In a Fog

     Today was the perfect napping Sunday afternoon in the South.  A steady rain was falling, and the clouds provided the optimum degree of darkness for settling in and snoozing. Not being a napper myself, I was motoring around the house both inside and out taking care of some things.  Mid-afternoon, I noticed a light layer of fog beginning to creep across the lake behind our house. Of course, I grabbed my camera for a quick snapshot just for the heck of it. Not thirty minutes later, I was outside again and the fog was so thick I couldn't even see the lake or much else around me for that matter. That scene hit me like a brick.  It was a snapshot of a couple of my days recently.
     I dare say we all own this photo somewhere.  It is not one you like to pull out and look at or share with friends and family. The scene doesn't evoke fond memories, much to the contrary. Fog in movies and literature usually sets the scene for something unexpected or frightening to happen, and then, low and behold, it does. A fog settled in quickly on my life of late catching me totally off guard and unable to see my way over, under, around or through it.  All I could see was the darkness. All I could feel was total panic and despair. For a short while, all I could do was collapse under the seeming weight that fog doesn't even possess. 
     Thrown off kilter by it all, I was unable to collect my mind to find words for a prayer to God, but I was able to sing songs of praise to Him in my car and in my head. You see, from the first forming of the fog, I knew that this was an attack brought on by Satan, one of many that has tried to whittle away at my resolve to trust God in all things here of late. I was a bit battle fatigued, and had the wind knocked out of my sails.  I felt like I was dead in the water, but deep inside I knew better.
     Though it seemed I was alone, I knew I was not.  God was there in the fog right by my side.  All I had to do was call His name, and wait for Him to lead me through this, to defeat Satan in it. The older I get, the stronger my resolve that I will not allow Satan to discourage me to the point that I leave this world without having fulfilled God's purpose for my life.  I am determined that God has the victory, and He is given the glory He deserves.
     On the second day of foggy living, I felt a gentle breeze began to fill my listless sails. The light of God, which cannot be blotted out, slowly began to pierce the thick covering. I was never alone.  He was always there with me, right by my side leading me through that time and teaching me more about Him in it.  As the light of His love shone more brightly, my spirits began to lift and my prayers flowed because hopelessness had been defeated.
     Don't give up if you find yourself in a similar fog of your own, full of pain and despair.  YOU ARE NOT ALONE!  Whatever it is and though you can't seem to find God in it, He is right by your side. Look for the light of His love and presence to lead you through it in His grace and mercy. If you happen to be there right now, cry out to Him, move toward the sound of his still small voice. He will hear you! Don't give up and decide to reside in the darkness.  What a waste of your life making yourself at home there.  God has a purpose and a plan for you as well!  Don't waste any more time sitting in the fog.  Seek His light and plan for your life and, as in my case, the fog will dissipate and  life will again be exciting and worth living.  To God be the glory!
    

Exposed

     The woods around the lake out my back door have all but lost their colorful leaves of yellow, red, and orange far too soon for me.  God does some of His best portraits in the fall as the green leaves slowly morph into the shades of fall. And, oh, the sunsets! This is my first fall to experience in the house we are in now.  My view has been gorgeous for the past several weeks. Many photographs have been taken in attempt to capture the beauty. I dare say that photos do not do the scene justice.
    However, just as God ushers in fall and the beauty it brings, in time He sends the winds that softly, slowly blow the leaves to the ground for the trees to enjoy a wintertime rest. What is left behind is not my favorite view of things.  All seems so barren and, well, brown. Not my favorite color!
    With the trees void of their leaves, I have noticed a house up on a hill to the right of ours that I had hardly even known was there.  Without the leaves for cover, it is clearly visible for the first time since we've moved in. The house is beautiful with the twinkle of Christmas lights already shining in the night.
     Seems the trees now have to survive a season of just being, I guess you could say, naked and nothing special.  They cannot offer the beauty of colorful leaves or shade from a hot summer sun.  They are just there waiting to be reawakened in springtime. In the meantime, we almost forget their potential for beauty as the long winter months drag on.
     Now, bear with me for just a moment.  Pretend you are a tree yourself.  How would you describe the phase you are in? Are you full of fresh green leaves, heralding in a new season of life, optimistic about what lies around the corner.  Are you excited to see what God has for you there? Are your leaves the color of fall, so vivid with a testimony of the color and beauty that God has brought into your life? Or  do you find yourself in the bareness of winter, cold and discouraged in your walk with the Lord, forgetting your own potential for beauty.
     Time for perspective!  Winter with all the coldness it brings always, always changes into the glory of spring.  Just as sure as that happens, your relationship with God can make that transformation.  You do not have to stay trapped where there is no beauty and warmth.  With God's help you can leave that season in life, with all it's pain, shame, and disappointment behind you.  You can step forward in a relationship with God, and see your life flourish again.  The barren, apparently dead branches you carry will become beautiful, fruitful, and a source of shade and comfort for others. There you will feel alive again. Alive in God and in your relationship with Him.
     Just because we are in the fall moving toward winter, your heart does not have to be trapped there.  There is freedom.  There is beauty and color and life.  You have the potential, and promise for all of this. Go with God and live it. He has a plan for you! Blessings! To God be the Glory!
  

