Christian Potpourri

I am surrounded by grief. A friend has just lost her husband to cancer. A cousin has lost her mother. Another friend will soon lose her grandmother. Grief.

A former boss’s father has Parkinson’s. A relative is suffering from advanced ALS. An aunt is falling more and more into Alzheimer’s. Grief.

Grief grabs us with great big hooks and swings us around in a cycle of sadness. To be a Christian does not mean there is no grief. The sorrow over an impending loss, and the loss itself, can be all consuming even to those of us who know that this is not the end. Christians know death is the REAL beginning for those who have placed their trust in Christ. But sorrow still has it’s edge, the serrated edge of a knife that cuts so deeply. Someone is gone; there is an absence. And we are forced to continue without them.

Christ knew what it was like to have a dear one pass. He stood and wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Grief. Christ understood it, and understands it now. And He is there with us as we go through it.

For there is a time for grieving, a time for sorrow, and this is that time for some people I know and love.  It is with great empathy and sympathy that I wrote this poem. I dedicate it to all who are feeling the pain of loss.

It’s not an easy poem. It’s a poem about grief.

Grief
By Mary Hughes

Scorched by fire,
Blistered by heat,
I feel grief’s coals
Beneath my feet.

I breathe grief out;
I breathe grief in.
And watch the ashes
In the wind.

Here in the Hughes’ household we have had an absurd moment. And in this moment of the absurd, we see the hand of God.

From a young age, our daughter, Julie, mumbled. We would have moments of high stress when we had to ask her to repeat herself not once, but twice in order to understand what she was saying. With eyeballs rolling she would sigh that ‘how can you not understand’ sigh. No amount of cajoling worked. My husband and I felt like ‘Pete” and “Repeat”.

At the age of 20 our little mumbler went to college. It was in this freshman year she had her first heartbreak in the form of a broken relationship. Feeling hopeless and not able to cope, she moved back home. She found jobs here and there, but nothing that she saw as a future for herself. I must tell you she was pretty despondent and her Dad and I were very concerned. Then one night she went with her Dad on his overnight shift as videographer for a local station in St. Louis and she had a blast. Overnight she found a new sense of purpose, a future. That future came in the form of The Broadcast Center, a school for media and radio. And we enrolled her, not knowing what field she would choose, or where she would excel. We weren’t sure of anything really; we were just happy to see her involved and interested in something. But before long it became clear: she loved what she was doing! The only thing that concerned us was: it was radio. She wanted to be on the radio.

Her interest progressed as did her education. When she came home with a professionally done radio demo we held our breath in the form of a prayer.

When we listened we were floored. We could understand every word!!!! It was a moment of pure…..incredulity! And we thought, “This was worth it just to be able to understand her!”

Then one day Julie called and left a message on our answering machine. Her Dad and I played it and re-played it, trying to understand what she said. We saved the message. We saved it for Julie.

She came over, listened. She shook her head and said, “I have no idea what I’m saying.” Ah, the absurd!

Since that time Julie has been in radio, from Cape Girardeau to a part-time job in St. Louis doing traffic.Amidst the ups and downs of the economy, and the ensuing havoc it wreaked, she has hung in there. She found full time jobs here and there, but could never quite let go of her part-time job in radio. We encouraged her to stay. We just had a crazy feeing she was supposed to be in radio.

Recently we were at a crisis point. There was a full time position available where she was working, but there was a big hitch. Two people with loads of experience in the St. Louis had applied. One had fifteen years of experience. The tension was incredible. Julie would call us, asking for prayer. So we did, and we asked others to pray, too. Julie would call and ask me, “Mom, do you think I’ll get this job?” I honestly had no clue and it was painful for me to tell her that. One thing I did know was if she didn’t get the job it would probably be the end of her radio career. She simply would have to move on, find a full time job somewhere.

After weeks of a gut-wrenching wait, Julie called. I had no problem understanding her.

“Mom……….I GOT THE JOB!”

It was huge! It was momentous! It was validation. It was affirmation of all that had happened before, the awful break-up, the quitting school and moving back home.

“Mom, please tell everyone who prayed for me I said thank you!” Her voice broke.

“And, Mom. You know what? I wish God was right here beside me so I could give Him a hug.”

You can imagine how I felt hearing that. And as a dear friend said when I told her this, “She did give Him a hug. She gave God the credit and the glory!”

She’s right.

It’s been a five year journey. Julie just turned twenty five this December. It’s been rough at times for her and for us. At times we probably lost confidence. But God is good and He knew all the time.

There will be rough patches ahead. The newness and excitement will give way to reality. Work is always going to be hard no matter what you do. You go through valleys and back up to the mountaintop. And back down again.

We thank Him. Oh, we are still in praise mode big time!

We are glorying in the absurd.

