Feeling Right...

Something doesn’t feel right.

That’s how life goes...some things don’t feel right ...and some things, feel just perfect. I talked to a good friend about this one day, just a heart beat ago, and its true...so true, about many things.

Some sin does not feel right. But some sin feels right and good and perfect.  The interesting part is that one can be moved easily from one column to the other...easily.

We are all sinners.

Yes, we all sin and believe it or not, God does not play favourites in this area.  One sin is not better than another, a sin is a sin.  Face it we are all sinners.  It’s a new revelation for me, not the sinning part or that we all are one, it is the fact that God does not play favourites.  I usually love new revelations of God’s love and grace and mercy, those that happen because of eventual goodness, seemingly deserved, goodness winning out.  But right now I am in awe of  the revelation that He can show exactly the same love and grace and mercy to those who seemingly do not deserve it...how could God love that sinner, the one who did that sin?

I love that about God, He can make it so that any sin is a blessing, something to be grasped and held on to, to turn over...to turn and sin no more.

Do not sink in your sin, God has grace and mercy for you, He can turn all things to good, for you and for me...especially me.

I don’t know who said it, or where I found it, but I am saving this little quote, I am putting it where I can see it and read it and take it in...

“It’s not about what it is, it is about what it can become...”

I love that.

Stepping Stones

It was my birthday today, I received notes from friends, old and new, words of blessings, words of wisdom, love and encouragement...all gifts of the heart.  I received a gift or two as well and maybe one more, given, poured out from the soul.  The givers in themselves gifts of God.

Years ago my Dad gave me a gift of words, he told me once, when I was just a girl really, I was stepping out into the world and he said ‘One step at a time Judy, first you crawl, then you walk and then, you can run...take it one step at a time.”

I have always loved that he told me that, that I have those words to fall back on, to slow down and measure my pace.

When we first moved into this home, John made a sidewalk part way around the house.  Embedded in the walkway are red stepping stones placed a certain distance apart, it is hard to walk at a normal pace if you want to step on each one, each step has to be measured.  Life is a maze of stepping stones, taking you in the direction you should go. The trick is to step on the right stones in the right measures.

A friend said to me the other day, be like a scale...balance everything, measure what is good. 

Yes, but in order to measure something you need to have something to measure against...hopefully it is something good.

Sometimes, I find that God gives you something, it is not yours to keep, it is given in order to see what is possible, to see a glimpse of what He has in store for you.  It is given as a means of measure, to measure all things against, to taste and see and know and wait for it to come for keeps...for you.  It is a stepping stone, a gift and God gives his children good gifts...I love that.

 I will be measuring all things against that gift...something good...a gift from God.

This is where I stand right now, I am on the road to enjoying life, stepping out and stepping on stones...one step at a time measuring and balancing good gifts.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above”   James 1:17

I love that.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

A man came up to my desk while I was on my shift at the Cancer Agency today.  He handed me a piece of paper, said someone must have dropped it, it was a boarding pass for American Airlines flying out of Chicago to Providence for a Ms Mcphail.  It was dated May 3, 1997. It begged to tell the story of a missed flight, perhaps a love lost, a rendezvous not met.  Perhaps they did meet and the pass was saved as a remembrance of that anniversary...but now lost.

Ahh a love story, who doesn’t enjoy a love story?

I shared and witnessed a few of them this morning... 

A little girl was coming off the elevator with her grandmother she seemed very happy and I asked her what she would be doing today.  She said she was going to be having a play date today, she had one yesterday and today she was going to have another one...”with the exact same person!” She was skipping with excitement and clapping her hands in joy, her grandmother smiling beside her.  Love, what a great expectation.

A little earlier two very elderly patients came out of the senior’s clinic in the office right next to my desk, I wished I had asked how old they were, but they were in love, no doubt. She was teasing him about being in her way, he turned slightly and said “yes dear”, she smiled and winked at me, he reached for her hand and held it, saying “put it into high gear mom” Now they both laughed, he with his cane and her with a walker. I stood and watched them walk down the hallway admiring them, hoping I will have that some day.  Love, such a beautiful time.

