Category: Faith Lived Out

That's bad grammar, I know,

but the phrase imprinted itself on my mind ever since I attended an anti-stress workshop years ago. The leader began with those words and had us repeat it after him, again and again.

It's not a bad slogan for beginning a new year, especially after a year that featured lots of what someone labeled "stinkin' thinkin" on all sides.

Borrowing from that workshop leader, I say, "Enough, already!"

If we adopted that technique it would work like this

The leader would ask, Do you think it's hopeless because you lack some essential qualities to reach your goals? He had an answer: God don't make no junk!

Are you going through a rough patch in your marriage or in your job? Well, cheer up. God brought you and your spouse together and provided that job. And God don't make no junk!

Are you feeling in beyond your depth with being a mom or a dad? Never mind. God obviously considers you able to handle it or He wouldn't have made you a parent. Besides, God don't make no junk! Count on Him to supply wisdom as you need it and strength for each day.

Do you struggle with health problems? Do you or one of your kids have physical or mental challenges and you worry about what comes next? Take heart, you'll be able to handle it, because God don't make no junk!

A look into what this means

I thought of that workshop when I watched this wonderful YouTube a friend sent. Every time I play it, I smile through a few tears.

And can you hear those words? God don't make no junk!

I suggest we adopt a new slogan for 2013, one we can pull up anytime we're feeling unsure about life or the future.

God don't make no junk–and He don't make no mistakes, either.

You and I can walk unafraid, confident we'll be able to handle whatever comes.

For proof we can go deeper than that catch phrase and turn to Bible verses like this one, Psalm 29:11:

The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his peoople with peace.

"His people" includes any of us who love the Lord, so this promise is for us, too.

Thanks for stopping by, my invisible friend. Hope you found something here that blesses your heart.

Love,

Lenore

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God don’t make no junk!

January 4, 2013
Right this minute there are big issues issues at stake in our Nation.

If you've read this blog for awhile you know I haven't waded in the murky waters of politics. I do so only because vital issues are getting lost in all the blather.

One involves both our faith as Christians and our rights as citizens under The Constitution of the United States. George Washington said, " . . . its only keepers, the people."

That's you and me, my friend. We are the keepers of our Constitution.

Are we paying attention?

One major issue relates to the often-referenced First Amendment

Amendment I was ratified December 15, 1791. Here's what it says:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise therof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

From the beginning word spread all over the world about America's Constitution and the rights it guarantees. That's why America shone like a beacon of freedom to my great-grandparents who wanted to worship God according to their understanding of what the Bible teaches and without government interference. In America they could live by faith without fear.

That's always been true. Until now.

Enter the new health care law, which mandates what employers must cover

Take Tyndale House Publishers and Hobby Lobby as examples. Since a Christian couple founded Tyndale House 50 years ago this firm has only published Bibles and Christian books. Their son, Mark D. Taylor, is the current president. Tyndale's 260 employees currently are covered by their employee health plan. Taylor, a Protestant, has no moral objection to contraceptives per se. However, as a Christian he believes it's against what the Bible teaches to provide Plan B (the morning-after pill), Ella (the week-after pill) and intrauterine devices to covered employees.

Our Government says he must. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has ruled that health insurance plans must provide such contraceptives free of charge. Tyndale House is a for-profit entity. Therefore, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says this Company does not qualify as a "religious organization" and therefore, is not eligible for an exemption.

(Tayor notes that even exemptions granted to nonprofit entities such as the Roman Catholic Church will expire after one year.)

Fines for failure to comply will cost Tyndale as much as $100 per day, per employee. That equals $26,000 per day. $780,000 per month. $9.36 million per year.

Tyndale management's only "crime" is wanting to freely exercise their faith without Government interference. They believe the federal government is telling them they must either violate their own conscience or pay fines that will put them out of business.

