Rip Current

I had a bit of an attitude at the moment and I started walking into the surf.  My "goal" was to check out the section of beach my husband had drug us to with 2 surf boards, 5 boogie boards, 6 towels, 1 beach chair and 1 beach bag in tow.  He had determined we needed to be far from everyone else and I was "frustrated."  So I dropped my stuff, took off the cover up and began walking headlong.  Not thinking, not surveying the situation.  Just walking with a bit of attitude. 
As I get a little further out I realize the water is a bit deeper than I care to be in and, whoa, now I can't touch.  Better go back.  Oh crap. I am not going anywhere but further out.  Rip current.  Ok, don't panic.  Never panic.  Swim parallel to the shore until you get out of it.  They say it won't take you to the Bahamas. Not too sure about that right now.Waves aren't too bad but I am not getting anywhere but further from Steve and the kids.  Where is the bottom?  If I could push off the bottom it would feel better.  How deep is this water?  6 feet? 10 feet?  I don't know.  Suddenly there's this surfer.  He says to me "Do you need help?"  I smile to show I am not panicking because no one wants to help a panicked person.  They'll drown you.  And I say "Yes."  I can see he's standing and so I say "I want to get where you are."  So  he tells be to grab the board and he flings me to the part where I can stand.  The water is still moving swift and it's tough to get to shore but at least I can stand.  As I get to the shore, the life guard is walking up to me to see if I am ok.  And my husband is asking me what I am thinking walking straight into a rip current. 
There's lots of analogies to be made to my walk with Jesus in this scenario.  The "attitude" and doing my own thing gets me in trouble everytime.  The feeling of deep waters. "He reached down from on high and took hold of me (or sends an angel surfer); he drew me out of deep waters."  (Psalm 18:16) The deep water is where you can't don't know your surroundings and where the bottom is and panic can set in pretty quickly. Believe me if something had swam by me the panic would have set in and I would have been done. 
I am also reminded of the fact that He rescues me even when I get myself into the pickle.  Just like He did for Peter in the garden when He was being arrested.  Peter cut the soldiers ear off and Peter was seconds from his own execution.  Jesus didn't look at him and say "What did you do? Now what are you going to do?"  No he fixed the ear and the Bible doesn't mention the soldier or the ear again. 
But what is really getting me is the lingering fear.  I couldn't go back in the water that day.  I didn't really want to the next day.  I didn't want the kids to either.  It brought me to tears more than once and I couldn't really put words to it.  It seems silly but the fear is strong.  This is the recurring theme in my world.  I am so thankful for all the times my Savior has rescued me.  I will point to Him and give Him the glory every time.  But when I look forward the fear grips me.  I don't want to go there again so I am immobilized from doing anything.  I don't trust myself.  I am afraid. Fear of failure, fear of making mistakes, fear of being back in the same stupid pit or deep water again.  So now what?
If you are me, you sit, you think about it, cry about it, lay it out before him and open up the Bible. Search the concordance for "fear" (again!) and bind a few verses to your heart. 

• "Telling you, 'You're my servant, serving on my side.  I've picked you.  I haven't dropped you.' Don't panic. I'm with you.  There's no need to fear for I'm your God.  I'll give you strength.  I'll help you. I'll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you." Isaiah 41:10 (The Msg) 
• "God met me more than halfway,  he freed me from all my anxious fears." Psalm 34:4 (The Msg)
• "Save  your fear for God, who holds your entire life-body and soul-in his hands." Luke 12:5 (The Msg)

I love the Word.  I love the peace, comfort and confidence it gives me.  I pray it blesses you too today. 
Fear only God,
joy

Alan Jackson - I Love To Tell The Story

His Story

"The disciples came up and asked, "Why do you tell stories?" (Matthew 13:10)
Part of the way Jesus drew people to himself was through the stories he told.  Matthew, Mark and Luke all record stories Jesus told to give a message.  The story of the prodigal son, the lost sheep, the scattered seed, the talents, the lamp on the stand, the lost coin and on and on.  Up until just a few moments ago I assumed these stories were "made up", carefully crafted to make a point.  But now I wonder and maybe guess that these stories were about real people.  After all Jesus was God.  He knows all of our stories.  And perhaps he chose to use a real farmer, a widow, a rebellious son and a shepherd to teach everyone something about Himself.

Now I am going to take it a step further and say, I believe that Jesus is still using our stories to teach others about Himself.  The difference now is it's left up to us to first see what Jesus is teaching us in our story and then to tell others about what He has done and is doing in our lives.  

