, we can embrace the Living Being that resides within us with our heart, mind, and soul. We can read its spiritual--life and "how-to"--manual, the Good Book, to find help, guidance, and strength as we draw near to the source of its wisdom and life, and its theme, God, his living presence, his Son and his Spirit.

True spirituality centers a person and makes them a better person. They will use their gifts to bless others. They will use their mind to grow, enrich, and infuse spiritual truth with living reality. They will also do impossible things like love their enemy, forgive those who hurt them, and access healing that brings peace to the soul.

Bitterness and residual anger cannot live or thrive in the person who is finding their life hid in Christ, the One who speaks life to the soul. The spiritual life in you confronts, changes and impacts the mind and soul and offers newness and renewal of mind and heart. The Spirit of God then transforms us, and our spirituality becomes a living, breathing, life within us and makes a difference in our inner being and how we live our life, our motivation and our loves.

Any questions?

THE SECRET? It Really Is About Love

 I SPEAK because of LOVE

 A CONVERSATION SWEET~

 A new friend and I were sitting at the table talking about our lives. Our daughters are friends which brought us together to visit while the girls watched the Super Bowl. We are the same age and God is important to both of us. Then the conversation got real. She told me her story and I shared mine. She is an accomplished woman, a former corporate climber of the ladder of success who became a Christian in her early thirties. She married a Christian man and became a homemaker mom who also home-schooled her daughters. Then life took a turn for the worse. The bubble popped. They divorced, she returned to work, custody battles and so forth and so on. She asked about my children, my life, how God worked in my life.   Tears welled as emotions surfaced while I related some of my story. "Three hours seem like fifteen minutes," she was saying to me. "You understand how hard it is. You're so easy to talk to." 

Yes, I do understand. Pain did that to me. Yet, it no longer owns me. I am free of its curse.

* * *

THE SECRET: WHY WE USE OUR VOICES
In our sharing, we both gave an explanation for why we help others. She uses her voice as a compliment to service. She helps others. While helping she often shares the grace of God. Right now she is helping a couple in their eighties with some pretty challenging issues. Her explanation was so beautiful that I want to remember it forever. ... She sees herself as a teapot. 

Her analogy is a perfect picture of how it works in being real!

Her words: "I am like a little teapot.

Christ pours his spirit into me and then I pour out to others what he has given me. It comes in the top--from God to me, and then it goes out the spout--from me to someone else. I do things for others things I would never have done before he came into my life. And, I am happy to do them. The important part is to keep myself open to God, to let him continually fill me so I have something to give to people he puts in my path."

 * * *

My story is a little different. The changes in me came as a result of a vow and a list. Both were promises I made to God from out of a wounded heart and after years of struggle. I decided that I would use anything he wanted to do in me or reveal to me for his glory, to help others who suffer in silence. I made the vow in February the week after my mate chose to leave our marriage of twenty-one years. The list was written on the day I was served divorce papers on my forty-sixth birthday.  I submitted the list to God in a prayer, asking him to do something I could not do on my own. I was on empty. I had done everything the best way I knew how--and it had never been enough. The list was my declaration of what I wanted God to do in my life with a plea to change me.  For all my trying, I hadn't been able to save my marriage, now I wanted God to save me from defeat and despair and from becoming a bitter old woman. As I sought God for all I was worth and he initiated change in me, surprisingly (or not surprisingly, actually), every one of the items on the list became true in my life. I received a beauty make-over!                     (The list is abbreviated)

My Vow: 2002 - My first journal entry.

"Gracious Father, Work on my heart and mind. Help me to learn to listen. Help me to push past my fear and to have eyes to see. I want to see Jesus. May my reality adjust and readjust as my vision for you changes. May I see you alone. May the work you are doing in me be used outwardly to minister to others. I seek you and you alone." 

         2002 - My List which changed my life. The Key - intentionality and surrender.

1. God first in everything. I want his power and strength in all I do. I want to change.
2. Healing in my emotions and deep inner spirit. I want to be free. I want joy.
3. Be myself. Let go of the chains and conflicts that bind me.
4. Become more self-decisive, less worried about what others think.
5. Develop more honest "transparent-real" friendships with godly people.
6. Seek deliverance from the bondage I've been under in this marriage relationship.
7. Pray for repentance which brings godliness, for wellness in all areas of my being.
8. Pray for God to change me. I will pray for awareness and humbling. 

