GETTING THE GARDENIAS - 72 YEARS

It's been more than a few years now.. that the owner of the florist shop in our city here in Tennessee waits for me. Wondering if once again.. in January.. I will walk through the front door of the florist shop to order the gardenias.    

And when I do...she smiles with a look of relief, sorta, and says, "Another year?"  And I nod my head with joy and order the gardenias ( a wrist band, a corsage) for my father to give to my mother on their Wedding Anniversary - which is TODAY.. February 20th.  72 YEARS.

On February 20, 1943, my mother's bridal bouquet was filled with gardenias.  The smell of a gardenia always reminds her of her wedding day and makes her smile.  Since making her smile is one of my father's primary goals in life..every anniversary for the past seventy one years. my father made sure she got gardenias.  

Nowadays, he isn't able to drive anymore, but he still makes getting the gardenias his number one priority.  Starting in January he reminds me that February 20th is coming soon and I reassure him that I've got the gardenias ordered.   He makes sure we have the money to pay for them... The florist owner and workers have met them and love them (who doesn't?) and comment - as does almost everyone - how unusual it is for two people their age to still have one another.   It is unusual. It is A BLESSING.  

Later this morning, Phil and I will drive to the florist...pick up the gardenias... bring them to my parent's house.. and watch my saint of a father... hand the gardenia to my saint of a mother.. and she will say, "Ohhhh Honey... You got me gardenias????"  - as if this is the first time ever -  and hug him and kiss him and he will smile.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my parents.  Their lives are worthy of being honored.. and I honor them.

And while the family gathers to sing to them, watch them they blow out the candles on their 72 Anniversary cake, while we laugh and love and gather at their home as a family... my unspoken prayer will be  that next January.... I will once again walk through the door of the florist shop and place my father's order.  

Getting the gardenias again is all I really want.

I love you Dad.  I love you Mom.

WHAT I DO NOT KNOW

It's too bad for you that I didn't have this blog thirty or forty years ago.   Back then I knew everything.  True, I was a self-anointed know-it-all, but there was a part of me that was simply trying to help people get through life.  I thought I could help them.   I wanted to help others.  Sometimes I did. Sometimes I didn't.  As life has progressed, I have been faced with the reality that there are many, many things I do not know.  

 I DO NOT KNOW:

• ....the reason why the people who make the ketchup I buy insist on putting it in plastic  bottles that cannot be twisted open. 
• .....why some people do not feel guilty about getting on the "Fifteen Items Or Less" line at the supermarket with 900 items in their cart.
• ....why gas prices are $4.50 a gallon one week, and $1.99 a gallon one week later.
• ....God's purpose for chin hairs on post-menopausal women. 
• ....how you can love someone with real, deep love and they can walk away from you in an instant when you do - or don't do - what they want you to do or not do.
• ....how to explain to good and godly parents why they have endured the loss of a child.
• ....what is in another person's heart.
• ....why people are filled with such murderous hate toward others.

And this morning, I read the words God spoke to the prophet, Jeremiah.  Jeremiah didn't ASK to be God's prophet - He was TOLD he was God's prophet.  And because of this, the people hated and persecuted him.  

And so, in the middle of being held captive, and being mistreated by his own people, God speaks to Jeremiah and says, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."  (Jeremiah 33:3)

He DID NOT say to Jeremiah, "Call to me and I will answer all your questions about why I do what I do in your life."   No, God simply promised to tell Jeremiah WHAT HE DID NOT KNOW. 

I think sometimes, when I am in a valley season in life... I call to God.. because I believe He owes me an explanation for what He is allowing. 

But God is God and I am not.

And when I call to Him.... He will tell me what I do not know.
And maybe it isn't what I want to know.
It's always what I do not already know.

Maybe it's that I do not know.... HIM.

Maybe He reminds me of HIs vast and mighty power.

Maybe He fills me with His comfort that I have never known before.

And I pray that just like His promise to Jeremiah, His promise is to all of us:

IF we call to Him.

He will tell us what we do not know.  

And 

We do not know.......almost everything about God.

And whatever He tells me will be what I need to know.

And usually, I need to know... that He loves me and has not forgotten me.. and will not let go of me.... and will never leave me or forsake me. 

I call.

He answers.

And when He does, I know something I did not know before I called. 

