Turning Point
Psalm 119:105 (New International Version)
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.
It was mid morning when she called--my friend Poppy--a.k.a. Frances. We hadn't spoken for almost a week. I'd tried calling the day before and she had answered the phone, her voice husky with sleep, "What time is it?"
"12 o'clock," I said--I'd called on my lunch time.
"Can I call you back?" she asked--but she never did--that day at least.
So when I heard her voice on the other end of the phone the next day, I looked up at the clock and made a mental note that I was starting my coffee break--prepared to stretch it into my lunch break too, if necessary. It's hard for us to stay connected--my friends and I--when we're all working and on different schedules--but we manage because it matters.
Out came a tale of busy days--family visits--many of them in one week--a late night sister-bonding session--trying and failing, to watch scary movies--and all culminating in a few snatched hours of sleep before going to work--which is when I had called the day before.
Sometimes the journey gets weary and the issues we carry are dreary. That has been Poppy's state of late--but she wasn't calling to tell me that. She had a tale of victory to share.
She'd gone to work and a co-worker had seen her discouraged state and asked if she could pray with her. That prayer changed everything. As her co-worker prayed words that were led by the Holy Spirit, Poppy said she realized, "I've spoken too much life into anger, depression and negativity."
"And," she said, "the Lord has lifted my spirit."
She went on to say, "He turned my mind and heart to how much he loves me."
"The thing that will lift us--the thing that will sustain us is his love."
Poppy's final kick at the negativity can was to say, "I will get by--I will prosper--because of who he is and because he loves me."
And I knew that she was right.
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.
It was mid morning when she called--my friend Poppy--a.k.a. Frances. We hadn't spoken for almost a week. I'd tried calling the day before and she had answered the phone, her voice husky with sleep, "What time is it?"
"12 o'clock," I said--I'd called on my lunch time.
"Can I call you back?" she asked--but she never did--that day at least.
So when I heard her voice on the other end of the phone the next day, I looked up at the clock and made a mental note that I was starting my coffee break--prepared to stretch it into my lunch break too, if necessary. It's hard for us to stay connected--my friends and I--when we're all working and on different schedules--but we manage because it matters.
Out came a tale of busy days--family visits--many of them in one week--a late night sister-bonding session--trying and failing, to watch scary movies--and all culminating in a few snatched hours of sleep before going to work--which is when I had called the day before.
Sometimes the journey gets weary and the issues we carry are dreary. That has been Poppy's state of late--but she wasn't calling to tell me that. She had a tale of victory to share.
She'd gone to work and a co-worker had seen her discouraged state and asked if she could pray with her. That prayer changed everything. As her co-worker prayed words that were led by the Holy Spirit, Poppy said she realized, "I've spoken too much life into anger, depression and negativity."
"And," she said, "the Lord has lifted my spirit."
She went on to say, "He turned my mind and heart to how much he loves me."
"The thing that will lift us--the thing that will sustain us is his love."
Poppy's final kick at the negativity can was to say, "I will get by--I will prosper--because of who he is and because he loves me."
And I knew that she was right.
Comments
I can.
Good on you Francis, and of course God loves you ... have you met you?
Dave Hingsburger