It doesn't stop there

Hobby Lobby was founded 40 years ago by a family working out of their garage on a $600 bank loan. The children, now adults, are involved in the business, which now has stores in more than 500 locations in 41 states. They believe it is by God's grace that Hobby Lobby has endured and aim to honor God and to treat their employees well with above-average pay and many benefits. They provide an employee health plan, but consider Plan B, Ella and intrauterine devices to be abortifacients.

Hobby Lobby gives half its pre-tax earnings directly to a portfolio of evangelical ministries. It has given away and distributed over 1.4 billion copies of Gospel literature mostly in Asia and Africa. It sponsors the YouVersion Bible app for mobile phones, which has been downloaded more than 50 million times. Yet this is a secular, for-profit company.

These business owners, too, believe requirements of Obamacare go against the Biblical principles on which their company was founded. Hobby Lobby's non-compliance fines could total $1.3 million per day.

So Hobby Lobby reluctantly sued the Government in Oklahoma City Federal courts. Their lawyer cited their "deeply held religious beliefs" as individuals and business owners who seek an injunction to block enforcement of the new health care law.

In a piece dated October 24, 2012, The Washington Post, reported the U.S. government was urging the federal judge hearing the case to deny the request to block enforcement of the new health care law.

The dilemma for employers is obvious. They either go against their faith and keep employee health plans in place or follow their conscience and go out of business.

They either obey their understanding of what God says or what the Government says.

Look behind the smoke screen and the endless blather on TV

Numerous interviews and articles trumpet the same endless discussions about "women's reproductive rights," "contraceptive freedom," "bigots who want to ban birth control," etc.

This is not the issue.

For the record, I am not against contraception. Opinions vary about the morning-after (up to three days after) pill and the week-after pill, which induce a woman's uterus to slough off an implanted fertilized egg. Those of us who believe life begins at the moment of conception view these meds as abortifacients. Intrauterine devices are devices placed in the uterus by a physician that in various ways interfere with a fertilized egg being implanted on the wall of the uterus.

It seems to me there are three questions:

In cases such as Tyndale House and Hobby Lobby, is our Government "prohibiting the free exercise" of the owners' religion as they understand it?

As individuals of faith, what do we hold to be true?

If provisions of this tax-supported new health care plan violate our personal religious views, will we vote for candidates who back it?

Will we speak well of business owners who abide by faith? Will we support them with our words and give them our business?

Some words to think about

"The LORD gave me this message: 'I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb.'" –Jeremiah 1: 4 (NLT)

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, and I know that full well.   –Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)

But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.   –Joshua 24:15b (NIV)

My reader friends, let's be sure to thoughtfully, prayerfully exercise our rights as American citizens and VOTE!

Praying along with you,

Lenore
When living by faith becomes a crime, what are we to do?

October 25, 2012
Young or old, every one of us needs someone to look up to.

We need heroes in our lives.

Memorial Day is all about honoring those who serve in the Armed Forces now and those who died to keep our Nation free. Certainly we can never repay them or their loved ones, so we clap and cheer, our emotions a tumble of pride, gratitude and humility.

Then we stop talking bravery and get back to normal.

What about the other 364 days of the year?

Maybe it's time we stop looking "out there."

Heroes live all around us.

They come in all ages, all sizes and all shapes. Think of military spouses who thanked God their husband or wife survived terrible injury and now pray every day for strength to keep going. Consider the mom or dad with a severely disabled child or a loved one who needs constant care. Try to imagine the anguish over what was lost. Yet every day they get up, smile and keep on showing love.

Heroes, every one. One may live next door or even under your roof.

Heroes keep their word. They hang on through hardship. They keep on loving despite disappointments and refuse to give up. They consistently affirm the good in others.Spend five minutes with them and we walk away feeling better about ourselves. Lifted up.

Children especially need heroes

From their youngest years, kids crave stability and trustworthiness. Faithfulness. Love that won't quit. Something to believe in that's as sure as sundown and sunrise. Just by being loving parents, imperfect and flawed as we all are, we fill their deepest needs. They feel safe and secure.

That continues, even through their prickly adolescenet years. Every survey says that young people still pay more attention to their parents and how they live than to any media or sports star. Even when our grown children are well into adulthood they watch us, to learn how to handle life.

