24 Hour Turnaround

“Dear God,
Please let something good happen to Tricia today! I woke up thinking (worrying) about her. She’s not doing so great. She’s been so faithful and patient throughout this trial and it just seems like one bad thing after another. I get the feeling that both her patience and her faith are starting to wane. Please give her something, ANYthing that will renew her strength and peace. Something that could only be from You. By no means am I trying to tell you how to do your job, but could you please make it today? She could really use a boost! Thank you for loving us! – Amen!”

If you’ve read my 1st post ever (Jan 2010) you know that Tricia is my best friend of 25 years. You also know that she went through a divorce and a month after finalizing that she was downsized from her job as a pharmaceutical rep. It was a conversation that we had that prompted me start this blog. If you haven’t already read that 1st post I encourage you to do so now. This is the follow-up.

I said the above prayer before getting out of bed one morning. At the time Tricia had been out of work for almost a year and the stress was really starting to get her down. Leads on jobs were few and far between. I wanted to call her right away to check on how she was doing, but thought I should probably give God at least a little time to work His magic. About 3 hours later my phone rang and it was her. I was just sure she was calling me with some good news. Even if it was just to say that she was in better spirits – I would consider that a prayer answered. So I picked up the phone…

“Hellooo…?” I said with anticipation.

“Oh my gosh! You’re never going to believe what happened to me!”

“What?” I asked, thinking this was going to be good!

“I went to take a bath this morning and when the tub was full I went to turn off the water but it wouldn’t turn off! It just kept running and running and I had to unplug the tub so that it wouldn’t overflow. Can you believe that? I mean how much worse can things get? There’s a plumber here right now trying to fix it.”

“Well…is he at least cute?” I asked trying to figure out an angle as to how this situation could be used for good.

“NO he’s not cute! Doesn’t the phrase ‘plumber’s crack’ mean anything to you? Plus it’s still early and he already smells like a sewer!”

At that we both burst out laughing! I mean seriously how much worse could it get?! By this point it was just comical! And then to add to the humor of it all, I told her about the prayer I’d said for her that morning (more laughter). As we tried to recover from our giggling she did manage to say that maybe I should keep my prayers to myself. Either that or be much more specific about what I wanted for her! Then she asked if she could call me back because the plumber needed to speak with her.

“OK” I said, “just breathe through your mouth!” – more giggles!

When she called back she was in much better spirits because not only had the plumber fixed the problem but he also fixed the leak that she’d had prior, and he did it all for under $200. We thought that was pretty good considering that it was an emergency call and she’d gotten more than she’d bargained for. So maybe that was the good thing. Or maybe this was a blessing in disguise because the weathermen were all predicting a severe snow/ice storm 100% to be moving in the next day. What if her faucet broke during that time? That would really be bad!

After we hung up I felt relieved that we had been able to find some humor in the moment and that it actually did turn out in her favor. I thanked God for that and went about my day. At about 4:00 that afternoon Tricia called again,

“Hellooo…?”

“Oh my gosh! You’re never going to believe what just happened to me!”

“Oh no”, I thought, “What now?”

“I just got a call from a friend of mine about a lead on a pharmaceutical position. He knows the hiring manager really well and can put in a good word for me, but I also know the hiring manager because he used to work for the same company as me, and the job sounds perfect! How’s that for something good happening to me today?”

“That’s awesome!” I replied.

“From now on I’m just going to send you a list everyday and I expect you to get busy praying since you seem to have a 24-hour turnaround!”

Tricia did in fact get that job and I take FULL credit (just kidding)! It was all her (with God of course!) and it wasn’t easy. It’s a really competitive environment to begin with, but right now there are a lot of talented, quality people out there looking for work. She went through several rounds of interviews and even came down with laryngitis on one of the most crucial days. But she had God’s favor and He proved that He can overcome ALL obstacles! He always provides exactly what we need, exactly when we need it!