Something He knows I need to know. 

SAVING YOUR SKIN

Who would have guessed that in 2015 one of the lead news stories would be about an outbreak of measles? People are running in terror from Mickey Mouse - because Disneyland is where the outbreak started. NOBODY WANTS TO CATCH THE MEASLES.

Reminds me of the story in Luke 17 about The Ten Lepers. These ten men were outside the city..banished from family, friends, their home, their jobs... because they had a skin disease.. leprosy....and nobody wanted to catch it.  Who can blame them? Who wants a hug so badly that they'd be willing to catch leprosy to have one? No one.

It's obvious that these lepers had heard about Jesus.  They called His Name, "JESUS!"  -  They used His title, "MASTER" - They knew what would heal them - "HAVE MERCY ON US!" 

He did have mercy. "Go show yourselves to the priests" he said. Jewish custom required that someone with a skin disease would only be allowed back in to society if the priest of the local synagogue declared them "clean."  As they walked.. as they did what Jesus told them to do.. they became clean. 

But yesterday I noticed something about this story that I had never noticed before:

JESUS EXPECTED ALL TEN OF THEM TO RETURN AND 

GIVE PRAISE AND THANKS TO GOD

He said, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?" (verse 17)

Yesterday, this fact hit me for the first time, even though I've read this story hundreds of times.

BUT THIS IS NOT A SPIRITUAL ETIQUETTE WARNING STORY.  This is not a warning to "make sure you remember to say "thanks to God." Because truth is, the other nine remained cleansed.  Even without taking the time to thank God, to acknowledge the great and undeserving miraculous mercy Jesus had shown them...  He didn't say, "Well, if you're not gonna say 'thanks' then you're gonna get your leprosy back."  No, He cleansed them... and though they didn't take the time to give glory to God.. to thank Jesus....they stayed cleansed.

But I realized yesterday that main lesson of this story is not about what happened to the other nine because they didn't give glory to God - it's about what happened to the one who did.

When he saw he was healed - he came back to the One who had healed him. LOUDLY praising God. Falling at Jesus feet.  
Did he touch Jesus? Scripture doesn't say, but if he did, it was the first undefiled human he had touched in a while. 

And then Jesus said to this thankful man, "Rise up and go. Your faith has made you well."  Well? Wasn't he already well? Weren't the other nine well? Their faith had nothing to do with being cleansed - according to Scripture. It wasn't their faith that cleansed them.. it was MERCY. GOD'S MERCY.  
I thought, "So what's the deal with the one guy?  What did he gain more than the other nine for being thankful? For giving glory to God? Nothing?

So I studied the words.
And Jesus said that this thankful leper's faith had made him "WHOLE"  Get your concordance out.. if you want to.. but the word means something closer to "saved".. "saved from judgment".... The others nine were cleansed.

But the thankful guy was saved. Whole. Restored in every way. Spiritually. Physically. Emotionally. 

This thankful former leper, had shown himself to Jesus, the Great High Priest, and He declared this man cleansed and able to be restored to God's Kingdom. 
HIS FAITH - expressed in pure worship and thankfulness, acknowledging that mercy had cleansed him - saved him completely.

We are all lepers.  Banished from God and HIS KINGDOM. Some of us admit it. Some of us do not.  We are not in God's Kingdom because we are "good Christians" (a redundant phrase if there ever was one)... we are there because of MERCY. MERCY. MERCY.

And while many former lepers are just happy to have their outer lives looking clean again.....we read the Bible.. and if we do what it says... the principles in there will clean us up outwardly. 

But God wants more.  He doesn't want us to settle for Him saving our skin.. making our lives here better.. 

He wants us to be new INSIDE.

And so when He has mercy on us... and cleanses us.. He wants us to show ourselves to JESUS, OUR HIGH PRIEST.... acknowledging that God deserves the glory for our healing and restoration...  
and fully comprehending that our ONLY HOPE is JESUS..
He says.. "Get up and GO.. Your faith has TAKEN all your spiritual leprosy. YOU ARE COMPLETELY WHOLE." 

When we worship.
When we glorify God with our mouths. 
With our hearts.
With everything within us.
God does an inner work that cannot be explained.
Every time.
We aren't MORE SAVED.
WE are more HEALED.

