Archives for December 2020

December 31, 2020

Happy New 2021! Resolution Revolt

As I slow down this night before a welcomed new 2021, I admit to you I don’t have my list down of New Year’s resolutions.

Each year I feel the pressure of forming New Year’s Resolutions. Why are resolutions so hard to keep?

According to research published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, 36 percent of resolution-makers give up by the end of January. Ouch. Let’s revolt. How can this year be different?

Instead of forming resolutions, I want to form life revelations. What’s the difference?

A revelation comes from God. A resolution comes straight from us. No wonder my resolutions often fail because they come from my flesh, not necessarily from listening to God.

Webster’s defines revelation as “a :  an act of revealing or communicating divine truth b :  something that is revealed by God to humans.”

Let’s start a revolution for the new year.

The minor prophet Habakkuk was in tuned to listening to God. How can we relate Habakkuk with our New Year’s revelations today.   Our resolutions turn to revelations.

In Habakkuk 1 he cried out to God. I love his authenticity, his raw emotion with the Lord.

“’How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?…Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?’”

The Lord listens and answers Habakkuk with a wonderful response.

“Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”

Habakkuk continues to complain and ends it with a declaration:

“I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. “ Habakkuk 2:1

‘Then the Lord replied: ‘Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. Habakkuk 2:2

That’s one of my favorite leadership verses in the Bible.

The main revelation revolution lessons we can learn from Habakkuk are to:

1)Humble ourselves, pray and cry out to God. Even it seemed like complaining, Habakkuk was totally real when he told God exactly how he felt and asked God questions. God has big shoulders and can handle our big problems, our dreams, our desires. God listens and answers in His way, in His timing.

2) Strategize and write your revelation and plans on paper. Make them succinct enough that you (or anyone else) can understand them. I would encourage you to post them in your home so that you can refer to them often.

3) Be patient, work, and wait as God continues to work in your life on you and making your revelations come to fruition. God’s timing is perfect. He is never too early and never too late.

May Habakkuk’s story inspire us to start a revolution of New Year’s Revelations.

Happy, Shiny New 2021, friend. The best is yet to come.

Reflect:

What revelation is God revealing to you?

December 28, 2020

Loving Our Neighbors—Lessons Learned Through Bedbugs, Pawn Shops & Addiction, Part 2

As we wind down and finish 2020 strong, I promised I would write more lessons in the journey with my 67-year-old alcoholic cousin Mark Sellers. Part One was posted on October 27.  Because it is tough and vulnerable to unearth and write about, I procrastinated to write more. Now is the time.

Mark had agreed to go to an inpatient alcohol rehab center. He was admitted to Anuvia, the wonderful Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Center in Charlotte, on October 28, 2019.  Our aunt Nancy and I would visit him every Monday night for Family Night.  It was gut-wrenching to hear from parents, siblings, relatives, and friends of other drug and alcohol rehab patients to learn what they have and are enduring.  After our family group counseling session the counselors would bring our rehab’ing loved ones in. Mark was looking better and better and seemed to be feeling stronger also.

I saw the call come in on December 11, 2019, from Mark’s Anuvia counselor and answered it. She said Mark had been admitted to the hospital for the second time with edema, which causes difficulty breathing from extra fluid around his lungs and body. Edema is another result of cirrhosis. The counselor told me they were graduating Mark, asked for me to pick him up from the hospital when he was discharged that night and pick up his belongings from Anuvia. Oh no…

He didn’t qualify to move into a “half-way” house because he needed to have access to medical attention 24 hours a day because of his cirrhosis.  Until I could get him into an assisted living facility, Mark would need to come live with me, which I confess wasn’t quite ready for.I drove to the hospital to pick him up, then picked his belongings up from Anuvia.

Mark knew we were going to my home. I’m thankful he didn’t want to back to the attic of the dilapidated crack house where he had lived before. The crack house where he got bedbugs, where he was isolated and drank way too much alcohol daily, so much more than his body could handle.

Remember the Shop Vac we had gotten out of the Pawn Shop? He told me that the Shop Vac was stolen from his landlord Carol. One Saturday before Christmas we visited Miss Carol in the front of the property where the crackhouse was in the back.

