Saturday, July 30, 2011

Every Day is Like Christmas...


“Let me go see what I did last night”, Jimmy said to me one Saturday morning.  To a stranger it might have sounded like a strange statement, like maybe he did not have full control of his faculties the night before and for some reason he was too impaired to remember where he had been and what he had done.  But I knew what he was talking about.  He had spent Friday evening in the studio blowing and sculpting molten glass.  When the glass is red or white hot you cannot see what the finished piece will really look like.  After a night of cooling down in the kiln, the pieces are ready to view the next morning.  Jimmy says with a sense of joyful expectancy as he opens the kiln, “Every morning is like Christmas!”

But this morning as Jimmy spoke those now familiar words, I thought of the same words and feelings that rose up in me after a night of prayer at the Shore House of Prayer last Thursday.  We had been praying over Israel and the United States, with special urgency looking forward to the UN meeting coming up in September to determine whether Israel will be ordered to return to its 1967 borders.  We felt that God was directing us to worship, and then from that place of worship to release God’s heart.  We sang over Barack Obama, calling him to hear from God, to know his true identity, to align himself with what God says about Israel.  At the end of the night I sat back in my chair basking in the sweetness of God’s presence filling the room and my heart, and thinking, “What will happen tomorrow in Barack Obama because we have loved on him tonight and sang his name before the Father?  What will happen in our nation, how will God’s Bride respond because we have worshiped and called the Bride to align herself with the Father’s heart, especially toward Israel?”

So we call out to God and ask him to move once more at the sound of his children’s voices as we worship and pray as we feel his Spirit leading us.  We cry out to God, “Let us see today in the natural what we did last night in the heavenly.  Every day is like Christmas, God.  Rain down the blessings today that you called us to cry out for in prayer last night.”

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

It's a Girl!

Yesterday was my birthday.  I woke up thinking about an e-card I had received the night before from a dear friend. The card read, “Celebrating you today and hoping you remember that God celebrates you every day!” As I prayed later that morning, my thoughts went to my mother who has been in heaven for over 20 years.  I asked the Lord to speak to her for me, as I do from time to time, to let her know I am doing o.k., to let her know how I still miss her and so love and appreciate her for all she did for me.  I mused on what Mommy went through for me, carrying a baby in the heat of the summer, going through labor without the epidurals given today. There were no ultrasounds in the 50’s.  With two boys already at home, what went through her mind when the doctor called out, “It’s a girl!”?  I think my mother celebrated this baby girl that day.  She celebrated that I was a daughter, and then she loved and celebrated me as she raised me up.  Mommy was always my greatest fan. 

It was then that the Father reminded me in the midst of my musings, “That’s how I feel about you, too. I celebrate you.”

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place…your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:13,15,16

So, in my life quest to be like Jesus who only did what he saw the Father doing, how do I celebrate the people that God celebrates?  First, my prayer is “Give me eyes to see people as you see them”, to be able to recognize the gold gleaming forth under the wrappings of life.  When I find that gold, then I announce it, call it forth, celebrate it as the true identity of that one that God celebrates.  Just as God celebrates Taffy Spaloss, not just on July 12th, but every day.  The doctor may have said, “it’s a girl”, but the Father declares, “it’s MY girl!”

Saturday, July 2, 2011

LIFE LEAVES SPACES…


I had a tooth pulled this week, an interesting experience to say the least.  First my mouth was numbed with novacaine. Then the dentist pulled, tugged, twisted and rocked the tooth until he finally pulled it loose.  Thankfully all I felt was a whole lot of pressure, no pain. As I sat there, tense and trying to calm myself, I couldn’t help but think that there is a lesson God has for me in here somewhere.  Something having to do with deep rooted things being pulled out of my life; deep rooted, but not good things.  Hard to remove, some healing needed after they're gone; some getting used to the empty space....  

The next morning as I prepared to check the email at work my attention was drawn to an ad loop running on Yahoo for American Express.  “Life leaves spaces…”  I was hooked, since I was still dealing with the healing of a very physical space in my upper mouth.  The loop continued to the next screen:  “Life leaves spaces… for you to create in….It’s not just a card; it’s a canvas”. 

Who volunteers to have a tooth removed?  Who opts for pain and the need for healing afterward?  But life leaves spaces.  Empty spaces open up in our lives as God rearranges things.  “Why God?”  I often ask.  “I don’t like change.  Why can’t it stay the same?  When will it go back to ‘normal’?”