Everyone has a story.  It may be a "big" story about your salvation and your life doing a complete 180.  A prodigal son type of story.  People like to share those stories.  They are important.  They give hope to the unsaved and those who really feel hopeless and lost.

It may be smaller, everyday stories.  Like how God sent just the right person along to tell you just what you needed to hear.  Or a song at just the right moment on the radio and it gave you peace and comfort.  These stories remind us He is a God of details.  He cares about everything in our lives. 

But my favorite story is when your story and my story intersect.  The times when God is preparing 2 (or more) people for a special work and then at just the right moment He brings them together and really cool things happen.  My pastor at our church in Iowa told me, "You have story and I have a story and He has a story and she has a story and God has brought us all together here for a reason."  It is a giant beautiful tapestry and He uses our stories to connect us to Him and to each other.  The things that cause knots in the tapestry are when people don't believe their stories and past experiences matter.  These are lies the enemy wants us to believe.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

When we see Jesus working in our lives, our response should be like Peter and John-"As for us, there's no question—we can't keep quiet about what we've seen and heard." (Acts 4:20)

God is doing amazing things among His people.  When we reach out to each other and share our stories, His stories.  We are going to be shocked at how He is preparing us for amazing things. 

Blessings,
joy

Perspective

As I started thinking about what I wanted to post today there were so many thoughts going on in my head.


• I thought maybe Nehemiah 4:14-"After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."" Having a 13 year old in your home is challenging and a fight is unfortunately not uncommon, especially when he makes a few poor choices. I remembered this verse when I realized I didn't want to fight with him, I wanted to fight for him against an unseen enemy. This enemy isn't annoyed when we are getting to where God wants us, he gets MAD. So my mantra is "Fight for him, not with him." Satan will not have my family.

• When Steve and I were walking on Saturday morning, he pointed out this shell on the beach. I went to pick it up, expecting it to be a piece of a larger shell but when I picked it up, a whole perfect conch shell came out of the sand! It was amazing. First I thought, this is why God says "Get out of bed and walk with your husband." Then I got to thinking about 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." What we are seeing right now in life is temporary. It is such a tiny piece compared to what we will have in eternity.

• On Sunday morning, our pastor asked me to share a story about sharing love in the community. That's easy, I'm a nurse. It's how I roll. Riggghhhhtttt. Not so much, but I have witnessed God do some pretty cool things so I shared. We are going through a series about "God is..." and yesterday was "God is Love." The post below is what I read to everyone. But what's crazy is that God would have me, who just a few years ago reeled at the question "How do you know God loves you, Joy?" speak at this particular service. This didn't occur to me until the worship time because all week I had been dealing with the above mentioned teenage. My main concern was sharing about being loving in my job but feeling I was doing a lousy job of being loving at home. That is a whole other post.

• Yesterday, we took our kids to lunch at a new restaurant Steve and I thought was really great when we went to it. Actually restaurant isn't the right word, beach shack, maybe. Anyway, we were so excited and 3 of the kids did not love it. They were not great, they were, well, awful. It was a miserable experience. It wasn't that they didn't like the place. It was how they acted. They want all these "grown up things" like cell phones, tvs, facebook, etc. And yet they still act like kids. As if! I know they are just kids. I also know it's me who has given them those privileges (except not for the teenager right now!). I was just thinking that must be what Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?" Regarding the teenager (again!) I have been worldlier this week than spiritual. I am working on it and we are working through it together. I am thankful to be blessed with a son that has a large measure of forgiveness and grace built in to him.

So that's what I've been thinking about. So many things that seem "little" but I think it's all about what we choose to see in life. We can see the struggle or we can chose to see what God wants to teach us about Him or ourselves. We can convince ourselves we are alone or we can choose to see His presence in the little things.

I pray that all of you will have eyes to see and ears to hear the message God wants you to see and hear today.

Love you,

joy

The story I shared at GC

During the worship time, I reflected on how funny God is to have me talk on a day the sermon is titled "God is Love."  This has been the aspect of God, as I look on my journey that sticks out the most.  It is the attribute of God that has been most elusive and the most powerful.  I can accept He is sovereign, mighty, omnipotent, strong, omnipresent.  I could go on and on.  But love?  That is some thing I have just in the last few years been able to embrace and to accept that He loves me, always.

I have the unique opportunity in my profession as a nurse to witness people at their best and people at their worst. It is my goal to try and care for each patient the way I would want my family, my mom or myself to be treated. I try to remember that each person matters to someone and even if they don’t have a loved one present they matter to God.

