Grateful...!

It is SUCH a great day! Joshua is home from camp, I am not in the hosptial, and Lew doesn't have some big project planned for the day! Its a little gloomy and rainy, but I like it that way now and then! It somehow brings our family closer together, as we gather together, rather than look for actvities out in the world.

So, at this time of the morning, as my husband and I are getting ready to share in a cup of coffee together (well, we'll actually have or own cups, and we won't be in them!) I'll just update you, my friends, on some fun and exciting news!

Since 1998, I have had a calling on my heart to go back to Graduate School to gain more knowledge of the Bible, teaching biblical principles, and/or Christian Counseling. It must not have been in God's time, because roadblock after roadblock would come my way. I was accepted into one particular program, and one week before classes were to begin, I received a letter with "rules" about the school, whcih included something like, "any use or discussion of the so-called 'gifts of the Spirit,' particularly speaking in tongues, is not acceptable and will not be tolerated on our Campus." And so I called, and politely withdrew from the program. "So-called gifts?" Who the heck...? WHAT the heck?! Anyway, I figured that if God had wanted me to study at that time, he'd have made a path, and so it has gone a few times down the road.

UNTIL YESTERDAY!

S, I'll just backtrack for a second: while I was in the hopsital, I "happened" to see a program on the Discovery Health Network about "A Night in the Life of an Trauma Department Chaplain." Now, you DO know me well enough to know hat I do NOT believe in coincidences, and so, as a therapist, a Christian, and a recent patient in a Trauma Unit, I knew I was supposed to watch it, and I found it fascinating! I never thought much about Chaplaincy. I DO know that when I was in the secular world, and had to be in the hospital, I was always asked if I would like the Chaplain to come and visit me, and I replied with a resounding "NO!"

So, I watched this young man on TV. He was in Seminary, and worked night shift at a local hospital, and he'd spend then nights waiting for his beeper to go off, which looked like it happened at the precise second he was finishing counseling with family, back-to-back, evenly-spaced, throughout the night. Leave it to Cable TV! At times, he'd talk into the camera about how his night was going, and he'd comment that he had no idea what he was doing, but just prayed that God would see him through. He was meeting with families whose loved one(s) were either seriously ill or worse, or who may have just passed away in the Emergency Room, or were making decisions whether or not to continue Life Support. He also spoke with some patients, who we grateful to be alive.

What I found most interesting, were his remarks that people tend to seek out God, often for the very first time, and are finally ready when there is a crisis going on. They are desperate to find HOPE in someTHING or someONE, and, in the midst of tremendous fear and grief, they open their eyes, hoping against all hope that the Christian girl at work who has been telling them about Jesus and Heaven all of these years was wrong and that somehow his own son, who had perhaps not ever accepted Jesus, could possibly not have made it up there?! What a horror! And what if YOU were the person that this father was asking? "My son didn't believe in Jesus Christ as his Savior. Do you think he might have gone to Heaven anyway? He was a good kid...just had a few problems..."

Well, now I AM going to learn to minister to these families, perhaps all over the world!  Atttendign Seminary, having not only the time and good fortune, but the requirement to study God's Word, in-depth, every single day, no exceptions, sounds like my dreams come true!  Of course, my unbelieving parents, brothers and sisters, and friends are now attacking my Chirstian beliefs more than ever, and feel I must be brainwashed  to enroll for this program... (Yes, I've been brainWASHED in His Blood!)

"Blessed are those who are persecuted, beacause they do what God requires."
(Matthew 5:10)

So, Father God, I come again to thank you for yet another opportunity, another wonderful path you have set before me.  You have given us each a race-- our own particular race unique to each person, and, God I so love the race you have given me to run!  Thank you for the opportunity to serve you in such an amazing and unbelieveable way!  I pray and trust that you will continue to equip me for this mission, and give me good times of work along with good times of rest.
Thank you, Father, for the knowledge that you are all I need, and that you are always there. And regardless of my circumstances, you make all things wonderful and new.   Please search my heart as I go through this day, and point out anything that is not pleasing to you.  I give it all to you, in Jesus' name, Amen.