FALL AT JESUS FEET.
LOUDLY thank Him.
With YOUR MOUTH give glory to GOD for what HE has done.
Instead of reminding Him of the stuff in your life that is difficult.
Or the stuff He still has NOT DONE 
THANK HIM.. WORSHIP HIM.. PRAISE HIM..
WITH YOUR MOUTH
for what He has done..
And..
you will uncover a cleansing INSIDE that cannot be explained.

For God, saving our skin is just the first step.
Making us whole is the whole plan.

LOVE YOU,
Thank you to so many of you who have signed up to receive this via email.
(Upper right corner of the page)
Marie

MY ALLERGY REALITY

My lungs had orchestrated yet another mutiny.  Once again I was having my yearly bronchitis challenge.   I knew the routine: doctor's office, pharmacy, medicine, rest and feel all better in a few days.  I was in my thirties and I was still under the egotistical delusion that the world could not run without me.  Because of that I thought the Universe at large was picking on me when it required me to slow down and get better. One year, things were not routine.  Two days after beginning my penicillin regimen I broke out in a rash.  My doctor suspected I may have developed an allergy to penicillin.  (This proved true a year later when I was prescribed a penicillin based medicine... and six hours later was in the emergency room with a fat tongue and closing throat.) 

This new and sudden allergy reality fascinates me to this day.  How could a medicine that had always HEALED me become a medicine that would KILL me?
I don't know about the cause.  I just know about the effect.  Penicillin worked in the past.
That was then. This was now.

It got me thinking about my actions as a Christian.  I want to be used as an instrument of peace and healing in God's hands.  I truly do. I always have.

But sometimes, I have been bull headed about just forging ahead with the medicine I had always used... not being willing to let God tell me that He wanted me to use a different and new approach for this particular person at this time.
 To offer a new prescription that would heal someone rather harm.

What's the purpose of medicine if it doesn't heal the patient?

So I'd just ram some Bible verses in to someone's brain...because I'd seen other people do that.. because that's what I thought they needed..because Scripture is what God often used to heal me...  when in truth, the medicine that would have truly healed some people would have been for me to be quiet and let them speak about their pain.  An honest hug would have healed more than a holy homily. 

I'm NOT advocating we should change the message. HEAVEN FORBID.
I'm just saying we should change the medicine to meet the patient's need.
Millions of people are healed every day by taking penicillin. But not me.
 
If you are someone who wonders WHY you just cannot get with the program, get up and get healed and get going, maybe you aren't getting the right medicine. 

• I pray for you that the Holy Spirit will send someone in to your life who is willing to be LIFE to you and not mere words.

• I pray that God Himself will speak to your heart to remind you that if you have put your trust in His Only Son, Jesus.. that YOU HAVE BECOME the VERY RIGHTEOUSNESS of Christ.  

• I pray that you will believe that God is CLOSE to the BROKENHEARTED and to those who are crushed in spirit.

• I pray you will search the Scripture for yourself - AND - that God will use to reveal His heart to you.

• I pray that you will understand that it isn't by chance that you are reading this, but that God has ordained it so that you will know that He sees you. He sees you. He sees you.  And He is going to heal you.  He is going to send the prescription you need to be healed.

Maybe we need to acknowledge the allergy reality.. that some people have grown allergic to the Church's tried and true methods.. and for those people we need to be the balm that heals them. Maybe meeting someone for a cup of coffee at Starbucks is the medicine they need instead of insisting they come to Weds night Bible study.  Does Weds Bible study help millions of people? Of course.  But it may not be the prescription for THAT person God has sent in to YOUR life.  Are we allowed to BE the church outside the Church building?  Can we help someone who is in pain and also miss a scheduled church service?  Remember how the Pharisees were more concerned about the day of the week that Jesus healed someone (The Sabbath) than they were about the fact that JESUS HEALED SOMEONE.

BE HEALING to someone who needs JESUS.
Jesus is the only way to be healed.
It takes time.
It takes prayer.
It takes love.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 

1 Corinthians 4:20

IT'S NOT EASY BEING RIGHT ALL THE TIME.

Disagreements happen. 
To every person alive.  It's the moment when you and another person decide to  "diss" agreement. (Sorry. Couldn't resist)

The road to disagreement begins because the other person is wrong and you are right.  
Don't be shocked that I wrote that.  Isn't that at the core of disagreement? Of course it is.  You believe you are right and if someone has an opposing and opposite opinion they are wrong.  Having a strong opinion about something isn't wrong and neither is refusing to let another person talk you out of it. Disagreement isn't wrong.  

