For His Glory, Thursday, June 11, 2009 - My Redeemer is Faithful and True

What a week!! What a three weeks. As most of you know by now, I fell on Memorial Day and fractured the tibia (really ouch), ruptured the cartilage and tore the meniscus in my knee. Surgery was done on June 3rd and left me with some small punctures and some slightly bigger wounds where they put in THE SCREWS (known to those ortho guys as 'orthopedic hardware.') Does this mean ya'll can now call me Ace? Hah! In the midst of all, life goes on and sometimes we want the merry go round to stop spinning so we can get off of it - if only for a moment or two - and catch our breath. Having been in a head-on car accident almost 27 years ago I thought had "forgotten" how painful bone injuries can be. Uh, yeah - NOT! For most of Thursday and part of Friday, I wept out of the sheer physical pain I was in. Now, I'm not "tough" but I'm not a total pain weenie but this one kids hurt me. Is still hurting me. God, however, in HIS infinite, wonderful wisdom and timing, has brought us to a new place in our journey. I received word on Monday - while at home still trying to get my bearings - that the Firm by whom I am employed will cease to exist as of September 30, 2009. The men who own the Firm have been partners for 19 years and friends for closer to 30 both of them having been former Directors of the Arizona Department of Insurance. I was at home with my Tanner when I got the news and when I hung up the phone, I cried as if I had just been told my dearest friend had died. I have been in the employ of these two amazing people for almost eight years and it certainly wasn't part of MY grand plan to change that - at least not in the immediate. My sweet Tanner tried so hard to be calming and despite my tears, I looked at him and said "baby, we KNOW that ALL things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to HIS purpose!" I reminded Him that God, indeed, knows the plans HE has for us - plans to prosper us and NOT harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future. While I am sad at the end of this era of my life, I am excited as the Lord is already beginning to fill me with HIS confidence and His assurance as HE is NOT a God of chaos. He is a God of Order and if we will allow Him to, He will order the very steps we take for our good and For HIS glory. Oh, dear ones, my leg is broken but healing, my future is unclear but CERTAIN because I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES and the tears I shed are, in part, out of pain and in part, healing cleansing tears that clear the cobwebs and remind me that nothing that happens in our lives is without God's permission. I don't know what each of you is experiencing today but trust me on this - OUR REDEEMER IS FAITHFUL AND TRUE and regardless of the physical or emotional pain that you're in, regardless of the financial worries, regardless of the future you can't see - GOD IS STILL GOD and if we will trust Him, I promise, It's gonna be okay.

Romans 12:1-3 says:

And so, dear brothers and sisters,

I plead with you to give your bodies to God.

Let them be a living and holy sacrifice –

the kind he will accept.

When you think of what he has done for you,

is this too much to ask?

Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world,

but let God transform you into a new person

by changing the way you think.

Then you will know what God wants you to do,

and you will know how good and pleasing

and PERFECT his will really is!!

Max Lucado said on Twitter today that his prayer for all who reads [these] words "May God root you in the soil of His love. May He bask you in the warmth of His hope." Oh, my friends - here's Hope!! Join me on the journey and trust that I will make it with you, loving you with His love and desiring that ALL I do is For His Glory! Andrea