Magic

 

I’ve lived on this earth for 43 years and I have only found one source of magic.

One of the definitions of magic is the ability of any extraordinary or mystical influence, power, etc.: a supposed supernatural power that makes impossible things happen.

I’ve had a difficult week.  I had to watch as cancer was removed from my husband ear, step by step through eight emotionally excruciating attempts.  We were unprepared for the skin graft that needed to be taken from his shoulder and placed on the wound that the extraction created.  Sometimes life knocks the wind right out of your lungs.  Something’s hit me harder than others and I can honestly say I have had my fair share of having to be strong this year.  This is also a week where I was made aware of unbeliever that made a horrible choice and ended the life of her unborn child.  That was just the beginning of stories I was made aware of and each with the ability to crush the heart.  After getting through my sad week I had a couple of harrowing days trying to nurse my husband past this unexpected procedure, I felt empty and tired.  Sometimes pain feels as if it has teeth, teeth that threaten to tear the soul. 

This fog of sadness tried to settle around the borders of my heart.  I couldn’t jump start my mind forward.  This floating list of “todo’s” kept screaming at me, “get it together Rozy, you’re running out of time” but I couldn’t think past the grief, thick, black and heavy.

I sat at in a rather hidden spot at O2 but I was afraid I had nothing to give and I couldn’t rest for worry that Roger still needed more attention and an extra set of hands to help him.  I ‘watched’ worship, I really can’t remember having done that before at 12Stone, as if it were on the outside of me instead of the inside.  I was just taking up space.  I was afraid someone would recognize me and ask me to pray for them, which normally would be the joy of my heart to serve someone but I thought my words might not come out of my mouth for the stupor that choked my heart.  I felt separate instead of part of.  For the first time in forever I felt as if I was on the outside looking in.  I saw God moving, I saw the Spirit minister to many but I was outside of the moment.

Confusion was flooding me, why was I feeling so empty.  This is not the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through by far so why was this darkness slamming against my mind and heart. 

And then the magic….. a supposed supernatural power that makes impossible things happen.

I opened the Word and start reading…….Colossians 3:12-17

So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

 15-17Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

What is it about these Words that have the power to remove the funk from my soul?  I can feel the surge of hope coming back into my very bones.  How can words form an ancient book do such magic?  The fog has gone and the light of love has again chased confusion away and makes my spirit feel as if it has wings.  There is more than sadness in this world.  I get to be a carrier of this hope.  Bad things happen but I will not hold them and they will not hold me, they have not come to stay for the Word resides and takes its place with full authority and all else must flee.

I am free, I am free to feel, and think, and be grateful, and full of thanksgiving.  I am excited about tomorrow and hopeful about the future.

The Word of God is more invasive and powerful than any funk this world has to offer.

Magic

smelly armpit dog lesson

I have this walking armpit of a dog.  His name is Judah.  He is quite beautiful actually, a sable colored collie with blue eyes.  My problem with this long term commitment to my family is his insufferable coat. He sheds uncontrollably in the summer and when I don’t take him to the groomers, he starts the process of smelling up my house and making huge messes.  He drops hair everywhere.  Everything he touches as he walks by is covered in hair.  I sweep and clean up after him more than I ever did my own children.  I have a sensitive nose and the odor that is always present around him is as dense as a cloud of ash.  Today as he walked by me I gave up and brought him outside for the longsuffering task of removing this offensive undercoat.

Before starting that task it occurred to me how I can ignore situations in my life that leave me in a stinky Judah state.  Everywhere my Judah goes he offends and adds the aggravation of hair to my floors and sofas.  My guests (which are frequent)  are often having to use my sticky roller thing before leaving my home. 

I grabbed a leash and three specialized brushes and a shedding instrument and began the work.  I need the leash because he doesn’t really like it (grooming) but he really loves me.  With every stroke bushels of hair come loose and are placed in the garbage bag beside me.  It didn’t take long to fill the bag.  I realized in that moment how quickly we as people can become stinky and work to others without intention.  The longer I ignore the grooming process of the Word of God in my life the more my undercoat grows and if not dealt with can grow into mats. Little problems became bigger issues if ignored.

When I surrender to the control of the Holy Spirit that I love, the faster the grooming of my soul can happen.  So I took my time to loving speak to my Judah (smelly armpit dog) and helped him do what he cannot do for himself.  Make him clean, make him fit to do his job.  To love us as a family and me especially  : )  I want to be fit to do my job and the only thing that can help me is to sit with God and let my time in worship and study do its work.   

Here is to hoping I’m not a smelly mess to others     J 

Oxygen by Jordan McCormick

My boy has had a great summer and has fully awakend to his God apart from his parents. 

This was a blessing to me may it bless all others who read it.

I was listening to my stereo on the way home one night and the album Comatose by Skillet was playing. One song in particular had these lyrics that caught my attention: “ …[God] your presence fills my lungs with oxygen…”. This visual caused me to analyze this thought.
First, I thought of the concept of oxygen. This chemical element is the source of life, as we know it, without it life would cease to exist. The process of breathing is known as the inhalation of oxygen, and the exhalation of carbon dioxide and other waste products in the body. Oxygen is passed from the lungs into our blood cells and replaces any waste in the body. This process of exchange sparked a thought of one of the most fundamental principals of physics, which states that no two things or objects can occupy the same space. So as oxygen enters the body, carbon dioxide has no choice but to leave the body.
After considering this biological process, I took a step further and asked, “ How would this apply to our spiritual lives?” Since we as humans are created with such complexity that we are more than mere flesh and blood but spirit and soul as well. So the equivalent of oxygen in the physical world would have to be God’s presence in the spiritual realm. Ethos is the Greek word meaning essence, so God is the essence or ethos of life. So if God was oxygen and waste would be hate, malice, jealousy, sin, bitterness, etc,,, So if we spiritually breathed in God’s presence and keeping with the physics principal of no two things occupy the same space, then there is no place for hate, malice, bitterness, jealousy in our lives, What if as involuntarily as breathing, we would, in a spiritual sense, allow God to replenish our spirits and expel the waste as easily as exhaling. But instead, we spiritually hold our breath and allow everything that harms us to slowly suffocate us. Why not stop holding our breathing and allow God to consume us from the inside out.
The most effective way to establish dramatic change is from the inside out. Think of how God created Adam. From the dust, the body of Adam was created into an empty vessel. And what did God do…He BREATHED life into Adam. From the moment of creation, God intended us to be occupied by the spirit and His presence. Life as we know it is a constant struggle between feeding our spirit and allowing our flesh to consume us. As previously stated, the two cannot coexist in the same vessel. We try on our own to fight our flesh but it is in vain. It’s the equivalent of holding our breath and saying we are breathing as normal. Only God’s presence can restore life to our spirits in order fend off our flesh.
So this is my prayer…that I would no longer justify my circumstances as this is the best that I can do. This is completely ridiculous, I am selling God short. Paul prays in Ephesians 3:20: …Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think…Why not simply relinquish our sickened and suffocating state and just allow God to do His work in us unhindered by our own discomfort. I for one am going to allow God to do His thing and start breathing easy for a while.