That's our contuing privilege and it gives us purpose for every day we live.

It's okay to feel shaky

None of us can role-model goodness and courage every day of every year. But we can ask God's help, then go forth with trust and joy. I like this "road map:"

    Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
    Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. –Psalm 3:5-6

Let's keep praying for our military personnel

They serve our nation and they serve us. Their courage wavers, too. They get weary and weak and want to give up sometimes. They need our prayer support.

It's personal in our family. One granddaughter is on her second re-enlistment with the Navy and scheduled for a Middle East deployment. Another completed her duty with the Marines Corps after a tour in Kuwait and one near Baghdad. Like all military parents our daughter and her husband wait and worry and most of all, pray.

Others will continue to argue over the "rightness" or "wrongness" of war. Let us unite and thank God for those who serve in our Armed Forces and pray He will preserve this nation.

With love from your fellow learner,

Lenore

Looking at the heroes around us

May 27, 2012
Most of us could use a transfusion of smiles and energy about now. So sit back, put your feet up and watch these beautiful children. You won't want to miss a move.

Even if you've seen this before, I promise it will make you smile all over again and give you an energy lift.

Fifth-graders who live in the Yupik Eskimo village of Quinhagak, Alaska, pop. 555 at the 2,000 census, put this together as a school computer project, intended for other Yupik villages in the area.

By now more than 1,200,000 people have viewed this performance of the "Hallelujah" chorus from Handel's Messiah.

Take a moment to marvel at what God can do with the work of one individual.

In 1741, George Frideric Handel considered himself something of a failure. Then he composed the entire score of Messiah over a period of 24 days. He is said to have felt God gave him the music, but he could not predict how this music would endure.

He could not have imagined that 360 years later, Eskimo children in a small Alaskan village would treat us to this creative performance accompanied by a choir singing the "Hallelujah" chorus.

Tthe teacher of this class in that small Eskimo school could not foresee anyone in any other place would ever see this video.

There's a lesson here for you and me

As individuals and as moms and dads we cannot know what God will do with our work–or our child's work.

Handel composed many other musical works, but only his "Hallelujah" chorus is sung and hummed all over the world. His Messiah is performed every Christmas season by choruses and choirs in huge cities and in tiny villages on every continent. At the time he could not have guessed the value of his work.

I can't help thinking of this Bible verse.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. –Ephesians 2:10

That verse wasn't aimed only at Handel and other famous people. It speaks to you and me, too.

Think you're on a treadmill and going nowhere?

Perhaps today you question the value of your life. Maybe you're facing your first Christmas alone after losing a loved one.

If you're a mom, your family most often notices what you do when you don't do it. Put a positive spin on that. Being taken for granted also means your family knows they can count on you.

Forget looking elsewhere to find your particular "good works." You're living with them. What's more, the family life you create, the love you pour into your days will live on in your children. Every day you are coloring their lives–and their picture of life.

Joy comes from giving ourselves fully and from knowing that what we do matters, whether we see the end result or not. God is faithful. What we do in faith will live on, one way or another.

Believe it. Let that truth put fresh energy in your tired body.

Then look again at the smiles on the faces of those Eskimo school children and sing Hallelujah! in your heart.

Someone needs us, needs our kind words, needs our encouragement. Those are gifts, too.

Now, let's enjoy this wonderful Christ-mas season of giving ourselves,

Lenore

Declare a “joy break” and refresh your heart

December 16, 2011
Maybe you know one.

Maybe you are one.

I can hear you saying, "Yeah, sure."

Well, I'm not kidding. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes and ages. Sometimes they're in the spotlight and their stories make the news.

Most of the time, however, nobody notices.

Think about the dads–and moms–who go off to work every day, mostly without complaint. Consider the ones who got a pink slip. They could sink into a heap on the floor, but they don't. Instead, they look at the people they love and keep going.

Include the ones who every day they wave a smiling goodbye to their spouse and their children, then go back inside and clean up the fallout of family life. All day, every day, they do a few of the million things it takes to keep a family going.

