Christian Diseases (Part 1)

Over my spiritual life, I’ve encountered many spiritual sicknesses. From time-to-time, I fall ill and need a massive dose of spiritual vitamins! The great news is that there’s always a remedy. I thought I’d share what I’ve learned (many times the hard way). I’m certainly no "doctor", but I think I can offer some insight on the matter. After all, I’ve suffered from them all at some point in my life! (I wrote this originally for Vertical magazine.)

Slow Poke Virus

Symptoms: She says she’ll do something, then doesn’t do it. She waits until the last minute to do projects and does a half-hearted job.

Results: Very unreliable, frustrates those around her, ministry work may fail or be less effective because of negligence

Treatment:

• Set mini goals so that tasks don’t seem so overwhelming
• Have an accountability partner...someone who can text you reminders or encourage you to stay on task
• Prioritize your weekly activities...sometimes Peter has too many things going on

"No matter what you do, work at it with all your might..." Ecclesiastes 9:10



Party-Pooper Disease

Symptoms: This Christian never supports events outside of worship . She’s the first to leave after Sunday service.

Results: Lack of connection with the body of believers, offends event planners of church functions, often “never knows what’s going on”

Treatment:

• Leave your comfort zone by having a conversation with someone you don’t normally speak to
• Decide immediately to enthusiastically participate in the next fellowship event

"Let us not give up meeting together. Some are in the habit of doing this. Instead, let us cheer each other up with words of hope. Let us do it all the more as you see the day coming when Christ will return." Hebrews 10:25



Pessimistic-itis

Symptoms: She can find the worse attributes about anything! She usually criticizes all new ideas.

Results: Easily hurts the feelings of others, loss of respect from many young Christians, sets bad example for non-believers, many conversations end when they speak

Treatment:

• Avoid giving your opinion until you’ve thought through an appropriate response
• Make lists of things you’re thankful for
• Practice giving compliments

"Warn anyone who tries to get believers to take sides and separate into their own little groups."  Titus 3:10

"Do all things without complaining and disputing." Philippians 2:14

(stay tuned for part 2)

You Go Girl!

I am the leader of a particular ministry at my church. It is a children’s ministry that involves children that live in the community surrounding our church. Most of these kids are disadvantaged in many ways. They are from broken homes, their parents are or have been in jail, drugs and alcohol are part of their daily lives. I was “appointed” to the role of leader somewhat by default. I started out as the only teacher of a few children. The ministry grew to the point of needing multiple teachers for about twenty children. I suppose since I had a history with the kids I was chosen to be the leader.

I am generally a much better follower than leader. I don’t feel that I possess any leadership skills. I prefer to be behind the scenes doing my work in the background. Nevertheless I find myself in this role so I’ve prayed for the skills and the desire to do this to the best of my ability. I fall far short of that most of the time, but I keep trying. Thankfully I have a wonderful team of co-workers supporting me and the ministry.

Recently I sent an e-mail to my co-workers regarding some issues with our ministry. Nothing too serious. We’ve just had some timing problems and behavior problems (with the kids not the teachers). We tend to slack sometimes in paying attention to the clock and enforcing the rules.

My parents began to help with this ministry about a year or so ago. I am thankful for them and was never the teenager that was embarrassed by their parents. I always wanted them around and they always have been. My mom’s response to the e-mail was simply, “You go girl.” I’m not exactly sure why she was cheering me on, but it made me smile. First of all, my mother just saying that makes me smile. My mother sending me an e-mail from “Comcast mobile” makes me smile. She’s more technologically advanced than I. Mostly though, it makes me smile to know that she was pleased by something I did.

What is it about getting approval from your parents? No matter how old I am it pleases me to know that my parents are proud of the person I have become. I want them to be proud of me. I never want to disappoint them. I want people to look at me and say, “J.L. and Charlene sure did a good job with their kids.” Hopefully that is the case, although I’m sure there are times when people look at me and say, “What in the world were J.L. and Charlene thinking?” See, in some ways, I am a reflection of my parents. I don’t want to embarrass them. I want to be a good representation of them so that others will think highly of them.

In the same way I am a reflection of the love of Christ. I want people to look at me and see my Dad because I think he’s pretty cool. He’s patient and kind and compassionate. More importantly though, I want people to look at me and see my Heavenly Father. He is loving and merciful and forgiving. Certainly I possess some physical and character traits of my biological parents. Hopefully I posses some character traits of my Heavenly Father as well. I want to look like Him. I want to act like Him. I want people to see love, mercy and forgiveness in me and in turn I want those traits to point to the One who gave them to me.

I strive to be a reflection of the love and grace of Jesus Christ.

If I keep that as my goal, one day when I finally meet my Father face to face, He will look at me with love and say, “You go girl.”

Surprise (Part 2)

Well, I think he really liked the surprise.  He was happy about it and thankful for it.  His wariness turned to excitement once he found where we were going, what we were doing, and who we would see.

I guess you’re wondering what the big surprise was.  It was something meaningful only to him.   We went to Nashville.  A place we enjoy visiting, but would not want to live.  Talk about traffic.  Anyway, the plan was to see an icon of bluegrass music at the Grand Ole Opry.  He loves bluegrass music.  Well, the icon, Ralph Stanley, for some reason didn’t make it to the Opry.  As fate would have it, there was another bluegrass group.  Their name escapes me at the moment, but it really doesn’t matter.  They played one song, “Rocky Top.”  My husband is a Georgia Bulldogs fan.  You can imagine that “Rocky Top” isn’t really one of his favorite songs.  So not only is one of his favorite artists a no show, but he also has to listen to one of his least favorite songs.  Happy Anniversary, Honey.  Oh well.  We had a good time there, despite the fact that this part of the surprise didn’t pan out quite like I thought it would. 

