Whooey!!! Had a lot of fun!
Back in the summer when Andy and I celebrated our wedding anniversary of I'm-not-sayin'-how-many years together, he gave me 2 tickets for us to see a Celtic Thunder concert in Tulsa, which was last night.
This well-trained vocal Irish sextet does a great job on each and every song, and their band is wonderful. Every one of the seven member musicians is multi-talented and showcases that throughout the evening. Multiple instruments, singing, dancing, interacting with and mugging for the crowd...they do it all.
Andy and I happened to find a parking spot directly in front of their 2 Prevo tour buses and their 2 eighteen wheelers and trailer. Including the singers, band members, roadies, sound technicians, and drivers, we counted at least 24 people that traveled with the group....that is a lot of salaries and mouths to feed!
Understanding the singers when they were simply talking and not just singing was rather difficult. Their Irish brogue is so thick that so much of the time I could not follow along- but when they sing they lose the brogue. What do they do when they tour other countries? Surely they don't sing perfectly in that country's native tongue and then talk in a brogue-ed version of that language. Can you imagine a brogue-ed Spanish? Or do they just sing in Irish everywhere except here?
Anyway, they were well worth the tickets. I would go to see them again.
Okay. It is very likely no big secret among the people that know me that I do not like the way the 2012 presidential vote went. I am not a fan to say the least. And my first reaction Tuesday night when the results came on my TV was pure fear and a lot of resentment.
But then, I remembered. I am a child of the living God and one of His promises to me in His Word is this:
"Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10
So I have a choice: (1)go with my natural inclination and panic, or (2) believe the promise of the One who can hold the entire universe on top of a speck of dust that is upon His little finger.
Natural inclination will lead me to worry, fear and depression - not a great way to open my eyes every morning for the next 4 years.
Believing His promise to all of us who are His - will allow me to let Him handle the problems that are coming, and give me the freedom to laugh, create, and get on with my life.
Not a whole bunch to think about in making that decision.
I am continually amazed at the amount of dissension among the ranks of God's people. We manage to disagree on anything and everything - some important ground-shifting stuff, and some so trivial that it is pathetic to be involved in such pettiness.
But the election of the President of our country, now that is important stuff!
How is it that all of us Christians; who pray to the same God, who believe the teachings of the same Bible, who were made brothers and sisters of the same Heavenly Father when we accepted Jesus as our Savior - how can we be so diverse in our needs in a leader of our country?
Probably because we are not truly seeking His leadership, but are wanting what we want. Yes, I am guilty of the same self-centered thinking and desiring. And if you are gut level honest, you most likely would have to say the same, after all, we are humans with selfish human tendencies (and that is putting it mildly!)
But knowing this about ourselves, it is even more important that we pray for God to show us who He wants to be elected the leader of the United States of America for the next four years. Folks, this is too important for us to simply vote to satisfy ourselves.
So before you "Get Out And Vote", please "Get Down And Pray."
I am back - back up on my feet! YES!!!
I have been flattened in my bed for the last three days with a flair up of my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and it feels so good to be able to walk across the living room again without having to rest before I get to the other side!
I also have a new MIFI to replace the once that crashed and burned the same time I did, and I finally got my car back from the shop after hitting a deer three weeks ago - so now I feel like I am part of the outside world again!
I have something to say after the last few days of pain, exhaustion, and isolation.
Folks, if you know of someone that is struggling physically, emotionally, financially, mentally, etc., it would be a wonderful act of love and kindness on your part to simply let that someone know that you care.
The kind friend that sends Get Well flowers, or a card, an email, or a phone call means so much to the person who is hurting. When you are the one who is down, it is sometimes a pretty daunting task to find a ray of hope in your thinking - and receiving an encouraging message telling you that you are loved and prayed for is a wonderful thing.
It may seem small and insignificant to you to send an email of encouragement, but trust me, the one who receives it may find it to be a thrown lifeline in swirling murky waters that are pulling them under. Please take my word for it, never underestimate your power of helping someone who is hurting.
Every once in a while, when my husband knows there is absolutely nothing that is worth watching on the TV, he will wag home with a movie, which is what he did the other night.
Sometimes his guess turns out to be a good one...other times, not so great. I have lost count of the evenings that we have looked at each other with a bewildered look on our faces and just shrugged. Other times one of us has been known to shout disgustedly, "Oh, good grief! I could have written better dialogue than that dude!" Or the classic, "Can't they come up with a decent plot anymore, that doesn't have to rely so heavily on sound effects, graphic blood and guts, and sexual everything?"
But, sometimes, he hits a fairly good one. Entertaining, well written, well acted, with a good plot.
And, every once in a while, he comes home with a thought-provoking movie. And that is what he did this past week.
Have you ever been the one who wanted the opportunity to sit down with God, one-on-one, and simply ask Him anything that you were confused or angry about; wanting answers that you understood, that made sense right now?
In this movie, a young lawyer in a rapidly declining marriage finds a written invitation to dinner in an exclusive restaurant laying on her computer when she arrives to work one morning, and the invitation was signed... From Jesus Christ.
Intrigued and thinking that it might be her husband's attempt to repair damage, she goes. And finds a stranger waiting for her at her table, who introduces himself very calmly as Jesus.
Of course she is infuriated and disbelieving, but decides to play along in order to humiliate him, and starts to pose some difficult life questions. Questions that we have all heard from others and from ourselves. And she received answers. The more answers she heard, the more she asked.
Title of the movie? The Perfect Stranger
I am sick. Sick of watching what is happening to our beloved country through the years. And folks, I am old enough to have watched quite a few years roll by!
The other night Andy and I decided to take a stroll back into yesteryear and watched an old rerun episode of the TV show THE WALTONS.