Hardly anyone pays much attention.

Living with uncertainty

Over the four years I've known one married couple who have lived with precarious paychecks. You would never guess that by their smiles. They always talk about how God watches over them. These two model unwavering faith, especially for their three children.

Don't forget the moms and dads who know the pain of watching their child struggle, whether with school, with drugs or emotional illness, or just with living. These parents sought out the most-qualified professionals they could find, but see little to no progress. Time passes with little evident progress, yet they keep on praying and encouraging, keep on believing.

Who can imagine the anguish of watching your child suffer through a serious, perhaps life-threatening illness? Some care for failing spouses or parent(s.) Even as sadness depletes their emotions and exhaustion saps their strength they pour out love, all the while mourning what was and will never be again.

Some heroes wear uniforms and serve in the Armed Forces. All the while their wife or husband or parent(s) prays fervently and waits. They may return home alive, but injured, changed, whether emotionally or physically. On the long road back all the wife or husband or parent can do is keep on loving and keep on praying.

Heroes, every one of them.

Take a closer look in the mirror

See that hero looking back at you?

You're a hero because you stay, no matter what, and keep on loving, being faithful. Whatever may be missing in your life, every day you decide again to keep on loving as if. As if you were fulfilled. As if your husband or your son or daughter displayed every quality you once envisioned.

You do this because you promised. Because God made you a mom.

You often think you don't do enough. You cry over the times you get impatient or lose your temper. You pray, because you know you're not strong enough on your own.

God sees. He knows. Here's a promise for those days you feel overwhelmed.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. –Isaiah 40:28-31

Lovingly,

Lenore

Search out the heroes around you

November 30, 2011
In Grapevine, Texas, it all started with one man, during the 2008 football season. That's when Coach Chris Hogan made a strange request.

fans.

Gainesville State School is a State Juvenile Correctional Facility for 13 year-old to 19 year-old convicted serious offenders. The 14 teenagers on their football team had been convicted of crimes ranging from drugs to assault to robbery. Few had any contact with their families. They were allowed to play on the Tornadoes team only so long as they maintained strict standards of conduct and academics. Coach Mark Williams worked with players who practiced and played with used, outdated equipment.

Faith Christian Academy basked in 70 players, 11 coaches, and the finest equipment.

Faith's Head Coach Hogan knew no one would cheer for the Gainesville team. He came up with a radical idea. He would ask half the fans and half the cheerleaders to root for the Gainesville team, for just that one night, November 7th. Hogan sent an e-mail around to fans and families that read, "Let's send a message to the Gainesville team." he wrote, "You're just as valuable as any other person on the planet."

Hogan told a player who asked why, "Imagine you don't have a home life, no one to love you, no one pulling for you. Imagine that everyone pretty much has given up on you. Now, imagine what it would feel like and mean to you for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."

Coach Hogan's idea caught on. When the Gainesville players appeared they ran through their first-ever spirit line, a long line made up of parents, cheerleaders and students. They even crashed through their first banner, made by Faith Academy cheerleaders. Once players were on the field, a crowd of Faith Christian parents and fans seated themselves in the Visitors stands as well as their own.

Isaiah, the Gainesville quarterback-middle linebacker said, "I never in my life thought I would hear parents cheering for us to tackle and hit their kid. Most of the time, when we come out, people are afraid of us, you can see it in their eyes. But these people were yelling for us. They knew our names."

As expected, Faith Academy won the game, 33-14. After the game both teams gathered at the 50-yard line to pray. To everyone's surprise Isaiah, the teenage convict-quarterback , asked if he could pray. He prayed, "Lord, I don't know what just happened so I dont know how or who to say thank you to, but I never knew there were so many people in the world who cared about us."

The people of Faith Christian Academy weren't done yet. As Gainesville players walked back to the bus under guard, each one was given a burger, fries, a coke, candy, a Bible, and an encouraging letter from the Faith Academy players .

