I’ll Take a Cloud…or Two

This day a year ago I was all caught up in gratitude for the rain, cooler temperatures and the Fall season that was in the air. I spent the day getting my Fall décor out and turning my home into a place of pumpkin spice aromas and colors of oranges, yellows and browns. But, not this year. It seems Summer doesn’t want to give way just yet! So, as in the title of this blog – I’ll take a cloud or two that gets this Fall party started.

But, actually, I’m not moving in that direction with this post. I’m thinking of the “cloud” that went ahead of the Israelite wilderness wanderers. “By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way …” (Exodus 13:21). I’m big on putting my faith and trust in the Unseen God. But, there are just some days when a cloud or two would be awesome in pointing the way for me. Perhaps you’re like me and you could sure use some reinforcement on some difficult decisions you and your family are making. I spend a lot of time searching for supportive Scriptures and always hope to glean a definitive, holy answer to my questions. I stay alert for any trace of God speaking. I want to hear His voice loud and clear. I look for patterns in things I read or heard. And, continually, I seek precise affirmation in the choices I am leaning toward.

It’s easy during those times of waiting, seeking, and knocking for our thoughts to run rampant. “What if I make a wrong decision? What if I thought I heard God’s voice, but instead it was just my own emotions or feelings controlling my thoughts? Is it too much to ask for a blinking neon arrow dropped down from Heaven to point the way?”

Instead of allowing frustration and angst to overwhelm us, maybe it’s time to chill – relax and stop trying to figure everything out. Maybe the better thing is to stop looking and listening for a blaring answer from God – and to simply ease into a place of “coming into His presence with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise” (Psalm 95:2) – to simply sit at His feet and indulge ourselves in Him. Praying for wisdom, clarity and guidance about how to move forward. Praying for peace and hope to fill our hearts and minds — leaving no room for confusion and negative thoughts. Praying that decision-making would be an extension of our faith, not an exhaustion of our efforts.

That "cloud" phenomenon guided the Israelites during the daytime. We could sure use a holy cloud to guide us, Lord! But, instead of a cloud, we have cloudy minds and we worry we’ll make wrong decisions or we can’t even make a decision at all. We also feel lost in the wilderness, If they would have trusted more and complained less, the direct path would have been only an eleven-days journey instead of their 40-years journey. Hearing that makes my thoughts become less cloudy and I rest in knowing God is our guide. If we walk down the right path, God is there with us. If we take a wrong turn, He is still there, redirecting us, guiding us and leading us out of the wilderness. In fact, He may take us down the most difficult journey, with full intention of growing our faith along the way.

We may not have a cloud we can see with our eyes, but we can trust God is always leading the way. God may lead us into the wilderness, and He may even guide us there to camp for a while, but He will never leave us there. Regardless of the decisions we make, we’ll never be on any path alone.

Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”

Seeing the Unseen

My dear friend called to check in with me a couple of days ago when I was very sick with the flu. How did she know to call me on that day when I needed a friend to pray with me the most? She did, because she was "Seeing the Unseen in 2017". That was the slogan she and her husband had chosen for this year. Slogans aren't new for us. We like to get a "word" that we desire to be our vision and motto for the year. In 2007, she and her husband, and myself and my husband, celebrated the new year in together. We all came up with this slogan "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven in 2007". It was certainly befitting for the four of us that entire year.

I was telling my grandson and granddaughter (Braden & and his Ruth) my friends' slogan "Seeing the unseen in 2017". There are times, when in the natural, it seems like good luck, or coincidence or being-at-the-right-place-at-the-right-time when something good happens or comes our way. But for those of us who know, as children of God, nothing is just happenstance. We recognize our unseen God in our everyday of life.

We talked about how Braden had seen the hand of the unseen God when he thought he was getting ready to go into the Army's Special Operations Training, but ended up, instead, going to firefighter and EMT training because a friend of Ruth's brother -- at the right place at the right time shared thoughts and ideas that inspired and directed Braden to move a different direction. He did, and became both. Coincidence or fate? No, seeing the Unseen.

Then, Ruth was working as a neonatal ICU nurse in Mississippi and one of her neonatal nurse friends moved with her husband to Gwinnett, GA for a period of time and worked in a hospital there as a neonatal ICU nurse. Eventually, she and her husband moved back to Mississippi. It just so happened that Gwinnett, GA (of all the places in the U.S. to go) was where Braden took his firefighting and EMT school, and at graduation, continued to work there. Ruth's friend was able to refer Ruth at that hospital in Gwinnett and with Ruth's abilities, skills AND "seeing the Unseen" now works there in Gwinnett at the same hospital. Happenstance or "seeing the Unseen"?

At dinner last night, we talked about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing where my Ryan was running that marathon and had just crossed the finished line. Shawntel was in the stands directly across from the first bomb that went off at the finish line. Both she and Ryan were unharmed. Seeing the Unseen. We talked further about the young woman, Roseann Sdoia, who lost her leg in that 2013 bombing, and the fireman, Michael Materia, a firefighter, who was the responder who took her to the hospital. They were strangers at the time, but he has rarely left her side since, and they'll be married this year. Recognizing the hand of God -- "seeing the Unseen".

Like stories I'm sure that you can recall that you absolutely know that it wasn't fate, good fortune, coincidence or luck -- that there is no doubt the hands of God to have spared your life, given you that seemingly impossible, otherwise, job or home or spouse or other dream, if we could only but realize our Unseen God shows up for us when we least expect Him. Maybe we should turn that around and start looking for Him -- perhaps there would be so many more instances of seeing Him in our everyday of life.

2 Corinthians 4:18 "We do not look for things that can be seen but for things that cannot be seen. For things that can be seen are temporary, but things that cannot be seen are eternal."