I think God is showing me that he is the one who opens up spaces for him and me to create in.  Those spaces are not a tragedy, an “oops” on God’s part, or even bad luck, but an opportunity, a blank canvas for what he is going to paint next, or have me paint next.  I am not an artist, but I do love to write.  I love the feeling of sitting down with a fresh piece of blank paper (or a new document page in Word) and starting to compose.  I am praying that God will help me to remember what he has shown me with this tooth extraction and the empty space it left in my mouth. Life leaves spaces for me and for God to create in.  It's not just a loss, a lost tooth, a lost ???, its a canvas for him, for us, to draw, paint, write, sing, dance something new, something beautiful, something to bless and not to harm.  Something from his heart to ours.

Within the grace period…


Got too busy spending money this month before Christmas, and neglected to pay the bills!  Hate when I do that, especially when I get socked with a late payment charge on top of the credit card balance.  One bill had me concerned since it was my son, Christopher’s life insurance payment.  Since Chris was diagnosed with cancer several years ago I have been quite religious about keeping his life insurance payments up to date.  Even though he is doing well now, he would not be a candidate to reinstate the policy, or get a new one, if we let it lapse.  So I put the payment in the mail, and called the insurance company the next day to let them know the check was coming.  I confessed my spending too much and not paying bills error to the customer service rep at Chris’ life insurance company and she pulled up the account.

“Don’t worry, Mrs. Spaloss,” she told me.  “You are still within the grace period.”

Ahh!!! Still within the grace period….The words warmed my heart.  Not because of Chris’ life insurance policy being in full force, but because I knew they were words also spoken to me on the inside by the Holy Spirit of God. 

Sometimes I run and run and run, but never seem to get accomplished what I wanted.  Never enough, coming up short, running on empty.  But don’t worry, God says.  You are still within the grace period.  You are always, at all times, under my grace, my tender mercies when you fail, and my divine enabling to be who you need to be. 

May grace (God's favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts) be multiplied to you in [the full, personal, precise, and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter 1: 2 AMP

Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].Hebrews 4: 16 AMP

Ahh!

WE CELEBRATE IRGY


Not quite sure on the spelling of that word, “irgy”, but it is pronounced with a hard g.  Irgy was one of my grandson, Cade’s early words to express how he was feeling, something very difficult for a toddler to do.  Cade learned to say he was “irgy” and his astute mom and dad realized that he meant angry.  Then they could help him process those feelings, ask the right questions, give him some adult wisdom in dealing with his childlike frustrations that left him feeling “irgy”. 

My daughter, Rachel never scolded Cade for misstating what he was feeling.  Instead, she  spoke to Cade about the feelings he was expressing.  Had she scolded him and made him repeat after her to say the word correctly, disregarding the feelings expressed through his little word, Cade might have learned that he had to say everything correctly in order to be accepted, to get answers, to learn.  That would have been stifling to his inquisitive little mind.  Cade was maybe 3 during his “irgy” times.  Now he is 6 and irgy is no longer part of his vocabulary. He is creative with words and pictures, a delight to this grandma’s heart.

When we come to Jesus we are brand new, like little children, like Cade.  We enthusiastically and hopefully unabashedly try out our new lives and new language in this new Kingdom with God and our new family, and sometimes “angry” comes out “irgy”.  God looks beyond our words, hears our hearts and responds to us in a way we can understand.  He knows we won’t always say “irgy”.  But for now, it’s ok, because we are sharing what we are feeling inside and opening the door for God and others to look into and speak into our lives. 

Jesus did only what he saw the Father doing. God celebrates and accepts each of us wherever we may be along the journey, and his love spurs us on to maturity. We are called to follow suit and accept people as they are, where they are.  We are called to put aside the natural reaction to correct the way someone may express what is in his heart, perhaps for the sole reason that it is not how we might say it.  Instead we bless him for where he is getting it right and encourage him to continue to seek God and freely share what he learns.  Even if it comes out “irgy” for now.  We celebrate the ones God loves.  We celebrate what God is doing in their lives.  And yes, we celebrate “irgy”. 

DOWNLOAD AT LACEY BLOOD DRIVE


I love donating blood.  You get to sign in, wait, get pricked, wait, get pricked, eat pretzels and go home.  “But wait, that’s not why we are all here!” I mused while waiting my turn at the Lacey Rotary Club Blood Drive earlier this year.

If it’s not the pricking and waiting that motivates these donors, what is it that keeps them giving blood time after time?  I had taken my brand new copy of Culture of Honor by Danny Silk and was a few chapters into it when I was called to donate.  “Culture of honor!” I nearly spoke it out loud.  The Red Cross practices that principle for sure, I reasoned.  In his book, Danny Silk explains the “Principle of Honor behind the culture of honor practiced in his church:

“…accurately acknowledging who people are will position us to give them what they deserve and to receive the gift of who they are in our lives”.(Culture of Honor, p. 25)

I was getting excited by now as God downloaded the principle of honor in living color, blood red to be exact.  The Red Cross blesses, honors and values the people who walk in the door to donate.  They send thank you emails; they give award pins when you hit your first gallon; heck sometimes they even announce it out loud at the donation site and you get a round of applause.  They get excited when it’s your first time and make you feel like hot stuff.  They get excited when it’s your 10th time and make you feel like hot stuff.  They give people the honor they deserve for their willingness to give of themselves, and then the donors give to the Red Cross, as well as all the people who benefit from their blood, the gift of who they are, their own life blood.  “You are valuable, appreciated, and needed!” says the Red Cross.  And the donors respond, “I love feeling valuable, appreciated and needed, so I’ll be back in five weeks to donate some more of the treasure within me!”

