Saturday, March 24, 2018

What I Know For Sure...

             "God has YOU in the palm
                of His Almighty Hand!"

Some days I am left speechless. Speechless as I contemplate God's
love.  Speechless as I contemplate God's glory. Speechless as I experience God's grace.

Speechless as I see so much hurt right in front of me.

Lord, what am I to do?
What would You have me do?
What would You have me say?

I was waiting for the phone call. When it didn't come, I went to my
planner to check the date again. Yes, this was the day. Wednesday,
March 21st. I had written it in red ink in my planner. 

This was the day my dear friend was to get her test results.
The doctor had lovingly issued a warning of sorts.
"You need to have your family here," he said.

We had talked on the phone about the test.
She knew something was very wrong.
After all, she had spend a good part of the last
twenty years in battle. An unseen enemy that had taken a terrific toll. Yet she was still here. Full of faith. Full of belief in Him.

Eileen's faith is like a rock. It is unbending. It is sure. It has held her up through some mighty storms over the last twenty some years that I have known her. It has nourished her in the good times and reassured her in some awful times. I can't tell you how many times she has told me, very simply with such knowing...
                       "Linda, He is with me. I trust Him."

Eileen's faith reminds me of the old song....
          "Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus. Vast unmeasured boundless 
            free. Rolling as a mighty ocean, in it's stillness, over me."
       
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vUhwyjdk8A

When I first got to know Eileen, she was battling breast cancer.
Her son was going to marry my daughter and she wanted to be here for that wedding. She was having chemo and losing her hair and probably feeling a bit vulnerable as the wedding approached. Yet
the deep, deep love of Jesus carried her through, it held her up.
It gave her an unstoppable courage. She was there at that wedding.
She was there for the birthdays and children born. And when cancer came back again. She fought and she fought. Jesus held her up. God gave her strength. She trusted Him.

She trusted Him then and she trusts Him now.

Yet she knew something had changed over the past several years as she lost more and more ability to move her arm. Her body just didn't work like it used to. And then the other arm started to go.
The doctor gave her test after test and threw around some options of what it might be... 

Could the cancer be back? Was it ALS? What was going on?

They did a battery of tests and the results would come in last Wednesday, March 21st. We had talked on the phone and I had been on my knees praying, asking God to spare her. 

"She has been through so much already, Lord. Please, please heal her. Please have this be something fixable."

Yet the words that came next were only a whisper. "No matter what this is God, please be with her."

What came next, with her family surrounding her, was a diagnosis
of ALS. It's hard to know what to say after hearing those ominous three letters. After all, our whole Spokane community embraces 
our very own Steve Gleason who has and is battling ALS. We have seen how this illness has impacted him, has impacted his young family.

We have seen the white flags with Steve's name on them at races like the Coeur de Alene marathon. They say, "No surrender!"

Yet when Eileen heard those letters, I think God just held her in the palm of His almighty hand. She is praying for a miracle, in whatever form God has that take. 

And her faith? Oh, the faith of my dear friend. As the song says...
         
         "Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus. Vast unmeasured, boundless 
           free. Rolling as a mighty ocean, in its fullness over me."

No matter what comes next, and down the road, we are praying for a miracle. A miracle in whatever form God chooses to send it.

What I know for sure is that God will be with her every step of the way. And when she may no longer be able to make those steps, He will carry her. Carry her as He has always done.

Would you please hold up my dear friend Eileen Thompson in your prayers? Thank you.

God Bless!
Love, Linda








Saturday, March 10, 2018

Hope with Feathers...

                           "Spring is nature's way of saying 
                            'Let's party!'

Those of us who live where there are"four seasons," know what it is like to feel as if winter will never end. Granted, at the first snowfall, we are amazed and excited. Yet after months and months of that fluffy, white stuff, snow shoveling and icy streets and sidewalks, well, ladies and gentlemen, we are ready for a change in seasons.

Or at least I am. 


It is not an exaggeration to say that I am desperate for spring.

There is still some snow on the ground and the dirt is almost totally frozen, yet I am in search for the first green leaf.

It's possible, no probable, that I am like this every year. I am ready to be outdoors, walking and gardening and feeling the sun's healing powers on my face and heart.


Yet I also know that this waiting for spring coincides with Lent and 
new beginnings and old and new awakenings.  

I truly believe that with each season the good Lord sends my way, the learnings never cease. Just as my word for 2018 is "transform," so does God use each season to help me transform my life and my relationship with Him.


If I am attentive and hear His whisper

If I am willing to follow His lead
If I stop the hurry and scurry and am present in my own life.
Miracles abound in every season.

Just as the ground is rock hard, the snow seemingly endless, and spring a million plus miles away, right around the corner, slowly and ever so slowly, 
God starts the miracle of spring.

And after a winter in Spokane or Moorehead, Minnesota, just knowing 
and trusting that there will, again, be a spring...well, it just gives me HOPE.

As my pastor says, "Can I get an 'AMEN' to that?


Each season has its own beauty, yet at this point in the winter any hint of spring brings a "Hallelujah" to my heart and soul.


After all, sweet Annora Grace's new word is "hallelujah."

She walks and runs everywhere, beaming and singing that word.

How could Spring in all its glory not be close behind?


And then yesterday happened.

Bert and I couldn't believe our eyes.

The temperature had risen to a balmy 45 degrees, the snow was starting to melt 
and we happened to look out our back window as we had a conversation about our gardening plans for this year. 

Suddenly we stopped chatting, looked at each other and said, Do you see what I see?"

Everywhere in our frozen tundra garden were robins. Lots and lots of them.


One was even so brave as to get in our bird bath and just wash off every feather, frolic in the water and chirp and chirp to her heart's content.

They were in the hawthorne bush with all of the berries. Chowing down and singing. We counted ten in just that one bush. 


And those gorgeous robins weren't quiet about their delight. It was if someone had sent out a message saying...

                          
"Heh! Let's party! Fun time at the Salisbury's. Fly on over. Berries for everyone. All welcome! Hot tub, aka bird bath, will  transform your attitude!"

As I watched all of this take place from inside our cozy home, with my dear hubby beside me, I felt my own heart start to thaw. My own breath become lower and deeper. I reached for my beloved Bert's hand.


Bert whispered, "God never disappoints, honey. Even in the hard times,  the 
frozen-over times, He is always there. He sends us HOPE with feathers."

And then I started to cry. I've been doing a lot of that lately. I guess 
when you are 71 you get to cry whenever you are sad or glad or amazed at God's wonder. After all...
                                  
                                 "The beautiful spring came;
                                    and when nature resumes
                                    her loveliness, the human
                                    soul is apt to revive also."
                                                              -Harriet Ann Jacobs

Can I get an "Amen!"?


Here's to seeing God's love at every turn!

Here's to transformation and revival of our hearts!
Here's to a thawing of the frozen ground and the frozen 
places in ourselves!

Here's to spring and hope with feathers!


God Bless!

Love, Linda



                                                                 

                              



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