Monthly Archives: October 2016

Church Family: Autumn -By Karla

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  Fall trees bring me such delight. Each one so different, and yet so pretty. Individually, each tree itself has such variety in its foliage. This fall day I look out my living room window during autumn and study some branches. Seeing the array of colors, reminded me of the people in a church and how they compare.

Fallen Leaves

How sad that some of the leaves had already fallen off the trees. It reminds me of the people who quit  attending worship. I think that sometimes we use the excuse that others have caused us to stray from going to church because of the way they have acted, but the truth is that we are all responsible for our own actions and relationship with God. Those leaves that have fallen off are like the millions who have stopped worshipping in God’s house who will have a lessened showing of the fruits of the spirit. How sadly that affects our world. John 15:5 quotes Jesus saying, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

Wilting Leaves

As I continue to gaze still at the trees, there are leaves hanging on but have withered. So many of God’s churches across this land are filled with people taking up space without being truly plugged in and desiring to serve, or perhaps they make their voice heard too loudly in the form of negative nags that produce harm to others. At times, we, who call ourselves a Christian tear down the body of Christ.

Green Leaves

On the limbs many leaves remain green; Christians who continue to thirst for the nourishment. They display such eagerness to learn and grow. This desire to mature pleases God. I believe hopes that everyone craves to draw closer to Him in all of our days.

An Array of Color

I love the leaves in their brilliance! They attract others to Christ with their beauty. I think perhaps these colorful leaves are meant to represent the Christians, who truly carry out the word of God. These are the ones who put others before themselves, giving of their time, money, and talents. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” James 1:22.

When I look up at all the autumn trees together in my yard, I notice the numerous shades. It is amazing to me at how God loves us. He formed us with different strengths as well as various imperfections. It is my belief that He created us with diversity so that we would depend on each other. God’s thriving church houses strive to be filled with an array of talents and servants. In this way, people can depend on each other for support within the church as well as extending its glow outside to welcome others into the fold. What a blessing it is to serve our Lord, who created such beauty and care for His children.

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Help: Stuck in Muck -By Donna

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Saturday was a gorgeous, sunny day. I went walking with our three dogs.  The oldest dog Zeus, who is approaching eleven, is obsessed with fetching.  Anytime we walk, I am constantly throwing the ball for him to retrieve. He is always with me.  Seebee, the crazy dog, has to always be in the lead way uimg_2287p ahead. Carlton, the little prissy inside dog, is always in the middle, desiring to keep up with Seebee.

When I say walking the dogs, I don’t mean on a leash in the neighborhood. We were all roaming free on trails in the woods and on the open area where loggers have been clear-cutting. After strolling for about an hour, we were all four tired, thirsty, and dusty. All the creeks on our 40 acres had dried up from the lack of rain. So, the dogs were unable to drink until we neared our yard that has an acre lake. The side near the dam remains deep, but the opposite side has receded a lot due to the drought. Carlton headed on to the house to go inside, and Seebee just continued to run around, but my tired, old Zeus needed water.

“It will be like walking on water!”

I instructed him to walk over and drink, but he just stood there looking at me as I was holding his tennis ball. “No more ball, go drink.” He remained staring at me with his big brown eyes as he panted hard. “Fine, come on. I’ll go with you to get a drink.” He followed me just a few steps and then stopped. “Zeus, how cool we get to walk where part of the lake use to be. It’ll be like walking on water.” Clearly, it doesn’t take much to entertain me. I love to do things I’ve never done before. But Zeus, who never leaves my side, except to retrieve the ball, didn’t budge. Maybe that should have been my first clue!img_2283

I took about four steps on the black murky mud, where water used to be. Suddenly the ground beneath seemed to disappear and I sank to mid-calf. Surprised, I quickly tried to step up, but I sank to my knees! At first I began laughing. In my mind I pictured Gilligan pulling Skipper out of quicksand. The more I moved, the deeper I sank. “Zeus!” He clearly didn’t want to come, but walked toward me obediently. I grabbed his back end, but he began to sink too. Then he quickly retreated and ran to safety. Seebee, meanwhile stood to the side watching the show.

Help

My feet felt like lead weights as I tried to raise them out. The more I struggled, the deeper I sank. I found myself standing thigh deep in muck, stuck. I stood there looking around, accessing my situation. Finally giving in, I hollered, “HELP” waiting for someone much stronger than me to pull me out.

As I was walking toward the spigot to hose myself down, the Bible verse “Be still and know that I am God” flooded into my mind. I was overcome with the message portrayed to me. To be perfectly honest, right now in my life things are very challenging and I have decisions to make. I have always kept my faith and my eyes on God. But I find myself  attempting to figure it out, and the more I do, the more trapped I feel. I need to stop trying to fix everything and everybody. I need to be still and let His arms, that are so much stronger than mine, lift me up and out. 