It's our reaction to disagreement that can destroy. 

Us. Destroy you. Destroy me.

Some of us have the unrelenting need to never be wrong.  Or.  We have the unrelenting need to always be right.  If you think of it, every war, every divorce, every broken friendship, every divided family, every church split, every act of violence we see all over the news on a regular basis is because someone would not accept that someone else did not share - or accept - their opinion.  And they decided to do something about it.  They decided that holding on to their offended heart was the right thing to do.  Someone was convinced their side of the story was SO RIGHT that it was worth doing whatever damage to the person who was SO WRONG.  And the truth is.....there are always two sides to every disagreement.  Always.

But what about the one time when I am right? What about when I am sharing the Gospel? How should I react when someone disagrees with my belief that Jesus is the Only Son of Only God and the ONLY way to be reconciled to God.   There are people who disagree with me.  They don't agree.  They tell me it's my opinion, not Truth Itself.

What is my reaction to this disagreement? 
I let them disagree. That's my reaction.   
My call is to speak Truth. I am not called to ENFORCE it. 

When someone rejects the Gospel, they aren't rejecting me but The One Who sent it.  

Some people choose to disagree with God. That's their right.  In their insistence on being right - and God being wrong - they don't know the joy of living without the heaviness of guilt.  Their anger at God weighs them down. They have never taken a carefree step in their lives - and don't realize what a carefree step feels like. If I explain the peace that passes understanding and how God gives grace and mercy and wisdom to His children, they smile and disagree.  
I am wrong. They are right.  They live sad lives.. because..

...It's not easy being right all the time.

 

“How he wanted to lure you away from danger into a wide and pleasant valley and to prosper you there.  But you are too preoccupied with your imagined grievances against others. Watch out! Don’t let your anger at others lead you into scoffing at God! Don’t let your suffering embitter you at the only one who can deliver you. Do you really think that if you shout loudly enough against God, he will be ashamed and repent? Will this put an end to your chastisement?"  Job 36:16-19 (Living Bible)

 

JUST CLAY...

An Unretouched Photo of Me

I am not going crazy to publicize this blog.  The only readers who will even know it exists are those of you who have been directed here from a link on my webpage.  And most of you have been directed to my webpage through my monthly magazine column.  So...Welcome.  It will be our little secret meeting place.  I hope to get to know you better.  I welcome your emails CLICK TO SEND ME AN EMAIL  or  you may leave your comments right here. I have enabled it so that you can leave "anonymous" comments... so... go for it.

(And of course, to those of you who regularly "check me out" because we have been friends in the past..... and now...sadly... because of geographical and/or emotional distance...we are not.... WELCOME TO YOU also.)

There isn't much I can say about myself here that I haven't already written on my webpage.

So I will just say this.  I wish I had understood earlier in life that all I am called to be is what I am - just clay.  A simple lump of clay. 

Because the system God has set up is that when people around us - who see us in our every day mortal lives -  see and feel and acknowledge that something we have done, something we have said, something about the way we live is so way above our natural abilities.. so way above the pay grade of mere clay.....THEN... and ONLY THEN...do people lift their eyes to their Creator and acknowledge that He is a God close by and not far away.  
 
Being clay means being human. 


I am just clay and at the same time -  I am the royal priesthood.
I am weak but He is strong.
When I seem strong.. it is simply Jesus being seen.

If you are someone who thinks followers of Jesus think we are better than... or above.. others.. then you have probably never met a true follower of Jesus. 

"We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 

 2 Corinthians 4:7

MY FIRST BLOG

Welcome to this, my first entry on my blog.  I hope you will be a frequent visitor.  
I am still working on this page.  On the upper right side of the page you are able to sign up to receive this via email. if you choose to.  
I am a writer by profession.  And the one thing a writer loves more than the act of writing is to have someone who wants to read what that writer has written. 
I am blessed to have "readers" of my magazine articles and "listeners" to songs I've written. 
PLEASE leave your comments. 
Thank you again to so many of you who regularly read my article and columns. 
And to those of you who know me as a singer/songwriter... thank you for listening.