Random Acts of "Kindness"

Posts tagged ‘Bible’

ICE

There is no warning — doctor’s appointment, test results, accident — nothing like that, life is normal — no warning that I’m walking on ice and I’m about to fall through. All of a sudden I find myself in this black hole that I can’t crawl out of. The news on TV doesn’t help. Actually I try to avoid the news but it finds me. Policeman killed in Texas, Hundreds killed in France, Police killed in Louisiana — the world in which we live desperately needs the HELP OF GOD. Or has He/She given up on us. I DON’T BELIEVE THAT FOR AN INSTANT.

Normally when I find myself in a black hole, I avoid people and definitely WRITING. How can I stay positive? How can I write anything of value that would help either myself or others? Interesting questions — NO ANSWERS or are they? This morning getting ready for church I opened the bible to: Isaiah 49: 9 ” saying to the prisoners: “Come out.”

Good! I will admit that this didn’t necessarily help me. Come out from where? Am I a prisoner? But it is my custom to read the whole chapter. “The Lord called me from birth.” I will admit that gave me pause. I’ve read this before, and usually think “I’m in trouble now!” Did it HELP? I am sure it probably did — because I’m sharing this ramble with you rather than hiding under the mess of stuff that is my life. Recently a person about to retire shared his plans with me — he has two pensions which he is banking. He plans to work another year before he retires to Phoenix where his grandchildren live. I’ll admit that sounded wonderful, maybe? This gentleman sounded like he liked to go places. My husband likes to drive but he is particular about the food he eats. When we were in Texas he DID NOT LIKE THE FOOD available there. Traveling with him is interesting unless I’m doing the cooking. Are we supposed to travel — good question? How? We lost our motor home in the tornado last year.

Now I’ve stated before that I do not hear or see “my friends in high places.” But they get their messages to me anyway. Recently I’ve been getting hit on the head A LOT. It might be because I have not been writing.

Whatever the reason, it is comforting to me that I have “help” in higher places. Recently we were at the camper and I noticed a woman pushing an enclosed stroller. As I passed by I noticed she had dogs for passengers. I just had to stop and talk to her. I’m glad that I did. She noticed my shoes and told me of a source of the shoes I was wearing. A) I found them comfortable. B) I didn’t think they were expensive and didn’t know how I would get more. Question solved. Just a little “help.” As you can tell, I NEED ALL THE “HELP” — I can get.

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PERPLEXED

I’ll admit that I was confused. I know my memory is not what it was, especially if I’m on automatic pilot — put stuff away or do things without thinking. But usually I remember the titles of the thought rambles I’ve recently written or those that are scheduled to publish. Since I’m no longer young, I have many friends and acquaintances from many walks of life. Many like myself walk to a different drummer. I don’t remember who told me this but I think it was an actual person in my life, not the newspapers or TV.

I remember being told that my words would reach around the world. At the time I was astounded and I’ll have to admit not necessarily fully believing that announcement. “Sure! Right!” would have been my reply, if not out loud, silently to myself.

It wasn’t long after that announcement that I received a comment from someone in another country about one of my thought rambles. “Oh, you of little faith” — comes to mind. I’ve also been told to believe the promises of Abraham. How Abraham interacts with my life is a question still to be answered. I have to admit that when His name pops up, I pay attention. “I repeatedly fail to trust God’s promise to Abraham” was in my morning reading. ??

So by now you are wondering just what I am rambling about. Sunday morning I received an e-mail that a new person is now following Wandering With Spirit. The e-mail mentioned that she liked STEERING WHEEL. I didn’t remember Steering Wheel being a title that had recently published. The recent titles where about our trip and other recent happenings. I asked my husband if he remembered the title and received a negative response. All during church the question surfaced in my mind. We were visiting our daughter in Central Illinois so I didn’t have access to my files. I will soon celebrate the FOURTH year anniversary of Wandering with Spirit. Since I try to write a thought ramble a week the number is in the hundreds.

