Having coffee with the girls.

                                                              “…my cup runs over.”  PSALM 23:5

    Every morning I ‘have coffee with the girls’ as I read my morning devotional and have a brief period with the Lord.  ‘…having coffee with the girls’ comes from my coffee mug which has a picture of my three daughters on it.  The picture was taken in front of Senior Frog’s in Cozumel, on ‘the daughters’ cruise. 

     Our cruise party existed only of me, my wife, Kat, and the three daughters, Goober, Woo Woo, and Bam Bam.  No in-laws or outlaws, no grand kids or great grand kids, though there are many. Shortly after our last vacation together, in the seventies, their mother and I were divorced, my fault, my loss.  I know that my absence as their Dad left holes which can never be ‘filled’ just ‘patched over’. 

     We played, prayed and ate together, discovering and exposing emotions and scars that required attention, acceptance and varying amounts of forgiveness.  Those moments were sometimes treasures and sometimes trash. There were discussions with laughter and some with tears. Some tears were tears of joy while others were tears of regret. We still refer to the cruise as “successful” in that no two or three of us threw any other one, two or three of them overboard!

          I often forget that I am not responsible for every ones success!  I cannot look into the past for broken lives and forgotten promises, but I must focus on the future and the forgiveness of my friends, my family and Our Father. Forgiveness seems to be the basis for most of our successes in almost all of our relationships.

                “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, 
                      Let not the mighty man glory in his might,

                         Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
                              But let him who glories glory in this   

                                  That he understands and knows Me,
                                      That I am the LORD    
                                          Exercising livingkindness, judgment, 
                                              And righteousness in the earth.

                                                  For in these I delight,’ says the LORD."    
                                                                                  JEREMIAH 9 : 23-24

                        

An Awesome God

AWESOME  Adjective; overwhelming, grand, breathtaking, splendid, tremendous, remarkable, amazing, awe-inspiring, astounding, humbling, impressive, frightening, excellent.

                          “We serve an awesome God!”  Lou Marshall  2011

     While visiting my daughter in New Orleans, she was talking about ‘cleaning up’ around the house.  Kat told her a former neighbor of ours had introduced us to a really good cleaning agent, Awesome.

     The next day, on the way back from the French Quarters Market, we stopped in at the local ‘dollar store’.  I picked up a bottle of Awesome.  Waiting in line, I overheard the check out lady telling a fellow employee how a previous customer “had just ruined her day”… my turn.

     I handed her the first item, the Awesome, “I’m your Awesome customer and I came to make your day an Awesome day!”

     As we got back in the car my daughter commented on my exchange with the check out lady and I thought, “Awesome, only a dollar, making her day, priceless.”

              “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works

                        and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:16)

The Gospel According to the Wheelbarrow

     Kat and I had planned for weeks to take the train to New Orleans to visit with my daughter and her families of two sons, each with two children. What Kat and I didn't know was that we were destined to meet with Lee, hurricane Lee, that is. We arrived Friday afternoon and Lee began pounding on the Orleans backdoor later that night.  I dislike rain and wind as much as the next traveler but I always smile and say, "It's not raining inside!" However, in New Orleans, last weekend, it was a totally different story.
     While outside Lee was dropping water by the bathtubs every hour, I triggered a storm inside. The peace and quiet usually accompanying our visits was shattered.  Family ties throughout the neighborhood and across the city were strained to near breaking. My daughter was embarrassed, hurt and apologetic for words and actions that were directed toward her father. We managed the few days with a little ‘soft shoe’ and hushed exchanges.
     Though I remained calm outwardly, I brought some anger and other stuff home on the bottom of both shoes. The stuffing of my emotions resulted in a festering and bothersome sore on my soul. Saturday while working in the yard, I was reviewing all the ways in which I might seek retribution and revenge. I was relocating a compost pile, huffin’ and puffin' inside and out. I had just about narrowed down options for my plan of action which would surely bring down a hail of Hell, fire and damnation.
     As I heaped the last shovel full of 'rot' onto the top of my wheelbarrow, to my surprise, the wheelbarrow turned on its side dumping the major portion of my efforts and emotions back to the ground. It was just as clear to me that God was saying, "Stop! Dump all that stuff and let's do it My Way." Just as suddenly, all the anger, hurt and revenge drained out of my body and onto the ground beside the load I had just heaped up. I had to hear and understand that God was saying His way was better than my way. In the past twelve years He has been cleaning up and dumping out of my life stuff more rotten than I had in my wheelbarrow.
     I know that God is far more capable than man of cleaning up peoples lives. I know because He has done that in my life. He has done that in Kat's life. And in our marriage which He arranged He has blessed us, challenged us and used us more than I can ever share completely. It's a God thing which I can only experience not fully express.
     I left my feelings there in that heap of rot and began to experience a compassion for the focus of my emotions. I believe that I am beginning to see my fractured family as God sees them.  Not as they are but as they could be. 
     On the way to church this morning, I continued to share my new perspective with Kat and we both entered into a new found prayerful attitude of expectancy toward this should-be could-be loved one.  This individual is most definitely a God-sized project far beyond our comprehension or capabilities save the fact that Our Father had done much the same for each of us.
     Sometimes it is so very hard to give up absolute control of the universe to God. But, fortunately for all of us, He wrestles back control and reminds us who really is in charge.  God speaks into our lives simple messages like the one hidden in the rot of my backyard, ‘the gospel according to the wheelbarrow’.