My 15 years as a nurse have given me to opportunities to bless others but more frequently it is I who am blessed.
Since moving down here a little over 6 months ago, the feeling of being on an island without connections has sometimes been overwhelming. I came from a small town, a huge family and a network of friends had known most of my life. While I missed the family and friends, I think I missed seeing a familiar face at the grocery store even more. This is how God blessed me when I was able to show His love through my job.
Because of privacy rules, I don’t feel comfortable sharing any names. If you want to know who the other member of this church was in this story, stick around for the second service because that is when she is going to share about this day.
I was taking care of a pleasant elderly lady in the emergency room one day and as I do with a lot of my patients I had spent a fair amount of time just listening to her and talking with her. She had shared with me that she did not have any family here but a god daughter and she would be coming soon. I love hearing people’s stories. I believe everyone has a story and God is using all of our stories together for a reason. And I think that by listening to them you show a person that they are significant.
I was doing some task in the room when the god daughter had arrived and registration was in there taking her information. The registration clerk asked her if she would like to list a church and the lady told her god daughter “Let’s list yours.” The daughter said “Ok, Grace Church.” And I stopped and quickly thought “Are there two Grace Churches?” So there was only one way I knew to differentiate and I said “Do you mean the one that meets at the movie theater?” And she smiled and said “Yes!” And I said “I go to that church too!” That conversation was that simple. But it meant the world to me at the moment because I made a connection with someone. It also opened up the door for this lady to share more about her faith with me and her feelings about her illness.
The story itself would be cool enough if it stopped there. But at the same time in my section we had a young lady who had been in a family dispute with a sibling and many poor choices were made and she ended up in our ER. It took awhile for the mom to come in but when she got there, wow, I think her daughter was wishing she didn’t. That mom walked in that room, shut the door and began a tirade of a mother who had a long, hot summer with her kids. I am sure this wasn’t the first round of drama she had to deal with. You could hear her quite plainly even though the door was shut. Everyone could hear her. She never put those kids down or berated them. She never swore. She was just hot mad at the choices they had made and wanted to point out very plainly that she had warned them and would have no more of it. I think it went of for at least 20 minutes, maybe longer. A few people asked if we were going to call security but there was never a reason to.
That mom finally came out of that room to pull herself together and when she came back in she passed my patients room. Somehow, someway, that mom ended up in there, talking with my new sweet friend. I could hear bits of the conversation and the love of Jesus was shared.
As I think back on the day, I am so thankful that I wasn’t impatient or rushed when she wanted to talk and then when I learned of the connection to Grace I would be sweet. That’s not real.
I also think that lady felt God’s love and presence that day in a real way and was the right person to pour it out to this mom who needed it so much.
That’s how God’s love is. Once you get it and know how wide and high and deep and long it is like it says Ephesians 3:16. It will just spill out. It gives you peace, it makes you bold, and it puts you more in tune with the Holy Spirit’s promptings. You can not ever do the wrong thing when God asks you to show someone His love. It may feel weird or uncomfortable but its right and the blessing you receive will be amazing.
Believe me, I am not always the angel of mercy at work. I am not always patient and I don’t always love very well. Some people are sandpaper people who rub me the wrong way and God puts them in my path because He wants me to show love to all people, not just sweet little ladies. That’s easy to do. As I heard Beth Moore say once, “When you say about someone “They’re killing me! You can probably guess that God is using that person to kill something in you that is not from God.” Things like impatience or judgment or pride. So like every one I am still very much a work in progress.
So that’s my story, well one of them anyway. Oh and PS after I agreed to share this with you, I saw someone I knew at the grocery store. Thank you for letting me share.

beautiful the mess we are....

