#292 Believe and Leap

#292

While in the middle of writing I had got distracted by the news of a triple car accident under the I 469 by pass on hi way 27 heading to Fort Wayne. Since It’s about the time most commuters who work in Fort Wayne would be driving to work for the day. All I could think about is who do I know that works in Fort Wayne and who would be driving to work this time in the morning? Then this wave of fear began to come over me as I realized we’re talking about a three car accident on a hi way . My mind started drawing all sorts of conclusions and yes “going there” to put it lightly. I didn’t even know anything about the situation, the accident or anyone involved. But here I was acting like some kind of horse needing to be let out of a pen. Why do we let the enemy do this to us I ask ? Why is fear the first thing that comes to my mind and then realizing that my Father in Heaven is right there no matter what. The second thing . Is that the order it’s supposed to be ? Is it because I’m a sinful imperfect human? Or is it God’s way of reminding me that no matter what circumstance we are in . He has this , stop fretting. I can’t control this world because that’s his job. What will be , will be. I have a job. My job is to pray when I hear of upsetting news. When I am scared I am to hold onto my Faith. Cling to Jesus. Grab the Living Word of God , my Bible , go read it. Me stewing around drawing conclusions and placing people that I think may be driving up to Fort Wayne today at this time , placing them at a graphic scene in my head, that I know the devil is putting in there just to upset me and start my day off with fear , trauma ,stealing my joy , my time ,wasting my day away is not only counterproductive but it will be wasting and stealing another’s day away also upsetting them when I can’t stand not hearing anything and I start calling people waking them up and starting their day off with worry and fear when they start going through the same steps as I and the devil starts doing his jig because his work here is done . He has set of a domino effect and if he’s lucky the person I’m calling isn’t the praying kind because the last thing they’ll do is start praying or picking up the Word of God or clinging to Jesus but what he can count on is them calling others to see if they’ve heard anything about a three car accident and getting fear in their head and stealing time and joy away from them as well. Fear .. fear..and more fear is of the devil . That is why we have a safety net in the Lord. That is why we have the Lord to begin with because he saved us from the evil one . So why do I continue on letting him back in ? I am a Christian. I don’t have to put up with this. Do you know as Christians we are the only people that have a God that we can claim as a Father and who claims us as his children when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior ? What a wonderful thing isn’t it ? No other religion can claim this. There is such a wonderful bond between child and parent. Where you know you can leap into the arms of the one who loves you , who you know cares for you and you know they will catch you everytime. Who better to catch you then your Papa or Mama? I was reminded of this over the weekend. Thus past Sunday was so hot and humid that Sunday evening my family found ourselves over at our good friend Bruce’s taking a dip in his pool . You know it’s hot when out little Evie has the courage to jump off the edge of the pool . Thing is , Evie still battles the fear of going under and not coming up . So she doesn’t care to jump in the arms of just anyone. As I stood in the pool with my arms raised promising to Evie , “yes Mommy is going to catch you . ” It brought back memories of myself and my Dad when I was Evie’s age but even more terrified . When I swore my Dad wasn’t gonna catch me ! I remember it like it was yesterday ! Fearing that leap and how my Dad kept saying over and over that he was right here , he wasn’t gonna go anywhere. What was I afraid of ? It’s only water Camille . I’ll tell you what I was afraid of …drowning or worse …going under the water and back in my day I don’t recall having water wings or floaty devices . It was 100% pure relying on the arms that you jumped into . Just like Evie leaped in my arms on Sunday . Mommy was there. I caught her and my Dad caught me and in both cases I remember saying the same thing Evie said when I was a little girl. “That wasn’t so bad .” When I asked you wanna do it again ?!” Her reply. “No”. If I’m learning anything in this life . I’m learning that some experiences in life are so good you wanna do them over and over again. Do them as often as you can and enjoy and savor them . Life is too short to miss out and some are just learning experiences, learn from them the first time or learn something different each time you mess up because your not perfect your gonna mess up over and over and over again. So what, I haven’t seen anyone walk on water yet and I only know of one I just haven’t met him in person yet. The bad experiences…they’re gonna happen . When you least expect them . Sometimes first thing in the morning ,maybe out of nowhere in the middle of the afternoon or maybe at work or on a perfect beautiful sunny day . An alarming phone call or a scary knock at the door in the middle of the night but one things for sure, upsetting news is sure to find us all and bad experiences and unpleasant memories will follow that will not let us go because in the sinful world we live in there are so many reminders or triggers of the brokenness that we all have experienced at one time or another is impossible to forget when your dealing with the pain of loss and tragedy when you hear the news of car accidents and reports come in and your mind wonders and bad memories and thoughts seem to kick up dust . In those times you must remember whose child you are . Your not just any child. You are a child of the living God . You have a safety net. If God Our Father says he has this. He has this. If he says he will catch you. He will catch you. So no matter what. We are assured that everything is going to workout the way he has planned. We have but one job as people of the living God but to do and that is to pray for all people … but we have but two things to do as children of the living Father ..believe and leap as children do and the devil does not want you to know this.