The real surprise though was a visit with some of his college friends.  When I started planning this I first thought that might be an odd way to spend an anniversary.  I mean, shouldn’t we have a romantic evening alone???  Since we basically spend all of our nights alone (although we have no children, don’t assume that every evening is a romantic date), I decided that we could share this anniversary with friends.  After all, he shared a few years of his life with these guys during college and we shared our wedding day with them since they were part of our wedding ceremony.  It seemed appropriate that we would include them in our celebration. 

I had hoped that we could meet the guys and their wives and children at a local restaurant.  They had a much better idea.  We were invited to have dinner at one friend’s home.  After driving in circles for a few minutes we finally arrived at their house and were greeted with gifts, flowers and a terrific steak dinner.  While the food and gifts were great, the best part of the evening was the fellowship.  The guys talked of their college days and laughed about things almost forgotten.  A word or a name would bring back a memory that would launch another story.  I love hearing these stories because I didn’t go to college with my husband.  I love hearing him speak about that time in his life because it gives me a new perspective.  It lets me experience those days with him.  I love it because it’s a time in his life that was special to him.  That makes it special to me.  These people are special to him.  That makes them special to me.

I worked pretty hard on the details of this plan.  I made sure I had all my ducks in a row.  I executed my plan as well as possible.  Unfortunately it didn’t go exactly as I had anticipated.  Isn’t life like that too?  We plan, we schedule, and we prepare.  Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.  But, in all things, if we are following God’s plan, it will always work out for the best. 

My anniversary surprise certainly worked out for the best.  We got to spend some quality time together without the distractions of our “normal” life and we go to spend some quality time with friends that we don’t often get to see.  

It turned out to be a perfect weekend!

Tears

The first, nearly ten years ago, had a heart defect. 

The second, less than a year ago, suffered an accidental overdose. 

The third, the one to whom I was closest and who was, in fact, a distant cousin, succumbed to complications from cancer just before Thanksgiving, leaving two small children. 

Lastly, in the wee hours of this morning, a car carrying my childhood friend and four others went off a bridge and into a creek.  Four escaped the car and survived.  My friend did not.

These four women were all of my high school graduating class and, at just 31 myself, I sometimes have difficulty with the fact that they are no longer with us less than 14 years since that graduation.  How is it that ones so young are already gone?

But I am reminded that we are all in the same fragile state.  None of us has the promise of tomorrow.  Though sad at this loss, I am also grateful.  I am grateful for the memories I have of each of these ladies when we were all carefree girls.  Most of all, though, I am grateful for God's amazing gift of eternal life through His Son.  I can know that no matter how long my life may last, even if I don't see tomorrow, I have a glorious eternity with God in Heaven coming and when I'm there, the tears will all be wiped away.

Surprise (Part 1)

On March 6th my husband and I will be celebrating six years of marriage.  Part of me can’t believe that six years have passed.  But, another part of me feels like we’ve been married forever.  I mean that in a good way.  We’ve reached that place in our marriage where we are totally comfortable with one another.  Not so comfortable so as to be complacent.  Comfortable enough to feel safe, protected, loved and content. 

For the past five years we’ve celebrated our anniversary by having dinner at a special place.  We always go to a place we’ve never been.  Sometimes this has taken us on day or even weekend trips out of town.  Other times we’ve discovered new or different things right here at home.  Last year we were blessed to spend the day with his entire family.  We share his parents’ anniversary so we celebrated their 60th and our 5th anniversary together with his family in a beautiful North GA mountain setting.

This year though, we’re doing something different.  I’m planning a huge surprise for him.  Really there are two surprises.  One on Friday.  Another on Saturday.  Oh, it’s not really anything all that grand.  It’s something that we’ve wanted to do, but haven’t made time to do (honey, if you’re reading this, that’s a great clue).  It’s something that will be lots of fun.  It’s something that he will enjoy.  Precious memories will be made.  It’s a huge surprise because it’s something that I know will be meaningful to him.

I am so excited about it that I just can’t stand it.  I’m dying to tell him.  I can’t wait to see the excitement in his eyes, the smile on his face.  But, I’m also enjoying watching him trying to figure it out.  He’s asked questions, speculated on the destination and even threatened not to go (not seriously of course).  See, he’s a bit leery of surprises.  He’s just a little afraid of the unknown. 

So am I.  How about you?  Do you like surprises?

I think we would all agree that there are great surprises and there are some not so great surprises.  The surprise party we gave my dad last year for his 65th birthday was fun.  The anticipation of this surprise anniversary trip is exciting.  However, the surprise speeding ticket I got on the way home from our family Thanksgiving celebration a couple of years ago was not great.  The recent surprise purchase of an entire set of new tires for a relatively new vehicle was not fun. 

I have a dear friend and mentor who says she loves walking with the Lord because He’s always surprising her.  She loves the fact that she doesn’t always know what’s around the corner.  She loves the way God reveals His plan for her life one step at a time.  That’s really hard for me.  I’m a planner.  Sometimes to the point of being obsessive.  I create lists and spreadsheets for almost every aspect of my life.  My family loves to make fun of me for this.  Of course, they aren’t laughing on Sunday afternoon when we KNOW where we’re eating lunch because I’ve got a spreadsheet for our weekly family lunch.  I really do.

Anyway, sometimes it’s frightening to anticipate the unknown.  It can be exciting and scary at the same time.  Even though life is full of surprises, both good and bad, it’s comforting to know that God is in control.  He’s promised us that if we love Him all things will work together for good (Romans 8:28).  He has a plan for our lives.  A plan to bless us not harm us (Jeremiah 29:11).  If we allow him complete control, like my friend, we can live in a state of excited anticipation knowing that what’s coming is going to be OK.

I wonder if my husband will like his anniversary surprise.

I’ll let you know.