My Father's Voice

From my kitchen I could hear this sound like the garage door opener engaging and disengaging repeatedly.  I looked out the door to the garage to see my husband trying to get the weed-eater to start.  The sound I heard was his frustrated efforts, intense in vainly pulling the starter cord repeatedly, and he seemed to be expending so much energy in his futile attempt.  I went to console him a bit and suggested he ask the Holy Spirit to help him with the task. I breathe a short prayer on his behalf as I went back into the house.  I returned to my project of cleaning out one of the file cabinets in the lower level and found a note Father gave me some time ago:  'As you have sought me, as you have desired me, as you have cried out for me, I will come to you.  I will   sweep you up into my presence.  I have come for you. I have come to take you unto myself.  I will sweep you into a new place in me. You have been l...

When I was young I was very timid.  I used to imagine doing things I was too timid to attempt.  I could hardly see myself even riding a bike.  I was never confrontational, and frankly, I would run rather than fight. Being the only child in a military family, I escaped many of the normal childhood rites of passage.  I usually moved before too many kids knew I existed.  That was both good and bad... bad because I escaped many of the hard lessons we learn as kids, and good because I escaped some of the hard lessons we learn as kids. I remember one time when I was about nineteen, some friends and I went to an amusement park.  Everyone wanted to ride the Bumper Cars, everyone but me.  I was afraid of getting into a bumper car alone.  I remember all of my friends each scrambling to get into a car, and I was standing on the floor looking terrified and desperate.  Every time I tried to jump into one of their cars, I was rejected.  I fin...

One day as I stood at my kitchen sink, I looked out the window in front of me admiring the freshly mowed lawn.  It was a bright June day; before the heat of the summer sun had scorched the grass.  The clouds, billowing across the sky, accented the beauty I beheld. As I admired the scene, I began to hear my Father's voice flowing into my mind.  He seemed to say," Beautiful, isn't it?'   I then realized that I could only admire the beauty of this scene but not partake or experience it.  This realization took me on a life experience analogy. As long as I just stood there and observed the lawn I was only a spectator.  To experience it I would have to physically stand, walk, run or lie in it.  Then Father said,"Life is like the lawn... You can stand at a distance and observe it and never experience it."  He continued to teach me a principle about the 'lawn of life'.  He said the beauty you see is not the actuality of t...