01-08-10

FREEDOM FIFTY-FIVE

Amid mariachi music, fire-cracker explosions, tamales, cake, tea, laughter and friends, in true Guatemalan style, at 4:30 a.m. my birthday celebration began. 

It was a day of eating.  By 9 a.m. my unmarried children invited me out for breakfast.  At noon I was served authentic Borscht and biscuits at Walter and Ruth's. 

Having worked on the staff of London Life many years ago; I could not help remember the slogan 'freedom fifty-five' that was to set a financial goal before the clients; a goal of reaching age 55 and finally doing what you really wanted to be doing.

I can truly say that since coming to Guatemala, loving and serving these precious people, teaching about a true life in God, I have found such joy and fulfillment in life.  Today I turned 55 and am truly doing what I really want to be doing!

13-07-10

WHAT A REVELATION!

I don't need to know who is lying and who is telling the truth, who is trying to deceive us, who is slandering, who is betraying and who is misleading, who is smearing another, maligning the ministry, talking behind our backs, filling their own pockets with ministry money.  I don't need to be suspicious, try to find out secrets, sneak around, make discoveries.

 All I need to do…is show love! To who? To everyone! Even to those who may be guilty? Yes!

That is all! The rest is up to God.  He is all-knowing, He is all-powerful and He loves. 

Yes, He loves even me.

12-07-10

MY REBELLIOUS CELL PHONE

The problems began a few days ago.  My cell phone began to do strange things.  It would suddenly begin to play music. Sometimes it would shut off; even though it was fully charged.  When I would try to use it I could not enter a number.  Most of the time it did not let me look up any information.  Needless to say, it became quite frustrating.

The last straw came yesterday.  I was standing and chatting with our head maintenance man when his cell phone began to ring.  He took it out of his pocket and glanced at it before answering it.  With a surprised look on his face, he turned the phone toward me and said, "Sister Rita, it looks like you are phoning me."

Sure enough, his phone showed that he was receiving a call from my cell phone.  I turned toward my desk, where my phone was lying.  A closer look revealed that 'yes', my phone was calling him.  I quickly pushed the 'end' button to stop that call; yet it immediately began to call him again.  Every time I turned it off; it called his phone again.  Unbelievable! I could not stop my phone from doing what it was doing.  It was as though it had a mind of its own.  It did not let me control it. It's as though it was rebellious.

I could not help but think that  my cell phone was a clear representation of how we so often behave.  The Lord wants to use us, lead us and do many things in and through us; and yet, we often have a mind of our own.  We do what we choose and don't let Him control us.

I heard the whisper of the Lord.  He told me that He had sent His Spirit to me with the specific task of leading me and enabling me to do mighty things for Him.  Yet so many times, I ignore Him.  I give a million excuses; I'm too tired, I don't feel like it, I'd rather do something else right now. 

Who do I think I am, thinking I know better than He? How can I be so proud as to ignore the nudges He gives me? Especially when I call Him Lord and claim to have given Him my life.

10-07-10

O-OH

I discovered Lexulous Scrabble on facebook.  That could be a problem.  I so enjoy Scrabble and LEX never seems to tire of playing. 

I used to be somewhat good at it but it's been years since I've played.  And my biggest problem with playing it now is that when I look at the line of letters I am to use, Spanish and even German words jump out at me and when I try to think English, my mind goes blank.  I could easily justify playing often as a means of improving my English, don't you think?

I sit down and begin to scrabble and suddenly it's  1.5 hours later.  Then I begin to think? What could I have been doing?  What should I have been doing?

It's not that it's wrong to sit down now and then and play a game.  But it is definitely wrong to sit down for hours on a daily basis and play games, whatever way I would like to rationalize it! And that goes for  TV watching, music listening, chatting, skyping, facebooking and many other ways we can spend our time, don't you think? Especially since all around us needy desperate people are without hope and we have the answer for them.