THE POWER OF EACH

            EACH
Each day has its beauty.
Each riddle has its solving. 
Each moment has its blessing. 
Each hurt has its healing. 
Each life has its meaning.
Each hope has its dream. 
Each heartache has its sadness. 
Each gift has its blessing. 
Each voice has its tune. 
Each song has its melody. 
Each word has its power. 
Each flower has its scent. 
Each treasure has its bounty.
Each love has its object.

Each is one part of something bigger.
Each is what blends a unit into many. 
That complex mix which makes up life.
Our lives are like miniature slides.
The blessings of "each." 

True friends are rare

WHAT IS A TRUE FRIEND? I have friends. Good friends. Important friends. I've also had some friends who desert the friendship or lose interest, or time and events remove us from contact or even outgrow the friendship. I don't like it when that happens. I miss them and feel like I left some of me behind. I am a loyal sort, and I'm not big on having lots of friends. Just not my nature. I have a few wonderful trusted friends who have gone the distance, never abandoning the friendship nor losing interest in it or me. They love and care for me. I love and care for them. I know they will be my friends for life. My three siblings and my parents belong in this category. The best friendships have acceptance as a mainstay in the relationship. It is a core necessity. We differ, see things differently, but we are secure in the friendship. In every decade of my life God has given me someone in this way. There are surface friendships, lasting friendships, church family friendships, long-distance friendships, and soul-mate friendships. All have their place and are important. We need each other. God made us to desire relationship. Friendships also help us grow.

I received this card decades ago from a true friend. It has been in a photo album of memories next to pictures of us together when we were young single women. We have been friends since 1973 when we were placed with four other girls in a dorm room suite. 

God must have been in the planning of that because we have remained friends throughout the years. There are times when we may go for a couple of years with no contact. The love and caring remain. At times the weight of circumstances have kept me silent. I didn't have much to say. For her, too, life would be challenging, and she would find herself in the midst of the crush. She would be silent. Each time this happened, both of us regret elapsed time between our renewed contact. Neither of us is a phone person which is part of the issue. We send books, cards, little gifts, letters, and an occasional email.

My friend encourages me. She helps me. She even helps me grow as a person. The books she has sent me are not of the light variety. Neither are the tapes from conferences and CD of her husband's last talk in church before cancer took him from her straight into the arms of God. I find her no-nonsense approach refreshing. There is little pretending or putting on a false-front with her. My last visit with this friend was in June of this year. We hadn't visited in three years. She and I sat at the breakfast table and talked about the Lord, books (I was writing down author names and book titles), and people  and struggles in our lives. I saw into her heart and saw that it has become wiser and sweeter. She picked up a jewel that has changed her in her attitudes, which she shared with me. She practices extending grace to people who annoy or disappoint her. She has found that this lets the other person off the hook, removes her inner frustrations with them and her critical spirit, and turns their times together into meaningful moments.  Another piece of wisdom she shared with me is that you can tell what your idols are by what you speak about the most. How true. An idol can be anything that takes precedence over God and the maintaining of close relationship with Him. I loved our talk. The conversation made me self-evaluate and want to be more than I am. She encourages me through her words to be stronger in my personal walk.

Many people have this sort of friendship with their mate. I hear people refer to their spouse as their best friend. They are both soulmates and best friends. What a delight that must be. To be on the same page, to know full acceptance from the person whom you are with as one, as a spiritual union. Beautiful. Maybe some day I will know what it is to live in harmony and united in close friendship in such a way with a loving spouse who accepts me for me and likes me anyway and I do the same for him. God would have to be in it for this to even be a possibility.

Please let your friends know you appreciate them. They already know it, but it is always good to hear it. 

Blessings today,

Norma

When A Woman Finds Her Voice

#WHEN A WOMAN FINDS HER VOICE  no. 1

Stepping Up to the Plate - Using My Voice

"They saw what seemed to be 
                        tongues of fire that separated 
                                            and came to rest on each of them."      Acts 2:30

My eyes came to rest on this verse. I glanced at my candle with its two wicks engulfed in flames. The verse's truth touching that deep place within me. Tongues of fire came to rest on each of them. The Holy Spirit was there at Pentecost coming down to minister in and through the people. Peter was explaining this phenomenon to the wondering crowd. The words stopped me. I have been thinking about voices a lot lately. The use of the word "tongues" making me think of my own tongue. Seems like I've been doing a lot of talking lately. Divine appointments.

Thinking back through my week I thought of the diversity of moments, each with its voice speaking brightly through the fog of daily living.  It's amazing to find one's voice in the ordinary and the unexpected moments in life. My week held several of them.

In a facebook private message: "I need someone to talk to who has spiritual understanding. No one seems to be around. Are you available? Can you call me?" He was in the midst of a series of circumstances unfolding in rapid succession, all with spiritual out-workings that happened immediately after a prompting of which he had followed. "I'm going to get emotional," his voice quivered, "Thanks for talking with me."  It was scary stuff in a way. An overwhelming sense of being in the middle of God at work when He chooses to use "you." This man is a fairly new believer in Christ. I knew my voice was calming, helping him to make sense of the situations and with a caution to help him prepare for the conflicts which are sure to follow. These occurrences prove this man is sensitive to God's quiet voice.