It truly is amazing how God can take a broken person and breathe life into them. His life becomes their life. His Spirit renews and heals their spirit. These days I can not imagine living without God. He has become my breath and being, my sustenance. It is hard to explain how even the simplest of common things, like a dainty wildflower, can reduce me to tears of wonderment and joy. 

When we give God access to our lives, what God gives to us, in return, is his love. We, in return, receive a beautiful heart. After the healing transformation has begun, our hearts becomes free to love in a new way. Because of its swelling abundance it must share its love. It becomes an outworking of the love God has given us which replicates through us in an a sundry of ways. God makes something beautiful out of something ordinary. He is that way. We must trust him for the journey. I must say, though, it rarely is easy, and we are desperate at times. Yet, he walks with us right in step ... even when we can't see him through the fog of circumstances. It is such a privilege to help a sister who is going through the fire, to encourage her, to tell her that she will make it and life will get better because you know it is true, you've lived it. The more real God becomes the better it gets, even through the difficulties and heartaches. He touches us where we need touching, in our deep inner places. He frees us through his love, forgiveness, and life.

Because of love, true love, God gives us the most gorgeous Valentine of them all. 

Its words say, "I LOVE YOU!" 

Blessings ... Your friend, Norma

The Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you. Never forget, you are loved. Norma

-----
#When A Woman Finds Her Voice

Truth is True, Opinion can Counterfeit as Truth

National Monument to the Forefathers: Plymouth, Massachusetts

.

  "The monument depicts Faith, and Faith is pointing to God and has an open Geneva Bible and a star of wisdom." Marshall Foster.  Photo and quote from Wikipedia. Statue is featured in the movie, Monumental, a movie about the bedrock beliefs that shaped America, starring Kirk Cameron.

Truth is always true. Truth cannot be manipulated. It either is the truth or it isn't the truth. If something is true and always will be true, it is incapable of being something it is not. It is no longer easy to talk about truth. It has become a 'dirty' little concept in many circles. Why is this? I could say why I think it is this way, but that isn't necessary. Truth represents a standard, an absolute, something unyielding. The natural parameters of truth, in its purity, get in the way of its fully being embraced. It has limits that determine behavior. It may be easier to denounce or avoid what is true because then a life can be lived without binding restraint.

If truth were to bend it would not be truth. The nature of truth means it cannot be manipulated. ‘Find your own truth’ is a statement one hears which seems to mean, what is true for that individual person.  That statement seems in-congruent with the steadfastness of truth. Yet, we all understand its meaning. It is a subjective truth, truth based on the individual’s belief. or dare I say, their opinion on what is true. In truth, true truth is based on something that will always remain true—the same--it will never change. It is wrong to steal. That will always be true, an agreed upon principle for behavior, even though people steal in little deceitful ways and big obtuse ways. The truth will always be the truth, regardless of whether it is believed or not. Truth stands alone. If it is an inconvenient truth, then it may be hidden or buried or disbelieved.

Understanding truth can be a little complicated. There was one time when I stood alone for something I believed in. It was in the workplace. I felt I must stand up if I was to be true to my own convictions and self. So, in a sense, the thing I stood up for may be perceived as ‘my own truth,’ and my colleagues, in their respect, were living out their ‘own truth.’ I believed in a truth but others did not see it as I saw it. We differed in our understanding, perceptions and beliefs, in a situation, it could be argued, where there was no true right or wrong. We all felt passionate about what we believed and it was not easy.

There are times when truth is being compromised. Whistle blowers seek to expose the truth, the coverup, the corruption, the wrong doings and wrong behaviors. This is difficult and even may be deadly. They know a truth, an unpopular truth, that to expose will be of potential risk to them. Someone I know experienced this very scenario. He was in a management position with an agriculture processing company. During the course of his work, he uncovered some inside corruption. He went to the top with his findings. The truth was quickly silenced. He was given notice. It stung. But he knew--that didn’t make it any less the truth. Spiritually speaking, truth is what binds the Bible together cover to cover.

Christ said some astonishing words that few, if any, could comprehend at the time. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” He was claiming to be The Truth, not just as a way to find truth. His sacrificial life (life, death, and resurrection) backed up these words. These were not empty promises with false hope nor were they rash words. Jesus’ death and resurrection validated his earlier claims, proving the Messenger’s message as true, a truth for in that day and still apropos for our present day and on ahead into future centuries.

