The first
days of fall and ~ in this lovely corner of God's Country, Wyoming ~ He was
ready! Hopefully, I've been able to share a photo of my new walking path
and bridge in all its Glory.
If Spring is
God's announcement of the Resurection (which it surely is), then we have entered
the season when God reminds us of our Fall from Grace. I'm so thankful to be in
a special ministry preparing to share my "fall" with another trustworthy sister
this week.
The homework
in this women's ministry requires me to take a 'fearful and searching' inventory
of my life; those I have wronged, those who have wronged me. It's another
perfectly timed opportunity to free myself from the fetters of unforgiveness . .
. in some cases many many seasons overdue.
With
heartfelt thanks to God, I've had opportunities right from Salvation Year One to
surrender to this process; beginning with the most apparent and appalling of my
"mortal" sins {as my Catholic childhood would have labeled them}. These were
my dire regrets. My most secret shames. My most raw and racking
wounds.
My brilliant
college freshman son informs me that the science of the lovely change in
autumn leaves is actually due to a subtle change in the bearing of sunlight.
Those glorious golds and rich russets are ~ in a sense 'always present'; but
are concealed until this subtle, seasonal slackening of light affects the
leaves' chemistry, in turn 'revealing' their new color.
What a clever
demonstration by Elohim ~ God of Creation ~ of the healing process in me that is
the mingling of God's sometimes indirect but penetrating light into my darkest
places.
Laser surgey
of the soul.
Dear Desperately Depressed ~
You are in powerful
company . . . Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, and Sir Isaac Newton
all endured devastating depression throughout their lives. So did Tammy Lynn
Baker, wife of Jim Baker, well-known television evangelist.
I happened to tune in one day
when Tammy Lynn shared frankly with a television audience about her deep, dark,
debilitating battles with depression. Tammy literally spent years of her
married life in bed, sleeping her pain away. Her husband, God Bless Him, prayed
for and cared for her while they both hoped for a miracle.
Tammy said her 'miracle' came one
day when she was asked to visit and elderly woman who had lost a loved one and
was suffering much as Tammy often did. Tammy went, of course; and discovered
that very day that as she prayed for and talked to this suffering
Sister, she grasped how much more her Sister had endured than she. Tammy also
later realized that during and after the time she had spent 'one-anothering'
this lonely, grieving woman her own symptoms of depression were
completely relieved.
The Holy Spirit, Tammy says,
convinced her that day that the ultimate 'cure' for depression is ministry. .
. to look for and to go to someone whose situation may be even more
heartbreaking than your own. "To present your body a living sacrifice."
Because I, too, am prone to
isolate in my grief, failure, or frustration, I eventually MAKE
MY SELF take Tammy Baker's 'Sure Cure' for
Depression. Engaging my mind and my energy outward and into the
life of another leaves no room for the enemy of my soul to drown me in doubt
or pierce me with self-pity.
Once again, I realize that
Almighty God's command ~ so annoying to obey and so tempting to avoid ~ is a
blessing of love, peace and JOY in disguise.