A reporter for The Dallas Morning News quoted Coach Hogan's rationale. "We wanted to show them unconditional love," he said. "Love covers a multitude of sins, the Bible says, and it wasn't just the Gainesville kids, because we've all sinned. That night, love covered everything up."

That game was not the end of it. Grapevine residents and outsiders continued to provide support for these young men. As each one completed their sentences most had no family ready to welcome them back. So several of the released prisoners went home to stay with Grapevine families.

Since that 2008 football game the story has spread through various media outlets. Coach Hogan was invited to be a guest at the 2009 Super Bowl. This fall a movie is scheduled for release and you can watch the promo if you Google www.oneheart.com .

It began when one Christian individual inspired others to be salt and light in their community. When Jesus talked about that in Matthew 5:13-16, He wanted us to know that our deeds, small and big, have impact. Who knows how He will use them?

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21 (NIV)

Blessings,

Lenore

Can one person change the world–or one community?

February 15, 2011
Another Thanksgiving Day is upon us. I love it that every time we say the name
of this holiday it reminds us of what it's all about: giving thanks.

Maybe some of us don't feel much like giving thanks right now. Maybe we're slogging through a rough patch that shows no sign of smoothing out. Every day starts and ends with one thought, one prayer: Please let this be over–soon!

Even if things are good in our lives, probably most of us can remember a time when we floundered and fretted. When that's where we are and life feels empty, how are we supposed to feel thankful?

All I can do is tell you what helps me when I find myself walking that long, lonesome road.

That's when I hang on to what I know by faith and by experience: God is still God and His Word is still true. Even if I feel abandoned, the Bible over and over says He loves me. What's more, He doesn't love me because of my shining faith and my perfect life, only because I believe in Jesus.

   [Jesus said] "No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me     and have believed that I came from God."              –John 21:27                                                                                                                                                                                       -Then I search out Bible verses that reassure me. Sometimes I write them down and keep them with me so I can repeat them over and over to myself. Like this one:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger of sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.                                 –Romans 8:35, 37-39

When I feel weak and overwhelmed this verse reminds me I can draw on power beyond my own:

[The Apostle Paul says] Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."                                                                               –2 Corinthians 12:9

When we're feeling down it's easy to lose hope for the future, isn't it? That's when I go to this promise:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."                                                                                 –Jeremiah 29:11

As for what lies beyond, here's the greatest promise of all:

[Jesus says] "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son in to the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."    –John 3:16-17

So, it's Thanksgiving. Time for officially thanking the Giver. I forget sometimes that "ordinary" things are a blessing. Like being able to breathe in and out. Like eyes that work. Like the ability to call up happy memories. It took me way too long but I've learned life feels, um, happier when I remember to thank Him every day.

Each of the Bible verses I've quoted is underlined in my Bible. It took me way too many years before I picked up a pen and started underlining, but it has blessed my life. Countless times I've opened my old NIV and gone from one underlined verse to the next. Every time I feel my spirits lift.

Be wiser than I was and start now. Find Bible verses that speak to your heart and your spirit and mark them. Think through how they apply to you and your life. Keep them handy to pass on to someone who's hurting.

By the way, any time you feel alone, think of this verse and the word picture it paints. This is how God feels about you and me:

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.                                    –Zephaniah 3:17

Imagine! Now there's a reason to give thanks . . .

Here's to a JOY-filled Thanks-giving day, every day,

Lenore

P. S. I'm thankful for you, my friend, for taking time to read my words.

Thanks-living any day of the year, even in tough times

November 24, 2010
Imagine being thirty-two years old and being told the sore on the back of your tongue is malignant. Surgery, to be performed at once, would involve removing most, if not all, of your tongue. Afterward, you might never be able to swallow on your own, nor speak intelligibly.

Hearing that would devastate anyone, but especially a pastor who spends his life speaking, preaching and teaching. Especially the doting father of a two-year old little girl.

