Second Chance Wednesdays - Part 3

Please watch the video since some guy worked awfully hard for the $5 I paid him to make it!

Several years ago I had a homemade t-shirt that I would wear to adoption conferences. On the front it said, "Darth Vader could be my birthfather for all you know" (on the back it said "Help! I'm in the witness protection program and nobody will tell me who I am!"). Imagine my surprise when I found out that People of the Second Chance had picked Darth Vader as this week's Never Beyond villain. Take a look at this bad boy:

Isn't that a face that is just in desperate need of a second chance?

Okay, seriously now...

Let's just pretend for a minute that the Star Wars saga is real (sorry, Star Wars fans, it is just pretend). Luke Skywalker had been raised believing that his father had been killed. He ends up thinking that it was Darth Vader who killed his father, Anakin Skywalker. He had some mighty righteous rage going at Darth Vader. Can you imagine the sorrow and revulsion Luke must have felt when he found out (after his hand has been cut off by said villain) that Darth Vader actually was Anakin Skywalker, his father? Luke was literally hanging on for dear life while having to process the fact that this evil mask-wearing killer, who had slaughtered innocents and been party to blowing up whole planets full of people, was the father he had always yearned to know. Not afraid to lose his Macho Card (because he obviously didn't know we were all watching), Luke cries and screams out, "Ben [Obi-wan], why didn't you tell me?" He's asking his friend who is dead, but lives on in The Force, why he didn't tell him this awful news. You have to admit, that is a lot of information to handle at one time.

Things I Know Right This Minute

1. Step-parenting is not for sissies. Even when the kids are grown.

2. Having the keys to ALL of the electric panel boxes in the house is a really good thing.

3. It is a waste of time to have resentments against dead people. I really need to move these people out of my head so it will be less crowded.

4. Time flies when you are Facebooking with friends.

5. Eating a pink monkey for dinner is not the same thing as buying a pet elephant. Learn to differentiate.

6. Telling the truth is highly underrated. Having the ability to do it will set you apart from the pack.

7. I'm going to end this post with a dangling parti-thistle.

Click on the photo to go to the Bungled Jungle website. 

It's a blast!

(God told me to write about what I'm learning and these are all very important things - except for maybe #2 - I'm told you can bust the lock if needed.)

My Shadow Self

It comes in the dark of the night. Sometimes my husband is just a few feet away. Tonight he is almost 900 miles away. The soundtrack for this goes through my head. Sometimes it plays on my computer. This is not the kind of music that will ever win a Dove Award.

I don’t know when this part of me started. So, so long ago. Was it always there? Is this part of the sinful nature of man – it is just waiting to wake up at some cue that is not even consciously recognized? Is this why God warned us away from so many things? He isn’t trying to come up with more rules – He’s just trying to protect us from ourselves?

We certainly didn’t talk much about “original sin” as a concept when I was growing up in church. Of course, we all knew the story of Adam and Eve. But I feel like I got shortchanged on that little anecdote. What I got was this: the serpent (go back and read it – it never mentions Satan at all) was a crafty little fellow and convinced Eve to eat the only forbidden fruit in that massive garden. Adam, the dolt, was standing right there and didn’t stop her (as if he had already been beaten into some sort of “yes dear” submission that men show on shopping trips so they can hurry up and get out of there). He eats some of the fruit too and then everything changes.  Poof! They’re naked. Who knew? They get busy sewing fig leaves and God stops by for a chat. This is the first recorded instance of “we’re not dressed for visitors” as an excuse.

Five Minute Friday - Older

It's that time again! Another writing exercise just for the fun of it. Let's join Gypsy Mama and her friends to see what we can create in five minutes.

Take five minutes and remember what it feels like to weave words together for the simple pleasure of how they sound. Without worrying about how they’re edited or perfected.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Get a little crazy with encouragement for the five minuter who linked up before you.

OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes on:

Older…

GO:


This subject made me giggle for some reason. Just six days ago, I turned another year older. The day before was my best friend's birthday. We've known each other for 26 years, but when people ask us, we just say we met in high school three years ago. To make ourselves feel better about our age, I guess. Silly, but fun.


There are a few more friends whose birthdays follow mine within a week or two. Some of them have  been lamenting getting older and I remind them (to make it feel a little better) that no matter how old they get, I'll always be older. ;)


On my recent trip to California, one of the TSA people checking my ID and ticket noticed that my birthday was the next day. She wished me happy birthday. Another person heard and wished me a happy birthday. I mentioned that I would be 42 and I was told that that is "just a babe". I responded that this is the oldest I've ever been (which is true). I don't need anybody rushing me.


I wonder if all these years passing have brought about positive change. I realize that I need to shift my perspective. Of course there has been positive change. It just does not look the way I expected it to. I need to drop the expectations and just enjoy the journey. Of getting older.


There's my five minutes.


STOP.

Cool Quote of the Day

The loving service which God sends His people into the world to render includes both evangelism and social action, for each is in itself an authentic expression of love, and neither needs the other to justify it.

      -- John R. W. Stott

Second Chance Wednesdays - Part 2

Here we are at another Wednesday. Time to turn to the People of the Second Chance's poster series, Never Beyond. I will admit that it has been a trying week and I have not been looking forward to writing this post. It has nothing to do with this week's supposed villain. It has to do with how much of a villain I have been this week. I have had little patience for people these last seven days. I have not felt like giving a second chance to anyone. The redeeming feature here is that I have (mostly) been able to keep my mouth shut and not spout out all of the unkind thoughts running through my head. I think what is happening is a combination of me feeling more ungracious than usual and also being more aware of it now that I have jumped  right into working with People of the Second Chance. God evidently intends to make sure that this is not just an academic exercise for me!

So let's jump in! The subject of this week's POTSC poster is Mike Tyson.

It has been quite awhile since I thought about him. Never one to follow boxing, and only somewhat interested in pop culture, he has been off my radar. I actually sort of wondered why he even made it into the Never Beyond series, and then I read the brief summary POTSC had posted of his life. He has not been an angel, that is for sure. He was just never one of my personal villains.

Study the Creator or the Creation?

Flying half-way across the country has been bittersweet in ways that I would not have expected. Going over countryside, I get to watch as we pass over all kinds of different geological regions (not to be confused with geographical regions, although we are obviously going over them too). I get to see deserts, forests, rivers running down a steep hillside. I wonder at the obvious signs of streams in the desert. I see sharp edges next to curves. I see a cliff that drops off into dry canyon in such a way that it looks like someone took a giant shovel to it and formed it all at once instead of slowly picking it apart.

All of this reminds me of one of my favorite college courses:  physical geology. I got learn about glaciers and fjords. We studied about the ocean floor. I discovered the origin of the oxbow lake. Our professor taught us about the shoreline processes that we would be able to see taking place on our bay all year long. Learning about our local geology was fascinating.  I also learned practical advice for the future like why I should never, ever cut out the toe of a slope. Never. And over the years I’ve been able to see where people have not listened to that advice. Oops. What fun it would have been to pursue this course of study further, although it would have meant more math (yuck).

What I also remembered was that I had been timid, weak, and undisciplined. The New Testament advises us to always have an answer when asked about the hope we have in Christ Jesus (1 Peter 3:15).  I don’t know that that verse was aimed at how to handle yourself in science class in 1990, but then again, maybe God had let the ApostlePeter see the future. What I do know is that having a firm testimony, even if I never spoke it out loud in class, would have made me feel much more secure in my faith when in the presence of non-believers. But I didn’t bother to learn the way in which God wanted me to speak the Truth. I wanted a nice little world like I had grown up in, where everyone believed the same thing and defending “The Faith” was taken care of by the older men in our circle. I wanted somebody to take care of me and make it easy to go out into the world with my Christianity. I didn’t want to be challenged or have to explain myself. How childish of me.

