Category: Hope

Posted on

The Ultimate Gift

No Greater Gift

Considering the name of my blog, it wouldn’t seem right to allow Christmas to pass without a word from me. After all, Jesus IS the ultimate gift. In the wee hours of Christmas morning, I’m feeling too exhausted to write, yet too wound up to remain silent.

From One Extreme to the Other

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, I was in bed recovering from my initial cervical spine surgery. It was the quietest Christmas that I ever recall. I watched enough Christmas movies to exceed my life’s quota all in one month! This year I felt like I couldn’t have possibly packed another thing into December. Thankfully there were precious celebrations of the season with friends and family to break up that lengthy list of tasks that come with preparing for Christmas.

Singing and Ringing

Music played a big role in making this a December to remember. It was an honor to play a beautiful Christmas medley with the handbell choir early in the month. The following week, my church presented a Christmas cantata for the first time since 2019. What a joy it was to sing in that again after the lengthy layoff!

Words are Powerful

The Christmas Eve service last night felt like the grand finale. I recently admitted that I do not pay a whole lot of attention to the words I’m singing. Songs in my digital library are generally there because I like the tune. And just when I admitted that publicly, the words in the choir music suddenly started jumping off the page. They have moved me to the point that I get too choked up to sing at times. It happened again last night when the choir sang a beautiful anthem titled “Behold Our God.”

To cap it off, my pastor delivered a powerful message that everyone needs to hear, using a ladder as a prop. We strive to be closer to God, to reach the top of the ladder. But life happens, and no matter how hard we try, we can’t earn our way to the top. Good news—God knew that from the start and had the perfect solution. His name is Jesus. Love came down to us at Christmas. There is no greater gift!

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Matthew 1:23 NIV

 

Merry Christmas!

Charter Oak Church
Christmas Cantata ’24

 

Posted on

Numbers

What’s in a number?

I like numbers. No newsflash there. After all, I teach math. Numbers give me a greater understanding of so much.

Concerning Numbers

Thinking back 28+ years to the months leading up to my daughter’s birth, I remember meeting with the head neonatologist at Allegheny General to discuss her case in depth. It was all so overwhelming. All the medical terminology flew right over my head, but a few things stuck. Namely, the numbers!! I understood that much at least. Our baby girl had a 10% chance of surviving, unless she was born in the right place at the right time. I can assure you that we, along with our doctors, did everything in our power to make sure she WAS born in the right place at the right time, increasing her odds of survival to 50/50. Sometimes those numbers don’t tell the story that we want to hear, but, nonetheless, they do tell a story.

The Battle Continues

After months of battling a MRSA infection, I find myself searching for a number again. Please feel free to read my most recent blog posts if you need to catch up on that news.

Multiple infectious disease doctors have told me that once the infection reaches the bone/hardware, it is really hard to eliminate. They are all in agreement on that. If it does return, the doctors say that they will have to open my neck up yet again and remove the hardware. You can imagine how appealing that is after having had 3 cervical spine surgeries in 4 months.

The Million Dollar Question

My question—how hard is REALLY hard? Give me a number so I can better understand what I am up against! When I posed that question at my most recent infectious disease appointment, my doctor could not (or would not) give me a number. She only replied, “I don’t know.” So, I am left wondering. Are the numbers in my favor? If not, how badly are the odds stacked against me?

Achieving (Im)balance

While I have been left pondering this question, the Holy Spirit led me to a passage in the Bible about numbers to give me some much-needed perspective. For the complete story, check out Judges Chapter 7. I am going to limit my deeper dive here to the numbers. In this chapter, Gideon is leading an army of Israelites into battle against the Midianites.

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’  Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

Judges 7:2-3 (NIV)

Calculating

If you do the math, that means Gideon’s army started with 32,000 men and was quickly reduced to 10,000. That is nearly a 70% decrease! Why? Because God did not want the Israelites to take credit for their victory.

However, God was not yet finished…

But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

Judges 7:4 (NIV)

Outnumbered

Minus all the details, God pared Gideon’s army down to 300 men. For perspective, there were 135,000 men in the Midianite army. Whoa—talk about outnumbered! There is no way the Israelites can pull this off, right? That was God’s whole point. When they defeated the Midianites, God wanted them to be certain of why they were victorious. It was because He was fighting the battle for (and with) them! Ultimately, the battle was God’s. And you know…

With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 19:26 (KJV)

Instead of searching for a number to which I can cling, I would be better served by clinging to the all-powerful God of the universe. At the end of the day, the number is not very important. If you are in a battle where the numbers are not in your favor, remember this story about Gideon and find comfort in this truth.