As far as my “24 hour prayer turnaround” goes, she’s absolutely right! I am blessed with a direct line to God, but guess what? – so is she and so are you. I’m not saying that God always answers prayers exactly the way we want Him to, or even when we want Him to. But I know for certain that the moment we pray to Him (probably even before that), He starts working on the BEST solution for us, and only He knows what that is. We just have to have faith that He’s going to deliver the absolute greatest outcome with His own perfect timing. Often, this is a tough lesson in patience, but always worth the wait! I just got lucky with this particular prayer in that it happened to line up with His perfect will!

I recently asked Tricia if she felt like she had that one BIG testimony now. Her answer as I expected was “no”, but only because she came to realize that it isn’t really about that one BIG event. She feels like her particular testimony is more about her “time in the wilderness” as she calls it (referencing Matthew 4:1, KJV/ NLT), where she learned to be faithful, obedient, patient, and trusting of God. Her testimony is more about the journey, than a single event. It was a time in her life, that strange as it may seem, she will cherish forever as one of the best! The job was just the cherry on top! Amen for that!

God Bless This House

“Dear God,
Bless this house oh Lord I pray, keep it safe by night and day” – Amen

I added this prayer to my repertoire when I was a young teenager. I spent a few weeks every summer with my grandparents and my grandma had a set of coasters with prayers printed on them. For some reason this one stuck with me. Maybe because it was so easy to remember – short, straight to the point, and it rhymed! I’ve been reciting it almost daily since then. It also comes in handy during Oklahoma storm season when we are huddled in our under-stair closet/shelter (with our bike helmets on via Gary England’s recommendation), praying that the tornado doesn’t get us or our house. So far, so good!

I believe wholeheartedly in this prayer. I’m positive that it has kept us safe on many occasions and that there have been more close-calls than I’ll ever even know about. But last week I witnessed this prayer in action. Oklahoma City experienced its rainiest day in history! There was flooding like you wouldn’t believe and we were all advised to stay put and NOT to drive around in it. There were pictures on the news within a mile of my house showing mini-vans and SUVs submerged in water with only their roofs visible. It was CRAZY to say the least!!!

I went upstairs to look out my daughter’s window to see how much rain was gushing down our street. When I moved her curtains aside I was immediately hit in the face by dripping water. The rain was coming down so hard, so fast, and at just the right angle that it had found its way inside through the attic vent above her window. We had experienced this same leak shortly after moving in 3 years ago, but we’d had it “fixed” under our limited warranty. Well it obviously was NOT fixed, but this was the first time since then that it rained just the right way to find that leak again. I taped some plastic sheeting to the window to direct the water flow over the wood window sill and onto some towels that I placed on top of 2 large baking sheets to keep the carpet dry. Pretty smart I know, but it was actually my husband’s idea. He wasn’t home to do it himself, which I know just killed him because he thrives on being the Fixer of all things. He of course had driven to work because the laws of nature do not apply to him! :-) Anyway, after all that, I said a quick prayer for the rain to stop and to minimize the damage. The rain eventually slowed down and so did the dripping. I’d heard reports of a neighborhood less than ½-mile from mine where almost all the houses were flooded. I was feeling very fortunate that all we’d had was a leak which could be fixed – Praise God!

Later that afternoon we were still experiencing thunderstorms but the crazy rain subsided and the dripping had stopped. My kids were both upstairs. Rylin was playing on the computer right outside her room and JD was taking a nap. I was downstairs in the kitchen emptying the dishwasher when there was the loudest clap of thunder I’ve ever heard. I jumped so high I’m surprised that I didn’t drop a dish! The power flickered on and off and I realized that there had been some sort of explosion accompanying that thunder. It was quiet – TOO quiet! Why weren’t the kids screaming like they normally would at thunder alone? I started running up the stairs.

“Rylin?...” I yelled nervously.

“Yeah?...Mommy, what was that?” I heard in a small, scared little voice. Relief washed through me! She was okay!

“I’m not sure baby. Did you hear an explosion too?”