At a high school reunion: There was the middle-aged woman who was "high" on her drug of choice. She confided in me, a stranger. Her pain came out in a low whisper, "I just found out I have cancer." I was thinking to myself, I better say something, we're talking about possible death in her near future. I found my voice saying to her, "God loves you. Trust Him. I know He will help you." She tried to access my words, asking me what I meant, repeating the same questions multiple times. My response was the same. "God really loves you." My eyes penetrated hers.  I tried to connect. The tears were way back behind her eyes, hidden from view, yet I could see them. Her shield was in place, but she was listening and seemed to be focusing. I continued, "Do you understand what I'm saying?" I needed to know she was with me. "I've been through hard times. I know what it is to struggle. But, I do know God loves us. He will help you if you turn to Him."  She asked me to clarify, "What do you mean?" I touched her arm and spoke kindly with her. I asked God for the words. He supplied them. And, then the moment was over.

Another conversation with a man I knew in high school: We were talking and he was answering my query as I asked him what he's been up to since I last saw him back in 1984 when he was working in a hospital where my two-year old son was in traction. "I moved to Hawaii in 1985. I found something there that changed my life." He paused and smiled at me. 

     "Yes?" I asked. 
     "I found Jesus, " His smile was engaging.

"Wonderful! I'm a believer too. Tell me about it." A beautiful conversation emerged. He and I talked and talked, about how God heals and works in our lives to help us deal with our stuff. How God puts people in our paths who need the Lord. How we can be limited as public servants in careers in the public arena. It was then that the lady I already mentioned came over to us, put her hands on our arms and spoke to both of us. She looked at me, asking, "Do I know you?"  Her words collided and were senseless, the drug overpowering her ability to put words together. Then a rational sentence, "You guys are different that anyone else here. What is it with you?" 

It seemed as if it was a God-thing, an answer to an earlier prayer when I asked God to direct my conversations for the evening. I asked Him to take over for me. Silently I began to pray that God would reach in and help this woman hear my words, "God loves you." I could see emotional pain by her reactions, her lack of willingness to say what was troubling her. I spoke to it as best I could. In truth, it would have been easier to brush her aside, to ignore her in her present condition so I could return to my conversations. She had interrupted a conversation that was just getting interesting. I felt impatient, annoyed. Yet, I knew she could be the reason I was there at the event. Looking back on it, I believe if I had chosen to keep quiet it would have been  wrong of me, hiding my light under a bushel. I felt it strongly. This lost woman needs God. He knows her heart and He's calling her name.

An incoming text on my cell phone while I was cooking dinner: It was from a young woman who has a husband who drinks too much. She was thinking about  leaving her husband. The last three words told me to act. She texted,"I need help."I had anticipated this day from an earlier conversation. To know what to say when the crisis would come, I had asked a recovering alcoholic, an AA sponsor, what I should tell her if she should ask for my help. I love both her and her husband. Again, my voice began to speak via text messages. I responded with care, concern, and a small bit of sage advice. In some ways I can identify with her for I understand this pain of trying to do the right thing in a difficult situation. She is thinking about the welfare of her children.  Life is confusing, hard, pressing on people's emotions. Every decision has a ramification. Later in the week we talked on the phone.

I was relaxing on the couch. I began to preview a new book,  my much anticipated "date" for Labor Day's evening hours, When A Woman Finds Her Voice, by Jo Ann Fore.  It wasn't long before I was identifying with this woman's personal journey. In some respects, it has been my journey, too. The wounded person who finds her freedom. Jo Ann Fore's words are powerful.

"But, emotions can heal if we give them voice. Any freedom I experience in my life comes only because I intentionally choose to allow God's love and his truths to shape me."

So true. Anyone who's been there knows that this is true.  Her heart-felt statements written with purposed meaning speak in a quiet succinct voice throughout the book's fabric, unfolding the ways and means for a person to access spiritual healing.

"True emotional healing lies somewhere between intentional choices and divine intervention, a function of surrender, faith, trust, and action."

"It wasn't the discovery process I imagined it would be--not an individual journey but rather one with a communal impact. Funny how when you start to believe your voice matters, it starts to matter, becomes a healing light in the darkest of places." 

"I'm gut-transparent about the cuts on my soul because I have benefited from the healing power that lies in this sort of exchange. Those times others have shared the messiness of their lives, those were the times I finally realized I wasn't alone. The times I found the courage to confront my own mess." 

When A Woman Finds Her Voice explains the reason for finding your voice in a world of many voices. Even when it is uncomfortable to do so. That is the message that is given as a gift in the midst of this overcomer's story. The author wants all women to know that this is true. It is true. My short stories attest to the truth of this message. When God began to heal me of my emotional wounds I would find out--that now I can speak because now I have something to say. Now I know God's touch, not just by an intellectual knowledge, but by His personal intervention. God responds to my reaching out to Him. 

