Bless This House - AGAIN!!!

"Dear God,
Bless this house oh Lord I pray, keep it safe by night and day - Amen."

CRACK!  BOOM!  Foundation SHAKIN!  Dishes RATTLIN!  Power FLICKERIN! - all in a millisecond!

I sat straight up in bed and could hear myself making that sound.  You know that sound you make when you're surprised or scared.  That sounds like a really long "huh?" only you're inhaling instead of exhaling.

"HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!?!?!?!"

My sound woke up Jace, "What?"

"Didn't you hear that?"

"It was thunder," he said trying to calm me down.

"No!  Didn't you HEAR that?  We were just struck by lightning!"

"It was just thunder and the power is out," he assured me as he hopped out of bed to check it out.

"No!  We were struck by lightning - AGAIN!"  I insisted, following him up the stairs.  Our daughter met us at the top.

"What was that?"  she asked in a scared voice.  I was having Déjà vu.

Jace headed towards the computer with the intent to silence its continuous screech, indicating that it was in a serious flatline.  I went and looked out my daughter's window.  Yep, there was debris in the yard - AGAIN!  And there was that sick, smoky, burnt smell - AGAIN!

"Jace, don't you smell that? And there's debris in the yard.  I'm telling you we were hit - AGAIN!"

He couldn't make the screeching stop.  Abandoning it, he went out to brave the storm and look for damage.

"Mommy..." my daughter says, "my tooth fell out!"

What?  I stopped my frantic pacing to look at her and process what she'd just said.  "You're tooth fell out?  When?"

"I just woke up because I felt it in my mouth and then I heard the thunder."

Ha ha!  I little comic relief right when I needed it.  Just then Jace came back inside.

"We were hit," he said.

"Really?!"  I knew it but I still had a hard time believing it.  Once you've heard the sound of lightning hitting your house you will NEVER forget it!  "In the same place?"

"Yep."

So for anyone who thinks "lightning never strikes twice", I've got bad news for you!  I'm living proof that it most definitely does.

When this happened last year I saw it as a blessing.  Nobody was hurt and everything could be fixed. I have no idea why God would allow this to happen - AGAIN, but He certainly has my attention.  This time I see it as an even bigger blessing.  God showed us that He is in charge and looking out for us - AGAIN!

Interesting little story though...the next morning I got up and the first thing I usually do is read my daily bible verse on YouVersion (the bible app for your phone).  Well, it wouldn't come up because our wi-fi was fried!  Ugh!  Of all days, I really needed some guidance, some encouragement, which I can always count on from God's word.  Then it hit me - Duh!  I can just read my real bible.  So it wouldn't be part of the reading plan I was doing, but this would be fun, even more revealing.  I decided that I would just pick up the bible, open it, and the first thing I saw would obviously be what God wanted me to read that day.  So I opened it and this is what I saw:

Isaiah 6:1-4 (NLT)
1 It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. 2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They were calling out to each other,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
The whole earth is filled with his glory!”

4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke [emphasis mine].

If you know anything about me by now (besides the fact that I have a really great memory) it's probably that I do not believe in coincidence.  When I read passage 4, I felt like it was exactly describing my house when the lightning stuck.  Intrigued by this idea I read all of Chapter 6 and then some of the supporting documentation to learn more about Isaiah.  Turns out he is considered the greatest Old Testament prophet and is quoted at least 50 times in the New Testament.  The "Key" verse, which is also in Chapter 6 (again no coincidence here), reads:

8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?”

And I said, “Lord I'll go! Send me.”

Isaiah was humbled and changed by his unforgettable vision of God, so much so that he immediately answered God's call on his life to be a messenger.  God did not encourage Isaiah with promises of success.  As a matter of fact He basically told him that the people would not listen, but he needed to spread the message anyway.

That is how I feel.  I hear you God.  I know your power.  I know your love and your mercy.  I'll go!  Send me. 

There is so much more to this chapter than I can possible go into right here, right now.  But I've covered the parts that spoke to me the most that day.  I took it as a sign that I am to continue to be God's messenger.  Now please do not misunderstand me, I am not claiming to be a modern day prophet or anything.  Just that I feel called to keep doing what I'm doing through this blog.  Maybe nobody will read it.  Or if they do, maybe nobody will respond to it.  But if there's a chance that it helps even one person then it is worth it. 

So I'll wrap this up by thanking God for blessing our house and keeping us safe - AGAIN!  Amen!

A Blog for Average Ordinary Blessed People

“OK God,
Is this really what you want me to do...Seriously? This is why you woke me up at 5:09 this morning? I know it’s now 6:27. I was hoping you’d leave me alone and let me go back to sleep. I’m not sure why I can’t just do this later this afternoon while JD naps. OK - I do. Because I won’t actually get to it. I’ll find something better to do, like laundry, or dishes, or bills, or TV, or Facebook…So here I am. You know I’m relying on you to give me the words - right? To be able to adequately explain (to anyone who might actually read this) exactly what it is that we are trying to accomplish - right? So here I go…wish me luck. Oh that’s right, I don’t need luck – I’ve got you! In Jesus name I pray – Amen!”