On Sunday morning, my house was A MESS.  I have been working alot the past few weeks and while everyone tries to help and get chores done (sort of) it still gets out of hand pretty quickly with 6 people and a dog under one roof.  My dryer has not been working as it should.  This was no suprise to me.  My laundry facilities never have worked well. It can take me hours to wash and dry a load.  It's painful.  So I had MOUNTAINS of laundry everywhere.  Now I am not really picky about my house, but when it gets to that state I start getting anxious and the little voice in me compares myself to what I think I know about other people.  It can get really ugly in my head. 
Now add to this that it is Sunday morning.   I mentioned to my sweet husband that it is taking the dryer hours to dry anything so he seizes that moment to climb into the attic look down the vents.  They are nasty.  So I am called upon to bring the vacuum up the ladder to the attic so it can be vacuumed out and also receive the vents he has pulled apart to bring down the ladder and bang out the lint that has accumulated over who knows how long.  Bring them back up the ladder, bring down the vacuum, hold the flashlight so he can put the vents back together, troubleshoot why aren't they fitting the way they did before they were pulled apart, hold the ladder so he can climb back down. (Phew!) Soon it is 10 and church starts at 10:30 and after all this I really need church.  :)  So I scramble into the shower, fuss at the kids to get their shoes on, ask for the millionth time "Are you really going to wear that?" ,  walk out the door with wet hair and part of the make up on to put on in the car. 
So we get in the car and it becomes this moment for some reason to discuss the bedroom of the oldest and youngest son and some of the nasty things I have discovered in the corners and drawers.  Let the lecture begin!  While my husband is giving his wisdom I turn on the radio and the first words that come out are "beautiful the mess we are...." Wow.  And whether everyone intended to be or not, our car becomes silent.  And all I thought, thank you Lord.  I never thought about it like that. 
You see, our family is chaos.  I have felt like we have been kind of a joke because we are typically late, mismatched, clothes on backward, hair all over the place, loud, tore up house and car, full of drama.  This really bothered me in the past.  I hated to be thought of as "screw ups." (My words not anyone elses).  If you think I am insecure when I compare myself with others, you should see how quickly the flame gets fanned when I start comparing my family to others.  It's like I set them on a scale to compare and contrast and my family always came up short. 
This is one of the reasons this move has really helped our family.  When you don't know anyone, you can't compare yourself and when no one knows you, you can't care what they think.  God has been helping me weed this out of me now in this season so that as we do develop those relationships here, I can be confident in my family and what God made us to be...a beautiful mess.  Ecclesiates 3:11 says "He has made everything beautiful in his time."  (Emphasis mine)  And sometimes He doesn't have to make it beautiful, He just opens our eyes to it's beauty at the right time. 
You see, we are still late, our house is tore up, we are loud, there is always drama, we screw up, sometimes in big ways.  There have been nights where my prayer before dinner has been "Jesus, tonight really sucks.  We really need your help.  We need You."  We are never going to be perfect. The best I can hope for is that we are real.   But Jesus is perfect and He can redeem any situation, any conflict, any drama. He can help us pray, cry and laugh our ways through it. Our "mess" has brought us closer to each other and closer to Him.  And that is a beautiful place to be. 
In Christ, my Redeemer,
joy

Not Ashamed

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him." Psalm 124: 3 My kids give me lots of reasons to be proud. But perhaps the biggest reason I am proud of them is the priority Jesus, their church, and their faith is in their lives. It is as natural to them as breathing. They talk to their friends about what they believe. They freely share their beliefs and about the church they go to.

I was privileged to witness the day my two older boys "got saved." The three of us went to a Christian rock concert and in the middle they had a break and that was used as a time to talk about Jesus and then they asked everyone to pray and to pray along if they wanted Jesus to live in their heart. I remember hearing the sweet voice of this little girl near by and thought "How precious." Then they asked who ever prayed along to raise their hands. I can not explain the emotion I felt when I opened my eyes and saw both of their hands in the air. It was as powerful as anything I ever experienced. Then the Holy Spirit took over my mouth and I said to them "You boys asked Jesus into your heart today and in the Bible it says you are sealed in your salvation. No one or nothing can ever take it away." (Ephesians 1:13 check it out) The younger son smiled and tried to put into words what was filling his 9 year old spirit "That makes my heart feel good." As a mother I was given a gift that day. God has anointed them both in different ways.

The older son tries to walk his faith in everything. I know it is part of decisions and part of how he chooses who he will spend time with. It affects his music choices and his TV watching. He knows and states when I am not congruent with my words and my beliefs. He has been given a discernment gift and I pray God continues to cultivate that in him.

The younger child has been given a thirst for the Word. He has seen first hand the power and comfort it brings. It has brought him through anxious moments and has helped him articulate praise. I have checked on him late at night and saw his little blue Bible tucked under his arm while he slept.

My younger two children are still developing their gifts. I can see in my daughter a heart for people. She is so tender and will encourage you or cry with you. What ever is needed. My youngest has the best grasp of the unconditional love of Jesus. I believe this is probably the faith that Jesus talked about when he brought the children to him.

Let me say my kids are like this more in spite of me than because of me. You will never see me writing a parenting book or offering parenting advice to anyone.  I give glory to God for blessing them with great extended family and churches who have shown them what a Christ life looks like and help keep them accountable. He has given me teachable moments and the Spirit to help me share with them what I am learning right along with them.

When I looked at my kids this weekend the verse that kept resounding in my heart was from Romans 1:16 "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God, for the salvation of everyone who believes."

Jesus, hold them close to you. Thank you for giving me the privilege to be their mom. Help me to be the mom they need. Protect them, guide them, grow them to be the servants you would have them be.
Blessings,
joy