freedom

I got an e-mail some time back. It was a fairly exhaustive list of tips to help you avoid being abducted. It started off with logical advice like "don't walk down a dark alley alone at night", but progressed to "wear your hair up", an abductor often grabs long hair to take you and "don't go to your car if a man is sitting in a car next to it, go get a security officer", "don't have sympathy on someone with a cane or who is asking for help"... One of the statements was: "it is better to be paranoid than to be dead".

I was so appalled by this e-mail that was sent to me by a Christian! To me to be paranoid and in constant fear, distrusting of every male, turning from people who need help and orchestrating my whole life around a fear is to be dead already. What happened to "perfect love casts out fear" or even the most challenging and difficult directives by the Lover of praying for our enemies and those who persecute us.

I heard a tape once by a woman who was abducted by a rapist. She was amazing and shared the love of Christ with the man. She was not harmed in any way, was able to escape and later visited the man while he was in prison. She was able to see past his actions and her fear to see a man who had already lost the most important things in life, forgave him in her heart for the terror he caused her and offered him wholeness through the life saving message of the Redeemer.

To live in fear is to deny the power of the CEO or be open to his redemptive power. Even the vilest offender is one of the CEO's creations and Christ died for him/her too. I haven't had to face this terrible circumstance of having to forgive a horrible offense and hope I never have to, but if I do, I hope that I will have the inner fortitude to walk in forgiveness and love, because terror and bitterness destroys if not given over to the CEO.

We have been very challenged by the testimonies of genocide survivors Eva Kor (see the video Forgiving Dr Mengele) and Immaculée Ilibagiza who wrote Left to Tell. These women faced the most horrible torment and found power in forgiveness. Immaculée Ilibagiza even attributes her times of terror with granting her a most profound intimacy and communication with the CEO that has shaped her life to this day.

We must remember that he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world and that love conquers ALL.

Isaiah prayers again

Please be praying once again for the Baier family and their son Isaiah. He is in the hospital again with his 3rd bout of meningitis. They caught it real fast since they are now pros at spotting it. This confirms for them and the doctor that their son is among one of the rare people that somehow has a hole in his brain that is causing the repeated meningitis. This requires locating the hole and brain surgery, which sounds horrible, but would be better than fighting meningitis repeatedly. The doctors also think something else may be wrong, so once Isaiah is strong enough to be released, they are going to travel to another city where there is a CAT scan that will not damage or draw interference with his cochlear implant in order to try to locate the hole and also see if something else is causing his many sicknesses. On top of the meningitis, he has gotten pneumonia and had a deadly reaction to an antibiotic. He was only off antibiotics 2 days when he started showing symptoms of meningitis again. The parents are taking it all in stride, but they are very tired. I can't imagine having to fight this off time and time again. Pray that the CEO will bring healing and direction, either miraculous or at the hand of the doctors, or both.

Poem, scents and swords

I woke up one night and thought to pray. As I did, I "saw" my prayers ascending like incense and then felt that the prayers rising as incense was also swords doing warfare heavenward. This poem comes out of that experience:


scents and swords

her ardent murmurs
waft upward
a sweet perfume
smoky dance
mingling with the wind
scenting the heavens
with delightful aroma

his cries and tears
ascend violently
a riotous clamor
of clashing metal
ricochet off the
throne room’s chambers
creating a musical cacophony
of riotous warfare
in the heavens

The Father smiles
as He receives the heart’s offerings
The Son dances with fervor
sweat dripping like blood
mingling with the scents and swords
The Spirit adds her heavenly aroma,
power, strength and majestic music
to the tender thunder
of human voices

heaven is moved
as power gathers, swirls, unites
favor multiplies
love overflows
descending earthward
a grace filled cascade
careening downward
enveloping his beloved
transforming their world
with heaven’s response

Our life at present

Yesterday, we got to hear Shaman share what He felt the CEO was up to these days. It was very enriching and thought provoking. The best part for me was his depiction of transformation into Christlikeness and that this will do away with performance because our goal is not to become better people, but to have the mind of Christ and love others. I have a tendency to be performance oriented, so it was good to have this perspective change.

I also realized that during this desert time of our lives, I have become lazy, complacent and spiritually pouty. I have been disciplined and as things have been broken off of me, I have been like a child sitting in time out with my arms crossed saying "fine, if you don't like how I've done things, I just won't do anything". Instead of loving the CEO with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and allowing His presence to give me a new heart and manner.

I'm ready for a new day, a new me, a new communion with the Lover and new assignment.

On another note, the kids and I have been doing projects and making pages inspired from our reading through the book of Mark. I made them each a 3 ring binder to put the different things we make into, as our walls are rapidly filling up with art creations. The gospel of Mark is great to read with kids since it is to the point and a book of action. By putting their pages into the binder, we will eventually have pictoral reminders from the entire book and will thus be able to "read" the book together from what we have created.