Neighborly Waves

Two days ago, there was a moment when something happened that just kept coming back to me. You know those moments that seem to have the weight of significance to them? The ones which stick in your mind and replay over and over and cause you to search them closely to find the secret message? That was this moment. 

That day, I was driving down my sister's street and, as I passed her next-door neighbor's house, I saw the neighbor's little boy in the front yard. As I passed, this little nine- or ten-year-old black boy looked up from his work and gave a friendly wave. I waved back and went on to my sister's, but the image of that sweet innocent little face and his open and friendly wave stuck in my head. I told my sister about it and how it reminded me of riding through the countryside and how the locals all wave when they pass one another. Later, after I left my sister's, I found myself smiling and waving at people in their yards. A couple waved back; some looked confused, even suspicious.

I just kept thinking how we need to bring back that open friendliness to our world. The fact that he was black and I am white seemed significant. As I thought about it more the next morning, words started coming together and thoughts and phrases began to take shape. 

When I looked at that sweet little face, it was as if he reached out and touched me with his wave, immediately drawing my full attention. He reached across the great divide in our country and his brown hand touched my whiteness. His touch connected with me on a deep level, and everything else around me faded away.

I was reminded of an exercise I heard a few months back. I was told to imagine myself standing on the side of the road with all the traffic whizzing by. In my imagination, I was totally aware of all the cars, the noise, the "busy-ness". Then I was told to glance across the street and see that Jesus was standing there watching me. When our eyes met, He smiled, and then He waved. Suddenly, in my mind, all the traffic, noise, and busy-ness just faded away, and all I saw was Jesus. And I smiled back. And I waved. And that morning, as I imagined it, I realized that it would have been a brown hand waving at me. Jesus was a Middle-Easterner. 

I was suddenly struck by the similarity between the two incidents, and I realized how powerful a simple smile and wave can be. This child's smile and wave affected me almost as profoundly as the image of Christ smiling and waving at me. Would it be this simple to affect our world? Our nation is being torn apart by brown and white fists shaking at each other, guns pointing, and angry faces glaring, hurtful words hurling. Our nation and world are so very in need of that old habit of looking into one another's eyes and smiling and waving the friendly wave. The fists need to open into waves while dropping the guns and the glares relax into smiles. That simple act can make all the noise and rushing and stomping and crashing around fade away. And maybe it can begin to heal wounds and calm the anger. 

Maybe I'm being overly simplistic, but it's a start, isn't it?

#bringbackfriendlywaves

#wavesforneighbors

#changingtheworldonewaveatatime

Scriptures for love and peace.

Mark 12:29-31 <Jesus considered these the two Greatest Commandments.>

"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and with and all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." 

Romans 12:18 "As much as possible, as far as it depends on youlive at peace with everyone." 

#PandemicPrayers

On February, 2020, my friend Lisa Joyner asked me to be her prayer partner.

Lisa was starting a health and weight loss plan called "New Life Promise" by Isabel D. Price which is founded on the premise that God can renew our minds and create a new person in us, a person who is surrendered to God in all aspects of our lives, a person who understands that our bodies are God's temples, the place wherein He has chosen to dwell, and that it is His will that we take care of and honor His temples. Lisa asked me to start the plan with her and to be her prayer and accountability partner. 

We had no clue what was about to happen in our lives...

We started praying together by phone on February 25, 2020 at 6:00am less than three weeks before our country began to shut down in earnest. Lindy, my husband, came home from Washington, DC about two weeks later and told me that everything in Washington was starting to close down as he was leaving that morning. New York's St. Patrick's Day Parade was cancelled. Then ours in Savannah followed. This was mind-blowing enough to get my attention. I had not really given COVID-19 much thought. I was one of those who was lulled into the false security of "it's happening over there, not here." On March 21st, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson's state of emergency went into effect mandating business closures and restrictions and limits on gatherings. On March 24th, Mayor Johnson issued a "shelter at home" order for Savannah. Our entire world changed in less than four weeks.

Lisa and I started praying together to help each other stick with a weight loss plan. So we thought... As usual, God had much bigger ideas. It became so much more and has literally changed both of our lives completely. God has shown us that it really is possible with our willingness and by His power to be "...transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- His good, pleasing, and perfect will."

We began in March to read YouVersion Bible App Bible study plans on prayer, and each more was more amazing than the last. Through these plans, God instructed us, encouraged us, challenged us, stretched us, pushed us to dig deeper, and used His Word to begin to transform and mold us. It has been a mind-blowing ride, to say the least.

