Risen phone on the third day

My husband asked, “Are you sad?  Are you mad?”  I didn’t know how to answer.  A cloud of silence hovered in the car after our bewildering rehearsal.  Things had flip-flopped from the week before.  Play this; sing that.  New people; old people.  Yes; no.  What was happening?  And to think back and remember my giddiness in anticipating the fun we would have!  But here’s the good part.  As I pondered, as I tried to talk things through with my husband, as I prayed for the Lord to take away the anxiety, here comes a curious phone call.  Now 3 days after the tumultuous occasion, one very sweet voice offers some very encouraging words, and suddenly my anxiety starts to melt.  Remnants of fret that had tucked into the tiniest of corners began to dissolve.  Because of the way the conversation eased my whole body, I knew God orchestrated that phone call.  He was comforting me.  He had seen me hurting.  What kindness, and how intimately personal He is.  We had opted to quietly observe and not raise a ruckus at the rehearsal, and in His gentle way, He let us know He too saw every anxious moment.  Days later, the final event was fabulous.  All the sweeter, in fact, for having experienced the inner turmoil and then His love delivering through that phone.  Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God . . .”  Yes, indeed He’s my God then, now, and always.

Inspired at Smashburger

Quilting is about quilts, right?  Right.  Yet with God, there’s always more.  For 8 months now, I’ve loved the friends, the Bible study, and the prayer.  The Heirloom Project sparked my interest in the sewing, but the nuts and bolts of threading the machine still make me cringe.  Crooked seams make me sigh because that means ripping and re-sewing.  The thought of calculating and cutting new sizes and shapes of fabric makes my brain hurt till this day.  One afternoon last fall our group took a lunch break and found a table at Smashburger.  Lo and behold, we meet someone new.  One of our ladies offers the invitation, and our new friend scoots down the bench to join us.  She tells about 2 quilts she’s sewing herself, and then as if my heart had a huge dose of warmth infused into it, I realized the Lord connecting our dots with intricate detail.  We learn about her son and her jewelry work and the fact of her cancer, and how thankful was our group for the Lord introducing us all.  How tenderly we sensed His touch.  Last month she and I and her mom enjoyed a return trip to our same Smashburger, and suddenly my cringes and sighs at the sewing machine didn’t matter anymore.  The Lord loves people, and He creates endless circumstances to encourage and inspire them.  I’m hoping to help my new friend in the future when she needs a ride to one of her cancer treatments, and our group is blessed to continue to pray on her behalf.  The last verses of Psalm 23 say, “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  On this day I experienced that overflowing cup.  What a wonderful contentment to witness the Lord loving His children.

Small Town, TX

Does your job send you traveling?  Mine does.  Our children’s theatre group visits lots of parts of Texas, including some smaller towns, and I love it.  Last month we went to Tyler.  Weather reports alerted us to ice and snow, yet the Lord cleared us a path, and actually the drive was all the more scenic with that fresh glisten of ice melting on the trees.  The school was fun where we performed, and an extra treat was visiting with my son-in-law’s mom.  She lives near there, and she kindly picked me up from the hotel for a very fun time of talking and laughing and enjoying a tour.  Sometimes we want the big city, the big business, the big neon name, but here my heart was fully content.  Really the blessing was extra sweet when recognizing the smaller scale of Tyler and the unlikelihood of most jobs traveling there.  Psalm 23:1 says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want.”  That's saying that Christ is our perfect Shepherd.  When we follow Him, He blesses us that we don’t long for more.  When we seek and listen, when we answer His call, we find our hearts perfectly content.  We don’t ache for what we don’t have.  Technology, clothing, status, you name it, all those things we tend to envy of others.  The joy of experiencing the Lord surpasses them all.  The fullness of knowing Him supplants by far.  I testify to having wasted energy in wanting things in the past, and I don't miss that hassle.  So we ask the Lord to remove the distractions.  May we trust Him to satisfy.  I have prayed for you today to know the joy of His presence.