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31 (NIV)

 

 

Posted on

A Patient Patient

 

Words to Live By

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Romans 12:12 NIV

I usually write a post sharing my verse and word of the year in January. Well, that artificial deadline came and went, didn’t it? I’ve been a bit distracted these last few months. In the midst of it, the verse above picked me!

Be Patient in Times of Trouble

If you’re anything like me, you could use an extra helping of patience. That has never been truer for me than over these past few months when the road to recovery from cervical spine surgery took me on quite a detour.

My word for 2024, patience, is included in the Fruit of the Spirit. That is a biblical term that sums up nine attributes of a person or community living in accord with the Holy Spirit.

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

Galatians 5:22-23 NLT

Practice Required

I want to bear that kind of fruit. How about you? By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can! As one of my pastors once said, we won’t become patient without being given the opportunity to practice it. Practice makes perfect, right? I’ve gotten plenty of chances to be a patient patient over these last several months. I would like to say that I’ve aced the test, but, since sitting still is not one of my strengths, I imagine a solid ‘C’ is a more accurate reflection of my current level of patience. No, He’s not done with me yet!

An Unplanned Detour

The recovery from my initial surgery called for me to be a patient patient. Not knowing what to expect, I just felt like it was going painfully slow, pun intended. I was a good patient, and, as is often the case, followed all the rules. It wasn’t until the lower part of my incision split open that I realized I had taken a detour. That detour included two additional hospitalizations and a second surgery 1000 miles away from home. The prize from Round 2 was 31 staples in my neck, easily surpassing the total from Round 1. The bonus prize was yet another surgeon’s haircut! I have had no shortage of opportunities to practice patience!

Be Joyful in Hope

To this point, I have focused on the middle segment of Romans 12:12–be patient in affliction, but the bookends deserve mention as well. The beginning of the verse tells us to be joyful in hope. What does that look like in the midst of life’s difficulties? We must remember that Jesus is our Hope. Our joy is found in Him, not our circumstances. Knowing that He is with us and working on our behalf in the middle of a trial is reason to be joyful. To keep from drowning in our circumstances, it is important to keep our eyes focused on Him. That’s not always easy. If it were, I would have written this post a month or two ago rather than waiting until I saw light at the end of the tunnel!

Be Faithful in Prayer

Finally, Romans 12:12 calls us to be faithful in prayer. Seek, ask, knock—keep at it and don’t give up. While it’s true that God already knows what we need, He still wants us to come to Him with our concerns. It’s all about the relationship and that requires participation from both parties.

Pastor Chris often reminds us that everyone is dealing with something. Isn’t that the truth?! Whatever that something is for you right now, try living out Romans 12:12 and see how God responds.

    • Be joyful in hope
    • Be patient in times of trouble
    • Pray, pray and pray some more

In my case, I have found myself back on the road to recovery. After being sidelined for 3 months, I have had a taste of normalcy in my life recently. It has been oh so sweet to be able to do some things that simply haven’t been possible since the first surgery! If you know me very well, you know that I like my sweets! Strawberry shortcake anyone?

Strawberry Shortcake
It’s strawberry season in Florida!

 

Posted on

Merry Christmas

This gift perfectly fits the size of every heart.
Jesus–the Ultimate Gift

Though not up for writing much at this point, it wouldn’t seem right to let Christmas pass without a word. With every writing, it is my desire to remind myself and each one who reads it that Jesus truly is the Ultimate Gift. He perfectly fits the size of every heart. You can be assured that He is your source of peace, hope, joy and love.

Update

I am in the early stages of recovery from spinal surgery (laminoplasty). I will admit that I was at peace AND scared half to death all at the same time leading up to the surgery. As promised, He was right there with me every step of the way. And still is as I make my way back. I’m discovering the road to recovery to be a long and winding one but am so very grateful to be on it.

A Different Christmas

Getting ready for Christmas by December 13 was no easy task, but, in His strength, I reached my goal. It seems so strange spending the days leading up to Christmas resting rather than going 100 mph in fifteen different directions. I’ve actually watched some Christmas movies this year rather than just talked about it.

Timing

In some ways mid-December is the absolute worst time to schedule a surgery, but in other ways it was absolutely the perfect time. During this Advent season, I’ve been reminded nearly every day through various readings that Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. I’ve not only read about it, but I’ve also experienced it firsthand, before, during, and after surgery. I’ve been in His hands all along and there’s no better place to be.

Jesus–the Ultimate Gift

I pray that you too would experience all the benefits that come with receiving the Ultimate Gift. Jesus came so that we would have LIFE and have it in abundance (John 10:10b). Enjoy that life and thank God for this indescribable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15).

Merry Christmas!