GROWING SEEDS: Do I Go East.....Or Do I Go West

August 5, 2018

"God does not promise to take us out of the 'valley of the shadow of death"; 
He promises to be there with us."
David Littell

We had church in Room 915 of the ICU this past week.   

We clasped hands, just as we do every week in our little church in Mt Vernon, and we each said a prayer of Thanksgiving.....a prayer of Peace......a prayer of Healing....and yes, a prayer of 'Even if He doesn't'.  

When you're at a crossroads......and you must turn left or you must turn right .....go east or go west....and you don't know which direction to go, the only direction to go is to your knees.  And we did just that a week ago today.  

Chuck hadn't been feeling well.....thought it was a cold....maybe allergies...maybe an MS attack.  But when he passed out and his color wasn't right and his skin was ice-cold and his already weak body was weaker, we found ourselves at that crossroad.  Do we go east to the closest hospital 30 minutes away.....or do we go west to his doctors in Dallas two hours away.  And that's when my knees hit the floor of the closet.  "Which direction Lord", I remember praying.  

The phone rang almost immediately.  It was a nurse at UTSW in Dallas.  "Go west", she said.  

And so we did.  We drove two hours to the Emergency Room at UTSW in Dallas where, after many tests, it was discovered this man I married 21 years ago had a very large blood clot in his heart.  IN his heart.  Our cardiology team said they had never witnessed the exact moment caught on a scan of a blood clot "in transit" through the heart..... and time was critical.  They needed to dissolve it immediately or it could mean sudden death.  They rushed him to ICU where they started a procedure called TPA - Tissue Plasminogen Activator - to dissolve this large clot before it could leave the heart and leave my husband dead. 

A team of 20 cardiologists and pulmonologists, as well as his MS neurologists, quickly conferred together.  They watched as the blood clot dissolved through the TPA procedure.  They saw his color return.....and they admitted; they witnessed a miracle.

The miracles were flying faster than we could keep up with them.....what if we had gone East to Mt. Pleasant instead of West to Dallas?  We would be planning his funeral today.  What if the doctors hadn't realized he had existing aortic valve stenosis and not done that echo cardiogram which discovered the unexpected blood clot?  We would be planning his funeral today.  That's the reality of it. The cardiologist said we had maybe hours at the most before this would have taken his life.  Most likely our East Texas hospital would not have done an echo cardiogram on Chuck and never known about the blood clot.

But yesterday, a week later, we came Home.  He's not out of danger just yet.....still has a large 8" blood clot in his leg and several small ones in his lungs....but today, as I type this to you, I'm listening to my husband breathe as he naps in front of me...his tired body grateful for more time.  His wife grateful for more time.....however long that might be.

And all the while......God proved Himself present with us through the valley of the shadow of death.  

"If God wants to perform a small miracle, He places us in difficult situations.

If He wants to perform a MIGHTY miracle, 

He places us in impossible circumstances."

Unknown

GROWING SEEDS: Life Is Lived Forward, But Understood Backward

"Life Is Lived Forward, 

But Understood Backward."

Have you ever felt completely and totally alone?  You could be standing in a roomful of people, yet you didn't exist....no one saw you...you felt invisible.  This was a description of me in the 6th grade.  My teacher at the Christian school I attended had her favorites....of which I was not one.  I was awkward, shy and felt the sting of being an outsider.  

And I couldn't see past 6th grade.  

I've found in the many years since 6th grade that it's not until we've traveled down the road a bit and stood on that tall mountain we just painfully climbed, that we can look back over the valley and appreciate the reason for the rugged terrain we just walked.  These roller coaster, yellow-brick-road life experiences we survive are all part of God's plan.

"In those days you were living apart from Christ.  

You were EXCLUDED from citizenship.....

you lived in this world without God and without hope.  

But God, Himself has brought PEACE to us."  

Ephesians 2:12-14

He saw our loneliness...our exclusion...our need for a Savior...and what did He do?  He adopted us as His own.  He rescued us from 6th grade. He stared into your lonely eyes and said, "You are now part of my family, sweet child of Mine. You no longer are alone."