#291 Teach your children.

#291

While watching my daughter Carly’s soccer game this week my Mom and I got into a rather odd conversation. My Mom and I are always talking about everything under the sun at soccer games so if your a serious soccer parent it’s best you probably not sit near us and that’s why you always find us parked on the out skirts of the soccer field in our lawn chairs away from the rest of the crowd. We know we can be a nuisance. Anyhow, it started out talking about my Son and two of his closest friends Dustie and Julian . Who were going with Eli to fly to Florida this week to meet up with their lifetime friend Justin whose in the Coast Guard living in Florida and how funny it was that 5 minutes upon their arrival at Justin’s house. Dustie was so excited he did a flip onto Justin’s bed and broke it. Knowing Dustie like we do because he’s been like a son to us and one of our own . In fact all those boys have been , my folks and my family especially my little girls got the biggest laugh out of that because Dustie has made my girls so happy over the years . I’ve never seen Dustie in a bad mood. That kid has never come around upset and has always been so upbeat that when I see how excited my children and their friends get I see myself in my girls when I remember how I was everytime my brother’s friend Andy came around . That it did bring up an odd conversation between my Mom and I at a soccer game. The topic of Suicide. My brother’s friend Andy took his life in college and it left a hole in a lot of people’s lives that never fully recovered and I’m one of them. For the first time I admitted to my Mom that I didn’t go to Andy’s funeral and as an adult I regret that now. I was in high school when we lost Andy and I had known him since I was as young as my own Daughter’s are right now and when he did it I was so angry at him. I made up an excuse that I had to be at school for an exam the day they laid him to rest when really I was so angry at him for doing what he did . When I told my Mom that this week I felt better when she said, ” You were only a kid , you didn’t know what he was going through . You loved Andy the way the girls love Eli’s friends. You grew up with them all .” The thing is , I did love Andy and I didn’t know what he was going through but I do know one thing . God did and I know that God knows what all his children are going through in their moments of darkness and torment and what I do know now that I didn’t know then because we didn’t talk about things like we should have. Is that depression was a real thing and it wasn’t just for older sad adults. It came in many forms and seemed to always disguise itself without anyone even knowing. Sometimes without any warning and sometimes with so much warning that there’s really nothing that can be done but one thing remains. No one is to blame and there is no one to be angry with because anger will only make things worse. Jesus knows what being in a dark place for a long time can do having the enemy trying to take advantage of you with his lies. He did it for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert dealing with the Devil’s lies and temptation . Trying to get him to jump off the cliff and take his own life remember? Our Savior knows how the enemy can be . How deceiving , how clever. In just one moment in time the enemy can talk even the most obedient Christian into doing something they would normally not even think of doing over something that sounds to us so silly but in that one moment in time he can turn it into the greatest tragedy . The devil is so swift like that. He’s been conning God’s people out of their lives since the beginning of time . God knows. God has not forgot who brought death upon man. There would be no sin , death or devil if it wasn’t for Satan. But thanks be to God we have a Savior who saved us from death. We have a Savior who understands and knows what it’s like to be in the shoes of the tormented and We as a people , Christian and non Christian have got to rise against this world and it’s tauntings and sin as Jesus rose against the devil in the desert because the Devil and his demons are trying to get to us and to all our people in this world through our sins and are own demons and he is targeting our young people and our people with mental illness. Do not let the word mental illness and or medication coping with mental illness upset you. I don’t. If being on a medication helps you to cope with dealing in a setting or a situation that your bio chemistry may need . There is no shame in that. The only shame is not trying to talk to someone and getting the help you may need before it is too late and leaving a hole in the lives of so many people that love you and not just the obvious. Like your Mom, Dad and immediate family members but the lives you may have touched like they were your brothers and sisters . I know it’s hard to imagine how someone can do such a thing but coming from someone who by the grace of God was saved by God in her own moment of darkness and torment I can tell you firsthand that the devil is a very very tricky devil and he comes with many demons and he will capitalize on your own personal ones in your own moment of weakness when the last thing on your mind is the Word of God. That is why you have got to be on guard at all times . Because if he can get you when your down he will and he won’t stop kicking you until you order him too. In Jesus name you order him too people. Old people teach your young people that there is power in the Word of God. Parents please teach your children to know the Lord because in this broken world . If we don’t teach our children the Word of God and how to defend themselves against the devil through the Word of God, they won’t defend themselves at all and the Devil does not want you to know that.