Mark rang the doorbell. Carol answered, and he sheepishly handed her a Christmas card, having written his appreciation of her and confession of stealing her Shop Vac. She looked up after reading the card, and said “I forgive you. You can go put the Shop Vac back in the garage.”

She also said she had sold her property to a church where the crack house sat, and they would be tearing it down in 2020. She asked us to have anything we wanted of Mark’s out of there in January. I made a mental note for us to go with a Haz-mat suit in January to clean out his non-fabric (NO BEDBUGS!) items.

Mark and Aunt Nancy went with me to Charleston to celebrate Christmas last year. Mark and I enjoyed singing Christmas music as he played his awesome Ovation guitar we had gotten out of the Pawn Shop. It was so good to have Mom help with Mark. We attended the first Christmas Eve service he’s been to in over 40 years and his first as a Christian. Mom could discern how I was struggling. She offered to come home with me to help take care of him.

I confess to you that I struggled having Mark live with me, looking for an assisted living place for him to go, him watching Western shows all day, complaining that he could only drink coffee, tea or water. I was also going through a hard time at work, so it was the perfect storm.

While Mom was at my home, I took him to Alcoholics Anonymous AA meetings and took him to his first Bible Study Fellowship Men’s Bible Study with Mr. Don as his Group Leader. I didn’t realize Mark didn’t know how to read a Bible or look up scripture. Mom taught him about the Books of the Bible and what the chapter/verse numbers mean before and after the colon when looking up scripture. Like John 3:16. It was inspiring to watch him learn a whole new world with the Bible.

We made a plan to clean out the crackhouse attic where Mark had lived. The three of us put on haz-mat suits and masks. Mom stayed outside, and Mark and I entered in the smoky house–foggy with crack pipe smoke, marijuana smoke, and cigarette smoke–and up the 18 steps to the attic. I couldn’t believe it.  I had never witnessed anything like it. The ceiling was caved in in four places with mold (see photo). I had never seen so many beer cans, empty wine bottles and empty cardboard cases in one place, all consumed by one person.  I hauled trash bag after trash bag outside and we took the list of items Mark had identified to take to my home. We cleaned the attic as best we could, knowing it would be demolished in a month. Mark was pleased but embarrassed for me where he used to live.  His mail for family reunions would go to our aunt’s home. No one in our family knew he lived here. I would have tried to get him out a lot earlier had I known. Now Mark was truly going from a crackhouse to a palace of an assisted living home.

I applied for DSS Special Assistance for Mark to get into a nice Medicaid Assisted Living Facility.  He eventually passed the physical test and all the paperwork was approved. He finally moved in to East Towne Manor in a lovely brand new room on Fri., January 17, 2020. He was so joyful. I felt like a proud mama taking a child to college, fixing his bed for him and unpacking his clothes into his dresser and closet. I was so excited for him, and he promised he’d abide by the rules and not drink. It was such a happy new year for us both! Then COVID-19 hit…

What lessons did I learn from this part of the journey?

  1. Give grace and give yourself grace. Recovering addicts are doing their best. We are all doing our best.
  2. Remember to have healthy boundaries.
  3. Love first. Love wholeheartedly. God loves us lavishly. We are to love each other just as lavishly.
  4. Laugh at yourself and the situation when you can.
  5. God’s desires His best for all of us.
  6. Each day is a new beginning.

Stay tuned for Part 3 to find out how Mark did with his new independence in a new home and his first Easter as a Christian.

Be encouraged. Reach out to love others and help those who need, especially when it’s out of your comfort zone. Happy New Year! The best is yet to come.

Reflections: 

—“Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest.”–Matthew 11:28-29

–“Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.”–John 14:27

December 23, 2020

Christmas Miracles–Right on Time, Part 2

Hi Friend! Merry Christmas Eve Eve. As many struggles as this year, this season, has had, it has given me a desire to marinate on the Jesus’ birth story with a fresh perspective. He was born in such a dark time, like now. I am in awe. Let’s explore together Part 2 of this new Christmas Bible Study of studying these Matthew 1 and Luke 2 miracles.