“Yes!  And I saw sparks out the window”.

Sparks! Uh oh, not good! I looked in her room and the window header that had been leaking was now hanging down and there was a sort of foggy haze floating around her room accompanied by a sick, burnt smell. I immediately went to gather my son, still in his sleepy daze. We hurriedly started down the stairs.

“Rylin go get your shoes on, quick!” I said while I went to get our puppy and put her in the backyard for the moment.

“Why? What happened? Why are you acting like that?”

“I think our house was struck by lightning!”

I dialed 911 and looked out the window to see if I could see anything. A fascia board from the top of the house was now in my front yard along with bits of brick. Oh my! The fireman told me they’d be there in a couple of minutes and to wait for them by the front door. I figured this was so we could make a quick escape if there was a fire, so I decided to strap the kids in the minivan and wait with the garage door opened. The firemen arrived right before I was headed to get the puppy from the backyard to load her into her car crate. I never had to because thank Heaven there was no fire. One fireman did tell me though that the lightning had struck the roof peak over the window and then probably traveled down through the water that had pooled at the leak, which then blew out that header and exploded through one of Rylin’s wall outlets in her built-in cabinet. He opened the white cabinet door to show me. The inside was completely black. Then another fireman who was up in the attic said,

“Hey man, you gotta come check this out! It’s pretty cool!”

Somehow I don’t think the words “pretty cool” would be how I would describe anything concerning this event – “horrific” maybe, “terrifying” perhaps! But I know he deals with scary, life-threatening situations all the time, so if it’s just “pretty cool” to him, I know I lucked out!

So today I’m definitely counting my blessings. It was a mass of melted wires and some 2x4’s that had been completely blown in half. But it’s all totally repairable and covered by insurance (minus a deductible of course). All the electrical has been fixed and checked to make sure it will not start a fire. The air-conditioner and the cable are back in working order (yeah! – two summer necessities when it’s this HOT outside!), and most importantly, nobody was hurt!

In the midst of the firemen being here, I went to check on the kids (remember - buckled in the mini-van?) and Rylin says,

“Your phone was ringing so I answered it. It was Daddy but I told him you couldn’t talk right now because you were with the firemen because the house had been struck by lightning. He said he’s coming home right now”.

Haha! She was so matter-of-fact. Poor Jace! His second opportunity in a day to manage a crisis and he’d missed it! Not really though, I packed up the kids and bunked at mom’s for 2 days and just let him go at it. He was in his element dealing with the aftermath. Oh, I need to count him as another blessing! I’ve lost count of what number that is! And one more for the list…since the lightning occurred in and damaged the exact same area where the leak was, it will be fixed in the process as well! Coincidence?...I don’t think so! It’s the power of prayer baby!

Thank you for blessing this house (Oh Lord I pray)! Please (continue to) keep it safe by night and day!!! - Amen

God Give Me the Eyes to See

“OK God – here it goes…
Please heal my eyes! I’m 34 years old and starting to feel like I look all of it. When I started wearing glasses at age 26 I liked them because they made me look older (and oh so much wiser)…now I hate them because they make me look older! I also hate to wear contacts because they really bother me and I do not have the money for laser eye-surgery. So I’m boldly asking you to miraculously heal me or help me find the money for the surgery – something, anything so that I can ditch these glasses and start to feel attractive again. Thank you in advance and I pray to have a blessed week! – Amen”

Yes, I am fully aware of how preposterous this prayer sounds. I was fully aware of it when I prayed it. But here’s the thing – I had just finished reading a book called The Blessing of Favor, by Kate McVeigh, and it was a real eye-opener (pardon the pun). Up to this point I’d always known that God loves me, provides for me, and looks out for my best interest. What I did not know was that I had been limiting God’s presence in my life by only praying about what I considered to be the major things – like family, health, relationships, finances, etc. In this book I was shown that God wants to be present in ALL things in your life, even the silly and seemingly insignificant. If you think about it, what kind of message are we sending to God by not involving Him in everything? Am I really showing Faith that He will deliver on the BIG things if I do not even trust Him with the little things?