#290 The One True Shock Absorber

#290

Last week my family and I went away for a few days but while we were gone one of my favorite shows was set to premiere it’s first episode of it’s 15th season and so I had it scheduled to record while we were away. I couldn’t wait to get home and watch it. There’s something about this show that is so upbeat , so uplifting. It’s like real life but it’s not because there is always ups and downs and real life drama throughout the episodes but unlike real life you know everything is gonna work out in the end for the main characters and in real life you don’t always know the outcome to every ending or if everything is going to workout in the end. When I finally got around to sitting down in front of my television last Sunday to watch my favorite show. I could not believe what happened in the first 5 minutes of the first episode of their 15th season ! My favorite show killed off one of the main character’s! I couldn’t believe it ! Surely this was a joke !? Surely this was a bad dream ?! Like on Dallas when Bobby Ewing got shot ! and the show killed him off ! and then they went through this whole storyline with Bobby Ewing being dead but only it was a bad dream in the next season ! No way ! I was in such shock. I couldn’t believe it! I sat at the edge of my couch in disbelief just starring at the television. Then I rewound the part where one of my favorite main character’s collapsed and died. This wasn’t a dream. I then proceeded to go up to my bedroom just so I could re watch it on my bedroom television. Don’t ask me why. Was I hoping that on a different television the storyline and the scene where one of my favorite actor’s collapsed to his death might change in just the 5 minutes it took for me to walk upstairs in pure disgust because the writers of the show I once called my favorite of all time just 5 minutes before I knew they wrote him off would change ? Maybe? But now that the writers went and done this, I’m not sure I’m ever gonna say that again. Sitting there at the edge of my bed realizing the writers really did kill off one of the main characters’s. This overwhelming sadness came upon me . Like this horrible wave of dark emotion. When I realized nothing in this life is written in stone . You can’t count on anything ! Not even the tv dramas or sitcoms we’ve come to depend on to escape reality. Where everything at the end of the day turns out ok because whatever don’t kill you really does make you stronger. Where in your own personal storyline , the main characters never get wrote off or die and through all of life’s little ups and downs and everyday dramas and the seasons of change you just know everything is gonna workout and your show will not leave viewers feeling like they’re in the middle of a nightmare because no matter what. At the end of the day, your own life may be in shreds , you can atleast turn on a show just to avoid the news which is nothing but a none stop nightmare and finally watch a show that is as close to real life as your gonna get with a positive upbeat and uplifting message where adults are still adults and the kids don’t know more then the parents. Where there isn’t all this unrealistic stuff going on with wizards , witches and mystical creatures but with real people . Then it hit me. I don’t want a television show or sitcom . I want a fairytale or maybe I want both. I want The Andy Griffith Show with a Little House on the Praire storyline that leaves me feeling strong and upbeat where I feel I can conquer the world one drama at a time . Where the seasons change and the characters change and I change right along with my favorite characters. As they grow from children on up through adolescence into adulthood. Where I watch them grow right on the silverscreen acting and going through some of the same events their viewers are going through and can identify with . I want them to keep it real enough to be real but not real enough for me to think it’s real. Like when it’s real enough to feel real , like when it touches too close to home , like when a main character dies out of nowhere and you don’t see it coming and you go into shock because just like real life shock is a real thing. I guess that’s what I didn’t like the most about this last episode of my favorite show. It wasn’t that the writers wrote about death because like I said, it’s a show about real life. They write characters off all the time. They’re just not main characters i’m attached too. Death and loss are part of the show . That’s what makes it real. Like the life we live everyday. I just wasn’t ready for the shock of a main character. Are we ever ready for the loss of a main character ? Even in real life? In our own life ? No . The kind of loss that sends our bodies limp. The kind of shock that I would not only need a shock absorber for but I would need my Lord for because he is my shock absorber. Maybe that’s why I pray for non believers. In a broken sinful world where life is full of nothing but shock everywhere we turn . I not only want Jesus Christ in my life. I need Jesus Christ in my life because I can’t do this life without him . I don’t want to do my life without him and I don’t want you to do your life without him either and the last thing I want for anyone in this life is to find themselves without a Savior when shock finds them. When they realize their life isn’t a nightmare and they are not going to wake up from this horrible dream and that they are not living a television drama and the outcome may not end the way they were hoping . They may need the one true shock absorber in their most shocking of moments and they will find that their one true and only Savior will be there to absorb the biggest shock of their life. Our Father in Heaven will not leave them nor will he foresake them. His Spirit will comfort them and bring them not a wave of dark sorrow but a wave of peace and calmness that cannot be described but felt if only they will open up their heart and let him in and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. He will be there make no mistake about that. It has been written , it has been promised. Psalm 34:18 ” The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. ” and I cannot think of any people more crushed in spirit then the shocked in spirit and the devil does not want you to know that.