So you might be asking yourself, “What have I stumbled onto here? Some kind of prayer blog?” Well sort of, allow me to explain. I had this idea, a “divine revelation” you might call it, about 6 months ago (Summer 2009). I was having a phone conversation with my best friend Tricia, and she was saying that she felt really good about getting this job for which she’d been interviewing. She lost her previous job as a pharmaceutical rep about 6 months before, just shortly after finalizing her divorce. As a result of the lay-off, she had received a substantial severance package. After much prayerful consideration she made the decision, for this first time in her life, to obey God with the tithe. To give an actual 10% back to God and to do it first! We are talking thousands of dollars here…at least a couple months worth of expenses. Her family and friends (most of whom are Christians I might add) told her she was “nuts” and that she should hold on to that in case she needed it. But she did it anyway – faithfully and with a glad heart.

So she continued to tell me about how she knows this job is meant to be, how it’s in keeping with her interests and experience, how she’ll be making comparable compensation, and everything has just fallen into place so seamlessly that she is just certain this job is going to be the answer to her prayers. Then she followed with,

“and when that happens I’ll finally have a really good testimony to tell people. Then they will see firsthand that I’m not so nuts”.
Whoa! I’m thinking. Wait a minute. Back up.
“When that happens you’ll finally have a testimony? What do you mean?” I asked. “I agree that this would be monumental, but surely you have other testimonies! I mean this can’t be your first and only one, right?”

She thought about it for a second and then said that she really couldn’t think of any others. I was flabbergasted! I’ve known her for close to 25 years and I could probably rattle off at least 10 different things right off the top of my head. So the preachy side of me mentioned a couple and she agreed that they were definitely blessings, but not really any sort of awe-inspiring testimony.

I have not been able to stop thinking about that conversation and wondering how my friend, who’s been following Christ for quite some time, could fail to recognize the potential in ALL of God’s blessings to impact or inspire? Big or small they all have some sort of testimonial value. And if she struggles to recognize that value, how many other believers are struggling too?

It also made me realize how I’ve completely taken my own faith for granted. I am so blessed that for the most part, I’ve always been able to see how God works in my life. What I’ve come to appreciate is that my faith is actually a spiritual gift from God, and although it is available to all who seek Him, it is not handed out equally. Just as some have the gift of prayer, or ministry, or giving (none of which I possess), faith is mine. This is not to say that my faith is never shaken, but I can definitely look back over my life and identify numerous times that God has answered prayers, spoken to me, and worked good from a bad situation. Even when I probably did not deserve it! Faith can be built by taking a good hard look at your life and acknowledging God’s hand throughout. Recognizing when He’s been there for you strengthens your faith and allows you to move forward with more confidence knowing that He is moving with you and directing your steps.

Armed with my new found consciousness, I started a list of all my life’s “testimonies”. Many of them actual prayers answered. Proud of myself for producing what I considered to be quite a lengthy list, I turned to God for His approval. But instead of praise He answered with,

“It’s a nice list, but it’s meaningless unless you share it”.

Oh yes, I heard from God all right, which brings me back to this blog. I tried to avoid Him by looking for excuses not to comply. I just couldn’t see how my little life stories could really make a difference. Won’t I just look braggy, or Holier than though? Or worse, won’t people be completely UNblown away by my super average, ordinary life? But then I realized, “Who cares?”! That’s the human, logical side of me talking, and I learned a long time ago that faith has nothing to do with logic! And arguing with God gets me nowhere fast! Only when I look at my life through God’s lens do I begin to see how EXTRAordinary my life really is and how truly blessed I am. If nobody reads or likes my blog, that’s okay. I’m not trying to please them. I’m trying to please Him.

What I’ve realized is that we do not need to have that one BIG monumental miracle happen as proof of God’s love or existence, much less to count our blessings or tell others about His great love. Perhaps all of our seemingly small life experiences add up to that one big testimony. You’ve no doubt heard the saying that “God is in the small stuff”. I believe it is there, in what may sometimes seem insignificant, that God does His best work. I have so many amazing stories to share with you. Stories which have led me to not just believe in God, but to believe God! He has a way of getting our attention (which I will share with you in a future post), so after months of dodging Him, I can no longer hide. I am ready to obey. These are my stories. I hope you will be inspired to take this journey with me and tell your friends and family about my little God project I’ve got going on here! -Oops! I mean BIG!
Thank you and God Bless!

BTW – Tricia did not get that job. You might be thinking where’s the blessing in that? Well I believe that is playing itself out right before our very eyes. As she continues to believe and seek God, I have no doubt that she will have that monumental testimony in the near future. But I also believe that her most powerful messages will be the smaller ones encountered along the way. I’ll let her post the rest of her story on here when she’s ready! I don’t want to leave you hanging! I am as anxious to see how it unfolds as you are!