Scott Schmieding, a Lutheran pastor then in Baton Rouge, LA, survived the eleven-hour surgery in 1995. Surgeons in Houston opened his neck from ear to ear and removed his tongue through his throat. Then they removed a muscle from his abdomen and reconstructed the cavity in his mouth. Intense radiation followed, which caused mouth blisters. For eight months he breathed through a hole in his neck and ate through a feeding tube. Radiation also eliminated Schmieding's sense of taste and ability to swallow. So he learned a new way to swallow–a quick toss of his head backwards, to move the food to the back of his throat, where gravity took over.

From the moment of his diagnosis one question dogged him. If he lived, how would he talk without a tongue? How could he communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ? That passion drove him to doggedly persevere in speech therapy sessions. With the help of a special retainer which acts somewhat like a megaphone, he learned to pronounce consonants. To make the "T" sound, for example, he shoots air at his retainer.

Finally Scott Schmieding was ready to return to his life as a parish pastor, wondering always what would happen if parishioners couldn't understand his slightly impaired speech. His first Sunday back he baptized his newborn son, there in the Baton Rouge congregation which had loved and prayed for him and his family throughout their long ordeal.

Schmieding says he never asked God, "Why?" Rather, he prayed to understand the purpose of his ordeal. During the past thirteen years he arrived at an answer. Noting that he and his family also lived through five major hurricanes in Louisiana, he says, "I have become an expert at adversity. I know what people are feeling when they face trials and tragedy."

That's why Scott Schmieding has become a sought-after speaker. His message of hope and perseverance comes through loud and clear. In March, 2010, he became pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Charles, MO. Members soon found they didn't notice any speech irregularities because they were so caught up in their new pastor's joy in Jesus.

When asked how he got through it, he points to the Apostle Paul, who faced his own set of daunting challenges. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul repeats the words of Christ to him:

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Scott Schmieding knows the truth of those words first-hand. He believes he reaches more people without a tongue than he would have if he'd never had cancer. That doesn't strike him as remarkable. "The history of the Bible is the story of God using imperfect people for his perfect purposes," he says. "I'm just one in a very long line of imperfect people being used by God."

I learned of Pastor Schmieding when our daughter in the St. Louis area clipped an article by Tim Townsend in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the basis for this blog post. I've never met him, but his story lifts my heart. I pray it will do the same for you. If you wonder how he sounds, here's a link to a short clip with sound: http://interact.stltoday.com/mds/projects/html/2428

(If you have trouble with the link, copy and paste it to your search engine.)

Each of us will draw our own lessons from this story of one man's life–and of course, his family's life, too. As I think about the miracle of his healing and the surgery that enables him to talk, it reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses, Jeremiah 32:27:

"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?"

God brought Scott Schmieding his long period of suffering and in the midst of it, gave him joy. Despite what looked like the worst kind of loss, he gained not only life through that surgery, but also a deeper understanding of what it feels like to be fearful and in pain. When he ministers to hurting people, they know he's been there and truly understands their emotions and their sometimes doubts.

This story says to me, Live. Live today. Live fully. Live in faith. Don't be too quick to label something "a disaster." Our lives are in God's hands and He often works through human hands.

What about you? What do you draw from this story? Maybe you have a story to share or are living out a hard time. If you tell the rest of us, we can pray for you.

Whatever you're facing, keep on trusting. God is faithful and He can be trusted.

His peace and blessings,

Lenore

Hope in the midst of cancer and meaning in the aftermath

June 22, 2010
We see the images and wonder how anyone could survive this. And yet…people did.

You've heard the unbelievable stories. Here are two that especially touched my heart. I think these two people have much to teach you and me.

One is Romel Joesph, a Haitian-born music teacher…who was born blind, or so sight-impaired that he is legally blind.

Imagine yourself pinned beneath rubble for eighteen hours, unable to move, not able even to see. Imagine knowing all along that while you were on the third floor when the earthquake struck, your pregnant wife had been on the first floor and you could not know whether she was alive or dead. (She did not survive.)

Romel Joseph told interviewers how he got through that wrenching time. I caught his story while driving and later looked it up in the N.P.R. archives. Here's the gist of how he survived the horror.

