Just Believe....

Just Believe

liz etheridge

Right out of college, I went to live with my sister and her husband while I looked for a job. It was winter and we had decided to head to Oklahoma for a day of shopping. I know...that part of the story doesn't even make sense....shopping = Oklahoma??...I know. As we were heading home that night, it started to snow....like blizzard snow and you could barely see the unfamiliar country roads ahead of us. I was scared to death....and not being a particularly active prayer warrior at that time in my life, I started negotiating with God in the backseat of that AMC Spirit my brother-in-law was driving. I promised Him I would pay tithe for the rest of my life....without fail.....if He would rescue us from this scary mess we were in.

He did...I didn't.

Have you ever found yourself negotiating with God....bartering with Him when you get in a pickle....."Lord, if You get me out of this mess I'm in, I promise to go to church every-single-Sunday-without-fail-and-sometimes-on-Wednesday-too"?

When I read the story of the dude named Jairus in Mark 5, I couldn't help wondering if I would have started the negotiation process had I been in his shoes. Jairus was a very important man, the head-honcho of his church at the time.....which is like the mayor, principal and pope all rolled into one.....and he was desperate. Desperate enough he could have offered the temple key to Jesus in return for healing his daughter.....

But he came to Jesus, much like a poor, blind man standing on the corner begging for a gift:

“My little daughter is at the point of death.

Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.” (Mark 5:23)

He doesn't barter or try to negotiate with Jesus. He doesn't haggle and remind Jesus how important a man he is. He just pleads. A scared, desperate father pleading for the life of his daughter just as you or I would do. And Jesus says to him, "Don't be afraid, Just Believe."

JUST-BELIEVE. 

 Two simple words that brought life to a 12-year old girl.....

and brings life to you and I when we JUST BELIEVE.

Maybe....just maybe....Jesus' reason for raising this sweet little girl from the dead wasn't for her sake - but for our sake now - to teach us that heaven sees when we Trust and Believe.

Do Not Worry About Your Life

 

 "One morning, Death was walking into a city when a man stopped him and asked what he was doing. Death answered, “I’m going into the city to kill 10,000 people.” The man replied, “That’s terrible that you would kill 10,000 people.” Death responded, “Taking people when their time has come is my job. Today I have to get my 10,000.” Later, as Death was coming out of the city, the man met him. Again, he was furious. He said, “You told me this morning that you were going to take 10,000 people, but 70,000 died today.” Death answered, “Don’t get mad at me. I only took 10,000. Worry killed all the rest.” (1)

W-O-R-R-Y.

My friend, Beatrice was a 92 year old worry-all-the-time lady on my Meals on Wheels route. She worried she was going to have a stroke one day....she worried about who called on her phone and hung up.....she worried about when the trash truck was going to show up, and she worried about her doctor firing her. Beatrice was the most worrisome person I'd ever met.

And yet, she had a great and deep love for the Lord. This - I - know.

She just has a problem with trusting Him.

And don't we all! We worry we'll catch the Coronavirus. We worry who will be our next President. We worry it won't be the one we voted for. We worry whether we'll have a job next month and we worry we'll forever have to wear a mask. Being a recovering worrier myself, I'm learning how to replace that space within me that's been reserved for Worry....with Trust. It's like when my granddaughter Brie was little. She would stand on her bed, arms stretched out wide, and say, "Lele, I'm going to jump into your arms and you're going to catch me, right, Lele?" She showed her trust in me by taking that leap off the bed and into my arms. And I never dropped her.....not once.

It's the same with God. He simply asks us to trust Him.....to catch us when we jump off the cliff of sorrow, anxiety, and worry. And when we do....He catches us. Those great big strong nail-scarred arms are outstretched as if to say, "I love you THISSSSS much" and He catches us as we trustingly fly through the air to His waiting arms. And He never drops us....no, not once.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,

what you will eat or what you will drink,

or about your body, what you will wear.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Matthew 6:25

1 Haddon W. Robinson

Kill Them With Kindness In This Covid World

 It finally happened this week.  

 

After 2-1/2 months of living in the city, I heard someone say to me, "WOULD YOU MIND?? (Insert irritated-snarly-voice-with-attitude-in-an-ugly-gym-outfit).  YOU'RE TOO CLOSE TO ME!".  I may, or may not, have rolled my eyes and then gave her a great big ol' East Texas smile under that paper mask of mine as I snapped a picture of her.

Yep, I was anxiously standing in line at Trader Joe's for my very first inaugural visit when this skinny chick-who-looked-like-a-man turned and barked these words at me.  Startled, I stepped back a foot.  Truth be told, I couldn't have been any closer than 5'11" from her skinny rear-end.  I have mastered an impeccable way of visually measuring the 6' between me and the person in front of me these past few Covid months.  I simply visualize a 6' man laying on the ground between us. 

I'm pretty sure it works most every time.

But in all honesty, most people in my short time of returning to the city have been nice....polite....and respectful.  Most everyone in East Texas told me the city people would eat me alive.  That hasn't been the case, but there is a big part of Liz that is missing the human-ess (not a word....don't bother to look it up) of living in the country.  The Grace that comes as easy as breathing or acknowledging or even...(gasp)...speaking kindly to strangers in the grocery store aisle or, heaven forbid, hugging during a pandemic, is missing  here.  Strangers generally don't speak to you here in the city unless they're telling you to BACK AWAY.  And that is why I am making it my mission to look them straight-in-the-eye and startle them with conversation and a smile...and to see the person who is inside their skin.

“Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior:

Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them!

Luke  6:31

Ashes To Ashes....Dust To Dust

 

“All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return”

Ecclesiastes 3:20

This week, I loaded up the Jeep; threw in two wonderful girlfriends, and headed west to Pikes Peak.  It was something I've put off doing for almost two years....and for some reason, NOW was the right time.  I wanted; no..no....needed....for Chuck's earthly body to be set free.  We climbed 14,000 feet into the sky....14,000 feet closer to Heaven....and released Chuck Etheridge's body back to the earth.

Before we headed west, I placed his ashes into three small toolboxes he had used for as long as I knew him.  I know it sounds crazy, but if you knew Chuck, this would make sense.  As each of us opened up our tool boxes on Pikes Peak, we watched as the winds returned him back to where he came.  I find it interesting that his favorite things while on this earth came from his tools...tools that repaired and restored broken things, and God...well, He also is in the business of repair and restoration of broken things.  He wants to repair us and our pasts by giving us a future.

We said goodbye to his body this week, but not his soul...and our hearts are happy to not hang onto the memory of Chuck as people who have no hope, but rather, as people who know and trust in a future healthy body for Chuck someday. 

"But we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about those who have died,

so that you may not grieve like other people who have no hope."

1 Thessalonians 4:13