You may have already known this, but I didn’t realize between the end of the Old Testament with Malachi to the beginning of the New Testament with Matthew and the story of Jesus, there was a 400-year gap of silence. Four hundred years of God not speaking through the prophets!

During this wild year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may seem like God has been silent. May we be encouraged that when God speaks and acts, He’s right on time–not too late and not too early.

Buckle up. I packed a lot in this post. 🙂

1. Birth of Jesus Christ

A. Why Bethlehem? Luke 2:1-6; Prophesied 700+ years earlier in Micah 5:2-5–incredible.

B. Why Joseph? Luke 2:4, 16, 33. Matthew 2:13, 13:55-58. Not much is written about Joseph. We know from Matthew 13 that he was a carpenter and he and Mary had seven children. God chose him as the strong, gentle, silent, loyal leader and husband.

C. Why was there no room in the inn? Luke 2:   With all the people coming from the region to register for the Roman Census, all the inns were full. I can empathize with the Inn-Keeper. He was a busy business leader who was doing his best to accommodate Mary and Joseph with a cave/stable.

  • I love this The Inn-Keeper’s Perspective from Frederick Buechner’s  book Magnificent Defeat, “The Birth” chapter: “…So when the baby came I was not around, and I saw none of it…All your life long, you wait for your own True Love to come–our destiny, our heart’s desire…When he came, I missed him. ‘Pray for me, brothers and sisters. Pray for the Inn-Keeper. Pray for me, and for us all, my own true love.'”
  • How am I like the Inn Keeper? Why do I leave no room for Jesus?
  • What can I do to make more room for Jesus in my life, my schedule, my bank account?

2. The Shepherds and the Angels

A. Why Shepherds as the first witnesses?  Luke 2: 8-14. Prophesied in Micah 4:8. Shepherds  were humble, lowly, outcasts. It’s fitting that they would be the first witnesses of His birth.  Jesus is also our Great Shepherd.

B. Why Swaddling cloths? Luke 2:7, 12.  Swaddling cloths were wrapped around sheep paws to cover the blemishes. It’s beautifully that Jesus as our Sacrificial Lamb was wrapped in those swaddling cloths.

C. Why Suddenly? Luke 2: 13. When God calls, He often does miracles suddenly. We respond suddenly and with haste. (Luke 1: 39, Luke 4:39, Acts 2:2)

  1. What  miracles has God performed suddenly in your life or in the Bible?
  2. How can I respond “suddenly” like the shepherds and tell everyone what God has done?

3. The Wise Men—Matthew 2: 1-12

A. Why them? Well-respected, well-educated members of society.

B. Why did they wait to see Jesus? It was almost two years since Jesus birth. Traveled about 1000 miles to see him at home in Nazareth.

C. Why gold, frankincense and myrrh?

  1. Read “We Three Kings” lyrics–Gold for a King; Frankincense for a High Priest/Deity; Myrrh for Sacrifice as embalming fluid to symbolize His death.
  2. What meaningful gifts can I give my loved ones? Can I give to Jesus? My heart.

D. Why did they go back home a different way? To protect Jesus from being killed by Herod.

4. Jesus Presented at the Temple–Luke 2:22-38

A. Why were there two turtledoves? Luke 2:24. A sacrificial offering for his birth.  “Twelve Days of Christmas” are all symbolic of our “True Love”–Jesus.

B. Why Simeon? Luke 2:25. Only time he is mentioned. Approx. 112 years old. Devout and righteous. The Holy Spirit prophesied through him to them. God loves to do extraordinary through the ordinary.

C. Why Anna? Luke 2:36-38. Only time she is mentioned. She was approximately 104 years old. A prophetess who prayed and fasted day and night.

  1. What set Anna and Simeon apart? A. Available to be used by God; B. Attuned to the Holy Spirit; C. Agile; D. Humble.
  2. How can God use me, an ordinary person, to do the extraordinary, like Anna and Simeon?

May we reflect on the miracles of this Christmas like never before. For an added blessing, please enjoy this Christmas Pilot episode of The Chosen called “The Shepherd.” Notice how bright the Christmas Star was to guide the shepherds to Jesus.

Merry Christmas, friends!

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