People have an awareness of truth even if they do not believe the the concept of a universal truth. An argument for the defense of truth is found in everyone's conscience. Embedded within our thinking is a strong sense of right and wrong. Even a very young child displays an awareness of this. They will hide when they sneak something that doesn’t belong to them. People cry 'foul' when there is a cover-up or lack of equality in some way that affects their person or community or even nation. Fair treatment is action everyone understands and expects. “Just’ treatment is in the same category, both related to a sense of what is true, what is right societal behavior. “Speak the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” are not fanciful or empty words. When testifying in court, the unvarnished truth contains the facts,  as they were at the time and not as we wish they had been. Nothing but the truth is resolute. It cannot be manipulated through embellishment or minimization of details. Truth is connected to a code of behavior. Truth-telling has its basis in truth. Truth can not be shaken or destroyed. It remains and endures.

            

Jesus Christ makes no apology. His very life was a defending of truth. He was a Rock in the sifting sands of time and shifting waves of public opinion. To this day, we can measure truth by actualizing the life of Christ. The Sermon on the Mount, found in the gospel of Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7 is truth we are well advised to heed that it might go well with us. Framed in Christ’s words is how truth should be lived.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall  inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when other revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:3-12) ESV 

 Truth, would not be truth if manipulated by changing days and societal mores. The things of which Christ said are most important are not on many agendas or to-do lists. That doesn't make them any less true. We see a few saints who qualify for the groupings listed above. Their understanding of truth is lived out God's way. It is as if God's truth flows into them and then flows out of their spirit. It is of a different quality than the world around them. Truth has a reality about it that frames the question. Many people believe that truth is relative. It it is relative, then it couldn't possibly be truth. The two are in contradiction.

A rose is a rose ...
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#truth telling #opinion #spiritual #Beatitudes #Jesus and truth #relative truth #Monumental #Kirk Cameron

Book Writing & a Message for Life's Pathway

A GREAT COMPELLING 

The Beauty of Writing: God Gives the Message to the Messenger.

Coming soon ...

Sometimes we look back to see where we've come from. Other times we look forward to see where we're headed. And then there's reality, where we're at this point in time. For some of us, we never quite arrive at that place where we want to be. If we let this stop us then it will impede our progress. Looking forward is critical to our success. A plan is needful, too.

Introspection is helpful but it also can be crippling. All depends. It can keep us stationery and immobile--if we're stuck looking backwards or inward. Action is necessary to start a movement forward, the snowball effect. It helps to have a purposed approach. It has been this way for me in my various writings. I have a target audience. The Christian community is where I focus my creative energies. There is something I have found in my walk with God that has made a change-around in my life. So much so, that I want to give my readers a taste of what I have learned and received so they will want it for themselves. My desire to share these thoughts come in the form of something I term, "A Great Compelling." It would be wrong of me to keep quiet. So, I speak and write.

~I want my readers to know the Lord Jesus Christ for in him truth is found.
     ~I want my readers to grow closer to their heavenly Father in the richness of relationship.
         ~ I want my readers to let go of their anger, pain, bondage, sin, problems, and insecurities.
                ~ I want my readers to find and experience greater joy, contentment, peace, hope and love.
                         ~I desire for my readers renewal, revival, rejuvenation, restoration, revitalizing.
                 ~I wish for my readers a hunger for spiritual life that is never satiated or boring.
          ~I wish for my readers an intimate walk with God that is rich and satisfying, delightful.
     ~I wish for my readers a hope that never dies, a belief that keeps on believing, and life that is real.
~I wish for my readers a deeper faith that is not uprooted by the trials of living but is steadfast. 

In some small way, I am invested in the lives of my readership. My writing reflects the call I have on my life. A call I feel called to enact and complete for the remaining years of my life be they many or few. I love God and I love his Word, it spills out of me and cannot be contained. He has done so much for me that words fail to express how dear he has become to me. Life is joy when one lives close to God. He has a way of changing even the smallest of encounters into causes for celebration. A smile, a handshake, a lovely flower, a blade of grass, a soft baby blanket, the aroma of baking bread, the embrace of a friend--a healed heart and a forgiven soul. Everything is important when God is in control. He is a kind friend. Father God makes beauty from ashes and joy which comes in the morning.


#book #BlogRadio #Spirituality #Intimacy with God

Prayer that speaks, a consolation text.

Meditation at a Monastery: Contemplative prayer. Prayerful thoughts that speak.

CONSOLATION

Why am I here, dear God? Why a monastery? Why do I have this desire to be here? I am not catholic. It does not make sense.

