God in the Details

I bought a car today. I bought it because I need a vehicle in Texas. I need a car in Texas because I am moving there. I am moving to Dallas because my job morphed into a new one. My new job is practically my dream job, and this new job is in Dallas. I am less than a year from being retirement eligible, so my cool job and a move to Texas is kind of a no-brainer.

But not without its challenges. It means quite some time living halfway across the country from my best friend and husband (one in the same). It means leaving a GREAT church, my incredible daughter, great friends and the best neighborhood ever. It means a lot of flying home to stay connected with the aforementioned. It means moving my Mom, who lives with us, to another place.

But it’s not forever. And I have an amazing peace about the whole thing. Because I trust that Jesus has my future and my now in His hands. He knows what He is doing and I am totally confident in the knowns and unknowns in every step of this journey, because He is faithful and true, full of grace and mercy, and all loving, all the the time. Count on it.

So I bought this car today, and after two hours of the you-know-what in the dealership finance office, I drove away and noticed…  the car stereo was tuned to K-Love (a Christian radio station) playing a familiar song. What??  God smiling, God taking care of me, taking care of the little details. Making it easy, making it feasible, reminding me He is in the every-day of my life. Today, tomorrow, for the next many months… This song came to mind: You Are for Me 

I serve a great God — the same God Who created the Universe, this earth, and everyone one of us upon it. And this Jesus, Who gave everything to make me (and you) His (when we follow), also bends to remind me each and every day that He is attentive and kind and gracious. None of which I expect, and certainly don’t deserve…

Today I feel like a daughter of the King. He reigns over heaven and earth; Let Him reign in my heart each day like He does today.

 

A Color God Made

There is a color that God made. It is halfway between pink and dark peach. It doesn’t have a name and it rarely shows its face. It’s not in the Crayola box. It’s not the color in the photo above.

I see it sometimes in a sunset, even more rarely in a sunrise (mostly because I’m still in bed).

Once I saw it on a rose, but only for an afternoon.

In my mind it smells like dew; or like springtime in a deep forest. It smells like about-to-be-born. It smells like mystery.

I believe I will live in this color when I shed my skin at a ripe old age. Maybe my new body will glow with this peach-ish aura that ever-intensifies as I deepen my worship to the One Who created this vibrant hue and every other we cannot name.

I worship a Creator Who made these things and many more I cannot fathom. If the simple pleasure of a nameless color makes me glorify Him, I cannot imagine what awaits those who love Him for not only this, but for so much more…

The Church of Obama

Gotta share a most well-written piece by Mark Steyn.

Some excerpts…

The beginning:

The president of the United States has decided to go Henry VIII on the Church’s medieval ass. Whatever religious institutions might profess to believe in the matter of “women’s health,” their pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, and immunities are now subordinate to a one-and-only supreme head on earth determined to repress, redress, restrain, and amend their heresies.

The middle:

If you’re an atheist or one of America’s ever more lapsed Catholics, you’re probably shrugging: What’s the big deal? But the new Act of Supremacy doesn’t stop with religious institutions. As Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, put it: “If I quit this job and opened a Taco Bell, I’d be covered by this mandate.” And so would any of his burrito boys who object to being forced to make “health care” arrangements at odds with their conscience.

The end:

The bigger the Big Government, the smaller everything else: First, other pillars of civil society are crowded out of the public space; then, the individual gets crowded out, even in his most private, tooth-level space. President Obama, Commissar Sebelius, and many others believe in one-size-fits-all national government — uniformity, conformity, supremacy from Maine to Hawaii, for all but favored cronies. It is a doomed experiment — and on the morning after it will take a lot more than a morning-after pill to make it all go away.

Read it all:   http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/290806/church-obama-mark-steyn?pg=1

Now pray.

Mayonnaise & Jesus

One of my best friends and I have little more in common than a love of mayonnaise and Jesus. Well, we also think alike and have a similar sense of humor. But we rarely get to see each other, have different jobs, different schedules, different churches. We both have daughters, but hers is three and mine is 26. But when our schedules finally align and we catch up on the phone or take a nice long walk, it’s like we were just together yesterday.

We met a few years ago and clicked immediately. We met at a women’s brunch and quickly learned we shared a childhood love of mayonnaise and white bread sandwiches. Something little brought us together and something big keeps us friends through all kinds of seasons.

In today’s society where people drive down their street, into their garage and never emerge until their next trip to work, not knowing their next door neighbor or the one over the backyard fence, it’s something to say when friends are formed and held in spite of much greater obstacles. A shared faith is one of the few glues that provides that bond.

I hope you have some of those special friendships. If you don’t, go introduce yourself to your neighbor. Better, yet, find a good church and make some lasting (eternal!) friendships. It’s so worth it!

Weekly Photo Challenge: “Morning”

Capturing my favorite morning routine with a new Olympus digital camera using the Drawing filter.

Dance Your Shoes Off

Reposting a post…

Dance your shoes off.

I love it.

 

An Incredible Response

 

What would you do if you were assaulted? Or if you were robbed? What if someone smashed the window of your vehicle while you and your husband were at the gym and stole your camera and your purse, racked up over $600 on your cards within an hour or two, and left you with little to do but spend the next days dealing with banks, and the DMV, and the insurance company, and car window repair quotes?

Would you be angry? Sure. Frustrated? Hurt? Violated? Sad? Of course. All of those and probably more. How soon would it take you, the victim, to think about the criminal(s) and what kind of state their soul and mind must be in to do such a thing? I think I would hate them for at least a week. Maybe more. Then with each retelling of my story the anger would well up again.

But my sister isn’t like me. She is a much wiser woman. The day after her car window was smashed and personal belongings stolen she posted on FaceBook, “I’m sad for the person that stooped to such a low level of humanity… I’ve been wondering what makes a person so desperate they feel it necessary to do something like that. It’s really sad to me–our stuff can be replaced and money can be re-saved with time, but the person that did it has deep needs that won’t be met by the stuff they steal–and will only bring guilt and shame. We’re praying that he (she) reads the journal that was in my purse so they will hear about Jesus.”

Wow. Her heart heard God’s and responded like Him instead of how she probably felt. I love this about my sister.

Mean people suck. And Jesus loves them just as much as non-sucky people. Isn’t that incredibly amazing? What a hope to cling to.