Sometimes I Write

Michelle’s surgery went very well. She still has some tests she needs to go through to determine whether or not she’ll need radiation treatments. She will need lots of prayers and help with childcare, meals, and general encouragement over the next few months. I’ll do what I can from here and I ask that you keep praying for my friend from wherever you are. Thanks!

Tomorrow is the last full day with the East Point group. Wow. What a week we’re having! I’ll look forward to writing more about it when I can come up for air. 🙂 We’ve all been stretched and challenged this week and it has been life transforming for both the SEVENS team and the East Point group.

Remember my friend Kim Woodhouse? Their family’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition episode is airing again this Sunday night, July 27th, on ABC. If you didn’t get to see it the first time around, set the DVR or gather your family around with some popcorn and celebrate people being compassionate and giving each other a hand up. It’s a beautiful thing. My friends are so grateful for the blessings they have received through the show and it’s affiliates, as well as all of the volunteers, family, and friends that were in any way involved with the makeover. We continue to pray for miraculous healing for sweet Kayla. They were also chosen as one of the top five most popular episodes of the year. You can go to abc.com and vote for your favorite episode of 2008 so far and also your favorite of Ty’s intros. The Kansas intro cracked me up.

We think both of our vehicles are on their last legs. We’re just nursing them along which makes me crazy and cranky. Spending money on van and car repairs stinks. If you know of anyone who’d like to donate a nice, gently used minivan or bigger to our family/ministry for a tax deduction, let us know. Seriously.

That’s about it for now. I’ll try to write a little something this weekend. Thanks for being who you are in my life.

My friend Michelle King is having cancer surgery on Monday morning.  She is having a neck dissection to remove cancer from the left side.  They also found cancer on the right side of her neck on Wednesday.  She had her thyroid removed due to cancer about 9 years ago.  Sadly, the cancer has returned, this time spreading to her lymph nodes.  They are hoping surgery to remove her lymph nodes will completely eradicate the cancer.  She and her husband Jim have a baby, a toddler and a 6 year old.

We joined some of their other friends for prayer last Sunday and asked God for complete healing, peace, and hope for their hearts.  She is very discouraged and yet holding on to her belief that God can heal her.  Please pray for her healing and that they are overwhelmed with love and support from everyone around them.  I’ll update you when I can.

Thanks for joining me in prayer for my friends.

I receive daily readings from Ransomed Heart Ministries and today’s reading was timely after my last post. I leave you with these thoughts for a few days and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

We have developed a summer program for SEVENS, and we are hosting our first group of participants this week. Our friend Trevor Cox is bringing a group of teens and adults from East Point in Wichita, KS. Please pray for safety, good health, and the growing/learning/serving opportunities we are providing for the group. We’ve worked hard on the lessons and all of the planning and logistics of them joining us for the week. We know we are opposed and have already felt some of the spiritual warfare that is targeting us at this time. Your prayers and encouragement are very much appreciated by our team and the Wichita group. Next week our friend Chris Robey is bringing a group from Granbury, TX. It’s going to be a busy two weeks, but my long blogging breaks are over for awhile, so keep stopping by!

The Bible uses a number of metaphors to describe our relationship to God at various stages. If you’ll notice, they ascend in a stunning way:

Potter and clay. At this level we are merely aware that our lives are shaped—even broken—by a powerful hand. There isn’t much communication, just the sovereignty of God at work.

Shepherd and sheep. At this stage we feel provided for, watched over, cared about. But beyond that, a sheep has little by way of true intimacy with the Shepherd. They are altogether different creatures.

Master and servant. Many, many believers are stuck in this stage, where they are committed to obey, but the relationship is mostly about receiving orders and instructions and carrying them out.

Father and child. This is certainly more intimate than being a servant; children get the run of the house, they get to climb on Daddy’s lap. These fortunate souls understand God’s fatherly love and care for them. They feel “at home” with God.

Friends. This stage actually opens up a deeper level of intimacy as we walk together with God, companions in a shared mission. We know what’s on his heart; he knows what’s on ours. There is a maturity and intimacy to the relationship.

Bridegroom and bride (lovers). Here, the words of the Song of Songs could also describe our spiritual intimacy, our union and oneness with God. Madame Guyon wrote, “I love God far more than the most affectionate lover among men loves his earthly attachment.”

Where would you put your relationship with God? Why did you choose that “level”? Has it always been that way?

(The Journey of Desire Journal & Guidebook , 150)

Benny and I just finished a 9 day cleanse, with the last 5 days being a liquid fast.  But that’s not why I am hungry.  My body isn’t quite liking solid food yet, though it’s nice to be chewing again.  The gritty stuff I had to drink every 3 hours was like sandpaper to my poor throat the last day of the fast.  But, I learned a lot over the last 9 days.  I learned that I am hungry…not for food, but for life and truth and beauty and well…a lot of things.  I was also keenly aware for those 5 days that I am in fact, female.  So not only was I hungry (again – not for food), I was emotional and tired.  Aren’t you glad you don’t live at my house?!

So there I was sitting in my chair reading and not wanting to blog or write.  Wanting to receive instead of give.  I cried out to God, “I’m hungry!”, and you know what He did?  He brought to mind a song we sing at church.

Hungry I come to you for I know you satisfy

I am empty but I know your love does not run dry

so I wait for you, yes I wait for you

I’m falling on my knees, offering all of me

Jesus, you’re all this heart is living for.

