Inspire Me!

            “I’m just trying to keep him alive, until the Lord can do something with him.”

            That’s what a girlfriend in Christ told me once about one of her nephews, or grandsons, or children.  I don’t remember which.

            Prodigal children – I have been a Christian adult long enough to notice that every family’s got some.

            In the parable told by Christ, the Prodigal comes home.

            I happen to know from experience, that not every Prodigal comes home alive.

 

            Every Christian pastor probably gets the question, multiple times from multiple sources, worded in various ways: “What can I do to keep from losing my children.  And: how can I make sure that GOD doesn’t lose my children?”  (This is worded various ways.  I am speaking more pointedly than most would dare to speak.)

 

            When I was a senior in high school, I took an honors Creative Writing class.  One of my classmates, Joy, was a decent writer.  She and I weren’t friends in high school. Both of us were shy and nerdy, but we didn’t connect on that basis back then, like the nerds in today’s trendy movies do.  We were, at that time, terminally shy and nerdy.

            Forty-plus years have passed, and Joy and I re-connected (actually connected for the first time) on Facebook a few years ago. We’re friends now. 

            Joy’s husband is a pastor.  Joy is a pastor’s wife.  Joy and Bill have had some prodigal children.  I have had some prodigal children.  Joy and I have talked a little about our prodigal children, and a lot about the usual Facebook stuff:  We “like” each other’s photos and witty sayings.  We promise to pray sometimes about this or that.

 

            Joy doesn’t live in our home-state of Michigan any more.  Her parents still live here.  Two years ago, Joy and her husband came up to visit her parents; and Mike and I spent an afternoon with Joy and Bill at the John Ball Zoo, here in our home town.

            Joy’s husband had, at that time, recently self-published a non-fiction book.  He gave us a copy.  I tried to read it through, and so did Michael.  It is on a shelf somewhere.  Sad to say, I do not even remember what it was about ...

 

            Joy and Bill came back to Michigan this week.  I met them for lunch today, and we had a delightful one-hour visit.  Two of their daughters married last summer.  My youngest son is marrying this coming Saturday.

            Bill has self-published another book.  He gave me a copy.

 

            I read his book tonight.  I am reading it through for the second time!  This book needs to be professionally published, and promoted.  It is a very short novel; Bill calls it a parable; it weaves a tale of multiple generations, giving timeless insights and hope for families.  OMG!  It imagines, quite realistically, the rest of the story of the Prodigal Son:  forty years, and two more generations.  You have got to read this book!  It’s an easy read, and will break your heart, then put it back together again.  The story feels like a mirror.  You will see yourself, your friends, your parents, your children, and God in this tale.

 

            Proofreading errors abound.  (Joy, what were you thinking?  I hope Bill didn’t pay for too many copies of the first edition!)  I am marking my copy the second time through with proofreader’s marks, and wishing I actually remembered all the marks that proofreaders use. I worked as a professional proofreader in 1970, but that was a long time ago.

            My cousin, Julie, is an editor for a major Christian publisher.  I am going to do whatever it takes to persuade Julie to read Bill’s book.  Heck, I think I’ll even offer to pay her to read it if need be.

            As soon as I had read the final page tonight, at 9 p.m., I made an impulse phone call to Julie’s cell, but got her voice mail.  I am not particularly eloquent on voice mail.  I simply asked her to call me.

            Then I started re-reading, and proofreading.  Then I thought maybe I ought to call it a night and head for bed.  Then I got the bright idea that I should write this blog. 

If I post my blog link to Facebook, only two of my Facebook friends will follow the link and actually read this blog.  One of them is Joy.  The other one is Julie.

 

Julie!  You pumped me with questions and used my stories for your Sunday School class ... Can I call in the favor?  Will you read my girlfriend’s husband’s vanity-press novel?  It only took me 2 hours to read it, and I didn’t want to put it down.  Oh! and Bill doesn’t even double-space between sentences like I do.  (Pet-peeve of Julie’s)  Bill does, however, let “spell-check” autocorrect for him.  Bah!  (But we can fix that!)  You’ve got my cell number.  Give me a call, please!  This is probably the busiest week of my life so far ... but I’m taking the time to try to pique your interest because I’m convinced this book will appeal to a very broad audience.  It speaks to a need I am constantly asked to pray about in every life and family I know.

 

How can you get to the “happily ever-after” in the too-true story of the Prodigal Son?

 

The Problem Is: She Doesn't Look Her Age

The problem Is: She doesn't look her age ... or act it.

Aileen is 95 years old.  Her hair's not much more gray than mine is.  She is only about as wrinkly as some 65-year-olds I know.

And she is STUBBORN! OMG! Stubborn as a two-year-old.

BUT: Her body knows that it is 95, even though her mind and appearance do not.

This woman REALLY needs to walk with a cane -- or she is going to knock me over when I escort her into Plainfield Church (where I work), and we are both going to be in sorry shape!

I wish I would have taken her photo today so that I could show you.  She comes to Plainfield Church almost every Friday for Jolly 60s.  LOL!  They started that group when they all WERE in their 60s.  They're way past that decade now!

They meet at Plainfield Church (where I am the Church Secretary) every Friday from 9:30 until 2:30.  They eat sweets.  A lot of sweets.  They used to offer them to me.  I mostly decline, but sometimes I succumb.  (Old ladies LOVE sweets!)

They play some sort of dice game, and they still think they ought to hide it from the Pastor, when the Pastor is in the building ... because Methodists used to be SO against "games of chance," whether one was betting cold hard cash or not ... back in the day.

They eat their sack lunches.  They always offer me coffee - which I more often than not, accept.

And they chat about their aches and pains and what their children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren are doing.

