Day Thirteen - Life and circumstances

This morning met me with more detours. My youngest son suffers from anxiety and a mild tic disorder. He has chosen to manage it without medication and has done well for about four years. I think part of his anxiety last night and this morning is due to lack of sleep. He is going to a college-prep school, plays football, has a girlfriend, is in constant motion, and I think it has all caught up. Anyway, thus the delays in writing and keeping my thoughts in check.

I share with you two email posts I read this morning. Both are very profound and real to me. As I continue to share with you my journey through life, certain things are bound to strike me and so I will go on a little detour myself. The first post is from a local pastor here in Baton Rouge. The second is from my dad, who flew to Seattle last week and returned to Mississippi on Tuesday. Both reveal the true nature and understanding of the most merciful, incredible, powerful, indescribable God.

Greetings:

Everything in my life and yours will be out of order until we address the matter of our love relationship with God. Just typing that sentence caused me to take a long pause before I could begin to type again. Of all of the messages I have been blessed to share with you, this one goes right to the top of my list in terms of importance. Everything in my life rests upon the reality of God pursuing a continuing love relationship with me. And the same holds true for you. I am 53 years old [now 56] and have tried to love, serve, worship and obey God for some time now. Yet, the force of these words is beyond description. Until I address the matter of the love relationship between God and me, EVERYTHING will be out of order! Do you realize that I am now forced to examine ALL of the stuff in my life in the context of my love relationship with God? Whew! That’s some heavy lifting. First of all I must truly wrap my brain around the fact that God loves me. It’s not as simple as it once was to make this statement. I cannot simply say these words when God is acting in my life exactly the way I want. I must process the things going on in the context of God’s love even in the midst of some of the many difficult moments that present themselves. Even the stuff that hurts, angers, frustrates, and challenges me must be seen in the context of God’s unquestioned love for ME. Whew! And then while I am attempting to wrap my feeble brain around this very challenging truth, I must come to grips with His expectation that I would love Him with everything that is me. Loving God with everything that is me goes way beyond the words I say or the prayers I pray. This means that my love relationship with Him is THE priority in my life. It impacts EVERYTHING I think, say and do. EVERYTHING! Excuse me a moment… I had to take another pause before I could begin to type again. God created us so that He could love us and we would love Him back. Since it’s my purpose, I’m going to get busy doing it. I want to encourage you to join me in this journey of love. Let’s start unwrapping the truth of His perfect and eternal love for us. Then, let’s try to give ourselves fully to loving Him back with everything that is us. I am going to give it my best shot. Everything in my life and relationship with Him depends upon it. Are you in? Stay loved.

From my dad:

Report on trip to and from Seattle to undisclosed list of friends and family:

As one who ponders about what he sees, I had some deep thoughts while on the trip. Flying over Houston, TX, Phoenix, AZ, Seattle, WA, and then Chicago, IL. I was impressed with the many, many houses that I saw. I am persuaded that in this world there must be at least a MILLION !! HOUSES. That means that there must be a HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!! Wow!! And even with so many people everywhere, I remembered that God knows every one of them by name. He even knew my name as I was flying in the air and looking down on all those houses. He surely is a great God to look after all the people in the world. I said a special prayer to tell Him "Thank You" for taking care of all those people and especially for all the family members and friends who are so precious to me.
My dad ended his email with: "I love you, you know!!"
I'll write more tonight if time and circumstances allow. To all my friends and family and those I have yet to meet: I love you, you know!!

© Copyright 2009 Janet Calcote Simmons All rights reserved.