Monthly Archives: October 2013

Greeting Card Guidance

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God is an undisputed pro at surprises. This morning during my prayer time, I spent 20 minutes going round and round with him about a problem I’m having. I needed his solution, and as I prayed, I listened for his answers to my questions. As Henry Blackaby says, as soon as we pray out a request, we should pay close attention to what happens next. Those circumstances may contain God’s answers.

As I left that topic and began praying for others, the edge of my mind continued to listen for the Lord. I had asked, “What should I think? What should I do?” And I knew he’d let me know.

Half an hour later, still praying, I jotted down several “solutions” that had come to mind, figuring they were probably from God. Most involved two things: (1) how I could justify my own position, and (2) how I could superimpose that over another person’s opinion.

Toward the end of my prayer time, I usually close my eyes and pull a “random” (i.e. Spirit-selected) greeting card from a box I keep under my bed, so I can pray for the person who sent it. Right now the box contains Christmas cards from 2011, but the dates don’t really matter, just the people.

Greetings from StellaAs I opened today’s card, the signature made me smile. It was from one of Mom’s good friends, Stella Eklund, and in the time since Stella had sent her card, she’d left Chicago and gone to heaven. I smiled because I knew how eagerly she had looked forward to that relocation day.

So I didn’t pray for Stella today. She’s leading a life of complete fulfillment and exuberant joy with a decided absence of prayer requests. Besides, if she has anything to say to the Lord, she can talk to him directly.

But that didn’t mean God wasn’t planning to use Stella’s card in another way. While I was still holding it, I thought about her sparkling optimism and her quick sense of humor. But most of all I thought about how Stella radiated grace toward others. Without a trace of judgment in her twinkling eyes or her tone of voice, she always looked for the good in people and focused every conversation on them rather than herself.

Right then I realized God was answering my earlier questions, and he did it very creatively with a Stella-prompt:

“Handle it like she would have,” he said. “Give grace. More than you have been. And for goodness sake, get your eyes off yourself.”

A Spirit-pulled cardThrough seeing this lovely lady’s signature, which caused me to remember what she was like, God answered my prayers. He showed me how I’d been part of the problem rather than The Great Problem Solver I’d envisioned myself to be. I understood, and accepted his loving (and well-deserved) reprimand.

And then I threw away my self-centered list of “solutions”.

“In the end, serious reprimand is appreciated far more than bootlicking flattery.” (Proverbs 28:23 The Message)

The Real Reason

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My last 24 hours have been spent in the company of 6 women with whom I’ve been friends for more than half my life. Though the 7 of us are quite different (ages, interests, abilities, passions), God brought us together for a multitude of reasons:

  • As a support system through trouble
  • To challenge one another spiritually
  • For good, old-fashioned fun
  • To learn from each others’ wisdom

RadioThis morning in our radio-church time together, the Scripture centered on a verse in 2 Corinthians that speaks to the frustrations of physical decline, something we 60-plus “girls” are well aware of (v. 4:16). But that downward spiral was countered with an uplifting truth: inwardly we can be renewed day-by-day through our relationship with the Lord. In other words, we don’t need external improvement to experience internal enrichment.

Today God gave me a burst of internal enrichment through one of these friends.*  “Beth” and her husband “Ron” are part of a program called Safe Families, giving temporary safe shelter to a child whose family is in crisis. The hope is that with a little short-term help, the parents can become a safe family themselves.

Safe FamiliesBeth and Ron never know when they’ll get a call to pick up a child in need. They don’t know if it’ll be a boy, a girl, a baby, a pre- schooler, or an older child. They can’t predict if he/she will be difficult or compliant, but they aren’t particular about those details. They love them all.

Safe families welcome children for as little as 2 days or as long as a year. As our group listened to Beth’s stories, someone said, “How difficult it must be to be separated from your parents, then separated again from your safe family.”

“I know,” Beth said. “But even if we have a child for just a short time, once we’ve met them, they go on our permanent prayer list.”

Bonk.

Bonk(That’s the sound of God hitting me over the head with something new.)

It’s possible that the steady, scriptural, far-reaching prayer poured into the lives of these particular children is the real reason God moves them in and out of Beth and Ron’s home, more important than the 2 weeks or 2 months of care they give them.

For example, little “Sammy” who’s with them now for just a short time, will be prayed over for 2 decades or more, as long as Beth and Ron live. They fully believe God can do what people cannot, and on that basis, when they say goodbye to their young charges, they have high hopes for their futures.

That exchange — 2 weeks in their home for 20 years of prayer — is one that will benefit the children in astounding ways, through their rest of their lives.

“The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going [for example, in and out of Beth and Ron’s home], both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:7-8)

* [This dear friend has asked that I not use her real name.]

Love Notes

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Those of us who are widows are familiar with this statement: “We’re in a club none of us wanted to join.”

But God has made it clear he’s the #1 fan of our club and is tightly tuned-in to the needs of its members. Amazingly, this attentiveness includes even unspoken needs no one else knows about. He knows, and is steadily working to meet them. Once in a while he’ll even put a note in one of our mailboxes, personally written by him.

Loving mailYesterday my mail included a sunshine yellow envelope from someone I’ve never met, a compassionate person who is encouraging widows in concrete ways, and she isn’t even in our club. When her personal note mentioned she’d been married 43 years, I knew we must be about the same age.

Cathy introduced herself as having heard my story on the radio a couple of weeks ago, and the fact that she continued listening after learning the programs were focused on widowhood is a testament to her big heart. She wrote, “Thank you for giving me insight as to how to treat widows.”

Love notes from the LordBut the best part about Cathy’s note was the gift inside: a dozen colorfully decorated cards, each with an encouraging Scripture passage, and all of them laminated. As the cards spilled out of her envelope, I was overcome with her kindness, a woman I didn’t even know who wasn’t in “the club,” reaching out to one of its members.

But the best part was that she said, “These are love notes from the Lord,” refusing credit for herself and giving it to him instead. He’d written a love note to me, and Cathy was, in a way, the mailman. Some of the heart-stirring things he said were:

  • “The Lord’s people may suffer a lot, but He will always bring them safely through.” (Psalm 34:19)
  • “You are complete in Christ.” (Colossians 2:10)
  • “God takes care of orphans and protects widows. He finds families for those who are lonely.” (Psalm 68:5-6)
  • “How precious it is Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly.” (Psalm 139:17-18)
  • “You’ll get through this.” (Isaiah 43:2)

Cathy used different Bible translations for the verses and a wide variety of papers, texts, fonts, and card sizes to frame God’s words attractively. The process probably took a great deal of time, and yet this gift came from the hands of a busy woman with 9 children (she said) and probably many more grandchildren (she didn’t say). I stand amazed.

The only right thing to do is to emulate Cathy, passing along her inspiring love notes to other widows after benefiting from them myself. After all, our club has thousands of members, and every one of us needs a love note written by the Lord himself.

“The Lord your God is with you; He is a hero who saves you; He happily rejoices over you, renews you with His love, and celebrates over you with shouts of joy.” (Zephaniah 3:17)