A time for thanks

by Sharon O | Nov 1, 2010 | Uncategorized

November 1st.
The beginning of a new month and a new season…
it’s a time of giving thanks and pulling our hearts into a new direction.

Thanksgiving when I was growing up was actually a very special day.
In the midst of the chaos of a strange and distant home we always knew that thanksgiving was at our grandma’s house. Actually it was grandma and grandpa’s house but he was often a silent figure sitting in his upholstered rocker swivel chair next to the side table holding his coffee or snacks.
For many years grandma did all the shopping cooking and preparing.
She would shop for days and make sure all the food was ready for cooking.
The dining room table decorated with china and crystal goblets along with fancy napkins and other accessories that went along with a beautiful table. Usually there would be a wonderful fresh flower arrangement and candles near by.
I will always remember how the multi colored lighting reflected off the dining room light making the ceiling a kaleidoscope of beauty and color.
As little girls we would anticipate the day at grandma’s.
Starting our day watching the Macy’s thanksgiving day parade on the console tv. Then prepping ourselves with showers or baths and setting out nice clothes for it was not a day for jeans… it was a day for pretty outfits and hair done. (I still remember the pink foam rollers wrapped around forming curls in my very straight hair).
I will always remember the china and the crystal and the forks and spoons ‘just for’ the pickles olives and cranberries. The turkey would cook and the potatoes would boil and grandma would stir and cut and prep the olives and pickles and we would gather in the kitchen and the guys would gather in the living room. There was always ladies chatter and men’s chatter not really saying much in the process.
It is funny now for me to think back because even though the dinner was fancy and proper and wonderfully made. The conversation was ‘stilted’ and maybe not even real. As children we didn’t really know that but later as the years moved on it became more true that the tradition was just that…
dinner at grandma’s.
Not a family reunion of warmth and love.
I am not saying we didn’t love each other, it was different. It was more out of obligation than wanting to be there in a warm and welcoming setting.
In the home my husband and I have made our thanksgiving is just as fancy.
That was a rule I brought into the relationship… that holidays were to be special.
A time for celebration and remembering.
We serve on china and crystal and with matching assorted plates and bowls, we have cloth napkins matching the cloth tablecloths. It is a tradition of beauty captured by my grandma and passed down from me to our children.
The difference is the conversation and the mood.
We thank God for the beauty and the bounty and the children’s voices and the hum of soft music. We are thankful for life is truly a gift for us to enjoy and give out.
We are thankful as we look upon the faces connected to us by family history.
I remain thankful for grandma’s traditional beautiful table setting and all that she showed me.
Even the lesson to ask and listen and ask more and listen deeper.
For in the faces of family and through the blessing of the meal…
we will join our hearts together.
I pray this November will be… for new traditions… new love and new life.
What do you pray for?

It is the story

by Sharon O | Oct 29, 2010 | Uncategorized

Ann Voscamp writes a beautiful blog called ‘A Holy Experience’.
If you have never experienced her style of writing and her words from the heart I encourage you to add yourself on her blog list. You can click onto it from the emblem on the right in my favorite section.
A few weeks ago there was a writing conference in Hershey Pennsylvania called The Relevant conference. Ann was one of the speakers and so many of the ladies who attended it have been writing about their thoughts and feelings this last week. It is has been such a blessing to read them and see what God has done. Ann was just one of the many speakers who shared their hearts and their words from God to a group of ladies who were searching and who went with the hopes to improve their writing and increase their readers.
They say that is not what they learned.
It wasn’t about ‘blog readership’ it was about the Lord meeting them in a new and deeper way.
One of the blogs I read shared what Ann said to them and I am now going to share it with you.
I hope it is ok to do that.
I felt the words were so real and so true they must be shared whether you know who Ann is or not. This blog is often about healing and God’s ability to take what was broken and make it whole again. Sometimes it is different but most of the time is returns to the question, “how are you doing with God?”
This is what the blog writer shared from Ann:
You don’t have to come to the keyboard knowing what you are going to say. It comes from God to us to heal us and then through our story to heal another. Story is the way the Spirit of God binds our wounds. When these words find their mark. God heals two hearts ~ yours and mine.