At least twenty people gathered at the elevator, they were subdued, some of them holding packages, talking quietly, looking for others, waiting.  I thought maybe they were going to a conference or a learning center, but no, they were all one family going upstairs to hear what the Doctor had to say about their loved one.  I heard later it was the largest gathering of support for one patient.  A dedicated family overflowing with love...love wanting more.

Today, a husband wheeled his frail, frail wife in a wheel chair up to the elevator, he took her just to the side of the door, came in front of her and bent down to kiss her, she ever so slightly lifted her face to meet his...it was the sweetest kiss. Then he went around, wheeled her into the elevator and the door closed.  My heart stopped and a tear fell.  Love still being felt and honoured and mourned.

I witnessed all these today and maybe more, yes there were more.  I was on the outside peeking in on love stories...they are all around us...I love that.

Love...the greatest story ever told.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  

But the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13

The Orange Wallet

I was in the grocery store standing in the checkout line, a man was standing behind me holding an orange wallet, obviously a woman’s wallet and I wondered about it.  I wondered why he had a woman’s orange wallet, I wondered why he didn’t seem to care and I wondered where his wife was, surely coming around the corner anytime.  He placed his bag of sugar on the counter, the bag tore open and sugar spilled out, he tried to brush it away but gave up on that.  Just like he didn’t care about the orange wallet, he didn’t really care about the spilled sugar.  He was opening the orange wallet; his cards slipped out and fell to the floor.  He reached down to pick them up and I wondered if I should help him or should I say something, a joke maybe.  

Somehow I thought, no.

Now I was paying for my groceries and about to lift the bags when he started talking, not really to anyone.  He said, 'my wallet was lost but it was found intact.'  

I thought, the orange wallet?  

He went on to say that everything was in it, all of his credit cards, all of his identification, all of his loose papers and all of his money.  One thousand dollars, cash.  We were all listening, the clerk, the East Indian lady behind him and me.

He was pretty comfortable with this orange wallet, was this the one lost?  At any rate the wallet had been found, someone had found it and turned it in completely as it was.  He wanted to give the person who found it a reward but they hadn’t left a name and the police didn’t know or wouldn’t say.  The person had found it in a recycling bin at the recycling depot.  I asked 'how do you think it got there?'  He said he thought it probably slipped out of his pocket into a bag he was taking to the road. 

From what I had witnessed earlier, I nodded in agreement.

 

How amazing that there are honest people, considerate and humble and willing to return lost items...people who are steadfast and true to others in their world, people who are not looking to their own gain at the expense of another’s loss...honest people, heroes really.

 

He was amazed, we all were, but here is the part that stood out.

 

When he realized his wallet was gone, he searched the house, looking everywhere, madder than a hatter.  His wife had asked him if he had prayed.  He said to us, that he told his wife, “Don’t’ be ridiculous, God does not care about some fool who lost his wallet!”  She had replied with “well then I will pray.”

Four hours later he got a phone call from the police, “Sir, have you lost a wallet?”

He didn't know any of us, he didn’t know how we would respond but he didn't care...he was ‘out there’ talking about God, talking about praying and telling us about answered prayer.

I love that.

Something to talk about

My friend sent out this quote this morning,

“Don’t judge someone just because they sin differently than you”

That’s an eye opener.

Then there was this warning I read recently in a book by Elsie H. R. Rempel,

“Because we see life most clearly from our own perspective, we can be tempted to consider our faith stage the norm, and use it to judge others.”

Judging, perspectives, being tempted, sinning, seeing most clearly...differently

...differently than you.

Really, it is hard to see anything at all in a different way because we are seeing everything through our own eyes; everything is weighed from our own experiences, our own perspectives, it is all weighed by what is going on in our own head. From our view, it seems that what we see is the norm whether it is in regards to our faith or any other occurrence in life.  And really what is going on in our head sometimes seems so simple, so straight forward.  Why doesn’t everyone see that? Well the truth is everyone does see that...from their own stage of the norm!  We are all going around looking out at the world from our own, simple, straight forward viewpoint.

It is hard work to turn and see the view from someone else; the possibilities of what could be a different view.

I want to see differently, yes I do think of glasses as half full rather than half empty, yes I do look to the positive rather than the negative but I want to see differently. 

I am also thinking that to see differently we have to talk about it...otherwise how will we know?