My dear child, it is not for you as much as it is for others, my people. Some have closed minds. They think I only work one way. But that is a falsity. I work in people’s lives, to change them, to bring them closer to myself. Some resist this thinking. They have to have neat little boxes with human parameters. 
Why is it that way? Why do people become rigid?

They don’t understand.

What don’t they understand?

My ways are complex yet simple. So simple that they stumble upon them. My grace is for all people, to all people, loving and kind, a sweet, sweet savor.

What is complex about it?

I am complex, as you well know. You can never know all there is to know about me. My ways are infinite. My truths, unsearchable, unknowable, in their fullness. Some day you will know more of my ways, my truths. That is what Heaven is for. We become family in the here-after, a beautiful loving family. There will be no denominations in heaven, no separation or boundaries of thought. We will be of one mind and one spirit, the Spirit of the living God.

Praises? I can’t wait for that beautiful day.

#prayer #monastery #God

Praying that Makes the Grade, Why or Why Not?

SPEAKING OF PRAYER                            Meridian Minute no. 20

“Two men went...to pray. ... The Pharisee stood and was praying this... ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week...’ but the tax collector standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me, the sinner!’” Luke 18:11, 12 NIV

Prayer. What is prayer? For the people of faith, prayer is the game changer, the life-blood, the MO, the power. The way we get God’s attention to gain audience with him. God tells us to pray and that our prayers are of value to him. We would not get far without prayer, nor would we want to. Do you believe in miracles? Prayer is asking for miracles in the everyday and the wished-for.  It is activated through faith that views prayer as a gateway to heaven, God, by means of supplication.

There are prayers and then there is praying. Scripted prayers are formal in nature. Simple ordinary prayers are spoken in random phrases. Not all prayers are alike. What does God look at when we pray? How are our prayers received? We get a glimpse into the heart of the matter in the passage of the pharisee and publican (tax collector). The pharisee prayed a prayer filled with pious words and self-congratulation on his whiteness and purity of behavior. The penitent tax collector, on the other hand, spoke from a humbled attitude, aware of his unworthy state. Both spoke from their hearts. Their words fully exposed the truth found within their souls.

The pharisee spoke with an attitude of pride or arrogance. Self-righteous glorying is a falsity, a show of religion and, in reality, empty words and vain glory. The tax collector’s heart reveals a different sort of attitude. He is truthful, honest about his failures. Admitting his shame, taking ownership of the true state of affairs within himself, speaking out of his brokenness. He is in need of mercy from God. One person’s was for show, prideful, and the other person’s was sincere, repentant. Each one's motivation is obvious.

In Christendom, we find traces of both types of prayers and many in between. Some prayers are requests. Others are desires. Most have an expectant action. When God pulls off a  miracle, another type of prayer comes as a result. Praises in worship are prayers that honor God from a heart of thankfulness. There is another kind of prayer that originates from deep inside, voiced more as a plea for help than as a worshipful interlude. During suffering and sorrow, desperate and despairing people pray with great passion. Pretense is left behind. God becomes especially real during the difficulty. All the external conditions of life mean little as we pour our heart and soul out to God. Seeking him to meet us during the crisis of faith.

I have experienced God’s tender graces during heart-wrenching times. It is when I pray my most unaffected prayers as I seek God for hope, help, and answers. “God be merciful to me, the sinner,” is asking God to extend grace even though it is undeserved. That is honest talk. Prayer, when it is that way, is stripped away of all fluff and pontificating. It is raw, open, contrite, pleasing to the heart of God. The Scripture passage says that the tax collector went away justified. God listened to his prayer and acted in response to this plea. It was a miracle of grace. Prayers of a humble person seek audience with God, and, in so doing, touch the heart of God.

* * * * *

#God, #prayer #spiritual

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The Monastic Life & The Monks of Vina

Book in Process: Monastic Interlude
Away from it all for a Moment in Time
 From my book: Excerpt from Visit 3 

 The Monks of Vina

The Monks of Vina, a movie documentary, takes us inside--really inside the walls, past the formal structures of the monastery. It delves into the thinking of some of the monks--several times over. Their personalities emerge, the joyful, the quiet, the contemplative, the artist, the potter, the unsure novice--monk in training, and so forth. It is enjoyable to watch the story of young men and older men who wrestle with the Calling to monastic life, to become a monastic. It is to give up everything material in order to gain everything in God. For three years those on the journey serve as novices until the time of their vows. It is a time of searching and learning. It is a cultural shock for them as they leave the outside world for the simple life. One of much prayer and quietness. 

