FGHart

I’m called upon to sing praises. “Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name….Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. When I felt secure, I said ‘I will never be shaken.’ … But when you hid your face, I was dismayed. To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: ‘What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? … Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help.’ You turned my wailing into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.” (Psalm 30)

In living our lives, there will be times of weeping. There will be times when we wonder what happened? Why???? We may not always receive answers to those questions. But if our prayers for mercy include acknowledgement and praise, for the LORD is mighty and full of grace, we can be confident he hears us and will respond. He is the creator of heaven and earth. He is our creator. He wants what is best for us. That does not mean a life that is free of hardship. Hardship so often draws us close to him.

My week was not off to a great start. By mid-week I was wondering “Why???? What do You want from me?” It is no coincidence that when I found myself stumbling into a pit I was not alone. Physically maybe, but not spiritually. I’m participating in multiple Bible studies. I’m working my way through “The Bible in a Year” reading Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs on a ~daily schedule. The Word came to me in the form of steps and ladders. “Here, my child. Here is how you should approach this situation. Step here. Now shift there. Now up again.” I was not able to physically attend either of two small group discussions (one on Esther, one on the Psalms of Ascent) because I chose to go to attend a top level meeting followed by a dinner discussion impacting my job. I doubted my decision. Choosing work over Bible Study? Seems wrong, I know. But I kept up with my studies, watching the missed video for one and doing a lesson for the other. And everything I read is so applicable to my situation.

God answers our prayers. Prayers for my oldest daughter (that she gains wisdom and learns to put her children’s needs above her own), for my middle daughter (that she and her husband grow strong in their faith and seek Your counsel), for my youngest daughter (that she knows Your love is without limitation or imitation, and that my love mirrors Yours), and for my youngest (that he continues to grow in Your light). Others in my prayers include Ashley, Julia, Sarah, Jessica, Deborah, Bernie, Randall, Bill, Christine, Jim, Jim, Jim (yes, 3 Jim’s), Robbie, Jenny, Robert, Sue, Liz, Zoey, Katherine, Eva….Fran (help me to know Your will and to obey).

O LORD, my God, I will give you thanks forever!
Amen.

On November 1st I began working for a new employer. For my old employer. In the same old building. In a new lab. Things have been….interesting, to say the least. We’re still trying to figure it all out.

On the plus side, we’re different and we don’t mind showing it. We’ve spruced up the place a bit. We’ve created a sitting/lounge area. And we’ve brought in plants. And pictures. Take a gander, if you will.

There’s a young woman I’ve come to know who was seriously injured in a head-on collision. She has spent the last 6 weeks recovering. The first 5 weeks were spent in the hospital. Now she is in rehab. She has begun the long leg of the journey. I have faith that she will walk again. I don’t doubt it at all. I’m no doctor (the doctors have been cautious in their prognosis) but it is clear that she is a woman of determination, will-power, dedication and faith. She is on a difficult path, but she is surrounded and uplifted by a loving family and a strong network of friends. And she is already showing critical progress, so it’s really no longer a leap to conclude that she will walk again. But I’ve known it for a while. She has been in my daily prayers.

Through this experience, I have learned something very important. Something I knew, but was ignoring. God hears our prayers and answers us in His own time. He may test our hearts. He may test our patience. But He never ignores us. If I’m praying for something and it seems my prayers are not being answered, does my faith flag? Do I turn away? I should not. I should “Keep the faith.” Just as I maintain my faith that the young woman will be walking again.

It is like a diet lifestyle change. The results may not be immediately obvious but if you stick with it, eventually the benefits of the changes will become evident.

So why did I stop praying for my own children? Is it because they have rejected me? Reviled and rebuked me? No. My love isn’t shaken by their need to move out from under my shadow. I think I’m guilty of letting my faith flag. I trust God is watching over them but that is not enough. I’ve renewed and reinvigorated my prayers for them as they travel on their own journeys. I pray they hear the whisper of God calling and that they turn to Him. I pray they stop seeking answers elsewhere.

I’ve been passionately offering prayers of intercession for the last few weeks. Since then, M has returned to Texas. She came to church Sunday with her husband and son. She asked if I could pick them up again next Sunday.

It is wonderful to be reminded that our faith is rewarded. Good things are coming.

I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. (Lamentations 3:24-26)

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord. (Psalm 40:1-3)

I’ve been reminding myself of this since my work situation has given me cause to pause and wonder. Trusting doesn’t mean we never step into the mud and mire, or that we never need steadying. These days I’m seeking the comfort of the rod and staff of my shepherd as I tread on new ground. There are no paths before me. We are pioneering a new business model.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

As a leader in my organization, I am glad that I can bring some comfort to my team. We may not be free from troubles but we can at least be comforted.

I am depending on God to carry me through this. I trust Him in this just as I trust that the lame will walk again. And more than that, I trust Him to drive out the demons that plague my children.