Question: Did I publish a title STEERING WHEEL. When? What was it about? Thankfully the data base gave me the information. Steering Wheel was published December 21, 2013. No wonder I didn’t remember. How was this particular thought ramble found? The subject of the ramble provided the answer. God is in charge. With God all things are possible. The ramble was about a tandem bike, God doing the driving, I’m behind, doing my best. The ramble is as relevant then as now — I still put my hands on the wheel, trying to drive, I’m still reminded of WHO is in charge.

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VISIT

I’ve already shared that I start the day with a reading from the bible, followed by a reading from Queen Of Angels. Tuesday I opened the bible to Jeremiah 46 — “The message which the Lord gave to the prophet Jeremiah.” I opened Queen of Angels to — “Do I recognize this time of my visitation?” Did I pay special attention to these readings? Good question — answer “NO”.

It was a shopping day — my husband needed prescription refills. While at the store I decided that I would down load the pictures from my camera, get ready for Christmas. The machine DID NOT recognize the film. Neither did the other two machines that I tried. Going back to the first machine that had been successful in the past, I put the film in, which promptly fell to the floor. The film is a micro, very tiny. Immediately I was concerned — was the film damaged? Had I lost all my pictures? Evidently the fall woke the film up, the photos loaded onto the machine — over two hundred. After I chose the hard copy photos, ordered the DVD, I learned that the photo machines were down. Copies would take longer to process. When I shared my experience to a friend at the store, she remarked, “You know what was going on don’t you?” I will admit that I wasn’t surprised when I was told the printers were acting up. I didn’t necessarily put one and one together.

The rest of the shopping trip followed suit. My husband and I stopped at Fed X to make copies of the Christmas Letter. Then we stopped at a grocery store. It isn’t my normal shopping place — I only needed coffee and flour. Four shopping bags later — not only did I have coffee and flour, I had Dreamfield elbow macaroni, which is very hard to find and other supplies which were also on sale. After all, Christmas is coming and I have cookies to bake. I’m going to have to visit this store more often.

We stopped for lunch at a fast food place — wraps were the special of the day. One of the choices was Greek. When I inquired, I learned it was a gyro in a wrap. It was delicious, it was huge, half of it went home with me.

We returned to Costco to see if the pictures were ready. They were! Walking to our car, I found a couple of evergreen branches on the pavement. I LOVE the smell of evergreens, they came home with me. We have an artificial tree.

We stopped at the pet supply store — they had a new flavor in a brand that I buy for Robin — Merrick Great Plains Red Recipe — Robin LOVED IT — out of the bag, no cheese added.

We stopped at Trader Joes. I mentioned to the person running the samples that I looked for Fried Mushrooms with out success. As I was standing in line, he came out with two bags of frozen mushrooms, that had just come in. One was my fried mushrooms — it came home with me.

Arriving home, I was greeted by a huge poinsettia plant on the table, a gift from our neighbors.

Did I have a visitation that day? I know so!

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PESTERED TO WRITE

Since I don’t see, nor hear my friends in high places, you might ask how I’m pestered to write. As time has passed since my father passed over, I’ve learned that many things are possible on the other side. For instance: I’ve learned that they can mess with electronics: telephones, computers, TV’s, lights just to name a few. My father didn’t know anything about computers when he passed over, although they were in existence, his memory was already affected by Alzheimer’s which didn’t allow him to learn how to use them. Now I can’t say for sure who it is that helps me with my writing — I would say “Dad” but it could just as easily be my mother, brother or ??

Writing To Pap with Love, I had PROBLEMS. Sentences disappeared, computer stuck, printer stopped — it didn’t take long for me to realize that I was receiving “help”. Once a skill is learned, it continues to be used. If what I’ve written in my thought ramble shouldn’t be shared — the ramble sticks, won’t be saved until I either fix what is causing the problem OR discard the thought. Sometimes the font changes — all of a sudden everything is in caps, or there are spacing problems or ?? I’ll leave more examples to your imagination.

But that doesn’t explain how I’m pestered to write. Just as I’ve learned that my thought ramble is incomplete or shouldn’t be shared, I’ve learned to recognize the signs that I NEED to write. Sometimes the first inkling comes from the bible: Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. before you were born I dedicated you.”
Maybe I’ll open the bible to Isaiah 42: The Servant of the Lord. Since I start the day with a random reading from the bible, the choice is endless. Recently I opened to the empty space at the ending of the Old Testament.