Aileen does not look like she is 95 years old.  And that is the problem.  Because her body - at least her Joints and Balance - knows that it is 95 years old.

Gosh, I hope I am as stubborn as she is, if by God's grace I should attain to such an age!

Mmmm!

Grilled steaks, fries, salad and milk.




Sent from my iPhone

Steaks for the noon meal

And hot dogs to reheat in the microwave later in the week.




Sent from my iPhone

Oldest son came to church today!

Sent from my iPhone

Left Behind

This has been a stressful week.  I can't even remember the days before Saturday.  We didn't get raptured that day ... not that any of us REALLY thought that was going to happen that day ... but every one of us gave it a thought or two.  You see, the guy who came up with the Judgment Day predictions was originally from Grand Rapids.

So Saturday, six o'clock came and went.  The Christians are still here, to struggle right along with the rest of humanity.

Sunday morning Mike and I went to church.  We have a new church since last August, and we like it very much, and never want to miss the chance to "hang with the saints."

We drove out I196 to Lake Michigan Drive and I took a glance to my left as we passed the downtown area, because I knew the Rob Bliss Grand Rapids LipDub was going on that morning.  You needed to gather by 9 AM to be part of the crowd.  We were at church already by 9 AM.  It was "Dispensationalism 101" Sunday.  We had a grill-out/potluck afterwards.  I brought my bff Kathy's recipe "Barbecue Beans" ... they were a big hit.  I wished the LipDub would have been not on a Sunday morning because I'd have loved to be downtown.  I really love Grand Rapids; I really love Rob Bliss's energetic community events; I really love how my little town has gotten so cultural in my adult lifetime.

Sunday afternoon there was a bad tornado in Minnesota; and we were under "watches" for tornadoes here.  There was a deadly tornado in G.R. when I was a little girl.  I've had bad dreams about tornadoes.  Before I went to bed Sunday night, I took a bunch of stuff down to the basement.  I always do that during tornado season.  I took my scrapbooks, my strong box, my jewelry box, my purse, my laptop ... this time I even took some canned goods down there, and a box of raisins, box of crackers, some silverware. There's bottled water down there left-over from my original fear-stash in the days after 9/11.

Woke up Monday morning to the images of the Missouri E-5 tornado.  And by tonight I have realized that tornadoes chew up everything and spit it on top of your head ... if you even survive ... so I brought the crackers and the raisins back upstairs.  The treasures are still in a plastic tub in the basement.  Tornado season doesn't really start in Michigan until June -- when the air here gets hotter.

Well, Tuesday night, I got a text from my almost-daughter-in-law, Amy.  (Josh and Amy are getting married on 6/25. That's my son Scott, who died 2 years ago on 6/18/09's birthday. Josh & Amy chose that date on purpose.  Amy's shower is 6/18/11.  Why? Just sayin' ... but not to them, of course.)

Anyway, the text from Amy was asking me to pray for her friend, David, whom I've never met. Amy's parents are church-building missionaries, so Amy grew up living all sorts of places, and she has friends all over the U.S.  David had been "swept away" in a river in Arkansas.  So I prayed.  And prayed.  And this 21-year-old has been in my heart and on my mind all week.

Over on Facebook, David's brother's future-mother-in-law had, by Wednesday night, created a special "page" for prayers for David and updates on the search effort.  So I've been praying, and visiting that page, multiple times each day.

Hundreds of people are praying for David.  Many of us, like myself, have never met him, but are friends or relatives of David's friends.

From Tuesday night until tonight ... constantly in our unanswered prayers, is a young man swept away in a river.  Sonar has determined, the Arkansas authorities claim, that there is no body in the river, so the family should not give up hope.  Cadaver dogs have also determined that there is no body in the river.  So last night they started searching the forest with volunteers and bloodhounds.  Everybody has been praying.  I am not used to prayers this heart-felt, humble, and fervent going unanswered!  How in the world can a person simply vanish when his whole community is searching for him day and night?

The bright spot in the week, for me, has been the YouTube release yesterday of our Grand Rapids LipDub video.  I really want to share that with everybody!

On YouTube the response has been very favorable. It was featured on several network newscasts tonight, to my surprise.  A very few YouTube comments were criticizing the "under-representation of minorities."  Well, in Grand Rapids, a LOT of people go to church on Sunday morning.  I had personally wished that the Bethel Pentecostal Choir would have been in the LipDub -- they are really cool, and mostly African-American.  Would have liked to see the Three Fires tribes in it, too. PaWaTing MeGedWin senior citizens meet twice a week at the church where I work (not the same church that I attend on Sundays).  The Three Fires Annual Pow Wow will be at Riverside Park in June ... The church I work at is quite multi-cultural; and the church I go to is, too. The happy, clean-cut faces of several races that you'll see in this video are mostly people who either don't go to church at all, or who played hooky for the Rob Bliss event.  Grand Rapids is a cool city.  I love living here.  I love going downtown. I hope you will enjoy the video I post in the comments (because I can't post it in the body of this blog).

Hey! I actually wrote a BLOG!

Wow!

I posted a video a little while ago.  And I was disappointed that I couldn't post it in the body of my blog.  So it's just a link.  Then I embedded it in the comments; but of course, one would need to have looked at the posted link in order to see the embedded comment.

 

 

So, then I was just reading blogs on my friends pages, with the TV running in the background.

And lo, "Inside Edition" just did a feature on the very video I had wanted to share with my friends!

So, what it is, is MY little town.  Newsweek magazine called us a dying city a few months ago.  The Grand Rapids Lip Dub video was filmed this past Sunday morning in response.  And I am going to post the embedded video as a comment.   Grand Rapids is a COOL city!