i have to say it. cheezy or not. i have been overwhelmed by my friends. i always think i have the best friends ever - that i could run them in a contest against other people's friends and come out way ahead. but leaving my home, i was shown on a larger scale how true that is. the dinners, parties, cards, hugs, prayers, looks, smiles, words. all of these meshed into the moment when a few friends prayed for me after church my last sunday. the weight of their hands on my shoulders is something i shall never forget. someone said, it is your friends who make your world. now my world has to stretch to include california - but i think with my friends, that can be a reality. and i'm still hoping a few will literally join me out here.as some of you know, i got my irish tattoo (above) to "remember" what the LORD has done for me, as moses tells the israelites to do in deuteronomy. what i love is that the LORD doesn't just do one or two things that i have to hold onto for the rest of my life, waiting for some future day when i can finally be blessed again. He's continually adding blessing to blessing. my friends are now a part of that story. kansas city is added. jacob's well. kerry & i's bible study. my time at devry. and there's more yet to come here in la.
one more thing - i was reading in my utmost for His highest on sunday and loved it. oswald references isaiah 45:22 - look unto Me, and be saved. he says, "the great spiritual difficulty is to concentrate on God, and it is his blessings that make it difficult. troubles nearly always make us look to God; His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere...look unto Me and--not you will be saved, but you are saved. the very thing we look for, we shall find if we will concentrate on Him. we get preoccupied and sulky with God, while all the time He is saying, look up and be saved. the difficulties and trials--the casting about in our minds as to what we shall do this summer, or tomorrow, all vanish when we look to God. rouse yourself up and look to God. build your hope on Him. no matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to Him. look unto Me, and salvation is, the moment you look."
cheers, oswald.
does oswald expound on the "resolutely exclude them all" part? i'm pretty good at the rest of it.
ReplyDeleteYou're bound to be a good write if your name is Oswald.
ReplyDeletehe does not. but as his general approach to life with Christ is that it's a lot simpler than we make it, my guess is, he would direct us to do it one thing at a time, until it becomes second nature to us. when that happens? no clue. for me, probably when i'm 80 - well, hopefully by then! :)
ReplyDeleteonly you would come up with the elaborate titles for your photos that are in the flickr account. :) you got some very cool shots of the landscape on your drive. though i must say that i'm a bit disappointed that there are no cacti in there. ;)
ReplyDeletethose silly cacti!!!
ReplyDeleteyou are dead on about friends beth! i have never been so wealthy in friends before in my life! i remember when we lost friends during different stages in our life (marriage, kids) and i was sad, but i see now that this was just a way for God to put amazing ones in the empty spaces! so blessed. i love the idea of stretching, that the friends we have now are capable of exactly that. stretching to keep us within the circle, no matter where our physical selves are!
ReplyDeletei agree about friends too. clark & i felt so loved & supported when we moved to columbia. we could hardly take it! i think you have such good friends because you are such a good friend to a lot of people. its exciting to look forward & see what God will do in california!
ReplyDelete