The message might try to get through in other ways — at church — a song “Who shall I send?” Its not like I’m looking for a message or guidance, I turn on the radio and a song gets my attention, a TV program or even a commercial.

If I’m not inspired to write, but a theme has been given to me and I’m not taking the time to explore it — I’ll have trouble sleeping. I wake in the middle of the night, realize that I’m writing in my head and be unable to go back to sleep.

I REALLY DON’T LIKE being hit on the head! I try very hard to be open to messages to avoid that. Now I don’t know if I have anything really to say, but as long as writing seems to be my JOB, I’ll keep trying to put words on paper.

Coming back from the retreat, while walking Robin, I saw two neighbors who I hadn’t seen in a long time. The first one is experiencing leg circulation problems which has restricted his ability to get out and about.
Since I last saw him he had to put his Lab down because of cancer. The same afternoon I met another neighbor who had to have a kidney removed because of cancer. Of course I shared stories with each.

Back home again — at the grocery store, I met a woman from church who has had challenges of her own. I forget how many times in the last year she has been hospitalized but it was a lot. Walking home, another person waited for me to catch up to her so we could talk. I usually pay attention when three things occur but lately I’m paying attention to two, especially when they occur back to back.

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CHAPLAINS

It will come as no surprise when I admit that I talk to strangers on a regular basis. I just realized that within the past two months, three chaplains have crossed my path. Since June 22 when the tornado descended on Woodhaven Lakes, various teams from the Southern Baptist Disaster Ministry have been on property helping to clear the fallen trees. I have recently learned two interesting facts or theories. The first is that there were two tornadoes interacting over Woodhaven. The first stayed air born and sheared the tops off of trees. The second interacted with the first and jumped across the landscape uprooting trees and causing major destruction. They think anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 trees were affected. I don’t know where these facts are coming from but it does explain the number of trees that are uprooted. It didn’t help that June was a very wet month and the ground was saturated. The help from many people and organizations was desperately needed.

I don’t pay too much attention when something happens one time. The second time the same idea might cause me to pay a little bit more attention but when I notice the third, I wonder. I met the first chaplain soon after we gained admittance to property. A team from Southern Illinois were across from our lot cutting the trees in the little park. I wandered across to talk and learned of their mission. That was my first interaction with a Chaplain, who resides in Springfield, IL. I went to their command post on property, and signed up, requesting their help. The double trunk tree over our motor home required more equipment than the Southern Baptist had with them so we hired a professional team. Once the trees were cut, I went back to control central and asked them to take our request off their stack.

So many people asked for their help that they returned, with different teams a second and third time. I was really surprised when I saw their yellow shirts and equipment when we returned to Woodhaven after our trip to Florida. We still had trees that needed to be cut down, so I returned to Command Central to fill out another form. We have two trees down on our property that have fallen on the lot behind us. I asked the association to phone the owner requesting their permission to cut the fallen trees. Leaving Command Central, I met my second Chaplain. She lives in Sugar Grove, IL. She was part of the team that first assessed our needs, then returned to clear the trees. As she left the campground for the week, I was up at the main gate to say goodbye and thank them for their help.

The last Chaplain I met was from Houston, TX. He said that he was not ordained, and he doesn’t speak at their services. I’m regretting that I didn’t delve into this idea further. I’m sure that he is so glad that he met me since I gave him a new idea — there is life immediately after death, not only for humans, but for animals too. I had already admitted that I argue with God, but never win and walk to a different drummer. He explained that there was nothing in the bible that mentioned animals having a soul, or crossing over . To which I replied that the Bible was written by man inspired by God, but it didn’t contain everything. I mentioned that I had personal experience seeing the spirit of our deceased dog running through our house. With that he asked if he could pray for me.

THREE CHAPLAINS — I wonder, is there more to this than just meeting three Chaplains?

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HEADS UP

Each morning I start the day by opening the Bible. Most of the time I open to the Old Testament — Isaiah, Sirach or Jeremiah –sometimes the Psalms or The Song of Songs. I rarely open to the New Testament. Depending on the day, month of the year and what is going on in my life or the world, the books and verses are varied. Over the years, I have learned to pay attention when I randomly open to Job or to Daniel — the story of the furnace. I DON’T LIKE seeing either of these readings. They usually mean that trouble is brewing.