I know I hurt him. I sat, full force, upon his little cat body. He ran as soon he could to the nearest hiding place.
I walked through the house calling to him, “Winston…Winston!”
He wouldn’t come to me and I wondered if he would ever forgive me.
I found him hiding under a bed. I took him his favorite cat treats to cajole him so he would let me pet him, but he wouldn’t. I felt awful that I had hurt him and I wasn’t able to communicate that to him.
Then, it wasn’t even fifteen minutes later and he came to me as if nothing had happened at all. His little cat brain had either forgotten it, or he had decided to forgive me. I kept looking at him expecting him to hiss at me or run the first time I extended my hand to pet him. He didn’t. It was if it had never happened. I believe Winston chose to forgive me.
And I pondered, “What must it be like to be able to forgive so easily?” “Would it be the same if I sat on him on a daily basis?” There is a sliding scale to injustice and how we forgive according to our scale. I’m not sure of Winston’s sliding scale, and I’m not going to sit on Winston every day to find out.
But I will think a bit about forgiveness and how the Lord wants me to do it and do it right, so that when someone sits on my pride, my ego, my ‘right’ to something, I can forgive. I will give up my right to hiss and run.
Excuse me while I find Winston and love on him a little. I find I appreciate him even more now that I am forgiven.

We’ve been doing some serious praying lately, for jobs, for health, for loved ones near and far. There’s so much going on out there for so many people, and a lot of it isn’t good news. Some of it is downright awful.
I knew that I had been pretty emotion-less. I knew I had been steering clear of anything that would bring on tears, sad stories on TV, sweet and touching videos on YouTube or elsewhere. I didn’t realize how I had been ’steeling’ myself against what was really happening, in real life. So when the phone call came and it was an answered prayer, my relief came out in wet tears.When my daughter said she wanted to give God a hug for the answered prayer, I almost completely broke down, but not quite.
But I was moved. It’s one thing to be older like I am, and recognize God’s beauty and bounty. When you’re younger and haven’t been through the trenches, it’s easy to take the credit and think it’s all about you. She did not. Glory and praise were on her lips for the God who had seen her through; there’s a new maturity in her thinking, a wisdom and knowledge. She knows that prayers were answered.
I’m so happy for my girl…and I honestly don’t know which is bringing me the most joy…the job or her acknowledgment that this was God moving in her life.
There are a lot of things still hanging out there for friends and family that are not good.
But for now, today, I have sighed with relief and it feels pretty fine.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you.
Thank you for this answered prayer!

When it was time for prayer requests and praises at a recent Wednesday night prayer meeting, one of the church members, Ruth, asked if she could read two emails aloud to us.
Ruth had received the emails from her friend and her friend’s husband, Fred, who is a pastor in a town in Ohio. The emails pretty much tell the story and I have been given permission to print it in “Christian Potpourri”. What you read below is unedited. I have only changed the font to italic for readability purposes.
The first email Ruth read to us was a prayer request; the email that followed was a report on the prayer request.

“What I am writing to ask you all is for your prayers on Thursday 11/5 at 6 p.m.
Our church is bidding on a vacant elementary school building. The school system has had declining enrollment and consolidated the students into the other 2 schools in town.
The building was renovated 9 years ago and is beautiful. it consists of 20 classrooms, a gym, kitchen, cafeteria and offices.
Fred has had a vision for how it can be used to reach the people of Windham. Over and over this vision has been confirmed to the point of monies being given by The District office of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and their full verbal support. Our own church people are busting with excitement as to the possibilities and have volunteered their time and abilities to make the ministry work. Plus, we have already been receiving monies and pledges from the congregation in support of the project.
The name would be Renaissance Family Ministries.
The last big piece of the puzzle is the actual purchase of the building. The building and property is being auctioned first.
If we would get the building we know that God is moving in other incredible ways. We know that for it all to work out it must be a total God-thing. But we are ready and willing to be there for what He wants.”

That is the end of the first email.

Below is the second email.

Hello again everyone……WE GOT IT! It was an amazing night. What was amazing to begin with was that we had close to 50 people from the church there to support Fred and confirm their convictions about this new ministry venture. Then there was the fact that someone was there who could have out-bid us by quite a lot.
When he realized that Fred was one of the bidders, he stopped bidding, not wanting to bid against the church. Then there was the situation where Fred was about at his limit for bidding, and got down on his knees in prayer, followed by our church people either kneeling, bowing their heads, or laying hands on each other. People not from our group were snickering at the sight, but then….there was a thunderclap from out of nowhere, not just once, but twice! Then the auctioneer pointed to Fred and said, “SOLD”. There were such screams and cheering from our group, that I think we raised the roof of the gym about 5 feet. It was incredible. Fred had bid $190,000 and the auctioneer was milking the time and encouraging the other bidder to go higher. WOW!
Thank you all for praying. We are seeing God continue to work and provide. What more does God have in store for us? Love to all, Janna (Pastor Fred’s wife)”

The following is from the bottom of the email Ruth sent me when she confirmed that I would be allowed to re-print this story. Ruth wrote to me:

……..Mary, Janna called me today with more exciting news. They will get the final papers on the 29th of December. The whole community is excited. I learned that the building was appraised at 3 million dollars!
What a bargain! March 20, 2010 will be the dedication. So far the Library in the Village has asked to rent space; the police station is moving in too; the village offices will move there; a counseling service will rent space too; The police and Village offices will provide all the landscape and mowing tasks. Each of these will pay rent to the church. So again all financial needs are being met.
The church will begin holding AWANA Club in the fall. They will offer many other services. Oh yes, the Salvation Army in their town is also moving in to provide hot lunches and to have a small resale shop.

This is not the stuff of fiction, my dear friend. It really happened. In a town in Ohio.
It’s what happens when people pray and God moves.

Don’t imagine it.
Live it! And move into a New Year filled with the possibilities of what the Lord can…and will do.
Happy New Year!