"Poor Me" update

12/14/12 Still sick. Have taken to the bed. Drugged, because lying down exacerbates the drainage and coughing.


Words of wisdom just received from blog reader who has "real" suffering---just like her---reaching out to comfort others, not focusing on her own pain.

Remember that the trials of others don't eliminate the magnitude of your own suffering.  Their suffering is theirs, but yours is yours and just as bad for you as their suffering is for them.  Just different kinds of suffering.  God works in and through them all.  I'll be praying for peace, grace and your full recovery in the midst of your "interruption." Carolyn O

SUFFERING....interrupting my plans

12/11/12 Suffering that's physical, but temporary---so what's the BIG deal, Dotsy? Too tired and weak to get out of bed. Too miserable to sleep.  Fever. Chills. Head ache. Sore throat. Cough. Yet, I know that in the scheme of things, my malady is minor.  But… right now it feels like MINOR in all caps! It’s interrupting my plans. Plans to be with friends in celebration and plans to be with other friends in the midst of their suffering. “Worthy plans,”are they not?

I have just had a fun, refreshing Austin, TX, trip with chums---it's our 23rd annual, and that was followed by a glorious visit to Doris' farm, not a sweeter place on earth for soul restoration. So, truly I should have NO complaints. Get over yourself, Dots!

One of my blog readers has chronic, severe headaches and she continues to find God's grace in every aspect of her 3-year search for answers.  This year I even had the privilege of transporting a “spiritual giant” to chemo and I NEVER hear her complain though I'm sure chemo was not originally her plan.

Another dear friend just emailed encouraging words because she, too, is now going to have the privilege of being there for a neighbor/friend as she starts her chemo journey. She’s where I want to be once again. Tonight I learned that sweet J.H.’s lymph node results were not what we had all hoped for. We had prayed “God’s best” for her. So….this must be part of His plan. But….my plan is to be there for her. His plan is that I will wait until I am healthy. I just need to trust His plan.

In fellow cancer sojourner, Michèle Phoenix’s, song, “You Are” (about her MAC cancer journey) she wrote,

"That this journey I follow with its joy and its sorrow,

is a gift I embrace 'cause it flows from Your grace.

I will trust in Your goodness in my season of weakness 

'cause it is what it is---but I know that You are who You are!"

 I have learned these last few years that it is in the classroom of suffering, (whether spiritual or physical---with ranges from minor to terminal), that the Lord teaches us life lessons. Lessons that build trust. Trust in Him, not self.

We're not doubting that God will do the best for us, we're wondering how painful the best will turn out to be. -CS Lewis

So, my plan tonight, in my semi-drug-induced state, is to head to bed with Romans 12:12 in my heart and on my lips and to pray for the aforementioned folks in the midst of their “hard place,” that they might be “joyful in hope, patient in affliction and fervent in prayer.” Maybe I need to add myself to that plan!

HEARTFELT MEDITATION

12/10/12 Think about this.............

What you say flows from what is in your heart (Luke 6:45)

Have you been surprised recently about the words that have spewed from your mouth?

When one’s heart is rooted in gratitude, the fruit of the lips will be words of joy and encouragement.

What are your words revealing about the condition of your heart?

A heart submitted to God (James 4:7) will begin to see God’s hand of grace in every aspect of life and be grateful. Appropriate words will follow.

SABBATH SNAPSHOTS: View from a manger

12/9/12 Trying to post before I leave Austin, Texas so updates will probably follow.

Q & A Saturday

12/8/12 "What child is this?" Maybe a better question for this time of year is Whose Child is this? 

Simply search your heart to find the answer.

LIFE LESSONS....are BIGGER in Texas.

12/7/12 Re-examining "living in the moment." If I'm NOT dead yet, then I need to fully live.

Hope to share when I return from Austin, TX----which IS the "Live Music Capital" of the world! Music has a way of making one "come alive." This morning my "come alive" music wasn't of the MoTown genre, but of the Christmas variety.

Words With Friends....

12/4/12 ...at her hospital bed prior to surgery. Soon those words became prayerful words. Prayers for friends. Later downstairs in the chapel the Words were God's words from scripture. Prayers by a friend to a Heavenly friend for an earthly friend.

God's word encourages us to pray for one another. It's one of my favorite privileges in"one-anothering."

.... and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; (1 Timothy 2:1)

Previous blog Disclaimer

12/3/12 No matter how hard I try to make the earlier blog "do right"----it won't. Maybe adding the youtube video is the problem. Just look at it as a lesson in translation. Or, if you know my problem, just let me know!

Come Thou Fount.....

12/3/12 Today is Monday and on this blog that means meditation on a passage of scripture. Yet, it's been the words from this, my favorite hymn, that first started me thinking, particularly the last verse.

 O to grace how great a debtor 
 daily I'm constrained to be! 
 Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 
 bind my wandering heart to thee. 
 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 
 prone to leave the God I love; 
 here's my heart, O take and seal it, 
 seal it for thy courts above. 

As Romans 7:18-19 bears truth to my struggle for goodness (whichI can't have apart from Him). No matter how hard I try, sometimes I still fail in spite of all my effort. But God.....in His love and 

mercy has sealed me for Himself.

I know that good doesn’t live in me—that is, in my body. The desire to do good is inside of me, but I can’t do it. I don’t do the good that I want to do, but I do the evil that I 
     don't want to do. 
These words resonate the truth of my struggles and yet other versesoffer hope from His word. Adopted as His child, I have redemptionthru the blood of His Son. (Ephesians 1: 5)

I am grateful that because of my belief in Him God does "seal" me with His Holy Spirit of promise. 

(Ephesians 1:13)

As you think on the significance of God's grace listen to Fernando Ortega  ("my" verse is after the instrumental part) as he 

sings of the One who IS the 

FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATER!

SABBATH SNAPSHOTS: HOPE

12/2/12 Have spent much time in prayer lately for folks who are in hard places. From the end of Psalm 33 and on into Psalm 34, I have found "hope" in the scriptures----because "the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.....

Even book-lovin' folks in Memphis can donate to  give hope to a  bookstore in Brooklyn NY. that lost its  entire inventory in Hurricane Sandy. Thanks to Booksellers for spearheading that effort!

Purple is such a royal color---perfect reminder of the "King" who was born.

Even among the dangling wires that pump those chemo drugs into needy bodies, there was hope---right there in the middle of the clinic for all to see!

A great "decoration of hope"

We wait in hope for the Lord;
    he is our help and our shield. 

In him our hearts rejoice,

    for we trust in his holy name.

May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
    even as we put our hope in you. (Psalm 33:20-22)