The refrain from this Beetles classic has run through my mind a lot in the past week or so. I need somebody to love and someone to love me. However I don't get high with my friends except on life.
I have been overwhelmed by the love and support, help and hard work of many friends and my practical and giving sister-in-law this past week. It seems that I needed a lot of support to get through the remaining stuff in my home. What do I really do with the 7 boxes of open kleenex throughout my home. Why did they even exist. How many potentially usable items can be thrown away when I know I am going some where, were there is little if anything available to waste. And how do I really cut down my belongings to a minimum and know what that minimum is?
Friday evening we were able to enjoy food and fellowship with many friends from our life and small group bible study which has evolved over the 20+ years we have been involved with hosting it. I truly felt loved and cherished by the people that shared food, fellowship, and prayers with us.
Saturday was to be the last day of our life in our home. 7 braves souls ventured to my home not knowing what they were getting into. I honestly thought that I had things in pretty fair order and not that many decisions left to make. Thought we could be done and out of the house by noon. These good friends worked hard to help us finish packing the final items from our home, cleaning a few more areas, washing out cupboards and often telling me to finish every last item in a random pile of things I didn't know how to decide on a fate for. Coming at 8 in the morning and working til 4 in the afternoon is a very very long day and I don't think I can even begin to express how very thankful I am for the service they did for us.
We made it to Sioux Falls around midnight last night. I was able to get a decent nights sleep, remarkably in my own bed which is now in my daughter's guest room. I was able to attend the dedication of my granddaughter Lydia this morning and enjoy church.
My thoughts and focus have not quite caught up with reality right now but I was challenged by pastor Jeff Wheeler's sermon today which was profound enough to cut through my deeply embedded brain fog this morning. He preached on the story of Rahab the Harlot. How many years I have taught this story and the story of the fall of Jericho which follows this to countless Sunday School classes. I have never thought of Rahab as an evangelist before. Rahab believed in the God of the Isrealites. She put out the scarlet cord, but I have never considered that she had no real time frame of when the Isrealites would return to take Jericho. It could be in a day, or 3 days or 3 weeks. The pastor's estimation was three weeks. She got her family there. She had to tell them coming to her house was the only way (like Jesus is the only way) she had to convince them this God she now accepted was for real and they must do as she bid.
I can think of this on so many levels and ways. My friends came at a time when my need was urgent this week. Jesus came to me when I was so lost in myself. God is sending me at a time when I feel there is an urgent need in Malawi. But the most urgent need of all is for people to know Jesus and God the father who sent him so that their lives might be saved into eternity.
No pictures today but picture someone you know who is lost. We don't know when Christ will come. Share with the urgency Rahab must have felt.
I have been overwhelmed by the love and support, help and hard work of many friends and my practical and giving sister-in-law this past week. It seems that I needed a lot of support to get through the remaining stuff in my home. What do I really do with the 7 boxes of open kleenex throughout my home. Why did they even exist. How many potentially usable items can be thrown away when I know I am going some where, were there is little if anything available to waste. And how do I really cut down my belongings to a minimum and know what that minimum is?
Friday evening we were able to enjoy food and fellowship with many friends from our life and small group bible study which has evolved over the 20+ years we have been involved with hosting it. I truly felt loved and cherished by the people that shared food, fellowship, and prayers with us.
Saturday was to be the last day of our life in our home. 7 braves souls ventured to my home not knowing what they were getting into. I honestly thought that I had things in pretty fair order and not that many decisions left to make. Thought we could be done and out of the house by noon. These good friends worked hard to help us finish packing the final items from our home, cleaning a few more areas, washing out cupboards and often telling me to finish every last item in a random pile of things I didn't know how to decide on a fate for. Coming at 8 in the morning and working til 4 in the afternoon is a very very long day and I don't think I can even begin to express how very thankful I am for the service they did for us.
We made it to Sioux Falls around midnight last night. I was able to get a decent nights sleep, remarkably in my own bed which is now in my daughter's guest room. I was able to attend the dedication of my granddaughter Lydia this morning and enjoy church.
My thoughts and focus have not quite caught up with reality right now but I was challenged by pastor Jeff Wheeler's sermon today which was profound enough to cut through my deeply embedded brain fog this morning. He preached on the story of Rahab the Harlot. How many years I have taught this story and the story of the fall of Jericho which follows this to countless Sunday School classes. I have never thought of Rahab as an evangelist before. Rahab believed in the God of the Isrealites. She put out the scarlet cord, but I have never considered that she had no real time frame of when the Isrealites would return to take Jericho. It could be in a day, or 3 days or 3 weeks. The pastor's estimation was three weeks. She got her family there. She had to tell them coming to her house was the only way (like Jesus is the only way) she had to convince them this God she now accepted was for real and they must do as she bid.
I can think of this on so many levels and ways. My friends came at a time when my need was urgent this week. Jesus came to me when I was so lost in myself. God is sending me at a time when I feel there is an urgent need in Malawi. But the most urgent need of all is for people to know Jesus and God the father who sent him so that their lives might be saved into eternity.
No pictures today but picture someone you know who is lost. We don't know when Christ will come. Share with the urgency Rahab must have felt.
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