I look back on that horrible year....and I recall the emptiness, the rejection I felt.  Little did I know that a year later, having survived the rough terrain of 6th grade, I would accept Jesus as my Father, be baptized in front of those who ridiculed me, and have a part of God gently placed inside me.   He placed His Holy Spirit as a permanent stamp of ownership, a promise really, into my soul that day a year after 6th grade.

I was rescued.....and handed the adoption gift of Peace. 

So friend, whenever you feel unloved, unimportant, or unnoticed, remember to whom you belong to. And remember that life is lived forwards, but understood backwards.

GROWING SEEDS: My Adoption

"Even before he made the world, 

God loved us and CHOSE us in Christ to be holy 

and without fault in his eyes."

Ephesians 1:4

What hope and peace this gives me as a CHOSEN adopted daughter of Gods.  He chose me......why....I'll never know.  I'm weak, have a hot temper, impatient nature, and I take my eyes off Him when Satan distracts me.  Why in the world would He want Liz Etheridge? There are so many better choices out there for Him.....

 

"God DECIDED in ADVANCE to adopt us into his own family

by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.  

This is what he wanted to do, 

and it gave him great pleasure."

Ephesians 1:5

I visualize Him coming to the orphanage (this earth).  You and me, abandoned and orphaned children, are standing in a line as He looks us over, deciding which is worthy enough to come live at His house.  I see a coy smile spreading across His face....a  "I-know-something-you-don't-know" kind of smile, and as He looks into each of our desperate eyes, He announces, "I pick you all.  I'm closing down the orphanage and you all are coming to live with Me in my mansion up the hill!  You can call me Abba.....Father.....and you are now my forever child."

 

"He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding....

Ephesians 1:7

He picked us all.....rescued us from a life of abandonment and despair.  But did we, as orphans, also pick Him?  

"If anybody understands God's order for his children, 

it's someone who has rescued an orphan from despair, 

for that is what God has done for us.  

God has adopted you.  

God sought you, found you, signed the papers 

and took you home."  

Max Lucado

GROWING SEEDS: Short Dude, Weird Name, Noticed By God

"Long before Zacchaeus couldn't see Jesus,

the sycamore tree was already

planted to meet his need."

I wish I could remember where I first heard the quote above.  It's been rolling around in my head for years......picturing this Danny DeVito short dude with a weird name in the back of the crowd as Jesus walked by.  Do you see him jumping as high as his squatty little legs would allow, only to see the backs of everyone's head?  

He suddenly remembers the Sycamore tree up ahead and runs to it...climbs up into it as fast as he can.....just in the nick of time to see Jesus coming down the street with the whole town surrounding Him....a town of people that despised this short little crook with the weird name.  He just wanted a glimpse....didn't actually expect Jesus to notice him......after all, he was the guy in town who cheated people....made a life out of using his IRS badge to take their money fraudulently.  But as Jesus approached the corner of Main and Cheater Streets that day, He stopped, looked straight up into the eyes of Zacchaeus and said, "Get on down from there, Zacchaeus....I'm staying at YOUR house tonight."

It always make me smile as I hit the "Play" button of my imagination on this story in Luke and thinking about the part of this cool story we never give much thought to.  That tree.   Imagine what God was thinking as He created that Sycamore tree so many years earlier, knowing full well what it would be famous for one day.  Imagine that without that tree, this story would look much different.

I fast-forward to the present.  I think about all the things God put into place long before I was even born so they would meet the needs on my path now.  He put them there just for me....and did the same for you.  For some it may be a tree to climb to allow eye-contact with Him, or maybe a person stepping into your life story at just the right time.....or for others, it might be moving you from the noise of the city to the quiet of the country where you can hear His voice for the first time.  

God plans these Salvation moments with precision timing......He patiently waits for that day when you will climb that tree he planted so many years ago for such a time as this, look Him in the eye, and hear these words, 

"Today, salvation has come to this house.  

For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost 

(i.e., Lost = You and Me!)." 

Luke 19:9.