I used to feel guilty about bothering God with my petty little problems, especially when compared to the atrocities of this world; I’ve got it pretty darn good! I used to think that God doesn’t have time for this. He has much bigger problems to handle. Not to mention that I didn’t want to seem unappreciative of the wonderful life that I lead. But this book revealed to me a simple truth:

If it is important to me, then it is important to Him!

What I wasn’t accounting for is that God is much, much bigger than this world and all of its problems. My relationship with Him is personal and there is enough of Him to go around to everyone! I was unknowingly diminishing Him by not acknowledging His almighty power and His desire for intimacy with each and every one of us. The book challenged us to give it all to God, even the little things. If we feel that we need or even just want something – Ask! You know the old adage, “Ask and you shall receive” (And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive - Matthew 21:22 NKJV).

So therein lay my problem…not only did I have to get over feeling like a narcissistic brat to ask such a thing, but I also had to believe that I would receive it. You just saw my prayer; I was having a hard time believing that some miracle was going to be provided to heal my eyes. But in order to really put this so-called-truth to the test, I had to come up with something that was important to me, yet rather trivial to the world, and it had to be something absurd enough that if it came to pass the only explanation would be God!

I prayed that prayer on a Saturday night. When I awoke on Sunday my eyes were miraculously healed – just kidding! Nothing had changed. My vision was exactly the same, so I put on my glasses and went about my morning. I decided to go to the bookstore, so I packed up my then 4 year old daughter and headed off. When I pulled into the parking lot I realized that I did not have on a stitch of make-up, zip, zero, zilch! You have to understand, I NEVER go anywhere without at least some concealer, mascara, and lip gloss. Even then I usually don’t plan to get out of the car. Ugh! I’m still not sure how I could have forgotten this fact, especially considering how unattractive I’d been feeling lately anyway because of the whole glasses issue!

But I was already there and still feeling pretty vain about the prayer I’d had the audacity to pray. So I decided to make it a quick in-and-out. That was forgetful mistake #2; nothing is quick when you’re hauling around a 4 year old! I was done with my business in less than 5 minutes, but my daughter had spotted the toy train set-up and protested very loudly when I tried to breeze on past it without so much as a glance. Not wanting to call any unnecessary attention to my unmade-up self, I stopped for a minute to let her play.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone approaching me with a look of recognition on her face…"Of course!” I thought, “Someone I know has spotted me”. But as she approached, clearly to speak to me, I realized that I did not know her. This very pretty young woman walked right up to me and very purposefully and directly said:

“You have a beautiful daughter.” Okaaay – not the first time I’d ever heard this…

“Thank you”, I said, somewhat creeped out by her intense eye-to-eye contact. But it’s what she said next that sent a shiver down my spine:

“And you look really pretty in your glasses.”

Whaaaaat?! Who says stuff like that to complete strangers? Not only did I NOT look pretty that day…but why would you add “in your glasses”?! I was so shocked by her words that I only half caught what she said next,

“I was Miss Teen something or other…back in 19…, and I know pretty!”

I’m not sure if I even thanked her in that moment. I’m fairly certain I was speechless. But just as quickly as she’d approached me, she turned to leave, adding as she walked away:

“Have a blessed week!”

I know!!! To say that I was stunned would be an understatement! I have no doubt that God spoke directly to me through this woman. The reason it was SO amazing and that I know 100% that it was God is because she used the exact words that I’d used in my prayer, and He was the only one who’d heard them. I believe God was just letting me know that what is important to me IS most definitely important to Him. And although He didn’t answer my prayer exactly the way I’d hoped, He definitely let me know that He was listening and He cared! He may not have healed my eyes, but He healed my heart. He let me know that I was beautiful in His eyes, and that’s all that matters. Since that day I’ve never cared about wearing my glasses. In fact, I wear them proudly!