Before long, another friend, Wende Chaille, and I began to pray together, too. I had never prayed so much in my life! Literally. A few weeks later, my nephew's wife Alex Lamb joined Wende and I during our prayer time.

We have been constantly amazed at what God is revealing to us in His Word. Some scriptures we've read many times but never saw what jumped out at us now. A LOT of new and less familiar scriptures that confirmed familiar promises or gave us new promises. 

One thing we all saw over and over is that God is using this COVID-19 pandemic for His purposes to turn people's hearts the world over to Him. God is, always has been, and will forever be in control, and, according to Isaiah 46:9-10, His plans WILL be accomplished.

Isaiah 46:9-10 NKJV
9 "Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’"

I have always loved these verses, especially the fact that He
declared the "end from the beginning." He started writing His
story with the end already written. Before He does or allows
anything at all to take place, He already has the outcome decided and established. Does that comfort you as much as it does me?

Romans 8:28 NLT
"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them."

We also know that it is His desire that every person - EVERY
PERSON - come to Him.

I Timothy 2:1-4
1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. 2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.

2 Peter 3:39 The Message
8-9 Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.

We can be confident in His Word. God is faithful. He always has been, always will be. We can have hope in these strange and scary times. He does have our best interests at heart. Always has, always will. He is the great "I AM," and He never changes. He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. He is all that and more.
We can trust Him. He's proven Himself trustworthy. He's proven Himself faithful. And the best part of that is that it all depends on HIS FAITHFULNESS, not our measley, flimsy faith. It's ALL HIM. NONE OF IT DEPENDS ON ME! Or YOU! And I can live with that!

Psalm 27:8 NKJV

When You said, "Seek My face," my heart said to You, "Your face, LORD, I will seek."

Lessons From a Drifting Cloud

Just as I turned from the kitchen sink, a cloud outside the window caught my attention. A huge puffy cloud sat low in the gray morning sky with only the front of the cloud clearly visible as morning sun shone on the tall puffs, moisture reflecting the golden light. Behind that brightly shining wall, the rest of the cloud faded into the gray-blue sky. 

I watched, mesmerized, as the cloud moved slowly forward. Toward the light. I felt there was a message in this seemingly random happenstance. And, as the cloud drifted slowly forward, I saw it. As clear as the morning sun. As the cloud moved closer to the light, more and more of it began to reflect the golden light. Then, just one thin silver streak of lightning stretched down from the gray-blue of the cloud toward the ground.

WOW. What a spectacular moment, LORD! What a promise! 

If I just stay on course toward my God, I will reflect more and more of His love, grace, and mercy. HIS VERY IMAGE. I will look more and more like my FATHER.

But that wasn't it for the lesson from the cloud. No, God had more for me to see. A lot more. The next morning, I remembered thinking about the distinction between the SOURCE of the light and the light. As I reread what I had written the day before, it suddenly became clear. When I focus on things other than God - even good things like writing my prayers, Bible plans, Bible and prayer journals, discipline and organization, checking off those things in my calendar - even things of God rather than just GOD, the SOURCE, I get distracted from the main thing, the SOURCE of the POWER, and I get disconnected. 

The cloud continued to move toward the SOURCE; it didn't stop in the light and just soak up what it provided in that one place. It didn't focus on the light and sit still in it while striving to reflect more of it. It kept moving ever so steadily toward the SOURCE, its focus ever before it, not turned toward the light it was reflecting itself. And, as it moved toward the SOURCE, more and more light was reflected. 

And more and more power was added to the cloud to keep it steadily moving forward. The Lightning! That one silver streak that reached down from the cloud and touched the ground. That symbol of God's power available to me when I keep my eyes on Him and move steadily closer. 

Dear Precious LORD Jesus, help me keep this image in mind ready to pull out to remind me whenever I take my eyes off the SOURCE - YOU, the GREAT I AM, the CREATOR, the ALMIGHTY, the OMNIPRESENT, the ALPHA and the OMEGA. 

Help me fix my eyes on You, LORD. Help me remember that I DO KNOW the ANSWER to every question. It is YOU, the SOURCE, of EVERYTHING. 

As my friend Lisa pointed out to me, not one other soul saw that cloud at that exact moment from that exact location, set of coordinates, or angle. You showed it just to me! What a treasured moment with You, Father. Wow! Thank YOU!! 

#PandemicPraise

#PandemicPrayers

#1000GiftsandMoore