God comes through...AGAIN!

I can't understand how people think that faith is pointless, that there is no God, or that either way doesn't matter. My experience time and time again over the past 20+ years is so different! God has gotten us through so much. He's brought Tim & me together in a way that couldn't have just happened. He saved our ectopic pregnancy and Adam was born healthy. He found us amazing real estate deals over the years. He got us through marriage situations to bring us to the wonderful place where we are now - closer than ever. He protected us from harm so many times. He found me a job when I had no resume, no experience for 20 years, and no skills to put on paper...and it was at my favorite place of all, the tea house. He got us through our bankruptcy and foreclosure as well as teaching us all important life lessons I'm convinced would not have happened any other way. He brought us back here where we belong - closer, wiser, and more appreciative than ever. He found us the only place we could afford by orchestrating events that would never have happened on their own, and it turned out to be more than I could have ever hoped for. He was there through my ovarian cancer scare this fall when suddenly, all 3 cysts (one was solid and almost 7" long, sitting on my ovary the size of an almond, and causing all kinds of pain and other bad symptoms) - they just disappeared overnight the evening before my follow-up ultrasound. I literally felt the pain leave my body and had a total sense that everything was cleared. I was afraid to hope for such a miraculous event, but that's exactly what happened. Now, God comes through again! We know our rent is going up May 1st. It's a fair raise, bringing it up to fair market value, but coupled with a soon to be rising water and electric bill for summer, it would be way more than we could, or should, afford, especially if we're trying to save to buy a house next fall. I did ask that if it was God's will, we'd like to stay here as long as possible until the end of our yearly lease so we didn't have to move out of a nice house and neighborhood prematurely. Just as the increases start, we will be moving into a new place near here that we've waited for since December! We'll have tons of amenities including a pool for the summer, almost the same square footage, and it'll cost $100 less than our rental increase! On top of that, we'll have no water bill anymore, it's included in the rent. We also anticipate lower electric bills, since the upstairs and next door neighbors will be running their air conditioners as well, it won't be just ours trying to keep the building cool - and heat rises, so being on the first floor will help too. The windows should be more efficient as well, since I believe they are newer than the ones here. Once again, God comes through, and my experiences with a real, loving, living God continues. People can believe what they want, but they can't take away all my experiences of my relationship with God. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Lifting the veil

The bible talks about how before becoming a Christian, we all have a veil that prevents us from seeing God's truth. I get that concept well enough, but when I come face to face with non-Christians I love and care for, it's so apparent what the bible is talking about. Recently I had the special blessing of spending time with relatives I haven't seen in years. We had lots of fun together, laughed for hours, enjoyed each others' company, and talked about so much. It became so clear to me how blinded the world makes people nowadays. When I was growing up, there were many households that didn't attend church. After all, my friends' parents (and mine) were from the 60's teenage generation. Question everything - do what feels right to you - oppose your parents' values, and all that. But even so, the kids I grew up with still had a sense of there being a God out there somewhere. They still respected the difference between right and wrong. They still followed the basics of what the bible teaches. So how, in such a short amount of time, did we get to where we are today? The relatives I spent time with don't go to church, and that's okay, it's their choice. They also have absolutely zero interest in what is truly right and wrong, everything is subject to feelings, or "situational ethics". The right thing to do is what they feel like doing at the time. Also, I noticed, that unlike within my faith, there's very selfish undertones. I don't mean this in a derogatory way, I'm not saying they're selfish, really. It's just that in my church, for example, when one of us hurts, our brothers and sisters in Christ hurt with us and want to pray and help us. If one of us is rejoicing, we all rejoice together. If one of us has an experience where we see God at work, we share that, and learn more about Him together. There's none of that in this world. Not to the same deep, inner degree, anyway. Everything seems to be about self: what I want, how I feel, what I want to happen, I want to go first, they aren't my problem, etc. There's so little regard for anyone beyond the niceties and politically correctness of those around you. During our conversations, I noticed such a lack of comprehension about trying to live God's way. Comments were made about how you can't live without bad stuff, bad language, and fallen people (my term, not theirs) all around. I believe that's true, you can't live in this world without encountering it all. It's not going away til the end of time. You can't escape it without living in a bubble, and that's pretty self-serving to do that. What the veil keeps others from seeing is that you CAN live among the world but not become part of the problem. You can be the example of living a life of joy, selflessness, sacrifice, freedom, etc. You don't have to use the same bad language as those around you. You can choose what movie and tv shows you put in your head. You can choose who you surround yourself with for friends and support, you can choose to be honest, even when no one's looking, and you can choose to love people. They really didn't even see that as an option. The general opinion was that since everyone around you is doing all this bad stuff, you might as well jump in and do it to. Fitting in is more important than standing out and standing for something that's not easy. How I wish I could lift veil and they could see the joy, hope, direction, peace, and love that could be theirs. It's not my place to force it down anyone's throat. It's just that, because of my love for them, I want them to find the wonderful things they're missing. I want them to experience all the GOOD that they could have. I want the best for them. I know there's false beliefs out there about Christianity that turns people off, and some unfortunate truths and statistics too. I hope I was successful in our short talk on the subject in conveying some truth. We don't follow a book of strict rules. We aren't perfect. We should not be judging others, that's not our place. It's not about having to "do" or "be", but it's about a free gift of salvation through Jesus that gives us everlasting life. I tried to explain that our home church has a motto, "No perfect people allowed." I know in some churches, the members are the worst at being judgmental, holier than thou, and hypocritical. I try to help people see that that isn't Christianity, that's just people, human nature, but it's still wrong - especially for those who Jesus forgave so much! I tried to explain that we don't have a long list of do's and don'ts. It's basically, love God, and love people, and accept that Jesus paid the price for you. That's it. If you love God, you'll want to please Him and do what's right. If you love others, you'll be less likely to be selfish, critical, manipulative, deceptive, etc. I don't know if it made any difference at all, but my job isn't to convert the world. It's to be like Johnny Appleseed. I plant seeds of faith, and move on. If their timing is right, and the Holy Spirit steps in, the seeds will grow. Maybe I'll never see what grew from those seeds, and maybe nothing will come from some of them, but some will grow big and strong and have deep roots. They'll produce more "seedlings" themselves, and people will be saved.