GROWING SEEDS: Everything You've Ever Wanted Is Sitting On The Other Side of Fear

"Help, God - the bottom has fallen out of my life!

Master, hear my cry for help!

Listen hard!  Open your ears!

Listen to my cries for mercy."

Psalm 130:1

Can you hear the Fear in the Psalmist voice above?  Goodness...I sure can!  I believe I've said those exact words a thousand times to God.  

So, what do you Fear the most?  As for me, I fear grasshoppers, skin cancer and the possibility of floods.  I fear ignorant neighbors who shoot their fireworks inadvertently at my house on 4th of July and I fear not loving the Lord enough.  

Fear is a big deal in the story of us and God. The commandment repeated the most in the Bible is "Fear Not".  I read somewhere that someone once added them all up, and apparently there are 366 “fear nots” in the Bible — one “fear not” for every day of the year — including Leap Year.  Like a parent, daily, telling their child "Don't do that"...... God is constantly, daily, rolling His eyes, shaking His head and reminding us, yet again, that Fear is the opposite of Him.  

Remember; Fear is the "go-to" tool of Satan.....a tool Satan pulls out DAILY and drops on our path.  It's one of his most powerful tools....and it has the power to kill, discourage, destroy, and crush any thread of confidence we have left.  It grips us by the throat and chokes the very breath out of us.  

So what do we do when Fear gets thrown on our path?  What do we have in our tool bag that is bigger and stronger and will overcome Satan's most powerful tool?  Our tool is called Jesus.  Fear trembles in the presence of Jesus.  It's equal to a good soldier fighting with a silver bullet against an enemy using rubber bands.  

And no matter how fearful we may become, we have the promise....the glorious promise.....that nothing in this world lasts forever (my Dad's favorite saying).   Our time on this earth is a minute-in-time compared to the lifetime of eternity in Heaven.  We have nothing to fear......we have the promise of forever as we head for Home, and Home is right around the corner, Friends.  

Lock-and-load Jesus in your life....and the tool of Fear will be rendered useless.

GROWING SEEDS: Unexpected Answers

"God delights to increase the faith [or condition the faith-muscle] of His children."

A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine asked to come sit on the dock and talk for awhile.  This wasn't unusual.....we sit together on the dock quite often, catching up with each others lives.....but there was something different in her voice this time.  My heart fluttered when she asked if she could come over.  

I was concerned.

As we sat down, she looked me straight in the eye and said, "The doctor thinks I have aggressive lung cancer."  I just sat there.....trying to process what she just said, staring at this friend who means the world to me....who God gifted me with years ago to help me find and get to know Him....and I let her words sink into my soul.

What do you say when someone you love says these words your heart can't accept?  

She was scheduled to go for more tests in a few days which would tell the doctor everything he needed to know.  Family was notified....a plan would be put into place....and a new challenging chapter was staring her in the face.

"We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, 

no exercise for patience, 

to be willing to take them from God's hand as a means."

I sat on the back porch swing a long time that evening after she left.  She had told me her prayer wasn't for healing....it was a prayer of "Oh Lord, if it is consistent with Thy will, may I feel Your hand and have peace in this difficult new chapter."  I repeated her prayer many times in the next few days before her tests, "Give her peace, Father....and if it's consistent with Your will, please heal my friend."

Two days later, she went in for the determining tests.  Many of her friends were fervently praying this same prayer that day.....waiting impatiently to hear the results.  When the news came, my friend wrote: 

"My peace this morning passes understanding.  A typo was made of size on first CT scan.  Follow up in 3 months and no COPD was found as originally thought.  Guess you're stuck with me for awhile longer!!"

"I say - and say it deliberately - 

trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, 

are the very food of faith."

George Muller

Oh friends.....watch.... and wait....for the unexpected answers of God.

GROWING SEEDS: This Means War!

A few years ago, my friend Jill Lowry walked up to my front door and handed me a book called Fervent*.  She knew it would be like medicine to me at that time in my life and it continues to be even today.  

Friends, this book is about the strategies of Satan....and it's about your battle plan against those very strategies.  