An older monk, shared the difficulty he had coming to a place of peace right before he took his vows. Once it came, he was settled and at peace. That sense of peace lasted around ten years before another period of unsettled feelings surfaced and were addressed. He had played semi-pro baseball in his younger years. There was a picture of him pitching a ball at eighty-one years of age. It looked like he still could smack it right-nicely into the catcher’s glove. Amazing.There is very little talking in a trappist monastery. They work and eat mostly in silence. Upon entering the monastic society, the monks give up their worldly possessions. There is a place where a few of their former possessions are stored away. It reminds me of what we do with our garage items. It was emphasized that one cannot join a monastic community to run away from yourself or your problems. Self will need to be addressed.

 For me, the culmination of the evening was a spiritual thought. It came when the abbot answered a question during the Q & A session which followed the showing of the movie. The question was asked, "Why do you bless the grapes? What do you expect it to do?" 

The answer was beautiful. It went something like this, “As monks in a monastery, you would expect us to believe in the spiritual. We believe our lives are influenced by God and we want to be all God would want us to be. Not only as people are we blessed by God, but the things in the world are a part of the blessing of God. God's blessings do not stay only with the people. We bless the grapes that they might bring blessings to the people who enjoy them, as they drink the fruit of the vine. And, if they drink enough of it, they’ll be happy, too!” Everyone laughed at his ending statement. I had to agree. He was right. All we have comes from God and is a part of the grand scheme of things. 
A blessing is a prayer of grace toward others.

# spiritual #Trappist #God #wine
#The Monks of Vina #monastery #movie #contemplative 

Escape from Lies, Begin the Journey

Every single day we find ourselves making choices that define our journey's destiny.

Take that first step.

We can be pretty hard on ourselves. True. We can. Sometimes we down-right lie to ourselves. It happened to me. I believed a lie that defined me from childhood up. It was not a lie that anyone spoke to me, it was just something I believed about myself, kinda like a nail in the coffin....not bringing any life to me. It was a deadening projection which colored my thinking. I never expected to succeed in college because of this internalized message which I had believed because I compared myself  to others. I did not believe I was "good enough" but mostly I did not believe I was "smart enough." I remember being asked, if there was one thing you could change about yourself, what would you change? My mind replied, I would want to be smarter.

Years later I realized that it wasn't true. It was a lie I had believed. I am smart enough. There are many types of intelligences. In education we call these, multiple intelligences. What an eye-opener when I realized the truth. My gifting is not in academic acquisition or test-taking excellence, not something that shows in any remarkable way on IQ measurements, but my brand of "smarts" have intrinsic value nevertheless. I have something unique to say that is all my own. My feelings and beliefs about myself in those days (and even now once in awhile) made me feel the invariable "less than" other people, especially in comparison to the achievers I always wished I could be, like those who could ace a test without even studying while I studied all night to pull a "B." I felt I didn't measure up. One gets in the habit of noticing others' successes and minimizing your own successes.

Lies enter easily and leave slowly. We must be able to ferret them out, to recognize them for what they are. I read a book a few years back about lies women believe about themselves. Many lies we believe come as the result of another person's negative comments. The perceived message becomes internalized. Eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia often have a hurtful "dig" that changed the person's self-perception into one of self-hate, the humiliation of it all, the assumption that they are unworthy or unequal unless they can change that "thing" that makes them unattractive. As a teacher, I have seen it many times, a child who is crushed by unkind statements or "mean girl" peer manipulation. For some children, school becomes a dreaded place, the bullying and insults are a daily occurrence. Some of us have experienced this. There are times as a teacher, I have addressed this issue with students, to call a spade a spade. It is important to become skilled at deterring negative exchanges that affect the social climate in classrooms, schools, churches, relationships and homes.

