Anticipation!

Our son, Phillip, and his wonderful fiance, Patty, are finally getting married this weekend. As I am doing laundry and packing for the trip I keep thinking about how happy Phillip is now compared to his life in the past.

Phillip has been married before and even though she was a great girl she and Phillip just couldn't make it work, for various reasons. During this time in his life he would call me so upset and sometimes would ask me why life was so hard and when would things get better. I would assure him that we were praying for him and in time he would be happy again. I knew he and his children needed to have hope of this, but I also knew I was right in this. God and time are healers of so many things.


We all live in anticipation of something. For Phillip and Patty and our family, right now we are all so excited and can hardly wait for this Saturday when Rodney will get to pronounce them, "Husband and Wife". She will be such a added blessing to our family, but for me to be able to see the happiness and contentment on our son's face and to know that his time of loneliness is over and his healing is complete, is going to be such a gift from God.

Unfortunately our world has been waiting for healing for a long time.  Here in America we have job losses, problems with health care, poverty, hunger, worries about our safety and an uncertainty for our futures. The rest of the world has these same problems but some people have them on such a grand scale, we here in the states can't even imagine it. Hope is failing and as this happens our world becomes a sadder and sadder place to be.

But hope can and will be restored....

Romans 8:18-21

The Message (MSG)

18-21 That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.


God is going to change this world's circumstances. We will live in peace and contentment again. In time we all will be healed of all of our problems. Either on this side or on the next. The hard part for us is that we have to wait for this. During this waiting "The Evil One" is not making our lives easy. But soon he will be defeated too.


In time we will all be healed and safe, but for now we wait in certain anticipation of this. Are you waiting for healing? Do you have hope in this? If not turn to the one who can give you that hope!! Turn to the one who can put a smile back on your face! He is waiting in joyful anticipation for you, even more than you are waiting for healing from Him!


Blessings!

Which Way To Go?

This weekend Rodney and I have had the honor to spend time with a Methodist Missionary from Guatemala. We had him at our church to fill us in on the work that has been going on since he moved down there with his son, five years ago. They gave up their lives in the states for the sake of the people that live there. Great things are happening because of this fact.

We have another set of friends who have just moved to Indianapolis from a church that they started a few years ago in Atlanta. They are planning on starting another church in the art district of Indy. The two of them left a grandchild and two daughters and their husbands in Georgia for the same reason as the missionary from Guatemala. All because they are sure that God has called them to these ministries.



What causes people to do these things? There are so many who have started on a certain trek in their lives and then turn and go in the direction that they feel God is calling them to go.  My sweet husband is one of them. Are these people crazy? Do they just like the shocked looked on family and friends faces when they tell them they are following a calling of God, or maybe they are gluttons for the struggles that go along with these decisions?

Actually, when you look into the eyes of our friends you can see a peace and contentment. I know that Rodney and I wouldn't want our life to be anything but what we are doing. It is peaceful, even in the rough spots. 

Peter writes about this peacefulness.......

2 Peter 1:1-3

The Message (MSG)

1 1-2 I, Simon Peter, am a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. I write this to you whose experience with God is as life-changing as ours, all due to our God’s straight dealing and the intervention of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master.

3 Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! 

God doesn't always send someone to the foreign mission field, to do His work. Maybe He calls us to be a better employee, or a better boss. Maybe He will call you to show love to the children in your classroom or compassion to a the homeless people on the street. Maybe you need to work in a soup kitchen or beautify the local park.  Maybe you are called to keep track of a neighbor who is aging or sick. You might even be called to help keep your church building clean.

There are some who are called to change everything about their lives and I love living the life that Rodney and I have been called to. I know our friends feel the same way about their lives too.

What have you been called to do? Whatever it is you can trust God to help you in the en devour. The peace that comes with following God's call is something that has to be experienced. Try it and see for yourselves. 

Blessings!