I shared my thoughts with Belinda, the phlebotomist taking my blood that morning.  She smiled in understanding, and shared with me another tidbit about blood donation.  She had me feel the tube in which my blood was flowing into the collection bag.  “It’s warm,” she said, “as it should be.  If it was cold, we would have to stop the donation because it would mean something was wrong, like a blood clot.  Or it could mean that your body is dehydrated and you should not be draining it of any fluids, including blood donation, at this time.” She paused as I took in this new information.  Warm, flowing blood, coming from my heart is what is needed.  Cold is not good, not helpful, not healthy… 

Then she added another reason that the blood flow might be cold and therefore not acceptable.  “If the phlebotomist inserts the needle incorrectly, plunges it too deeply, that could also make the flow cold, and unacceptable.”  So, wounding the donor can be detrimental to the donation process, too….

So, we the church, God’s family can garner a few pearls of wisdom from the Red Cross here, about encouraging a Culture of Honor in our midst. Recognize the valuable gifting in each one who comes through our doors.  Hey, not everyone is going to have that rare blood type, and not everyone is going to be a “universal donor” that gets along with everyone.  But each type is needed, each gifting, each personality.  We as a culture of honor must learn to recognize and call forth that gifting in each other, honor each other for who God made us, recognize the treasure in each one.  We need God’s eyes to do that, since some treasure is hard to see, like a pearl inside an oyster.  As we release God’s heart over each one, let them know they are wanted, loved, valuable and even desirable to us as well as to our God, we open the way to “to receive the gift of who they are in our lives”.  It will keep them coming back, not just every five weeks like the “gallon club”.  They will love, as I do, coming to the one place they feel alive, accepted and valued just for being themselves.  

SATURDAY MORNING TREASURES



We love sailing.  Yard-sailing that is.  Most Saturday mornings, Jimmy and I grab a quick breakfast and venture out, coffee cups in hand to hunt for treasures.  Jimmy is always looking for antiques. I have my eyes open for fabric and sewing items, and maybe a good book or two.  A couple of weeks ago, we found out what God was looking for at yard sales, what he treasures. 

One treasure we encountered was an older man named Keith.  Keith chose to share with us while other folks shopped his driveway, about his medical condition:  Cancer in his lungs, surgery to remove part of the lung, a prognosis of five years of life left to him.  “I’ll take those five years,” he said with a smile.  His smile spoke louder than his words: “I love life!” 

Whenever someone shares a medical condition or other need with me, I take it as God saying, “pray for this one.”  So I asked Keith if we could pray for him,  “Yes!” he answered.  “Can I put my hand on you as I pray” I asked.  Another “yes” with that million dollar smile.  So Jimmy and I prayed over Keith that God would heal him and give him life, since he had such a love for life.  I don’t know if I will meet Keith again, but treasure in my heart that encounter we had with him, and continue to pray for his healing and that he knows the love of the Father.

We continued on to another garage sale where we encountered Art, an elderly man sitting in his garage, selling off the last of his fishing equipment. Since our son is a fishing enthusiast, Jimmy started discussing fishing with the man as I listened nearby.  He obviously had a passion for fishing, and a great knowledge of the craft as well, as he told Jimmy about various fishing trips with his son over the years.  Now we had noticed that the man had a brace wrapped around his chest.  So I ventured into the conversation and asked him why he was selling all his fishing equipment. Art proceeded to explain that he had a chronic disease that affected his bones; his body no longer produced marrow to replenish his bones so that he was continually fracturing bones all throughout his body.  The brace on his chest was due to the many broken ribs he already had in his chest.  He could not do any activity at all, much less fishing, and still continued to have bone loss and fracture.  He received frequent blood transfusions that had kept him alive for the past 7 years in this condition.  “Could we pray for you, “ I asked.  He nodded yes, and I took his hand, Jim placed his hand delicately on his shoulder and we asked Jesus to give him a blood transfusion from Jesus’ own blood to heal him.  We chatted some more, met his wife who had heard us praying for him, and then went on our way.

Can I tell you what treasures I purchased that Saturday in May?  Not a one can I recall.  But God’s treasures, Art and Keith, I hold in my heart, and my prayers.