I'm Alive!

Num. 23: 8 How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied?

The season of JOY is in full swing and I’m so happy to be alive.

We went to see the movie Exodus Tuesday night and it was the first time that we’ve been out alone in a very long time, nine or ten years? Yeah that’s about right. We don’t get out much not only because of funds but because seriously there is nothing out there that I so desperately need to see.

Exodus was an exception. I had heard it was a good movie and when someone says it’s good we usually wait for it to come out on DVD to see the product of what people are talking about.

The movie Noah had some pretty bad reviews so we didn’t waste our time on it. God’s Not Dead received pretty good reviews and we’re thinking about purchasing and now Exodus? A lot of excitement surrounds the Moses story so we wanted to see for ourselves what Hollywood is doing or not doing for our Lord.

Christian Bale was chosen for the role and I would have much rather had Jim Caviezel, who played Christ in Passion of Christ in the role, but Bale would have to suffice. Although Bale lost his English accent quite a few times, he didn’t do a bad job of Moses and bringing him to life for me. (English accent, really?)

To me the movie Exodus was a darker version of the all time favorite version with Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments. The images were not as colorful and vibrant but then again, do we really believe the Bible stories are all about Rainbows and Unicorns? No, the Bible can be pretty dark at times and I think Hollywood pulled this one off. Is it biblically sound? Well you’ll just have to see for yourself. I didn’t leave the movie laughing at the fabled lies like the Noah movie drew; I left feeling… ALIVE!

Then the drive home -- I despise nighttime driving no matter who is behind the wheel and Tuesday night was no exception. The roads have no streetlights so basically you’re driving blind down a narrow dirt road until high beams are spotted. With what felt like a never ending constant swerving at a high-speed journey home, (the speed limit is 60 MPH) my prayers were being said the entire time and you guessed it, we made it home ALIVE!

Three times this month we had a near miss car collision – once when Steven was driving north into Gibbon and a white pickup was heading east. He had a stop sign and Steven had the right of way but the truck just kept coming through the stop sign. Steven pressed hard on his brakes to avoid a collision, leaving a nice skid mark on the road and the man driving the pickup looked at us like WE had done something wrong. The incident almost put us toppled in a ditch but the Lord was just not ready for us yet.

Adam had three incidents in his learning to drive so far. Once when a lady was backing up out of her driveway, again not looking to see if any cars were coming. A good horn-honking stopped her abruptly. Then a red light runner almost hit us. Then yesterday a company van was trying to hurriedly get through a stop sign to beat an oncoming truck as an 18 wheeler passed. He didn’t see us because he was waiting for the cattle truck to pass, then speed up and make it to the other side of the crossing only WE were there on the other side of the cattle truck. He came within less than a foot of ramming Adam in the driver’s side. Adam had the right of way and the van was just in a hurry to get across the road.

Here lately, it seems like the world is in a state of defiance where they don’t feel the need to obey traffic laws or any laws for that matter. Very similar to the days when Moses was trying to free the Hebrews and they became restless and tired of ‘waiting’ for God.

People are taking the Law into their own hands and it looks like their trying to wipe my family out but my patience of waiting on the Lord is my saving grace and we were spared death.

Thank you Sweet Jesus!

Rom. 6:11 “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

My Christmas Countdown

1 Chron 29: 9 Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.

I don’t know if everyone looks at their calendars and counts down the days until the arrival of Christmas but the child in me still looks forward to the day. I don’t know why; I’m not expecting anything special but just the leading up to the day itself carries an aura of joy and happiness.

I had the audacity to go shopping Saturday kind of forgetting the hustle and bustle that people put into this season. I went early thinking it safe but boy was I wrong. I can see why people become humbug after experiencing the joyful blissful spiritual feelings of Advent to be tossed into the raging sea of people only to be spit out and tossed onto the shore.

The real reason I went shopping on Saturday was because they are calling for some wild and crazy weather this week. Saturday was a cloudy 55-degree day and felt downright warm so with teaching Adam to drive, I thought this would be a good day to venture out on the roads.

We did fine until he hit the traffic congestion. I don’t know about you when you first learned to drive but throwing obstacles like New York City traffic at you when you barely know the stop signs and red/yellow/green light signals; it proved not to be a good idea.

I picked up a few things as quickly as possible, left the store and got behind the wheel myself, meandered through even more congested traffic and brought us home safely. I couldn’t believe I pushed Adam into such crazy traffic. I know I know, he HAS to experience it but the nose-to-tail jamming of two lanes was too soon. All turned out okay because we made it to our safe haven where we could relax and enjoy the rest of the day.

Since we’re not rolling in the dough, our Christmas, just as Christmas’ past, are meager but joy-filled. THAT is what the season is all about to me, the JOY of the season. If I do decide to buy something I prefer to do it online, but there are some things you just can’t buy online. While people tried to rob me of my joy, I kept it intact and sit here today feeling good, not having overspent, enjoying the lights and pleasantness of an over commercialized season.

I woke yesterday morning to a blanket of white covering the lawn and walkway. I read the weather before bed and it said possible snow/sleet/rain but I was not expecting it to be a beautiful layer of the white stuff. It’s God’s gift to me. Thank you, Lord!

Yes, I see the Lord in everything and all my experiences are gifts from Him. Whether it is a trial or a blessing, I cradle my humbleness in my heart and allow Him to work through my daily living. This is the season of joy, this is the season of life. In nine more days it will all be over? Or will it? Not for me because I carry this season in my heart year round.

