Poker and Prayer ; )

This morning I was laying in bed thinking of something that happened a few years ago and how God did answer my prayer when I felt like he didn't.

The first year Jason started having poker tournaments at the house it made me kind of nervous. Just a lot of people, some of them drinking, in our basement until the wee hours of the morning yelling and hooting and hollering.

We were the new people in a quiet little neighborhood and I was always afraid someone was gonna get out of hand or there was going to be a fight or something.

One night about a half hour before everyone started to show up, Jason was out doing last minute errands, and I got on my knees and said a prayer. I can't remember everything I said, but I do remember asking God to be present in my home and for the people visiting to feel his presence and his peace.

About 1 in the morning, my friend Anita and another girl and I were upstairs chatting, and we heard a round of gunshots go off outside. 4 or 5 shots real fast. We just kinda stared at each other in horror for a moment and then I got up to run downstairs and get Jason. The moment I got to the landing, the person who fired the shots came through the back door and we stood face to face. I said 'what are you doing???!!!' and he turned around went out the door and left.

Chaos ensued over the next hour or two. I was completely flipping out. Kept waiting for the cops to show up. Completely mortified at what my neighbors were thinking. We did figure out he had shot them up into the air.

One of the most unpleasant things I've had to do is going door to door the next morning and apologizing to our neighbors, some of whom were pretty upset.

And without going into details, a lot of stressful times and worry followed that night. 

And I have to admit I kinda was like, what is this some kind of joke? After I prayed that prayer, that horrible night ensued. Where was God's presence or peace in all that?

But this morning I was laying thinking about it all and had to smile.

First of all, I think of how we collided at that same second on the landing and he left. 

If he had went into the crowded basement, who knows what could have happened. He wouldn't have been met with friendly smiles, I'm sure things would not have gone well with my husband, and we know this person was already in a pretty reckless, unstable mood and armed.

So right there, God maintained peace and possibly more in my home.

Then I think of how after that we never played poker with the same group of people. Not that I didn't like those people, but it was a little more of a rambunctious crowd. Since then Jason has hooked up with people who are all into the strategy of the game. Its like a sport for them. A lot of them are dads and they don't drink and they are super quiet. And super nice. They don't even wake Gianna up. Its almost like they're down there playing chess!!!!! And some of them are Christians!

And after that night I never played poker again.  I never really enjoyed it that much anyway and I guess that just really turned me sour. Too long of a game and I don't like it. I feel sorry for people when I take all their chips and could never bluff. 

So now its just kinda fun having people over and on their break Gianna and I hang out with them and eat pizza.

And also after that happened I really believe God put it on my heart to pray for that person. I had no animosity but truly spent a lot of time in prayer for him for some time after it happened. I also sent him an email and shared with him the story of how God had come into my life and totally changed me. I have no idea if there has been any effect on his life as a result, but God's thoughts are above our thoughts and his timing is not ours, so who knows if he was using my prayers and my story for some greater purpose down the road in his life.

So sorry for doubting you God! Sometimes we can't see the great ways in which you are working. Especially in the midst of unpleasant circumstances.

You are Good. All the time. All the time, You are Good.  : )

Isaiah 55:8-9 

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
       neither are your ways my ways," 
       declares the LORD.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, 
       so are my ways higher than your ways 
       and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Psalm 4:1
Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.

Elliot from Mt. Pleasant

I have never thought of Jesus this way. VERY interesting. Its an excerpt from a Max Lucado book.

Week of January 15

Looking for the Messiah, Part 1 
by Max Lucado

SUPPOSE JESUS CAME to your church. I don't mean symbolically. I mean visibly. Physically. Actually. Suppose he came to your church.

Would you recognize him? It might be difficult. Jesus didn't wear religious clothes in his day. Doubtful that he would wear them in ours. If he came today to your church, he'd wear regular clothes. Nothing fancy, just a jacket and shoes and a tie. Maybe a tie ... maybe not.

He would have a common name. "Jesus" was common. I suppose he might go by Joe or Bob or Terry or Elliot.

Elliot ... I like that. Suppose Elliot, the Son of God, came to your church.

Of course, he wouldn't be from Nazareth or Israel. He'd hail from some small spot down the road like Hollow Point or Chester City or Mt. Pleasant.

And he'd be a laborer. He was a carpenter in his day. No reason to think he'd change, but let's say he did. Let's say that this time around he was a plumber. Elliot, the plumber from Mt. Pleasant.

God, a plumber?

Rumor has it that he fed a football field full of people near the lake. Others say he healed a senator's son from Biloxi. Some say he's the Son of God. Others say he's the joke of the year. You don't know what to think.

And then, one Sunday, he shows up.