I can think of many lies that have tripped people up or perceptions that have contributed to low self-worth or personal stagnation. "If only ...."   "I wish........  "I can't ...." I'm not...." "Nothing ever turns out right for me."  "No one could ever want/like/love/care-for me."   Other contributors caused by ways people have treated us communicate the following three biggies: unmet needs, unhealed hurts, and unresolved issues. They damage our psyche and emotions. Even neglect. In my marriage I was rarely complimented. Years later, when I reentered the dating field, I found myself weeping the first time I was told the words, "You're beautiful." The neglect had communicated a lie. I no longer felt desirable. Emotional wounding can ravage the mind with hurtful messages that thought-by-thought destroy our sensitivities and lie to us. Internalized messages can be deeply held and believed, especially when positive messages are woefully inadequate or absent. It may take a life time of God's intervening to turn the ship around, to make us well and emotionally healthy. Spiritual health is tied to emotional health. The two cannot be separated. We owe it to ourselves to pick up the pieces of our lives and seek a way to our healing.

God is in the business of helping broken people. He wants to free us from the lies we have believed. Drawing close to God and seeking his healing deliverance is a first step in your life's journey of many hundreds and thousands of such steps. God uses Scripture, trusted friends, spiritual books, godly ministers, times of meditation, wise counselors, and other means to accomplish this. What do we have to do? We need to show up! We must want our own healing. We must confront the lies believed. 

A little secret I have found which really delivers the goods is this:  Put a new thought--a word of truth--in place of the lie you have believed. When negative thoughts have played for years they create well-worn paths, like a ruts in a dirt road. It helps to get off that track to form a new track. This will develop a positive pattern of right thinking, which, hopefully, guides our thinking in the way God would want us to think.

"I'm not smart enough" is replaced with "I am smart enough." 
  "I am the person God made me to be, and God doesn't make junk!" 
    "I am special. It doesn't matter what people think. It matters what God thinks."
      "I can do this because God will help me do it. We're in this together!" 
        "It's not the end of the world if it doesn't turn out right!"
             "It's okay, God must not have been in it. I'll do something else that God wants me to do."

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.*
 Transform your mind.
   Send the lies packing.
     Bring the truth statements home. 
       Ask Father God to help you do this one step at a time.
         Exchange lies for a truth.   
            When it happens, and it will happen....
                To God be the Glory!

Begin today. You won't be sorry you did.

*Loa-tzu

Written in connection with "When A Women Finds Her Voice," by JoAnn Fore.

Amazon Book Link is HERE

#When a Woman Finds Her Voice
N. L. Brumbaugh ... All rights Reserved

The Homeless Problem & a Right Attitude

THE HOMELESS ISSUE

...even to the least of these...

The homeless population in my town is getting a lot of press as of late. The debate is gathering momentum with various concerns being raised almost daily; drugs, drinking, mental illness, hardship stories, infringement on businesses, community reactions, City Council decisions, panhandling, sleeping in the town square, on the sidewalks, bathing in the fountain, urine in the store doorways. It is becoming a troubling issue for our community. But there is something greater at stake than just a problem that needs fixing. It’s the human side of things, the practical business of keeping citizens safe, the town welcoming, and helping those in need.

Have you ever been homeless? Let that sink in for a moment. How would you want to be treated if you were? Hmmm. Well? Ouch! With kindness? What would Jesus do? That’s an easy one. We know what he would do. He would care. Jesus cared for the hungry, poor, fishermen, lepers, unclean, cheats, adulterers, beggars, infirm, sinners. He seemed to choose some of the most unlovely people to care about—and he didn’t seem to like the religious all that much.

I decided to ask a pastor, a man in his mid-seventies, his opinion about the homeless problem and the press its receiving. He smiled, a sad sort of smile, his eyes reflecting a deeper emotion, his tone soft. “The people of Chico should not be so arrogant. If you’ve ever been homeless you wouldn’t be. I can’t speak to this without my bias showing.” It was then that I remembered his story; a sixteen year old runaway from Wisconsin thumbing his way to California's cattle country, working as a cow hand, picking up jobs where ever, asking to sleep in the jail so he could get warm on a cold night. One morning with only a few coins to buy a cup of joe, his insides screaming with hunger pangs, he stepped inside a restaurant. A kind waitress took pity on him, serving him a full breakfast paid on her tab, his eyes teared up when he had shared the story with the congregation. Later, God used a caring man, one who commanded his respect, to demonstrate a path to God’s love. Someone who saw his potential and was not afraid to “show up” and help a teenager who was a mess.