#289 The Greatest Mistake

If someone were to ask you right now what’s the greatest mistake you’ve ever made in your life what would you say? To be honest , I’ve made so many mistakes in my life I don’t know where to begin . It’s always strange to me how people will sometimes say when looking back at their lives and the mistakes where sin took over and changed the course of their life say , ” but if it weren’t for the choices I made I wouldn’t be where I am today and so I’m happy about that.” That’s where I’m at a stalemate with a lot of those people. I can’t do that. I can’t look at my past behavior where I know I sinned . Where I know I listened to the enemy and where I knew right from wrong but where I just didn’t care because I wanted the horse before the cart because I didn’t want to wait on God’s timing. The times in my life where I felt I did know more then God. The times in my life where I thought I had control of my own destiny , my own fait. Which I did in essence because I had free will and I took it. God had a very specific plan for my life . I guess I didn’t really care because I never stopped to think for a moment what it could have been because I had my own specific plan for my own life and my plan for my life mattered more. Afterall , it was my life. Right ? God did give it to me to do what I wanted with . The question is , was his plan for me to choose the path of sin or righteousness to get to where I am now ? I think everyone must ask themselves that question once in awhile. That is if you believe that God is in complete control of your life or not . I guess that’s why I can’t say when I look back at all my mistakes and say , ” Well , had I not chose the road I had, even though it was a road full of destruction and sin. I wouldn’t be where I am today. I’m glad about that ! ” What I can say and proudly say is , ” Thank God , my Heavenly Father didn’t call me home in the middle of my sin and path of destruction because it was that horrible road of sin and destruction that my Savior got me through that lead me here to where I needed to be and my life isn’t over . I feel it’s only just begun. I know that God has so much more for me to give this world. That the world hasn’t seen nothing yet. ” Because there really is a difference to me in those words. There more then words there’s a feeling behind them. You don’t lose when your in sin once you find your road to righteousness. If that road to sin is the only path to the road of righteousness then it is a win . My road to righteousness was through a road of sin and for me I’m only grateful in the fact my God did not call me home without a living Savior in my life or I would have been in serious trouble . That would have been the worst mistake of my life . Not just for me but for the ones I would have left behind. The one mistake I think we make as sinful , normal everyday busy human beings living everyday sinful ordinary human lives trying to make a life. Trying to figure out which bill to pay every week. The internet or the cell phone bill ? or maybe that isn’t whats weighing heavy on your plate right now . Maybe it is something that is harder to swallow. Like why? Why did my Lord take my baby and not yours ? Or why do I have the weak immune system ? And not my neighbor. I don’t get it . Cancer has never ran in our family. Why ?… Why ?… Why ? Do you ever get as sick as I do wondering why ? That you just keep waking up everyday . And everyday just seems the same sometimes . It seems your living but you seem to be waiting for something. Like your waiting for an answer ? Well don’t. That’s one of the biggest mistakes we as humans can make next to the number one mistake. The number one mistake you will ever make in this life as a human being is not having a living Savior in Jesus Christ . I will tell you why. For yourself. When your stuck wondering why and you must go on living. And for your loved ones when you leave this life and they must go on living. With Jesus Christ as your living Savior. There is no more shame or guilt of your past mistakes. There gone , who cares what road you took and how you got here. The point is. Your here now. Praise the Lord for that ! God and all his Glory has strengthened you and given you new life and a new light to shine on others for him . To spread his Word and expand his Kingdom ! He has given you a Savior that has died on the cross for you and took away your Sins so that you don’t have to feel the pain of what death and destruction feels like. You don’t have to feel ashamed anymore . You can give all that icky stuff to Jesus and be free of it . That’s what he is there for . That is what he died for. That is what he wants from you. To walk with you and take your burdens from you and lighten the load . So when your left feeling alone and dark wondering why me? Your Savior can be there through the Holy Spirit and cover you like a baby would feel being coddled next to their mommy who needs held really tight and rocked in her arms . You will feel the closeness a baby would feel that needs to be held tight in the middle of the night right after a nightmare . To be told it will be okay and to be calmed down. To not have a Savior means to not have any help in troubled times and that is a horrible mistake should you go through tragedy , trials or tribulation in this life and you will because we have already been told that. But do you know what is worse. To not have a living Savior in Jesus Christ when it is you who is called home and you leave your family in despair and they’re the ones in the dark and in troubled times. Because they know that God called you home when you were not on the right road that was on the right path to righteousness. That is the number one mistake you can make in this life is to not have a Savior in Jesus Christ. Because it not only leaves you in despair when your stuck here in the dark through tragedy. It leaves your family in despair when you leave them knowing you were in the dark when you were called home without a Savior. Your family and friends will mourn so much more and that is not only a tragedy it is the greatest mistake you made in this life but to die without a Savior and to not be able to live a life everlasting with one and the devil does not want you to know that.