My gift to Him this season is the celebration of His life and power instilled in me!

Oh wait…it isn’t the ‘season’ that brings me joy it is God’s immense love for me! He fills me with the Holy Spirit and walks with me through dark tunnels, sunny days, gray skies and starlit nights. Nothing fake, mean or humbug about that. He is the joy that overflows my spirit daily. Praise be to God.

An Exhausting Week

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
~Johann von Goethe
***

I will get back into my writing blog that you all signed up for but this has been an amazing and an exhaustive week, and my way of relaxing is through writing. My way of releasing tension is through expression of the written word.

The trip into Omaha was over a week ago on Sunday. Little did I know that three trips into Omaha in a week were in store. I know a lot of people like traveling and driving but I’ve never really cared for it that much.

It’s bad enough to face ignorance in town but when you’re driving on the highway, and you’re almost crushed between the car to your left, who isn’t going to budge out of your way because they might miss something life altering wherever it is they are going that two seconds might take that away from them, and the truck to my right barreling from the on ramp plowing almost right into my lap in the drivers seat!

I love Nebraska and am always saying how the people here actually USE their blinkers, because back in Texas as I drove the crazy highway into Dallas, rarely did anyone ever use their blinker. It was always a guessing game as to what the person in the car ahead of you was going to do next. Either cut you off, stay in their lane, or jump four lanes. Texas was a maze of highway!

Here in Nebraska, to get to Omaha, it is a two lane highway until you reach Lincoln where, get this, it has THREE lanes! The speed limit is 75 mph and as much of a speed demon as I can be, on a two lane highway, 75 feels like 120 in a wind tunnel.

Last year when I had an accident and it threw me into a ditch, I had quite the hard time jumping right back into a car the next day and in the succeeding weeks. Every dirt road looked like a monstrous furry caterpillar about to attack, but as the weeks and months passed the caterpillar shrunk and became a tiny snake slithering across the road.

In October of last year, six months after the accident, I barely hit sixty on the highway to Omaha, which made the trip a four hour journey one way, to only be seen by the doctor for five minutes and have to turn around and do the wind-whipped four hours all over again.

This time, since everything worked in God’s time, I was able to make the Omaha trip in 2 hrs. and forty minutes, if we went straight through without stopping to eat! I hit 75 on occasion (to pass) but I was mainly on cruise control at 72 mph and we made excellent timing!

So yeah, three trips into Omaha, an amazing miracle of sight, driving through the pounding rain, chilled to the core of my bones, and then I rise this morning where I can just rest via my writing.

Rest? Me? Darned tootin’!

On a personal note...

If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. ~~ Ps 139:9-10 (NLT)

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Well I know you all are waiting for me to give a little update on me, on a personal note. Tell me you all look forward to it, please?

Well, here I go, dramatics and all! It was a quiet morning just like any other day, I go get myself showered and cleaned before I can get anything done for the day. I step out of the shower to hear voices, off in the distance. I always look skyward, because I think “Wow, God has gotten bold.”

I open the door and creep into the living room, to hear my beau on the phone, saying his thank you and goodbye. “Who was that?” I ask. “Eleanor, says there’s a cornea.” Mr. Smarty pants says as a matter-of -factly, as he goes to sit at the desk. A shock look washed over his face.

My eyes nearly bulged outta my head, thoughts crowded around and began spinning like a carousel on some kind of hyper drug. I felt like shaking my beau and screaming “Tell me more! Tell me more.” But instead I just said, “How do you feel about that?” With him being blind, I can read his facial expressions pretty well, and I could see that this was not the moment to get all aflutter and start babbling. He needed calm and that is what I gave him.

His face said, ‘I’m confused’ but his mouth said, “I don’t know how I feel.” Wow I can read him pretty well, eh? I was about to go dry my hair when a compulsion came over me. ‘We need prayer’. He was sending out emails to our pastors at church and his family, I was busying myself with sending out to my prayer warriors the call for prayer.

By the end of both of our tapping keys, we had reached hundreds of people all gathered to pray for us. The prayers were felt as my body tingled with delight.

Here’s the deal. She (Eleanor) called. Said they had a cornea, but it was in Colorado being tested to see if it was a good cornea. If so, surgery is on Monday. We’ll head to Omaha on Sunday, be at the hospital 5 a.m. Monday, have a follow-up visit Tuesday, and if everything looks good. We may come right home or stay and leave early Wednesday morning. Too early to tell.

But the prayers are strongly needed. Now the confusion begins, chaos ensues. Beau has been so patient throughout these two years. He’s has his bad days, as I think it is understandable if your sight is taken away and you never got a chance to see the very house that you’ve lived in for two years, or the town that you grew up in, or so many other things I can’t even begin to mention.

All I know is this, I’m driving to Omaha. Everything is already taken care of money-wise. The surgery: medicare/medicaid/Lions Club all paid for in advance!! I worry about nothing else because as the day draws near, our food, gas and lodgings will all be paid for too!

God is good...Great even! God bless you all and thank you for your continued prayer. It isn’t over by a long shot, so keep our family in your prayers. 

9:57 a.m.UPDATE NECESSARY: My friends, WE ARE GOING TO OMAHA!!!

Keep the prayers coming!!! PRAISE GOD!!!!