Recently I opened the bible to the furnace on two separate occasions. The first time the men were singing praises to God and I thought the problem that was referred to might have been solved. Sadly, we have had trouble with our car -an oil leak — expensive to fix. The next time I opened the Bible to the furnace, the men were walking among the flames. The engine light came on in our car and a broken motor mount was discovered. Our garage had trouble getting the part — our car was in their garage for the snow storm. My husband took the car for its emission test and it passed. Then the yellow engine light came back on. There is a problem with the engine — what is wrong and how expensive it will be to fix remains to be seen. The car is at the garage and they are working on it. We had planned to go to our youngest daughter’s in Central Illinois. The temperature this week is the coldest this year, in fact it might even break records. It looks like we will be postponing our travel until the weather breaks.

We bought our car when my husband retired, many years ago. It has over a hundred thousand miles on the engine. Since we would like to keep it for many more years, we change the oil regularly. Our camper is over a hundred miles from our house, our grandchildren are further down the road in a different direction. It is important that we have a car that is comfortable and dependable.

Last week, I opened the Bible to the preface for the New Testament. When I opened the Bible to the introduction of the New Testament the following day — I wondered if that means the trouble with our car has ended. I really won’t mind.

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REFLECTIONS

A friend asked me the other day if I was on my list. Did I think of the things that I wanted to do or did I put everyone else first. I laughed because I realized that once again I have slipped off my list. Too much coming and going — too much trying to catch up — never succeeding — too much just doing what was necessary.

We were at our youngest daughter’s home. Seven o’clock in the morning, I had already taken our dog for a walk, made a pot of coffee, unloaded the dish washer and made breakfast for my grandchildren, plus fed the dogs — hers and ours. I opened my daughter’s Mom’s Devotional bible to Isaiah 40:11. “Tends his flock like a shepherd, gather’s his lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart and gently leads those that have young.” I thought it rather described my morning.

Sunday morning, I opened to a reflection titled Sitting on the Bench. I didn’t write down the passage it referred to, but I remember it concerned watching the proceedings without actually taking an active part. At our daughter’s church that morning, the minister asked the congregation if our life reflected our values — even on Facebook. Was our life God centered? Afterwards, reflecting on the question in my mind, a church member told me that I was a light in his life. I guess I was given an answer.

Sunday night, I didn’t sleep well. I was EXTREMEMLY WORRIED! I don’t want to share the reason right now, it really isn’t important. I opened the Bible to God Answers Prayers. The question: Does God answer yours? Do you keep a journal? Soon after reading that piece, I had a conversation that eased my worries. There is still cause for concern and they are still in my prayers, but not in immediate danger. YES, GOD ANSWERS MY PRAYERS. Not always as quickly, nor do I get the answer that I want, but my prayers are definitely answered.

Back home again, the planes are practicing for the air and water show. Soon after my father passed to the other side, I had a dream in which I was a pilot of a Blue Angel plane. The story WINGS is in Journey With Me. Neither of the books I have written have become best sellers but I’m confident that they have helped many people. Why am I bring this up NOW? I love to try to find the planes as they are practicing. They fly over our house much to the distress of our dogs. At 11:00 I heard the planes — rather early for a practice and a day earlier than usual. I wondered what planes were in the sky. Standing in the alley to have a better view without the trees, I saw two planes in the distance. I wondered which ones they were. I soon had my answer, two planes flew so low I saw the writing on their wings — BLUE ANGELS. They usually close the show. Around 3:00, I was shopping at a store and heard planes flying overhead — I wondered which ones they were and watched the skies when I exited the store. Smaller, with gold on their wings, six planes, performing maneuvers. A person collecting carts used to work on them when he was in the service — I learned they were from the navy.

The Mind, Body, Spirit Expo is this weekend. Although I love going, I planned to be in the country with my daughter’s family — swimming, fishing —. God had other plans. This has been a wet, cool summer. This weekend is more of the same. Wet, rainy — not a good weekend for outdoor activities. Our daughter is staying home, so are we. Hello Expo!

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