Category: Watching for God

Back in my early twenties, I was on a flight home. There were three of us flying that evening and we were all split up. I was sitting next to a complete stranger. Those of you who have ever met me before, know that I rarely meet a stranger. It usually doesn’t take me long at all to make friends with new people.

On this particular night, my seatmate was an air traffic controller. I’ve always found that to be a fascinating if not stressful, job. I had dozens of questions for him and he politely answered them.

When I say that we ran into some turbulence later that evening, I am not kidding. It was like riding a roller coaster. The aircraft bumped and dropped repeatedly. The flight attendants strapped themselves in. One of them even threw up. It was that bad.

I’ve never really loved to fly. The loss of control has always unnerved me a little. But, that night, my new air traffic controller friend, talked to me the entire flight. We talked about how most crashes are survivable. We talked about finding the exits if we needed them. We talked about how most people ignore the safety video which has important information on how to get off of a disabled airplane.

He was perfectly calm, which led me to be as well.

When we finally landed and I secured some ginger ale for my own queasy tummy, I met up with my group. The first thing my friend asked me in an exasperated tone, was how was I so calm? He pointed out that all of the passengers on board were silence in white knuckled fear while me and my new friend never stopped talking, acting like it was no big deal.

I laughed. He didn’t know who I was sitting with. I told him that I was with a seasoned air traffic controller and he wasn’t worried, then why should I be? It really never occurred to me to be frightened.

I’ve thought of that night many times over the years and what it taught me.

Sitting next to the air traffic controller in the storm, reminds me of walking with Jesus in the storm. There are things that happen to us and situations that we find ourselves in, that can absolutely terrify us like the rest of the passengers on that airplane that night. We can surrender to the fear and stress and hang on tightly with white knuckles, or we can lean into Jesus and know that He’s got this, whatever it is and we need not fear.

God is never surprised and when we really wrap our brains around that notion, we can always walk in peace. Perhaps you needed reminding today.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Our little town was blessed with two snow days last week. The first was exciting for most people. The snow came down throughout the early morning and when it stopped, it was play time. But, it wasn’t one of those stick around for days, snows for many of us.

In most spots, the sun melted the majority of it away by late afternoon. However, we are a rural town and we have lots of shady spots that are off of the beaten path. Those spots and roads, kept the snow wet and frozen and so when the temperatures dropped back into the low twenties, those spots froze solid making driving conditions very dangerous.

Those conditions bought us a second snow day even if there wasn’t much snow left.

Personally, I couldn’t have been happier about the extra day as I was buzzing around my house cleaning and straightening and doing little chores that I never seem to have the time to do these days, when the roof over the landing to my front door, caught my eye.

One side was completely melted, not a drop of snow or ice, remained, yet the other side was still mostly covered in snow. It was clear that the sun was shining directly on one side, but its warm, thawing rays were not reaching the other.

I had a hard time looking away because the two halves were so very different.

Now, over the past few years, God has taught me a lot from roofs, from helping to remove them and replace them on mission trips, to a tree falling on my roof in all the safest places during a hurricane, so I wanted to pay close attention to what He was trying to tell me.

The answer that kept coming was, that roof is like our hearts. We have different areas and parts of them. When we decide to surrender our hearts to Jesus, there’s always lots of heart work to do. Humans are flawed and broken and we inevitably hurt each other often, whether intentionally or not.

We sometimes carry those heart injuries long after they were incurred. We sometimes carry them for a lifetime. Most of us will allow healing for some of the injuries like the side of the roof where the sun was shining. But, often we will continue to cling to the deepest hurt, anger, shame or resentment, not allowing Jesus to shine His light on those parts. So, they stay frozen and prevent us from living, loving and trusting fully.

Yet, Jesus calls us to more. He calls us to trust Him, to hand over all of our hearts and let Him shine His light and love on all of the parts. He wants to heal us completely, so we can be totally free, not just mostly free.

A partially snow covered roof reminded me that when walking with Jesus, mostly is not enough. He wants to heal all of our hearts and for us to let go of the past so we can embrace the future with Him. Perhaps you needed reminding
too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My neighbor, who I’ll call Jack, recently took in a stray cat. He’s a cute little orange and white cat. I had seen him hanging out around the cul-de-sac, but he was wild. He always ran away when I tried to approach him, but Jack has a way with strays and he took him in and got him shots. He named him Ramsey.

I marvel as I look out the window and watch that previously wild cat, follow Jack faithfully to the mailbox. How is it that he can build that kind of trust?

Well, Jack and his wife, went away for the holidays and they boarded Ramsey. When they returned, they found that he had become very sick. He had fluid in his lungs and he could barely breathe. They took him to the animal hospital at UGA and learned that he had a heart defect. They kept him for a while, but they treated him and told them to keep him indoors for a week.

While I was watching the Rose Bowl, I got a frantic call from Jack; Ramsey had slipped out while the trash was being taken out and he was missing. Now, Ramsey has been known to hang out in my garage and Jack was hoping I would check and see if he was there.

I rushed out the door. It was nineteen degrees that night, unseasonably cold for us. There was no way a sick cat could make it in that cold. I didn’t see him at first, but then I got down on my hands and knees and looked under my daughter’s car. There he was, hiding.

I still had Jack on the phone. I told him that I could see him. I didn’t dare approach him because he doesn’t trust me. Jack and his wife came over immediately. He crouched down and called Ramsey and he came out from under the car. Jack scooped him up, but he didn’t hold him for too long before Ramsey was squirming to get down. They apologized for the inconvenience and took him home.

I thought about Ramsey and Jack in the days to follow. His pursuit of Ramsey reminded me of how God pursues us. He finds us as wild strays and fixes our hearts. He seeks only to love us and we like Ramsey, often squirm to get away, back out into that dangerous world that to our minds, seems free and exciting.

Sometimes like Ramsey, we do get away and like Jack, God pursues us, even when it’s unbearably cold, even when the big game is on, He calls us. If we are smart, we answer and return to the safety of His arms, just like Ramsey returned to Jack’s.

An escaped cat on a cold night, reminded me of God’s love for us. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