I stopped reading. It was a reflective moment. My thoughts were on my life. The book's message hit the mark. God uses imperfect people like me. I was thinking about what is next in my life. A sense of peace was overflowing in the room while I pondered the real truth of why God uses our stories. We are here for a reason, to do what we are supposed to do. It is a divine privilege to speak with our God-given voices.

"They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated 
                                          and came to rest on each of them."  Acts 2:30 

Amazon Book LInk is HERE

Meridian Minute #17- God, Goodness, and Trust

Amazon Book Link is HERE

God, Goodness, and Trust

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and He shall direct thy paths."  Proverbs 3:5-6

Themes come together in our lives. It is amazing sometimes how this happens. In this past week I have been aware of the same theme. It keeps coming up. It is about something that plagues people of faith. We often have trouble believing in God's goodness, not because we don't want to, but it comes when all is not going well or there have been disappointments or tragedy. Distance from God begins to cause a wedge, a crevasse we can't seem to bridge. There are times when we struggle with believing God is there for us.  That he has our best interest at heart. The bottom line seems to be something along this line, Is God good? When it's not going well, when there are difficulties that could have been prevented or at least surmounted, these things can cause us to waiver in our belief in God's goodness to his created beings. Last week I wrote a blog about going deeper with God. I know this to be true, a person can't go deeper with God if there is hesitancy or self protection in their reaching out to God. It's interesting, the hesitancy may be based in past human interactions.When others fail us or failed us big-time, it is harder to believe that God is any different.

This morning in church it was brought home to us in a different light, more from the psychology of relationship. It spoke to me. The speaker wondered in an plausible voice making a case, if those who had or have less than what they need(ed) in their home of origin, those who had a missing component of love from a parent, caregiver, or guardian, those who struggle with attachment in some way, if that person has a harder time believing in God's love? Do they believe that God loves them, and can they receive God's love for them? As soon as the speaker said this, a young man in the audience burst out weeping. His mother put her arm around him. I know some of his story, and there is a reason this hit home with him (and I don't know it from his perspective). Wounds and betrayal cause isolation and conflicting emotions that mark the internal compass. For some, the understanding of this can be confused by another layer, a sense of not measuring up to God's expectations which really is about performance and approval rather than acceptance and love. I reject this belief. Yet, it bound me at one time also. God loves all of us well. It is in God's character to do so.

A couple of days ago I decided to re-read the book, The Shack. This time, I decided to collect some background information on the author before reading through it again. Several things grabbed my attention. First off, he and I are the same age  (ta-da!). Secondly, during his earliest years his missionary family lived in Papua, New Guinea. He was sent off to boarding school at age six. From that point on, in many respects, it sounded like Wm. Paul Young's life was inadequate in providing some of the securities that make for wholeness.  He mentions some abuse. The source of this information was from Wikipedia and Young's website. Knowing this has shed a total different light on his book, The Shack. I feel that I am reading about Young and how he works through his feelings about God in relationship to the pain he received at the hands of others. His sense of betrayal from God. The book is a type of allegory. It is about pain, shame, and fear, and it is about someone who doesn't trust God and who seems to have just-cause for this when God seemed to turn his back on him. We follow a wounded person's path to healing of his emotions, and how he finds God to be good.

It is mesmerizing for me to read the book now after gleaning the author's personal story. It ties in to the earlier mention of lack of attachment to God. The Shack is fascinating in that it shows the process of finding God when someone's been damaged by life and has lost their way. The author's perception of God transcends religiosity. He is on to something. I believe his message in this book exposes the truth that dispels the lie. The hidden lie that is secretly considered even though it's not often admitted, that sometimes it feels like God really isn't trustworthy or loving because he doesn't intervene when the bad things happen. Mackenzie, the main character, is shrouded with something he calls, The Great Sadness. It is the sadness of lost hope and the voice of pain, a shadow of darkness that accompanies his walk. 

Believe me, this happens in real life all the time. Books are full of stories similar to this. I've had periods of this hopeless state shadowing my steps. In the story, on page 128, Father God "Papa" shows Mack Mack's own truth, that he has judged God and found God wanting.  Mack is shown by God, that he cannot produce fruit built on a trusting relationship with God if he does not know that he is loved by God. Trust and love are either present, or they aren't present. Papa says to Mack, that he is not "justifying" in his relationship with Mack. More importantly, he is "redeeming" it. (I don't have permission to quote the book, but wish I could!) In time, Mackenzie is set free of The Great Sadness and is able to move forward to freedom. Even though the imagery in the book can be off-putting for some, I find the depiction and explanation of God's work to be similar to my understanding. One must read the deeper meaning to "get" this book. It's written to teach and to guide the broken hearts and the disappointed believers in God. God has set me free in much the same way as Mackenzie in The Shack.                                                                            

God loves you. Ask for his love to open up for you if it is difficult for you to feel loved by him. The bad stuff is in its own category. It will own you if you let it. Instead, let God own it for you. He wants to heal, love, and free you. Come to Jesus.