#288 No greater hell

#288

I had a friend ask me this question the other day. ” Do you think we’re going to know our parents in Heaven?” Again. I’m always going to go back to not just what I’ve been taught about the afterlife as a child and as an adult. I’m going to go back to the Word of God. I’m going to go back to the truth of it all. The Bible. The living Word of God . Where no man can come between what’s fact or fiction. Again there is only one story , a parable of the afterlife that Jesus talks about . The story of an unnamed rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus. You can find it in the book of Luke 16: 19-31 . I guess what always makes it so powerful and so unforgettable for me is knowing that the key to crossing over that great chasm , broken passageway, the great barrier that separated both the rich man and Lazarus. That will one day separate both those who die in Christ and die without him . Both , the non believer and the believer. Is Jesus Christ. He is the key to crossing that great chasm. In answering my friend I had to tell him what I believe to be true and as a believer being taught by Christian believers I need not worry about not seeing my Parents in Eternity because they will know me . It was then that my friend finished my sentence and said , ” It’s the parents that are non believers . They will have been left on the other side.” I cannot think of a hell any worse then that. Being separated from my children but taking them to hell with me and that’s what you do when you don’t even give them the chance to even know Jesus Christ or the goodness of what the Word of God can bring. If you just taste and see that God is good. It is one thing for you to turn your back away from God but when God gives you a gift and you have children and you have an obligation to them . You have one job as a parent in this world. It’s not about getting them all the trophies you can for all the different sporting activities you can involve them in. Signing them up for every dance class. It’s not about dressing them in the latest and greatest styles and trends and showing them off like ponies at a 4-H show. Or putting them in a corner with their cell phones just to shut them up. It’s not even about raising these children to get into the greatest colleges so they can graduate top notch in there class and get the best job out in the market and make a six figure job and become a success in this life and have it all. Your job as a parent , your job as a person , your job as creation. Is to get back to your creator. The one who loves you , who wants you to come back to be with him forever in his Glory and there is only one way , one life and one Savior and that is through Jesus Christ. I can’t make it any plainer then that. He is that connection and great escape from that despair and torment that the rich man had in Hades who was so thirsty that he called out to Abraham to have pity on him and ask that Lazarus just dip the tip of his finger in water to cool his tongue because he was in agony in that fire. Why would any person or parent want that for themselves or their child? When just over that chasm they can look over and see all those believers they made fun of and scoffed at in their lifetime . The loved ones they knew and loved who won’t be able to look over and see them back . To me. That is the greatest hell of all but to be separated from the Christian family knowing you were always invited but never took the invitation and kept your children from it. The one thing that always scared me the most in that parable of the rich man and poor man (Lazarus) is knowing that Lazarus never looked over and seen the rich man . Never gave acknowledgement to him . There will be no sadness is Heaven. God made that very clear in his Word. It would make believers very sad to know that their loved ones didn’t make it over because they didn’t believe in Jesus Christ and because they weren’t truly followers of him . They would not know that they existed but it doesn’t mean that their loved ones , who were believers, didn’t exsist, because I believe they will know that they did . I believe in my heart that the non believers will be watching . They will be watching without every believer knowing from across the great chasm because they didn’t have Jesus Christ as their Savior as the key to get them across . So they will be watching from Hades across the chasm looking over watching across . I can’t think of no greater hell then being a part from my loved one whether they were a follower of Jesus Christ or not but one… Knowing it was my obligation as a parent to get them to know Jesus Christ in this life and I failed as a parent and I failed my Creator miserably because I was too busy being of this world instead of being in this world and the Devil does not want you to know that.