About midway through the service he appears in the back of the auditorium and takes a seat. After a few songs he moves closer to the front. After yet another song he steps up on the platform and announces, "You are singing about me. I am the Son of God." He holds a Communion tray. "This bread is my body. This wine is my blood. When you celebrate this, you celebrate me!"

What would you think?

Would you be offended? The audacity of it all. How irreverent, a guy named Elliot as the Son of God!

Would you be interested? Wait a minute, how could he be the Son of God? He never went to seminary, never studied at a college. But there is something about him ...

Would you believe? I can't deny it's crazy. But I can't deny what he has done.

It's easy to criticize contemporaries of Jesus for not believing in him. But when you realize how he came, you can understand their skepticism.

Jesus didn't fit their concept of a Messiah. Wrong background. Wrong pedigree. Wrong hometown. No Messiah would come from Nazareth. Small, hick, one-stoplight town. He didn't fit the Jews' notion of a Messiah, and so, rather than change their notion, they dismissed him.

He came as one of them. He was Jesus from Nazareth. Elliot from Mt. Pleasant. He fed the masses with calloused hands. He raised the dead wearing bib overalls and a John Deere Tractor cap.

They expected lights and kings and chariots from heaven. What they got was sandals and sermons and a Galilean accent.

And so, some missed him.

And so, some miss him still.

From A Gentle Thunder
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1987) Max Lucado

I'm still here! : )

The last month and a half of not feeling completely connected to God have been kind of good for me. Humbling.

They make me think I may have had a touch of spiritual pride. Not in that I think I'm better than you, but in thinking it was all me in that I got up at 5 am to read my bible and treasured reading it more than watching a good movie. And naturally spending lots of time in prayer and devotion. So its as easy as you do the same and you can feel the same way, right?!

I have gone through a period where these things did not come as naturally to me. Where I had to make myself read my bible before bed, usually falling asleep. And I wasn't getting up early enough to spend time with God before work. I'd rather hit the snooze button.

My former pastor once said, and I wrote it in my bible, 'the more you feed the flesh, the stronger it becomes, the more you feed the spirit, the stronger it becomes'.

Though I still have my faith, still trust in God, I have not really been feeding my spirit. Haven't been filling my tank. And as a result, have not been feeling very 'spiritual' or getting much joy out of spiritual things.

It made me realize and sympathize with how hard this whole faith thing must be for people who don't have the strongest faith, or who are seeking God but not all the way there yet. Made me realize I should never judge them in even the slightest way, but to sympathize with them and pray for them.

I was looking back at my days when I got sincere pleasure out of these things and missing them. Realizing what a gift from God they were.  Though faith is not all about feelings, clearly feeling the presence of God in your daily life is the best thing ever. Better than Starbucks or The Office or a vacation day. And its always available and right there. And I wanted it back!

And I feel like I know the day when I really started to swing back in that glorious direction.

My sister and I had gathered with friends specifically to pray for her marriage. Our faith-filled friends Michelle and her mom Barb share a Victorian farmhouse that is so charming and warm and inviting. We sat around the wood table in the cozy dining room drinking coffee, reading scripture, chatting and praying for 2 or 3 hours. I look back at it preciously and it seems like a scene from a movie. 

We prayed for things for each of us, and for starting the new year out right. We prayed for my renewed sense of love and delight for God and his word and spending time with him.

Also that night they were talking about the Chronicles of Narnia books and how the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy version of the story of Jesus. I didn't know this! The author C.S. Lewis was a Christian apologist.

So she gave me the book to borrow and I really enjoyed reading it the next few days. I haven't read a fiction book in at least 2 years. I used to read them all the time. I spent a lot of Friday and Saturday night reading it.

The story is set in a forest with all kinds of mythological creatures and the book has little woodcut-like black and white illustrations here and there throughout. Its the epitomy of a 'fairytale'.

So Sunday morning I walk into church and I couldn't believe what my eyes saw. It was the first day of a new series called More than Fable. Its all about the parables of Jesus and why they are more than just 'stories'.

The large screen in the center of the stage was made to look like a large, old open book, with fairy-tale like writing and an illustration just like the style of the ones in the book I'm reading. And all behind is a set to look like a forest. And on the note sheet there was even a picture of a little fairy. It looks exactly like the feel of that book I was reading! I felt like I walked right into what my mind had been wrapped around the night before.

To me it was confirmation that I am on the right track. Confirmation that God hears me and is there and knows whats going on in my life.

And each of us since have received some pretty amazing confirmation on the things we prayed for.

And ever since that night of praying with my precious ladies I have truly enjoyed my time spent with God. I have just felt a change. And as of yesterday, starting next week I'll be in an awesome Beth Moore bible study with Michelle. I am so inspired by Beth Moore and by Michelle, and I know there will be a lot of growing there!  

I am looking forward to good things ahead and good things share.

See you soon. Happy New Year!  ; )