Strategy 1 - He seeks to dim your whole desire for prayer, dull your interest in spiritual things, and downplay the potency of your most strategic weapons (Eph. 6:10-20).

Strategy 2 - He disguises himself and manipulates your perspective so you end up focusing on the wrong culprit, directing your weapons at the wrong enemy (2 Cor. 11:14).

Strategy 3 - He magnifies your insecurities, leading you to doubt what God says about you and to disregard what He's given you (Eph. 1:17-19).

Strategy 4 - He wants to disintegrate your family, dividing your home, rendering it chaotic, restless, and unfruitful (Gen. 3:1-7).

Strategy 5 - He constantly reminds you of your past mistakes and bad choices, hoping to convince you that you're under God's judgment rather than under the blood (Rev. 12:10).

Strategy 6 - He amplifies Fear, Worry, and Anxiety until they're the loudest voices in your head, causing you to deem the adventure of following God too risky to attempt (Josh. 14:8).

Strategy 7 - He tries to tempt you toward certain sins, convincing you that you can tolerate them without risking consequence, knowing they'll only wedge distance between you and God (Isa. 59:1-2).

Strategy 8 - He hopes to overload your life and schedule, pressuring you to constantly push beyond your limits, never feeling permission to say no (Deut. 5:15).

Strategy 9 - He uses every opportunity to keep old wounds fresh in mind, knowing that anger and hurt and bitterness and unforgiveness will continue to roll the damage forward (Her. 12:15).

Strategy 10 - He creates disruption and disunity within your circle of friends and within the shared community of the body of Christ (1 Tim. 2:8).

I encourage you to tear this page out of the bulletin and tape it to your bathroom mirror.  You've just been given the enemy's playbook.....now, use God's battle plan to win this battle!

*Fervent by Priscilla Shirer

Chuck Book and Chapters

55. 
    Lance Graduation - fight with old lady

50. Wheelchair races in Anchorage hotel & ship

40. Chuck and the Jetski with Dylan

21. riving RV - Ya Liz, you have at least 6” on this side before hitting the concrete barrier.

15. Roofing the GAzebo

6. Driving

16. My Honda Man is  harley-Want-A-be

CHAPTER 2

HEARING

48. Fairview State Park - Unhooked trailer and its rolling towards him; he can’t hear..

47. Chuck helping me back up in Rockport with 2-way radios

34. Chuck slept through the dam breaking...

31. Hang on Chuck; I’m turning

14. Munchkin has Bots (Hearing)

1. Hearing Impaired - Trip to Audiologist

26. Chuck directing me in the RV & can’t hear the traffic coming

CHAPTER 3

COGNITIVE

43. Wing Ding - Crazy Coffee Fit

41. NAVIGATION:  Chuck sends me down road with 12’9” clearance in FL

29. Chuck forgets my birthday

24. Chuck & Camcorder - Mt. St. Helens  / SF Bridge

13. Liz and hair grower Rogaine

4. Chuck does remember names....sordof

30. Chuck, my navigator

CHAPTER 5

DEPRESSION / PAIN

46. Chuck, Robe, Bristle Brush & Jen

42. The man rarely complains & has a great attitude

35. Camp Teepee

32. Chuck is Gladys Kravitz in suspenderes

Chuck the Dog Whisperer

20. Charlie meets new friends:  Manitou Springs - guy who is parked in our spot;
21. Kelso, WA - Guy at mall waiting on wife; 

12. Chuck Etheridge Fan Club

36. Chuck & Liz in Yellowstone

10. Dr. Frohman told me to smoke mariquana

CHAPTER 6

EXHAUSTION

25. Goodwill & Chuck

8. Sleeping at the Dentist, in car with Dad, 

3. Chuck sinus cat-in-heat noise

CHAPTER 7

EATING

54. Christmas snacks from Sarah and Matt

37. Charlie & Coffee

22. CA - Chuck eating powdered donuts & chocolate milk on Trike; Chuck sleeping on trike; arguing on the trike; 

18. He’s a Sam’s pretzel sticks / chocolate covered raisins

11. Blizzard

4. Eating everything...

23. Chuck & Ihop

VISION:

51. Peripheral Vision - Making faces while he’s driving;  boat hitting dock; wheelchair running into everything

MISCELLANEOUS

53. tarps

45. Chuck & Hand Cleaner

38. Is that a Deer or Elk on the wall in the dining room?

28. Dread and Terror Ridge - Oregon

19. Charlie’s in love with a Llama...

9. Ironing Jeans & suspenders

7. Abusive Husbands Club of America

17. He’s a Wal-Mart Kinda of Guy

39. We can turn Murphy into a “Service Dog”

49. Gas Passing

Treatments 

Bee Sting Therapy

Learning how to give a shot by closing my eyes and punching

GROWING SEEDS: Compassion

"God is our merciful Father of compassion and God of all comfort.  

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others."  

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

There's a line from a great Indian epic, that goes something like this: "What is the most wondrous thing in the world, Yudhisthira?"  And Yudhisthira replied, "The most wondrous thing in the world is that all around us people are dying and we don't realize it can happen to us." 

This past week, I was visiting with a dear friend whose only daughter has been struggling with cancer for many years.  She's young....early 50's....and the bulk of her adult life has been spent in the chemo-chair.  Over the years, about the time the doctors would feel they had the cancer beat, it would show up somewhere else.  My friend and her daughter are mighty Warriors.....they have fought this invasive evil in her body for longer than I've known her.  But as I looked into the face of my friend this past week, I saw the face of compassion looking straight into the eyes of her daughter.

com·pas·sion

The definition of compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is hurting, in pain, or has misfortune and is accompanied by a strong desire to help the suffering.  

It starts with the understanding that everyone we meet is fighting their own battle....a battle you and I know nothing of because they personally own it.  And compassion becomes easier to understand when we, ourselves, have been the recipient of someone having compassion on us.  My friend, she understands this thing called Compassion.  She's been a recipient of it first hand from others.....and she's chosen not to keep it to herself, but rather, to share this gift of compassion with those around her.  And wasn't that exactly what Jesus lovingly and compassionately instructed us to do?

"The parting words of Christ were calling his disciples to action. (Matt. 5:31)

When we feed the hungry, minister to the hurting, we are doing these acts of kindness TO HIM. 

Someday Jesus will place His pierced hand on your shoulder.

What will you do?" 

Max Lucado

GROWING SEEDS: We Are The Pottery

"We now have this light shining in our hearts, 

but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure."  

2 Corinthians 4:7

Each morning, I wake up within the skin of a house on Eagle Cove.  The walls of this house were "pressed on every side by troubles, but were not crushed" (2 Corinthians 4:8) a few years ago by lake water invading its perimeter.   We were "perplexed....we were scared....but never driven to despair...never abandoned by God".  We got "knocked down, but were not destroyed." (2 Corinthians 4:9)

Today's scripture speaks of our fragile human bodies which Paul metaphorically refers to as delicate clay pottery.  Our exterior shell is the holder of this magnificent and great treasure protected within its walls.  Deep within our Soul is a Light....Christ....buried within the confines of this fragile shell.  And just as Georgia and Hal Gibson mold beautiful one-of-a-kind jars out of clay and water by the simple and easily-broken-act of moving their hands, God molded each of us with His very own strong, yet gentle, hands.  We are one-of-a-kind with Christ's signature stamped boldly on us.  We are His walking-talking pottery that carry Him, our great Treasure, boldly with us as we walk through this world.

As I write this to you, I can't help but look around this room I'm sitting in at 89 Eagle Cove.....and remember that within the delicate shell of its walls, hidden behind sheet rock and bead board, is a great treasure.  Scripture.  Words.  Promises.  Touching each stud, each floor joist in this space, beside me and beneath me, are the promises and Light of Christ that many of you helped put there.  

We are the pottery, friends.....flawed and fragile.....given the responsibility of carrying the Treasure buried deep within us to the world.  

"Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus (the Treasure) will be evident in our dying bodies."

2 Corinthians 4:11