I sat there incredulous at the simplicity of the plot, the sweetness of the family relationships, the old-fashioned furnishings of the house, the strong work ethic of all the characters portrayed, and the pure acceptance of the decidedly higher values and morals that were the backbone of that popular show many years ago.
It is debated, "Do movies and TV shows reflect actual life, or to a certain extent, do they cause and create actual life of the people - people are influenced by what they see on the screen?"
Won't even attempt to put my opinion on that subject in writing here, but I will say this; we don't even look like the same United States of America that was portrayed by that TV show any more...in so many ways. Behavior, morals, beliefs, families, the workplace, loyalty to country, and obedience to God.
It all looks so different now.
Now, I said earlier that I am old enough to have seen years of change, but as I watched that show, I was thinking....How could we have lost so much in so little amount of time? It hasn't been that long since this show was a realistic portrayal of life in a small rural community years ago.
Makes me sick. Sick and sad. May a merciful God pull us back from where we have gone.
What a ending to a day!
Andy and I left Claremore OK, where he had preached both services this past Sunday, and were driving back home - ready for a quick snack, a TV show about competing cooking teams vying for 1st place, and an early bedtime.
We were about 15 minutes from home, driving through a tiny town, when suddenly a buck with a large rack came flying out of nowhere directly in front of our car - evidently thinking he could make it across the road before we got there.
Boy, was he wrong.
I have the distinct lasting impression of screeching brakes, my scream and me bracing my hand against the dash, a WHOOMPH! as we hit him dead center with the front of our car - and then, the image is seared into my brain of deer body parts flying off into different directions.
In a matter of a split second, our plans for an early restful Sunday evening were not to be. Not only was the front of my trusty car looking badly scrunched, but the radiator immediately leaked out all the fluid - we were not headed anywhere near home soon.
An hour or so later, good ole AAA arrived, and carried us and my ailing vehicle to our local repair shop. After having to unload the car of everything, and transferring it all to another vehicle, we finally got home...much later than we had expected when we left that morning! We got to bed a little after midnight, and Andy's alarm went off at 5:30 this morning so he could be in the city of Antlers in time for his appointment there today.
Lessons learned?
1) Deer do not follow Pedestrian Rules for crossing the road, even in town.
2) A day is not over until it is completely over
3) Always remember to keep my AAA membership updated!
4) Do not get too attached to a vehicle, because when you least expect it...
It is so sad. My bushes, trees, and flowers have long passed the pretty point in their lives and have headed straight for wrinkled, brown, faded and almost dead.
Weeks ago, I had to make a critical care decision - who gets water and who does not?
You see, our house sits in the middle of an acre, and through the passage of seventeen years, my husband has made that whole acre his lawn and flower garden - not to mention all the trees. With such a large area all desperately needing to be irrigated in this drought, there was no way to give lifesaving liquid to everyone who was looking at me with their forlorn sad faces begging for water. So I had to decide...who is most important to me?
THAT IS SO HARD!! But I now only water his vegetable garden and a few precious bushes that live up close to the entrance door of my house.
I never thought that hearing brown, dead grass crunch under my feet as I walk across it to water the vegetables would give me feelings of guilt! And speaking of feeling guilty, I found myself actually experiencing resentment and jealousy when I drove through a neighboring town and saw the evidences of the rains that they received and we didn't!
I will be so grateful when this horrible drought is broken, and we get a nice soaking rain again.
Pray, everyone, pray.
Speaking of praying, I pray that His will is accomplished in the upcoming Presidential election.
As I write today, I am sitting in my motel room waiting for my husband to get out of a training conference this afternoon.
I am enjoying this trip...he works while I sleep as late as I want, wander down to the restaurant and order my breakfast, and then mindlessly make my way to the fitness gym on the second floor where I spend the next 45 minutes attempting to remove all traces of the calories of the breakfast I just consumed. (Uh, well... would you believe about 10% of the aforementioned breakfast?)
Speaking of exercising machines. I was doing time on the walking thingy-bob, watching the "Calories Used"numbers moving upward ever so slowly. Every time the Calories Used number rolled over to a significant amount I found myself saying to me, "Well, that was the 1/2 biscuit you ate...and that took care of that tiny piece of bacon"... when something dawned on me.
The manufacturers of those exercise machines need one more set of numbers for users to monitor....THE ACTUAL FOOD DELETER MONITOR. You know, you could punch in what you ate for breakfast, and as soon as you have walked long enough to use up the sweet roll and coffee that you inhaled...DING!!
When I got back to my room, the maid had magically been there and everything is cleaned and straightened. I flopped down on the couch with my laptop; checked emails and Facebook, then let my mind wander while my fingers have typed out the evidence of the path it has taken.
Guess I'll go to the mall and shop their sales for a while this afternoon...this training session for Andy's company is hard work, don't know how much longer I can take this grueling schedule.
Anybody else here in northeastern Oklahoma feel the difference in the air...somehow? Oh, I know it is still hot and way too dry. But when we go walking in the evening by the lake, there is a subtle but distinct change. All the dried and fallen leaves seem to also give help to the illusion that fall is not too far away. We don't yet have the golden-glittery look to the air around us, but still, there is just something. (Or maybe it's just my imagination working overtime)
We just returned from our weekend trip to a church in Antlers, down in southern Okla. I was so envious! They actually have green grass, flowering plants, and green bushes! One lady told me they had rain every day of the week of their VBS, and it rained Sunday evening again after the church service! I am not too sure what they are doing with their lives that is so much different that what we Northeasterners are doing...but it might pay to look into it!
But seriously, do you ever think that God is allowing "certain things" to occur here on Earth - trying to get the attention of wayward Christians. Or a loving attempt to get non-Christians to realize that they need Him? I do.
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