My Best Friend

I've never been a truly healthy person. All kinds of minor infections and malaise when I was younger. (hasn't changed much as an adult) So it was no surprise that during Spring Break my Junior year in high school, I was home sick. (yay me) Debbie decided to drop by, and she brought this lovely new creature (she glowed a little more than the rest of us, so I can't just say "person"), Elizabeth, with her. We talked for a little while. Found out that Elizabeth lived across the street from my ex-boyfriend (who I was still on good terms with). We figured out that she would be turning 15 the day before I turned 17. Debbie would be 17 a few days after that and we all decided that it was good to be an August baby. The next week I needed (in a teenager "need" kinda way) to go pick something up from the mall. The rest of my friends were busy, so I went by Elizabeth's house to see if she wanted to come along. She was thrilled that I had thought of her and her Mom said it was good. So started a long relationship.

That was 26 years ago. Elizabeth and I have gone through a lot with each other. I can safely say that we've gone through a lot because of each other. We have grown apart and grown back together. We have treated each other badly and we have learned how to show each other respect. Our tears have mingled on many occasions. I feel joy when she is happy more keenly than with any other person (even my beloved Hubby). I am tied to her with a cord that she has probably wanted to cut a few times. We have become part of each other's families and will always have a connection. We don't talk to each other every day or every week. Sometimes our lives are so busy that a month or more goes by without a call or email. But that does not change the nature of our relationship. It is good to have someone who completely understands the lack of communication but still loves as if the gap never happened.

One of the things that I appreciate most about Elizabeth is that she is completely biased in my favor, but she sees the real me. There are probably people who know just enough about me to think I am witchy, but I don't spend time around them. There are other people who see my good side regularly and think that is all there is to it. Elizabeth sees the deep extremes of my personality and loves me still. And this makes a difference in how she treats me.

I sometimes will tell people, "I don't treat my husband very well." Since I don't hang around the people who think badly of me, I don't get much agreement. But I do get people telling me, "oh I'm sure you treat him well - you are just being hard on yourself." Elizabeth believes me. She knows me well enough to know that  I would mistreat a person who lived with me all of the time. But she does not judge me or berate me. She just looks at me and says, "well stop doing that." I love that.

I think... I think God uses her to love me. God sees all of me and loves me still. He knows that I need something a little more tangible sometimes to understand these things. So He lets Elizabeth see all of me and she loves me still.

Ticket to come out to California for my birthday: $520 (didn't buy 21 days ahead of time). Texas gifts for whole family: $50. Friend who loves the whole me: Priceless.

Cool Quote of the Day

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter” Francis Chan.

Five Minute Friday - "New"

Here is the drill again:


1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.



2. Link back here and invite others to join in.


3. Get a little crazy with encouragement for the five minuter who linked up before you.


OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes for the prompt:



"New"… GO.

New, huh? Today is a new kind of day. I told you yesterday that today would be Elizabeth's first birthday without Mom. Tomorrow will be my first birthday without Mom. It is a whole new world without her. There would have been no way to imagine this.

And there are new things happening that I would have wanted to share with Mom. Blogging on a fairly regular basis is a new thing for me. Because of it, I am making new friends. I am thinking new thoughts. I am learning new, better ways to look at my Lord and my God. It is new for me to let the Spirit push me the way He does to say things for the benefit of others instead of myself. Mom always liked my writing. I think she would have enjoyed these new things.

I am typing slow because the thoughts aren't coming very fast. "New" caught me by surprise. But now I have that song in my head that we used to sing at church camp and youth devotionals:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning.
Great Thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion says my soul.
Therefore I will hope in Him.

I know that song was meant to help us memorize scripture, but I cannot remember what book that is in. Isaiah? Psalms? Somewhere in the New Testament? I don't know. But it is the Word. The Word that always has been and always will be.

His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Amen, Lord.

Stop.

Come join me over at the Gypsy Mama. Link up your own post or just see what five minutes looked like for others.