Mysterious Messages

Messages stuffed in a coffee-shop wall...

Would you sip your latte without peeking? 

Or would you indulge in 

anonymous note-reading?

So many fold styles and paper types--

 what seem to be long messages next to 

short, single-fold memos. 

Why leave a note stuffed in the 

wall of a busy coffee shop? 

Is it like a prayer or a plea for help?

Which one is that final break-up note, 

a long-awaited proposal, 

 or the last clue in a treasure hunt?

I didn't read a single one, though the 

urge was so strong. 

Maybe next time, I'll sneak a peek ...

(Message wall at Carabello Coffee, Newport, Kentucky)

 

Emergency Room Revelation

I happened to be in the emergency room a few weeks ago. 

It's the last place I (EVER) want to go, but for the sake of a dear one, I went.

A few hours into the visit, I ventured into the hallway on an errand and 

was drenched in the chaos of a raging patient. His screams, punctuated 

by frantic fist-pounding, reverberated over the nurses' station. 

But not a single doctor, nurse, or tech seemed to notice. 

They went about their work with good humor while he shrieked, 

"Let me go! Let me out! I'm getting out of here!" 

Jagged splinters of his terror penetrated my heart.

After scurrying back to the room to wait alone, 

I pushed the door mostly closed, 

just in case the madman managed to escape. 

Almost immediately another terrifying sound slipped through 

the door's crack. A weeping woman, just outside in the hallway. 

She sobbed as if her hospital visit had 

erupted into tragedy, with full voice and no inhibition. 

"Oh, Father God," I whispered... 

I wish I could tell you how I left the safety of that room and went to 

the weeping woman with a bottle of water and a listening ear. 

But that's not what happened. 

Would that I had edged near the caged rager and whispered 

prayers for holy intervention. 

But ... no.

"Please get me out of here," 

is what came out of my heart. 

A fear-filled prayer. 

For myself. 

You like everything to be calm, for life to be smooth sailing. 

Yes. 

But I am at work here. 

People call out for Me in the chaos and 

desperation of a hospital ER, 

where there's sometimes screaming and weeping. 

Jehovah Shammah walks the halls of the hospital. He is there. 

How could I forget? 

Knowing "He is there" empowers Christ-like actions. 

Forgeting myself and reaching out to those in need— 

whether it be at the grocery, in a nursing home,

on a playground, or (gulp) at the emergency room—

is the real business of life. 

Next time, I'll remember. 

***

For more about our amazing God, visit here. 

Snow Art

These ultra-disposable bits of natural art never cease to amaze me.

 I'd love to own the camera equipment required to capture their true beauty.

Another item on my "someday" list. 

I'm pondering this:

"As white snowflakes fall quietly and thickly on a winter day, 

answers to prayer will settle down upon you at every step you take, 

even to your dying day. The story of your life will be 

the story of prayer and answers to prayer.” 
― Ole Hallesby

Ready and Willing

A friend gave me this heavy, wooden door, taken from her grandparents' empty home.

Only a few days before bulldozers did their work of subdivision development, 

we walked through mostly-empty rooms searching for 

useful bits of an old life that could fit in the back of her truck.

Last summer, it made the perfect backdrop for my butterfly bush. 

This year it brings sunshiny-yellow charm to my shade garden.

And a bat lives behind it. 

Do you pray for open and closed doors? It's a recurring theme over here.

Every time I pass it, my friend's door reminds me of these powerful prayer verses. 

"A huge door of opportunity for good work has opened ..."

" ... a door was opened for me in the Lord ..."

"... opening doors no one can lock, locking doors no one can open ..."

I don't know about you, but I've tried to break down a few doors and walked 

away pretty bruised from the effort.

By the same token, I've tried to slam a few that keep creaking open again.

It's good news that a loving Father is in charge of opening and closing the 

right doors for me. So ... if He holds the keys, then what's my job?

I've got to be ready to walk through open doors 

and 

willing to walk away from closed doors. 

I can't be obsessed with a locked door, peeking through the keyhole, 

testing an endless series of secret knocks and creative passwords. 

And walking away from a closed door is just as challenging as working up the nerve 

to cross the threshold of an open one. The cool breeze of the unknown in my face 

isn't always exhilarating—sometimes it's downright terrifying! 

Walking through and walking away both require one thing: 

TRUST

Confidence that what's behind a locked door is really, really not good for me and 

certainty that whatever waits beyond an empty threshold is His very best.

What doors are you dealing with today? 

Lord, thank you for holding the keys to every door in my life. Help me recognize and walk away from the doors You close. Give me Your courage to walk  through the doors You open, into the future planned for me. My trust is always and only in You.