It might be hard… but let the mother have the courage to do for themselves what they do for their children… and life would go on far more happily for both children and parents. Charlotte Mason, Developing a Curriculum
What happened that day astonished me, opened my eyes and heart to the possibility of a God in the universe, one with a heart of love, who stretches out His hand sometimes to protect me when needed.
That is precisely what happened that day over three decades ago.
At that time, I wasn’t sure what I thought about God, wondering if God was the ruler of one particular religion – and which religion, if so? Mostly, though, I didn’t think too much about God at all until that day. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about God.
That event opened a curtain into the window of the possibility of a spiritual dimension that I could enter through, if I wanted.
Whenever, though, they turn to face God . . . God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence
I walked past the veil, and since that day, I have never looked back, continuing my journey to know more and learn more about a God who stretches down His hand to give us a warm embrace.
And this is how He did it that day.
Except….
Insert that terrible sound when movies play in reverse, and we rewind the scene to an earlier part of the show.
I was seventeen when “it” happened, which ushered me into a thirsty quest for spiritual things.
I was quiet immediately after this event, not talking about the event with anyone but one person.
Why not? That is the subject of today’s newsletter. Why don’t you hear about the spiritual events in other people’s lives?
To even HEAR about the POSSIBILITY of spiritual things occurring in other people’s lives, you need to tune your ears to the radio frequency of the POSSIBILITY of God entering our world, both as a babe 2000+ years ago and as Holy Spirit whispering even now.
Last time, I told you everything I know about Psychotherapy. Here are five steps to summarize the previous post on fighting overwhelm based on my experience with Psychotherapy. (With any luck, these steps will also help us to become a little less nuts – The point of this post).
1. We slow down.
2. We quiet ourselves.
3. We come as we are, bringing our scattered emotions and lifting our situations to God.
So, I found myself mindlessly thinking about lunch right after breakfast and my mid-afternoon sugar snack right after lunch, which, of course, I would NEVER do!
However, I know some of you struggled with this once or twice in your life, perhaps. And how to solve this challenging problem reminds me of a funny story about my dog. THIS is a picture I already showed you of my dog in his Superman costume.
With an uncharacteristic lack of self-knowledge, I suddenly realized I was still in pajamas, curlers in my straight hair, that day as I yelled at my homeschooled kids to get up, get dressed, and get to their work!
The only problem was that I hadn’t done any of those things yet, either.
So, I was on a long swim because I am so athletic and fit, and while I saw a few fish, I sensed God speaking to my heart.
“Who cares?” you ask.
Well, Holy Spirit was speaking about you.
I know you have been waiting in suspense, clicking “refresh screen” every few minutes since you read THIS POST, and I promised to share one of my fish stories with you, so let’s get down to business.
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
That day, as I swam, I came across a brownish green slimy patch of regular-looking water weeds that I swam over.
I sensed from God that the slimy patch of brownish green weeds was my writing.
“Wow!” I thought. I felt so encouraged by that! There were many, many, much more than usual, minnows1 swimming around in this little unremarkable patch of weeds, which encouraged my heart so much.
I have been astonished at how God has brought so many readers (people from 33 countries so far have read this writing online2), or how there are so many minnows around this brownish colored, slimy patch of weeds!
I kept swimming, because as you know, I swim VERY far, and after I turned around and began swimming back home, I suddenly stopped at the location of that little patch of weeds because THERE WERE SO MANY MINNOWS I couldn’t find a way to swim through them.
There is purpose, there is something God is doing, as He is drawing us together. I no longer feel like I am writing to the wind with the sole purpose of building up my shallow self-esteem, begging for “likes,” and trying to inflate my ego.3
So, would any of you be interested in attending a weekly prayer and connection gathering, starting in the fall? 5:00pm Pacific time Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday are potential times that work. Please let me know in the comments, by email, or through the contact forms, which day would be preferable.
The time would be to discuss together and pray together. No talking experience or prayer experience is necessary! It would be great to share prayer and tea regularly, friend.
Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!
1 Also, minnows are small fish, and small fish will, by definition, get bigger (I think?), and so I hope that you hang out with me in my little brown weed patch long enough so that I can get all the credit for your growth! (Editor’s note – Try to think of others, not just yourself. Lori’s note: Whatever!)
2 Yes, the stats of which country you are from are posted for free! Yes, the web is super weird. I’m sorry, but I didn’t even ask to know! “Not all visitors who visit your site will have their location enabled in their browsers. Some visitors might access your site through an incognito browser or a Virtual Private Network (VPN).” So, get an incognito browser or a VPN! The web is weird! You’re welcome! Good luck!
I was mindlessly living my life, as we all do, being blown by the wind of the general opinions and attitudes of others, as the hidden currents of our culture pull us. (And by the way, if you think you are immune to the pushes and pulls of your current culture, that is the very air you breathe, then HAHAHAHAHAH! We laugh at you!) The only thing more ridiculous than being blown by the wind of the general opinions and attitudes of the culture you live in is NOT KNOWING you are being blown by the wind and of your culture!
THE POINT is that we are all shaped by the voices of others that enter our minds unobserved, and that God’s voice serves as a salve, as medicine, correcting our lives by a degree or two, if our ears are open to hearing Him convicting us.
This is what happened to me recently.
I had been swimming that day, as I do in that lake in the summer.
Usually, I see one fish, maybe two, as I swim along before I tire.
But that day I saw a school of fish, something rare in this lake. “Wow!” I thought. When I saw another school of fish, a large fish, and another large fish, and then two more huge schools of fish, I began to think, “This is VERY, VERY unusual.”
Literally hundreds more fish passed me that day, until I finally asked, “God, do you want to speak to me?” through this very unusual situation.
And He did speak. And His voice healed my heart. But that is for next time because my time is up again, and as mentioned HERE, your attention span is much too short (No! It’s NOT that I get distracted and forget what I’m even writing about – of COURSE NOT!)
God uses anything, everything, to grab our attention – poke and startle us a little- if our eyes, ears, and hearts are open to this possibility.
And so, the best way to course correct to avoid walking off the cliff by the invisible wind of culture? Clean out your ears to the voice of God, friend. He’s already speaking. We simply need to find our ears on the ground and reattach them to hear what He is saying—more on this next time.
Photo Credit – Will He Fall Off The Cliff Or Receive Help? by Felipe Souza on Unsplash
Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!
I love the song with incredible wisdom by Simon and Garfunkel that goes, “I am a rock. I am an island . . I have no need for friendship. Friendship causes pain. Its laughter and its loving I disdain. . . I have my books1 and my poetry to protect me.”
When I was young, I would belt that song out at high volume, thinking that if I believed it, thinking made it so.
Restoring Life 