Blessings,

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Three weeks ago I made changes in my life:
1) I quit weighing myself (2-3 times per day!)
2) I quit drinking red wine (I know it’s supposed to be good for you, but calories are calories)
3) I started taking the stairs (4 flights) at work – several times a day

A week ago I doubled my work-out routine. I’m now doing a 30-minute aerobic work-out with Richard:
(Stop. Giggling.)

This weekend I picked up a cough that has settled in my chest, but I’m still pushing forward in faith. I don’t want to break my new routine. I am not measuring my progress on the scale, but with the intangible of how I feel. At the moment, I feel kinda crappy.

In faith, I pray. I trust God, even when answers are not obvious. Even when changes are not measurable. Even when it would be easier to feel discouraged. I push forward in faith. I pray. I desire to make my faith part of my lifestyle. Faith intertwined, let me live a prayer – in communication with God. Let my life be a testimony of my faith.

Amen.

I am now a devoted camera-carrier. I would not want to miss capturing the occasional oddity such as this.

Today’s Episode: Extreme Makeover Edition

Before:

It finally became too much. The chi was not a-flowing. The feng shui was all out of balance. Negative energy abounds in the form of rampant algae. The plastic plants are alive with the stuff. The rocks. The “silt.” Something had to be done. Here you can see the environment, complete with floating nursery containing the last litter of fry from Mama Guppy. You see the randy boyfriend swimming in the upper right (orangish). The benign tetras are mostly swimming around the bottom.

During:

Everything came out for the deep cleaning process. The decorative rocks. The living plastic plants. You can see the pretty & proud Papa Guppy swimming front & center (blue tail). The benign tetras and trying to be invisible. The bottom feeder is hiding behind the thermometer. He is hiding so well that I dug through all of the living plastic plants to make sure I didn’t inadvertently pull him from the tank. Silly Cory.

After:

In a rare fit of spendthrift, all of the decorations went. Out with the old, in with the new. Including a lovely new fake rock and fake bonsai tree. Very feng shui. There is some time lag between the photos and you may notice that the floating nursery has “greened up” a bit. Also, it was a tragedy, but during the reckless pouring of fresh water into the tank the nursery tipped and some number of the fry were freed. One actually lasted for a day or two. But there have been no recent sightings and it is presumed that all were nosh.

It’s been two weeks since the grand redo and the algae is relentless. The nursery walls are now opaque. The fate of the remaining fry is as unclear. It seems the pet store is not interested in fry, even free fry.

All-in-all everyone seems delighted with the new decor. And so ends another episode.

Peace,

I am the first to confess, I am not perfect. As much as typos irk me, I know that I am often guilty of leaving behind evidence of my rush to the finish. Occasionally I neglect to hit the “ABC” spell check before I publish a post, or hit “send” on an e-mail. I cringe when I catch my own typos after they’ve been published. I feel strongly that the English language should be common if we are to be effective in our communication. We cannot each have our own way of spelling things.

Some words, like “judgment,” are so often misspelled that I think the wrong spelling should be adopted. I would go so far as to argue that the correct spelling is wrong because it offends my sensibility that there’s no “e” between the “g” and the “m” … but there’s not an “e” and I’m not in charge, so I live with the phonetic aberration. Occasionally, to amuse myself, I pronounce things phonetically so for judgment, the “g” should be hard. But I digress.

This evening, my hubby and I attended a meeting of our home-owner’s association. There is a new development going in right behind us. On the other side of our 6-foot (inadequate) privacy fence a road will be going in to support the new development. Part of the new development will be Medical Offices, Condos or something similar.

At the start of the meeting, a big 3’x4′ professionally mounted poster showing the land was set up in the front of the room. Spiral bound sets of maps and info were passed out to the dozen+ home-owners in attendance. The cover page matched the poster. We were able to take our time reviewing the information provided. The developers were very helpful and clearly interested in our support.

After a brief presentation they fielded questions. Lots of questions. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes. After they had wrapped up, I asked the head developer the only question I’d pondered for most of the meeting. What does “Comerical” mean? I’m not familiar with that term. His response? Embarrassed confession to a typo they hadn’t caught. I’d say that’s one heck of a typo. Comerical = Commercial. I’d thought it might, but my goodness…it certainly lends credence to the following claim, even if there aren’t enough letters in the jumbled version!

Aoccdrnig to a rsecheearr at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.

A few months ago I lamented my situation regarding the need for a purse handbag. This is a relatively trivial problem in my world today, but one that was causing me aggravation. I’m delighted that I can now consider this problem pretty much resolved.

Target came through for me with the work tote and clutch combo (they don’t exactly go together, but close enough).

The clutch tucks inside the work tote, along with my notebook computer, my glasses case (gotta take care of the outrageously expensive sunglasses, you know!). The glasses case also can fit into the clutch. And, the clutch has a pocket for my camera.

All and all, I am satisfied with this solution. I’m on day 4 and I feel much more organized and prepared for whatever life brings.

Peace!