Cuba

Sharing in Cuba

Please be praying for us. Osmel told me last night that it has been requested that while we are in Cuba, that we would share a message with the congregation that Richard pastors. As we were talking about it, I thought about what God had been speaking to me about lately was waiting. When I told Osmel that I thought that would be the subject, he said that was the word God had given him as well. Wow... we have the same word. Now the hard part, putting it all together so I have something to share. No pressure!

God is Watching

Psalm 10:14 God, you see trouble and sadness. You take note of it. You do something about it. So those who are attacked place themselves in your care. You help children whose fathers have died.

What comfort it brings to know that God is watching. That He is taking note of my situation. That he will do something. That I can place myself in His care and that I can let it go. And in my current situation, looking to adopt a fatherless child, it is good to know Jesus, that You are with the fatherless, helping them, protecting them.... I ask Jesus, that You would protect my child.

A song for those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord

Psalm 121

1 I look up to the hills. Where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the Lord. He is the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He won't let your foot slip. He who watches over you won't get tired.

4 In fact, he who watches over Israel won't get tired or go to sleep.

5 The LORD watches over you. The LORD is like a shade tree at your right hand.

6 The sun won't harm you during the day. The moon won't harm you during the night.

7 The LORD will keep you from every kind of harm. He will watch over your life.

8 The LORD will watch over your life no matter where you go, both now and forever.

Inspiration

Inspiration is a funny and elusive thing. There are times when it swings in like the wind and it blows all around filling those around with strength, passion and a will to move forward. But if missed, it will blow out the flame that it once fanned leaving a smoldering wick that does nothing but send up a trail of smoke until the ember is completely dead.

For me, writing works like that. There are times that I think about all the things I want to say and I am filled with the exact words... formulating sentences in my mind, sentences that are filled with the magic they create within my own head. If I do not grab a hold of that inspiration at the moment I have caught it, it slips away leaving me with nothing left to say.

I imagine Elijah, sitting in the cave on the heals of his greatest spiritual victory and yet he is feeling sorry for himself and hiding from his own fears. He is looking for something that God doesn't want to give him. He is looking for something spectacular, but it is something small and insignificant that is used to catch his attention. Jonah ran from God and God caught a hold of him sending him reluctantly in the right direction, moving him forward to lead the greatest revival the world may have ever seen. But that wasn't enough to make Jonah happy. He went away and pouted, missing the greatness that God had done.

I have so many missed opportunities in my life. I so easily allow the distractions of my day to sweep me away and cause me to lose my inspiration. The truth is, I catch it in strange places, and I often find myself unprepared to do anything with it. I pray to remember the words that God has given me and yet they fade quietly into the recess of my mind. It leaves me hoping someday the color of ink will hit the page and those images will spring back to life, but alas, I think they are gone forever.

So how was it for the writers of scripture? When they sat down to record a story or write a letter, did they understand the significance of what they were doing? Did they ever miss their opportunity distracted by the cares of the world? Did they hear the voice of God actually speaking as they wrote or was it just thoughts going down on paper without any understanding that their words were going to be immortalized for eternity? When David wrote of his difficult time of despair and discouragement so great that his heart felt that it would burst- did he understand that those words were pointing a way to the Messiah? That he was actually feeling the feelings that His savior would feel in times to come? When Paul wrote his letters to Timothy or to the churches around the known world, was he aware of the fact that one day those letters would be bound together to effect the world forevermore? What must it have been like to hear the voice of God and write down the words He was telling them?

I think I can only have a glimpse of what it was they were feeling or thinking. I know that my words aren't scripture and they won't ever have the impact that the Peter's words have. I do know when however, the words aren't mine; when the images that flow from my brain to may paper can't possibly have anything to do with me. I become a catalyst, thankful that this time, the inspiration didn't pass me by.

The Joy of Living with Second Language Learners

Funny conversations are a part of our household... today we had a good one!

Liver and Osmel were trying to figure out how to ask me if we had something that Liver needed. Here is the conversation

Osmel: "What do you need to put a bottom on a chair?"

Karen: {thinking} hmmm... "I don't understand."

Liver: "What do you use to fix your pants when they are broken?"

Karen {thinking... broken pants... bottom, chair, hmmm} "I still don't understand... oh, broken pants, needle and thread. Oh, I get it, what do you need to put a BUTTON on a SHIRT...

Holding on to Hope?

So recently I was talking with a friend. We were talking about what it means to hold on to the promises of God. Through the conversation, we realized that we had different perspectives on the same subject and that the perspectives we had were two different sides of the same coin.

As the conversation progressed, it gave me a new perspective on an old question... what does it mean to wait well?

Proverbs tells us that hope deferred makes the heart sick. That is one of those verses that makes waiting sometimes hard. When I am waiting on the Lord to do a work, the question has to be asked, for what am I waiting? Am I waiting for God, or am I waiting for the "thing?"

If I am waiting for God, then I can take confidence in the idea that God said it, I believe it, and now I can wait until He brings it about. But if I am waiting for the fulfillment, for "the thing" then I may have no peace, because I can become desperate for that "thing."

Paul tells us that Godliness with contentment brings great gain. So again, the question has to be, what do I take from that verse? Am I looking for the great gain, or am I looking for the godliness?

See, it all boils down to- what is the root? Using marriage for example, I can remember waiting for Osmel. It was hard at times for me to rest in the waiting because I couldn't be sure that I would get what I wanted. That what God's will for me was the same as my hope. But in waiting well, I am not waiting for the husband, or the child, or the "thing." I am waiting for God to do a work (in me). I'm waiting for Him to perfect me and with that work, waiting for Him to bring about the things that He has for my life. I am able to wait well because my hope is in Him, not in what I want Him to do for me.