Email revival

Emails.  Do they weigh you down?  I’m looking to click through mine pretty fast.  Get them finished.  But these certain ones have kept me in their grasp.  They’re from Messianic Bible.  They’re full of verses and Middle East current events and notes of Jewish life.  Very nicely written.  Wonderfully valuable.  And actually I’m the one who signed up for them.  But they’re long.  I have difficulty keeping up.  In time I have a heavy backlog weighing on me.  Then one day I gained new perspective.  I credit the Lord for resolving my problem, and really He must’ve changed more than my eyes.  He must've reached into my heart.  And what He showed was to look at these emails not as emails.  Sounds so simple.  Instead, look at them as time to study the Bible.  Just unplug the laptop and take it to the table.  Find a pen, open the Bible, and my mindset starts to ease.  In resetting the stage, or in moving to a different stage, I’m no longer hurried and pressed to click ‘delete.’  No longer is this a housekeeping task but rather a pleasure of the heart.  Psalm 26:2-3 reminds me, “Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.”  Just as David sought the Lord in these verses, so may you and I seek Him to keep fine-tuning us, to uncover even our smallest nooks and crannies in need of His perspective.  May He bless you and refresh your walk today.

MiniDisc mania

Gasp!  What just happened?!*  My whole body froze.  My theatre director and I looked at each other.  Yes, that was the Lord answering our prayer.  And in dramatic form.  All these years our MiniDisc player had stayed alive.  And when something keeps working, you tend to leave it alone and not interfere.  But now our theatre group felt a bit panicked.  Pressing as many combinations of the MiniDisc’s buttons as we knew, yet finding none to any avail, and rechecking our electronics across the board, we finally resigned ourselves to the idea of performing without music.  Saddened to think students wouldn't experience the full thrill of the chase scene, imagining them without music for the dances and songs as well, we needed to move forward.  I’d walked out front to explain to a teacher about lighting during performances.  I saw a single-file line of children approaching the stage area.  Time was tight.  We had reset behind the backdrop, yet while glancing at the MiniDisc player a final time, suddenly we saw something new.  The digital numbers for the music started counting off.  Music appeared to be processing.  We soon heard piano sounds overhead, and that's when my director and I looked at each other.  Yes, this is really happening!  The Lord breathed life into the old MiniDisc player we thought sang its last note.  And without thinking twice, all of who I was in that moment knelt before the Lord.  There in front of the MiniDisc player, I gave thanks for this sweet gift of the Lord.  It wasn’t that ours was any life-threatening situation, for we certainly could’ve performed without the music.  Yet He chose to answer our prayer.  I sensed it was simply because He loves to bless those who are His.  And how I love Him all the more for delighting to provide.  He is alive.  He is our Father.  In the form of Christ, He walked this earth and is our Savior.  As the Holy Spirit, He is our constant Counselor and Comforter of the heart.  Jesus tells us in John 14:19, “. . . Because I live, you also will live.”  And as I smile to relive these moments at this school, and as I love to re-experience the burst of joy becoming my own gasp, I testify that the Lord enlivens me.  May you and I recognize the blessings He bestows upon us today.