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Stay Focused; Just Keep Swimming -By Donna

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Staying in a private beach house during summer break in 1985, was just what two college girls needed. Annmarie and I got a great deal on the house, and we didn’t care that it had no TV.  Our intentions were to be beach dwellers for the week.

One cloudy day we were surprised to find we were the only people on the beach. “This is totally awesome! We have the whole beach and ocean to ourselves.” We laid on our floats, talking and singing for hours.

“Good grief, this water is dark,” I commented as I looked over the edge of my float. “What time is it?” Annmarie was sporting her new Swatch. (For those of you who don’t know, that is a plastic, waterproof wristwatch that was a hit in the 80’s.) “It’s three o’clock.”  She answered, as I sat up.

“Oh my, gosh!” I screamed with fear as my eyes stared ahead. The buildings were barely visible. We had drifted out to sea.

                                                               Panic!

“We are gonna die!” Annmarie wailed. Instinctively, we both flipped over onto our stomachs, stuck our arms into the water and immediately paddled. However, we were met by stinging tentacles. Quickly we withdrew our arms and looked down. Fear filled my heart as I gazed at what looked like hundreds of jellyfish below, every color and size imaginable. It was unbelievable and horrifying.

“What do we do?” She questioned. “Why are there so many jellyfish!”

“We gotta paddle and get to shore.”

We had no choice, so we paddled frantically. Each stroke of my arm, was met with stings over and over. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed red whelps appearing on my skin. I tried not to think about the documentary I had seen about jellyfish, because I knew somewhere out in this vast ocean were jellyfish so poisonous they could kill you! Looking over at Annmarie, I saw the look of fear. Don’t panic, Annmarie. I know you can barely swim.  

 Overboard

As we continued to paddle, I raised my arm out of the water, exposing a huge jellyfish that had wrapped its tentacles around my arm. Screaming, I flung my arm. It flew through the air, and landed on my back. I thrashed around to knock it off as it was stinging my back. In my frantic movement I fell into the water and my float glided away. Jellyfish stung my entire body. The only thing within reach was Annmarie lying on her float. I quickly climbed on top of her back. We paddled rapidly to my float, and I relocated.

We continued heading towards shore. The further we went, the less jellyfish we saw. But then I saw the dark shadow swim under my float. As the shark passed, my heart sank. We are gonna to die out here, and my mama will never know what happened to me.

I looked to my right and felt even worse. “Annmarie don’t panic. But there’s rain coming.” I said, as I pointed. The wide wall of water moved toward us. “When it gets here, we have to hold on to each other’s float and not let go, no matter what.”

The eerie wall came closer and closer until it was upon us. Cold, hard drops beat down on us. I held tight to her float. The rain was so hard, I couldn’t see if she was still on there. “Don’t let go.” I yelled.

The rain eased up and the jellyfish either washed further out or we had passed them. So we paddled full force, even sliding down toward the bottom of our floats so our feet could kick too. I felt excited as the shore was got closer.

Giving Up

“What time is it?” I asked.

“6:30.” She sighed.

The waves were stronger as we neared the shore. As we struggled to get past them, they tried to pull us back out.

“I quit.” Annmarie stated as she laid her head on the float.

“You can’t quit! You gotta keep going.” I pleaded.

She half-whispered as her exhausted eyes blankly stared at me. “I give up”

I had only one choice. But could I do it?

Sliding into the water, I grabbed the front corner of her float. I swam pulling her along. She quit! I can’t believe she quit. But I can’t leave her. The waves continuously slapped me in the face, but I stayed focused on the shore. My arms and legs began to ache. “Just keep swimming; just keep swimming”. Lord, please help me. Then I thought about my pool. I have swam seventy laps every day this summer for no reason. Thirteen years, and never swam laps. God has prepared me for this. I am a strong swimmer. 

I swam with Annmarie in tow. After four hours, we finally reached the shore. We literally kissed the sand. I called my mama, and she frantically informed me hurricane Elena was headed our way. During the wee hours of the night, we heard a knock on our door. There was an immediate evacuation. We weren’t even allowed to get our belongings!

Focus

As I have grown older, I’ve realized life is the ocean and God is the shore. Someone can be floating along in life, happy as can be, and suddenly things go bad. You realize you are at a place in life you never thought you would be and the jellyfish, sharks, and storms (sickness, family problems, money problems …) come along and try to destroy you. Keep your eyes on God. No matter how many times you get slapped in the face by the waves of life, stay focused on Him. He has already prepared you for what is to come.

-Donna

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