But it’s not that simple is it? A few months ago I was with a group of women on a business lunch at a local establishment when the conversation turned to the increasing numbers of homeless and displaced persons in Chico. The comments flew. Chico shouldn’t put up with it. Homeless people are coming to Chico in droves because they’ve heard Chico welcomes them. It’s turning off newcomers to the Chico area. It’s hard on businesses, ruining downtown. I found myself mentally evaluating their comments, checking off most of the concerns as ‘true’ and agreeing that the City should address this in a proactive, precise way. Yet. I was disappointed; the conversation was incomplete. Even though I could agree with what they were saying, my feelings did not match up with theirs. It seemed as if the homeless were being grouped as “less than,” dismissed with some sort of callousness of attitude with no human face on it. I didn’t feel as they did. No, not anymore. Something had revealed my superiority-complex a few years back. In the process, I had awakened. No longer could I  easily write off  the homeless “lifers” or  “down-on-their-luck” or substance “users.”

* * *

It had been a busy day that day when God woke me up. I was rushing to get home, my turn to host the Ladies Book Dinner. I pulled up to the gas station. A strange man was standing by the pumping island at the only open spot, he made me feel uneasy. Oh well, no choice. I removed the nozzle as I furtively glanced at him. He was wearing a black trench coat and a fedora, his longish hair resting on his coat collar. His dark beard was trimmed and neat. He was clean, the coat was clean. A black mutt sat by his side. He moved toward me, his head bent down. “Could you spare a couple of bucks?” he whispered. I shook my head, muttering, “No, sorry.” His eyes paused a second, looking at my eyes. Then he stepped back but didn’t leave. It was making me nervous. I got back in my car. My daughter asked me what he had said to me. She thought I should give him some money. I didn’t think so, and I wasn’t going to either. I wasn’t going to contribute to his addictions! The arguments were all there, the way I had always viewed those begging by the side of the road or in store parking lots. People need to be responsible for themselves. Then, another thought entered into my thinking. It began hammering away at me, causing disquiet. If you have done it for even one of the least of these, my brothers, you have done it unto me. I ignored the voice as it continued on in a repetitive cycle, If you have done it  for even one of the least of these. .... These were Christ’s words. I was determined to not listen to that little voice, you have done it unto me. The pump shut off. Time to go, finally! In my flustered state, I didn’t put the nozzle back. I started my car and began to pull forward. “Thunk!” What was that? I looked back. The nozzle had popped out of my car and lay on the cement. The man was coming over to pick it up, his glance met mine. How foolish I felt, my face flushed. I drove around to the backside of the station to get on the street toward my home. As I left, I saw the man and his dog in the crosswalk heading in the opposite direction. I felt sickened inside. My thoughts scrambling with embarrassment and guilt. Was that a test? Was he an angel? Was that the Holy Spirit’s whisper?  If so, I had failed the test miserably. I had ignored the inner prompting because it didn’t fit with my rigid notion that was dictating my behavior, the belief that if you help someone like that it means you are enabling them. It was then that I knew I was wrong in my thinking. If God is prompting you to do it, do it! The encounter cured me. I have changed my ways and am more sensitive to God’s leading. I often pray for the homeless or panhandlers that I meet after helping them out. I will ask their first name and tell them that I'm going to pray for them. And, I do. Sometimes I say "God bless you," hoping they will sense his care through my care.

I cannot fix the homeless problem but I can care. I can support the various organizations that offer a meal, shelter, treatment, counseling, spiritual guidance, or a fresh start. I can treat the homeless with compassion for when we treat the least of these with human dignity we have done it for Jesus. Jesus cared, shouldn't I?

A True Story: A Christmas Star and a Cross

A Christmas Star turned Cross

Marvin and I were quietly talking as we sat looking at the stately pine tree gracing the platform of the century-old church's sanctuary where we both attend.  He said to me.  “I put it up again.”

“The star?” I asked.  He nodded.  We both sat quietly remembering back to Christmas of 2002.  A melancholy feeling enveloped me and a smile came to my eyes.  “That was really something,” I said.  “It’s a story that should be told.”  Tears lightly glistened in his eyes as he glanced away, touched by the memory.

One of my jobs I've done in our small country church is to direct the Christmas program which is a whole-church effort with children and adults participating as musicians, actors, narrators, and a few helpers to make or arrange the props and what-not.  It is a worthy undertaking, one that I have agreed to plan and supervise some years. Part of this noteworthy challenge I believe, is coming up with a script rich in dialogue, a dialogue that will tug at the heart and pull in the listeners.  I want the audience to be interested observers and maybe, hopefully, moved to see the Savior’s birth for the true miracle it is, also portraying in some form the purpose, the redemptive gift of his life.  