When I read this I said ‘YES’ to myself.
That is what this blog has been for… to share stories of hope and healing.
To share that we must often step back and think about the journey we have been walking and living before we can press forward.
To share what God is doing in and through the power of words~ good and bad.
Someday I want to go to the relevant conference but not to go and find out how to increase blog numbers or readers or visits. But to go and find out how to focus in and draw deeply from the well of God’s grace and mercy and wisdom and love. So that can be shared in a deep and meaningful way to those who read.
This blog has always been God’s.
It is not about me and I hope it has not reflected a ‘me’ attitude.
Some things shared might be personal but the intention is always to challenge the readers into a new and deeper ‘way’ of thinking.
I hope it does… I hope it challenges… I hope it encourages…I hope it shows a peaceful gentle spirit who ‘sits’ with me in the chair as I write and listen and then push ‘publish’.
The prayer from my heart is give the reader ‘something to think about’ and give God the glory in the process.
If that ever changes and the story becomes different.
I will close down the blog and end it.

Who are you?

by Sharon O | Oct 27, 2010 | Uncategorized

What is the main attribute of Jesus that is rarely talked about?
Our Pastor posed this question.
In all honesty I said, “He always chose to do the will of the Father.”
Others said, “He was gentle… He was loving… He was patient…
He had compassion.”
These are all true and all a part of who Jesus is and was.
The question goes deeper than that.
Dictionary.com summarizes it as:
Attribute: a characteristic quality or symbol of a particular person.
Our Pastor said:
“We must remember Jesus as the Lion of Judah, strong, courageous,
bold with power and strong intent. When demons met him they ‘knew’ who he was.
“He was never intimidated by them HE was intimidating.”
The Son of the Most High knew what to say and do, and the ones who were terrorizing the people became the terrorized by the one who held the most power.
Jesus was not afraid of them or scared of who they were.
Mark 5:1-5
They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons with his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”
Jesus was not afraid of the evil that came from behind the spirits in this man.
Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
Pastor said at this time the man who was known as ‘the evil one’ had lived for years in the rocks and no one wanted anything to do with him. He said,”For the first time in years, someone was asking the man,
“Who are you and what is your name?”
It is an identity issue and it is relational. (I care for you as a person who are you?)
The story goes on as Jesus sends the demons into pigs which were symbolic at the time as unclean and over a cliff to die . Then in vs. 15 the story continues:
When they (the towns people) came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. vs 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
(why… because they saw and were afraid of his power)
As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. (wouldn’t you? He just saved his life and his identity)
Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
(Go home to your family who hasn’t seen you for years)
Jesus said ‘GO Home and tell them who healed you.’
That speaks of responsibility to move forward and away from what you were.
Pastor said, “So many times your past defines who you are now. It bullies you and it makes your identity not what it really is in the present moment. When you are intimidated you lack faith.”
The man who was healed was no longer the man hiding in the rocks.
He was different… he was released… and he was able to sit with a sound mind in the presence of Jesus. (A word was spoken and a life was changed forever)
Isn’t that just awesome that Jesus would reach out and change this man who didn’t even ask to be changed?
Jesus was not intimidated by demons and he was not afraid of them. He said to them ‘MOVE out’ and then he sent them with his words to their death.
Jesus was not intimidated he was intimidating.
The demons knew who he was… they knew about his power and they were afraid of him.
The man in the rocks was identified as a ‘mean spirited possessed person’ by the circumstances he had been living in. It wasn’t his real self. It was a ‘circumstance’ or situation he could not over come by himself.
Pastor ended by saying:
Being intimidated means I am being in the presence of a threat… being intimidating recognizes that I am present with a being that isn’t threatened.
A few questions for us to ask:
What circumstance do we want to find ourselves in?
What identity are we going to link to:
Someone who is hiding in the rocks or someone who has a renewed mind sitting in the presence of Jesus?