Happy New Year

Blessed Christmas Greetings and prosperous New Year Wishes to all of you. I must apologize for not getting Christmas Cards out this year. I somehow never managed to get my act together!! Thanks to all of you who took the time to send us greetings. It was such a pleasure to receive the cards and letters.

Once again I find myself reflecting upon God’s goodness to us. We are so fortunate to have all our family around us during the holidays, and to be blessed with good health (relatively speaking—as things could be MUCH worse!) and to be surrounded by wonderful friends. There is no greater pleasure than watching my grandchildren enjoy the wonder of the season.

I didn’t do as much baking this year as I usually do, but did manage to make my perennial fruit cakes. My Mom chastised me a little for doing it, as it is no small task. But that is one thing that makes me feel like my life is still normal. I guess it really is therapeutic! By the way, if you have never read the book, Christmas Memory by Truman Capote, it is a poignant story for the season. It is about fruit cakes!!

Gordon and I went to a conference in Hamilton, AL for New Years. It is sponsored by Karen Wheaton and her musical group called Chosen. It was a wonderful opportunity for praise and worship, reflecting upon the past year and trusting God for the outcome in the New Year. Dutch Sheets, the author of a great book on intercessory prayer (and some others as well), spoke at a couple of the sessions. He is an anointed writer and speaker, not given to conventional ministry. He really challenged us to “get outside our comfort zone” in our relationship to God and our fellow man. Then I spent New Year’s Eve with my roommate from college in Haleyville, AL. She has a little house on Smith Lake which provided a nice quiet place for relaxation and reflection.

I cannot write this without sharing where I feel God is leading me. I continue to feel pretty well physically, trusting God to heal me, and realizing that He has a purpose for me in this “disruptive moment.”

David Jeremiah writes in his book, A bend in the road, that these “circumstances” often come by divine appointment. “Every trial we face, difficult as it may be, comes from the hand of God, who loves us and wants us to grow.” If we recognize and understand this, it will keep us from being discouraged. We will know that “God is in control—He has a plan, and that is why He has allowed this to happen in my life.” Charles Spurgeon wrote, “I bear willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord’s workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my schoolroom is darkened, I see most.”

Disruptive moments are “times when God restores to us the things we lose through negligence, ignorance, rebellion, or sin. For the Christian, disruptive moments are no-lose propositions. They help us see and acknowledge the loose shutters, missing shingles, and rotten fence posts in our lives while turning us back to the only One who can make the necessary repairs.” Though we are wounded and filled with pain, we are experiencing the “demonstration of God’s tough love—His determination to teach us and to make us wiser and stronger.” Our response to these disruptive moments, determines what we receive. Our response can make us bitter, or better. Our natural response is to ask, “Why?” Mr. Jeremiah says a better question to as is, “What? What are you trying to teach me? What are your plans to make me more effective?”

Please pray with me that God WILL lead me and guide me through this “disruptive moment.” That He will not let me miss any lesson He has prepared for me!