 The second component is finding just the right Christmas music to compliment the play, incorporating children and adult voices in musical variations and choirs.  To accomplish this endeavor, I begin a few months ahead by sorting through my own ideas, thoughtfully matching people’s skills and talents with my story line concept (do we have someone who can do this part, sing this song, what props will we need, etc.), then the task of putting it all on paper.  As the writer of the script, it is always my intention to make the words speak for themselves, clearly and with passion.

The star was my idea, one of my innovations to blend the baby in the manger with the Christ on the cross.

The play that year was about two pre-teen boys having a conversation about life in general.  As the dialogue ensues the boy who has yet to believe in Christ is commenting about differing views and in the discussion he happens to ask the other boy, who believes in Christian truth, why Jesus is a part of Christmas.  The second boy begins to share the reasons by telling the real Christmas story, while at the same time answering corresponding questions his friend asks.  As the boys dialogue back and forth, the Christmas pageant unfolds with angels, shepherds, innkeepers, Mary, Joseph and the holy infant,  King Herod and the wisemen, all parading through the sanctuary, speaking their lines then leaving on cue, the music and scenes eventually leading up to the conclusion.

That year I asked Marvin if he would make something for me.  He is a faithful helper who gets the stage ready with prop supports and lighting.  “I’d like to have a large star shining on center stage.  Inside the star I’d like to have a cross made with red lights.  But the cross and the star need to have separate switches.”
 
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do.” replied Marvin, “I already have a star.  I’ll arrange a cross on the inside of it.”  So he went to work on my request, taking down the star from his exterior house Christmas decorations and adding a shape of a cross in red lights intersecting the white lights of the star.  When finished, he put the star with its newly lit cross back up on his house until we would need it for the play.
 

A couple of Sundays later both Marvin’s wife and then Marvin came to me with eyes shining.  “You won’t believe what happened this week,” they said to me.  And then they shared this marvelous story that still gives me a thrill when I think about it. 

   

It seems that a neighbor of theirs has the difficult situation of having grandchildren who are forbidden to attend church.  She is saddened by this and has desired to share her faith with her grandchildren but she has little opportunity to do so.  That week she had come over to Marvin and Mary’s home full of excitement and happy tears.  She wanted them to know what had occurred the night before.   The evening before she had been driving her grandson to town when he noticed the star shining on Marvin and Mary's house. 

“Grandma,” he exclaimed, “There’s a cross in the star on that house!”  After thinking a moment he asked her, “Why do you think it has a cross in it?”  It was a perfect opening.  So as they traveled the twenty minutes to a neighboring town, she explained to him about Jesus' birth and the need for Jesus Christ to come to earth so he could save sinful people by dying on the cross, and she tied it to the significance of His resurrection.  When she parked the car he said, “Grandma, I want to ask Jesus to be my Savior.”  She thought he probably was speaking on impulse and it didn’t seem to be the right time or place, so she hesitated.  But he insisted. He meant it.  Right then and there in a grocery store parking lot her young grandson understood the message of salvation and believed, giving his life to Christ.  As Marvin was relating the story, I could tell he was moved by the simplicity of being so humbly used by God.

.........

The night of the Christmas program the star is brightly shining center stage as the angels, shepherds and wise men tell their stories, skillfully guiding us to the climactic moment.  “So you see, Jesus Christ came because he loves you and he loves me and he wants to have a relationship with us,” the boy states to the other boy.  “And that is why it matters that Jesus came to this earth.” 

The friend quickly responds, “Um…hm.., Well, gotta go. See ya later.” 

“Later.” They slightly nod their heads, the conversation is over.
  
The boy rushes to leave, and then he slows down.  Looking up he sees the bright white star and stops.  The red lights of the cross come on, glowing and shimmering in the white star.  He gazes a moment at the cross in the star and ponders its meaning.  “It makes sense. … It must be true.  Wow, Jesus did that for me…”  He walks a bit, drops to his knees near the stage steps, bends his head, and speaks with feeling. “God, I know you love me, you died for me and my sins.  I want you to be my Savior and my friend.  I believe in you.”   

Quietly the entire cast gathers on stage and begins to whisper-sing, “Mary had a baby born in Bethlehem…the greatest story of them all…”  The boy lifts his head, stands a moment with a softened expression, glances at the star, and then moves to join the others.  Immediately all the stage lights are ablaze, and we triumphantly sing the finale in full voice, “Come on ring those bells, light the Christmas tree, Jesus He was born, born for you and me…”