“Your mission, should you choose to accept it……..”
 
Famous opening lines to Mission Impossible run through my mind as I recall the beginning of the newest phase in my husband’s and my ministry. Our move away from our grown children and grandchildren and parents in the Midwest came as an unexpected turn in our 30+ year sojourn with the Lord. I got the head’s up before my hubby did, though, in a most peculiar way.
 
We had a house guest staying with us who was a friend of one of our sons. She would have episodes where dizziness and fainting would come upon her and she knew she needed to lie down and concentrate so that she wouldn’t fade out. She asked me to talk to her until the episode passed. Just talk. Well, I’m used to asking leading questions and keeping quiet during the answers, which wasn’t a help to this young lady. So, I began a running monologue of my life and our ministry.
 
It’s odd when you have to keep talking about yourself. It begins to sound like you’re thinking out loud. She got a complete history lesson on how I met my husband, where we’ve lived, how the modular house that we were living in at the time was built, and so on. Then she asked me a question, “So, is this your forever home?” You see, we had moved 10 times before we moved into that house. But we always told the Lord that we would go where ever He called us as long as he made it clear to us. The young lady’s eyes grew big and she needed to know if God would call us to move from this home, our forever home, would we actually go?

​I had to think before I answered her. I need to be honest with myself and with God.
Would I move if God called us? I knew what I had to say.
“Yes, If the Lord called us to another place, we would move.”
The room was still, except for the sense I had that someone had leaned over my right shoulder and asked, “Really?’
Though I already knew what I would find, I turned to see who said that. No one was there.
But, I understood that God had heard everything I had said.
 
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My time is up, but the story has just begun. This odyssey of transition began in May of 2012. Although it would take up much space to write out the entire scenario, this improbable move away from our family and home towns to a “foreign land” on the East Coast (c’mon, you know that ANYTHING different than how you grew up is foreign) was designated by God, alone. And, I will testify that He has proven Himself to us at every turn reminding us that we are indeed following His call.
 
When I ‘heard’ that voice ask me ‘Really?’ I knew that God was speaking to me. He was tapping me on the shoulder and testing my sincerity to the promise David and I had said we would keep.
 
Our move almost 5 years ago has been the most difficult, emotionally draining, and ultimately rewarding relocation we have ever made. In accepting our mission we have agreed to receive whatever responsibilities have been designated by our Good God. If you have sensed that God is tapping you on the shoulder for a mission improbable, know that you don’t go it alone. He has promised to be Emmanuel – God with us.
 
1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” 

Five Minute Friday Link-up  is an encouraging group of writers who write for five minutes on the word of the week and share it in the link-up.

​Aaron and Hur holding up Moses’ arms during the battle.
The flying buttresses on Notre Dame Cathedral.
A skeleton.
Spiritual, physical, emotional provision.
All of these are a type of support. Some seen, some unseen.
Without proper support buildings would tumble and humans would crumble under pressure.
It’s necessary in a time of crisis.
Human beings would be blobs on the sidewalk without proper infrastructure.
Its presence lets us know we are not alone.
 
In 2 Chronicles 16:9 we read, "For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His….” (NASB) In this verse I find that the Lord of all the universe is eagerly searching for people who love Him wholeheartedly SO THAT He may give strong support. Truly amazing! He checks our insides in order to give aide to our outsides. Okay, a bit corny, but this is the way I think.
 
What I could do if I had a billion dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to God strongly supporting me. But it only happens because my heart is completely His. No keeping back anything for myself. No games of hide and seek. Lay my heart bare before the Lover of my Soul and I will dwell under the shadow of the Almighty God.
Then I will know what support looks like.
Then I will understand how He has been using the moments in my life to draw me to Himself.

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This post was written as a response to the word of the week at the Five Minute Friday Link-up.

It wasn’t until I realized that The Lord gave Adam a job to do BEFORE the Fall that I understood that work was part of the perfect Creation. Work was a gift to Adam to use his gifts and abilities in partnership with God for the benefit of his environment and himself. Work gives a sense of purpose and direction. It is a venue for creativity in problem solving and artistic expression. It connects us to The Creator, who worked for six days to make a world in which we live and breathe and work. The seventh day was to rest from labor SO THAT we would celebrate the God who made it all possible.

Now we deal with thorn infested tasks and thistle-producing jobs that hinder the joy and satisfaction we could derive from our work. The problem is not that we must work, but that we must confront the sin that degrades it. May our response not resemble the preacher in Ecclesiastes who bemoans every reality of life with the axiom, “Vanity, all is vanity.”
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Rather, let’s be convinced of the Truth and hope found in Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.” (NASB)

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Five Minute Friday Link-up is an encouraging group of writers who write for five minutes on the word of the week and share it in the link-up. 

In light of the recent events in Houston and surrounding areas, I think that ‘neighbor’ is a perfect word for this week’s Five Minute Friday.

Isn’t it funny how random situations can make neighbors out of strangers?

Group random people in a doctor’s waiting room, add a little time, and you have neighbors who begin to take notice of each other.
Who might need help getting to the door?
What might help that mom of three young’uns keep her sanity?
Passing out a bit of praise to the receptionist for keeping her calm in the midst of a client’s tantrum.

Proximity and situation make instant neighbors.

True neighbors respect boundary lines, relationships, and the proverbial Jonesy stuff we try to keep up with.

Bad neighbors serve themselves using everyone and everything in sight.

Good neighbors seek to do good to all who cross their path, even for the one who is labeled as the enemy.

Just as Christ did for us.
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This world is full of neighbors I just haven’t met, yet.