"I knew I could not allow my mind to wander and to keep thinking only about rescue. So I decided to keep a strict schedule, hour by hour. I set aside the first twenty minutes for prayer and meditation," Joseph says. "After that I focused my mind on favorite pieces of music I knew, one at a time. I forced myself to concentrate, note by note, as precisely as if I were directing an orchestra. In effect, that took me to another place in my mind. For that time I did not feel my pain, did not allow myself to wonder whether help would arrive.

"Hour by hour, that's what I did. First the prayer and meditation, then the music. So I not only killed time, but I reminded myself I was not alone. I told myself I was brushing up on my directing skills and I mentally escaped the space where I was."

Romel Joseph is no stranger to tragedy. He founded the New Victorian School in 1991, in Port-au-Prince, to teach music to Haitian children. That school burned to the ground exactly ten years to the day before this earthquake once again leveled the school.

Friends dug him out after eighteen hours lying there with his leg pinned and crushed under concrete. Surgeons also repaired his severely fractured left hand, but they cannot say whether he'll regain full function…and what is a violinist without a left hand that works?

But Joseph plans to rebuild as soon as he can. As he puts it, "I need more than an earthquake to make me stop my work in Haiti!"

I think this man shows us how in the midst of fears and troubles we can deliberately turn our thoughts to other things, to people we love, to happier times and, yes, to God. Our situation may not change, but our ability to cope will.

Another rescued woman in a television interview (couldn't find her story in print) told what enabled her to hang on. She said something like this. "I lost everything except what matters most," she said, holding up her Bible. "I could not move, there in the dark, so I searched my memory and remembered some Psalms. I kept repeating them over and over, especially Psalm 46. God brought me through this, praise be, and here I am."

For thousands in Haiti, this was–and is–the worst of times. Thank God most of us will not be caught in anything like that earthquake. Yet I think these two accounts teach us a lot about surviving our own fears and sorrows without crumbling under the load.

Perhaps you love Psalm 46, too. I often find myself going back to my old, dog-eared Bible, to reread sections I've underlined in the past. Always, that includes these favorite verses of Psalm 46.

Psalm 46

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
   an ever-present help in trouble.

² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
   and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

³ though its waters roar and foam
   and the mountains quake with their surging…

⁵God is within her, she will not fall;

God will help her at break of day…

¹⁰ "Be still, and know that I am God;
   I will be exalted among the nations,
   I will be exalted in the earth."

¹¹ The LORD Almighty is with us;
   the God of Jacob is our fortress.
   Selah

God's peace and blessings,

Lenore

Learning from Haiti survivors how to make it through our tough times

January 27, 2010
It's time to put up those new calendars. If you're like me, you're thinking about the year ahead and asking yourself some questions.

How will I fill my time? What will I read? What will I look at?
Who will I hang around with?

That matters. I can't recall who said this, but it's good.

The person you will be five years from now will be determined by the books you read, the television you watch and the people you spend your time with.

A friend loved to remind anyone within hearing, "You gotta put the good stuff in if you want to get the good stuff out."

He thought that saying applied to all of life…and he was right.

You probably know this well-loved summary of how you and I can "put the good stuff in."

Finally, brothers, (and sisters,) whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. –Philippians 4:8

Lots of people make jokes about New Year's resolutions, because we usually fall short. It helps to remind ourselves that the only person who never fails is the one who never tries.

So I resolve to reread Phil. 4:8 frequently and: Think it. Speak it. Live it.

I hesitate to write down my other resolution. You see, I've been working on a book for moms for a very long time. For no good reason, I have delayed sending off queries. This year I will not rest until I find an editor or agent who believes in this book as much as I do and wants to publish it.

What's your resolution? Why not share it, so we can encourage each other? Just keep scrolling to the "Post a Comment" box below and follow directions.)

Friends, I wish you blessings and great JOY in every day of the year ahead!

Lenore

What kind of “stuff” do you plan to put into your days?

December 31, 2009