    
  

To My Faithful Followers

The first draft of "Grace Greater Than All Sin" was accidentally released before it was ready.  If you received that version, please go to the blog site and read it there. Not sure it will make much sense otherwise.  Many glaring errors.  : ) 

Grace That Is Greater Than All Our Sin

     There is a song in the Baptist Hymnal from which I grew up singing entitled "Grace That Is Greater Than All Our Sins."  That song, as did so many other hymns, had me singing of grace from Sunday to Sunday with little understanding of what grace was truly all about.  Each hymn describes grace in much the same straight forward language...as something that is always available no matter what I do, whether I deserved it or not. Sang about it, understood the concept, but just didn't "get it."  I was simply too busy going to church and attempting to live as close to perfect a life as I could so that God would love me. It was exhausting!  I did not have time to hear with my heart the message of grace in those hymns or the courage to believe it for my life.
     I do not think that I was alone in this misguided belief system. The awesome gift of grace was not addressed much in my Sunday School years. There was a whole lot of sin, repenting and forgiveness taught, but little about grace.  Forgiveness, for me, brought to mind sin which brought about shame and guilt, which brought about my inferred alienation from God.  My reality was that surely, because of my sin, I had disappointed God and must quickly do whatever I could to get back in His "good graces." Strange to see that phrase in the context of what we are discussing. My God back then was a very conditional God. I was living quite an emotional "roller coaster" type of existence, with little joy or relationship with the Lord.
     Fast forward some 40 years (eek!) to the present. I am blessed to live in a time when and be a member of a church where the message of grace is boldly declared in God's plan of salvation. I no longer readily assume that everything that goes wrong in my life is a form of God's punishment and disapproval. It's just life in a world scarred by sin, and, besides, God "never promised us a rose garden" (also a song!). Grace is part of God's plan for ME, too!  Seems like such an elementary truth to finally grab hold of and believe, or is it?
     How about you?  Is the concept of grace something you actually have allowed to take that trip from your head to your heart?  Or maybe like me, you have been working too hard to secure grace by dotting all the I's and crossing all the T's of your life, but that has not brought you peace or joy in your relationship with the Lord. Perhaps you don't believe grace could possibly be on God's agenda for you. No way!
     You couldn't be more wrong.  I want to close this discussion by sharing with you an excerpt from a book I highly recommend that you read whether you are struggling with God's grace for you or not.  The book is written by Andy Stanley, is simply entitled The Grace of God and it is an awesomely eye opening and uplifting read, filled with scripture and stories of God's grace.  Listen....

"So regardless of what you've done, regardless of how far you've strayed, regardless of how long it's been since you addressed God directly, regardless of what you've been told, regardless of how you feel, grace awaits you!  Grace that is greater than all our sin!

       Grace, grace, God's Grace. Case closed. Hallelujah!  To God be the Glory!

Back in the Saddle Again

   If anyone out there is still interested, I am resuming my writing on the blog.  My apologies for the long gap in time.  An in town move to a new home and health issues have had most of my attention of late.  Then, there is, of course the distraction of a million other mostly unimportant things, and my personal flaw of procrastination. However,  I know God wants me to do this.  Therefore, I am back in the saddle again!
     Enough of that! With each passing day, I am sure to get anywhere from three to fifteen calls from my son, Ben, who is in a group home about an hour from us.  I love it when he and the other group home members are on an off campus outing and he calls to tell me about it. To hear him laughing and having a good time with his friends makes my heart smile! 
     Just last week he called, and by the sound of the background noise I could tell he was on a trip and having a blast. He began to tell me some of the details of what he was doing.  When he stopped to take a breath, I asked him where exactly he was. He paused for a moment, and in his very "Ben" way said, "Momma, I have no earthly idea where I am!"  He called out to a friend to get the exact location and relayed it to me. I smiled as I said goodbye and told hime to have fun.
     It often happens that God uses Ben to bring things worthy of thought to my attention. How many of us go through life having no earthly idea where we are in perspective to our heavenly purpose. Where are you right now?  Just hanging on by a thread, simply existing as everday life throws you around like the "Scambler" at the local county fair? Everthing is moving so quickly you, like Ben, don't have any idea where you are in the life God mapped out for you when He knit you together in your mother's womb. (Psalm 139:13)
     Let me encourage you today to refuse to get back in line for another ticket on the "Scambler." Make it a priority to find a place of peace where you can ask God to help make the spinning stop. This will most likely take great effort and committment. This gift of time for you and God is long overdue. Without knowing it, you may have become addicted to the the chaos and chaos has become your norm. Not good at all! There Satan traps us where we have no time or energy to see where we are in relation to where we need to be, where God wants us to be, where He wants to use us for His glory. 

   As God speaks to you through His word, another person, or a still small voice, you may find out that you are terribly off course, miles away from the path of peace and purpose He as for you. Make a step in the right direction today. Please don't be a procrastinator like me.  Don't let your own fear be the purpose for your continued wandering, your wasted efforts. God loves you and He has this awesome plan for you and your life.  Something that He made you and you alone to do in this world. God has faith in you, has equipped you to do it, and HE will do it through you as HE supplies all that you will need. (Phil. 4:13)  How exciting is that! To God be the Glory!!

Not my picture above. I wish!