Broken I run to you for your arms are open wide

I am weary but I know your touch restores my life

so I wait for you, yes I wait for you

I’m falling on my knees, offering all of me

Jesus, you’re all this heart is living for.

Yeah, He’s funny like that.  Thanks for the reminder God.  I got it.  So I turned to Him for hope and living water and food that would feed my soul.  He showed me how often I reach for the cheap substitutes to satisfy the longing only He can fill.  He revealed that I so often eat mindlessly of things that leave me feeling empty and like I’ve just come off of a sugar rush, when He offers me quality AND quantity and I don’t have to choose between them.  So many verses sprang to mind which made me glad that I had put them in there to recall later.  Verses about Him loving mercy more than sacrifice, that He’s drawing His own to Himself, that even He is not the judge but that He leaves that up to His Father, and that we will be known by our love.  Those are all such simple thoughts with a profound impact on who I am and who I hunger to be.

I’m still chewing on the questions I blogged about last December.  I’m nibbling on the truths God has given to me that others might consider scraps while I look at them as…chocolate covered…chocolate.  I guess that would make them heavenly truffles. 🙂  I’m devouring books that are drawing me deeper into the mystery that is God.  I’m craving…Less formula.  More relationship.  Less rules.  More freedom.  Less of me.  More of Him.  Less IS more.

I imagine that dining with the Father would not be at some long formal table complete with forks and spoons I don’t know what to do with, Him at one end and me at the other.  We’d be more like lovers at a small table outside of a cozy little cafe, sitting closely with heads bent together for intimate conversation, drinking from a glass with two straws.  It’s that sort of intimacy I am hungry for.  And I don’t want to care what anyone else thinks.

Long ago He spoke to people in parables.  This year he’s been speaking to me in metaphors and similes.  Is there much of a difference?  It’s confusing and humbling and yet I get it.  He shows me something, I ask for clarification, and He gives it to me. Amazing.  Simple.  Conversation.  A new level of intimacy.

Yes, I am hungry!

I am so ready for some more deep posts here.  Not that I don’t want to hold contests and promote books, and fun stuff like that.  I’m just craving some good discussion.  Instead I find myself updating you once again on my busy, boring life.  OK, maybe not so boring, but very busy.

We spent a week in Oklahoma at Zenith, which I’m not going to blog too much about since it would read a lot like my posts about it the past two years.  I love the camp.  I love seeing my Y.M. friends.  It was spiritually uplifting.  I missed Adam and Doug being there this year. 😦  I came home physically exhausted and emotionally filled up.  There you go.  That was camp.  We’ve been home almost a week and I’ve spent very little time online.  I spent 3 days just recuperating and spending time with my family.

Yesterday was Benny’s birthday and it was kind of a crappy day – the poor guy.  We took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda and in the middle of the movie, the film shut off and the emergency lights and siren came on with a voice over the intercom telling us to exit the theater.  It was a false alarm and we did get five free movie passes out of the deal.  We got to finish watching the movie though we missed a small part while we were re-entering the theater.  Taking Petey to the movies stinks. Period.  Even for a movie as kid-focused as Kung Fu Panda, he was ready to go home by the time we had the mini fire drill.  Ugh.  Then we stopped home to get Benny’s car and found our air conditioner had frozen up. Double Ugh.  It’s hot here.  My apologies to all of you who live in humid climates.  Better you than me, the whiny weather baby. 🙂

Today was…strange.  I took the kids swimming and met two very sad 12 year old girls who shared their life stories with me after 5 minutes of conversation.  I got to hear how their moms put them on birth control, and what they want to name all the babies they’re going to have – but not until their at least 17 or their moms will disown them.  One of them told me about a boy who is a senior and wants to have 4 babies with her.  Did I mention she’s 12???  One of them wants a tattoo and her tongue pierced before she goes back to school in the Fall.  Why?  Because she gets made fun of and she’s hoping it will help her fit in and be less of a target.  This poor girl weighs in the 200 pound range and has enough facial hair, she could shave.  She talks ghetto, and can’t wait to be a mommy…and plans to be at 17.  I’m thinking that a tattoo and a piercing aren’t going to be enough to make her less of a target at her middle school.  And it breaks my heart.  These same two girls who can’t wait to be moms were afraid to go in the deep end of the pool, and when I taught them how to tread water, both told me what a genius I am and that I should be a biology teacher. What??? ~sigh~  I’ll be blogging more about the sex part of the conversation on the SLAM blog over the weekend.

My day is ending well.  I just spent the last 6 hours with two of my Captivating friends.  Wendy and I went to see Kristi in the play “Wit”.  She was the star of the show.  Theater is in her blood and wow is she gifted!  She was incredibly amazing!  I had never heard of this play before Kristi told us about it.  It was the Pulitzer Prize winner in 1999.  It’s about a Professor of Literature who is going through aggressive chemotherapy for Ovarian cancer.  Sounds charming huh?  Trust me, it was soooo good.  We went out for awhile after the play to enjoy each others company.  It’s amazing what closes by 10 p.m. even in a city the size of Denver.

And speaking of cancer…today was my friend Shay’s 1 year anniversary of being in remission!  YEAH!  We are going to a party in her honor tomorrow night.  I’m so glad to see her doing well.

Consider yourself updated. 🙂  I leave you with a question…

Have you read The Shack?  And if so, what did you think of it?