People That Drift In and Out of Our Lives

I have always felt like God puts people in your life, and takes them out, at just the right time for a reason.  Sometimes, we don't recognize that until years later!  This week I came across a quote in a book that said just that.  It got me thinking about people in my life that, looking back, I KNOW were there for a purpose, or removed from my life for a purpose.

For me, I can see looking back that Michelle (Beiswenger) Johnson was the first of one that was put in my life for a purpose.  Our parents were friends and often spent every weekend together.  While my parents didn't go to church, hers did, and I loved going with them.  It was the first time I heard about "being saved" and the first time I really learned who God was.  I was a child though, and really didn't get it.  Just knew I really liked being with them on Sunday mornings.  As we grew older, and busier, our parents also grew busier and we didn't see each other as often.  We went YEARS without even knowing where the other person was.  We reconnected a few years ago, right after the birth of her last son, Isaiah.  I learned that she had gone on to marry another friend of ours, were very active in their Christian church and community, and she was about to have a very risky brain surgery to remove a tumor.  But her faith was so strong that she pressed on knowing whatever the outcome, it was God's will.  We spent days praying for her as she went through it all.  We also learned that we both were dealing with kids having the most bazaar health problems you could imagine!  We leaned on each other in a way we that no one else understood!  Then...  just a few years after reconnecting...  Mike got sick and needed brain surgery.  Michelle was there to pray through it and provide us with comfort knowing that with God, all things WOULD be ok...  again...  in a way that only Michelle could understand because she and Pat were there just a few years earlier.

The next person (or family) that impacted our life, and drifted away for a reason (I'll explain in just a minute) is Rebekeh Newhard, and her family.  Rebekeh and I met right around the time Kayleigh was born back in 1994.  They moved into the apartment complex we lived in.  We quickly became friends and spent hours upon hours together.  Right around the time of Kayleigh's first birthday Mike had a heat stroke, wasn't working, and we were beyond flat broke.  Our marriage was rough and things were just plain hard.  The night that Mike was in the hospital for the heat stroke, Jim and Rebekeh FILLED our house with food.  We came home and really saw what loving one another and serving one another and living in community was all about.  They never judged us for the very poor decisions we made at that time in our lives...  believe me...  there were plenty of them!  As we moved from house to house and town to town and they continued to help us, love us and really were the best friends we had.  Finally, in early 2000, we moved back home and not far from them.  Mike was sick and having several seizures a week and things just continued to be hard.  Jim and Rebekeh were there, continuing to love and "serve" us, but it was getting hard for them (we just didn't realize it).  Rebekeh finally ended the friendship and said some things that she really needed to say, but it hurt me to the core and I didn't think we would ever forgive each other.  Fast forward several years and she kept coming back to my mind and on my heart and I really couldn't figure out why, but prayed over it and eventually reached back out to her.   It was then that I realized we were "using and abusing" them in way that I never recognized and it was hurting them.  It had gone from us being grateful for the blessing of them in our lives to us EXPECTING them to be in our lives and do things for us.  I am grateful to have her as a friend again and have more respect for both Jim and Rebekeh than ever before.

Then, there is Cyndi (Connelley) Eskine.  Cyndi and I met while Mike and I were in college at Indiana University.  She was a single Mom of two young boys at the time, and worked for the university.  I believe in the beginning, we were put in Cyndi's life to help HER!  She was struggling as a single Mom and the boys needed a father figure in their life.  Both of her boys were fun to be around and they adored our kids.  We had them over a lot, and Cyndi and I spent a lot of "girls time" together while the boys stayed with Mike.  It truly was a joy to watch both Mark and Mitch grow up into fine young men.  After we left IU and moved back up North, we stayed connected but didn't get to see them as often as we wanted to.  Our kids grew up and Cyndi found the man of her dreams, Scott.  Her boys both went to college through ROTC, joined the Army, and later deployed.  We cried together as they left for war and we prayed with her all through it.  Then...   my son joined the Army.  I have the same flood of emotions that Cyndi had years back and she has been MY rock through it.  She understands being the Momma of a Soldier in a way that not many of my other friends can.

I could write pages and pages on the people that have drifted in and out of our lives.  These are 3 that have been on my heart a LOT lately and the 3 that I now can recognize how God has used them to grow us in our marriage, relationships with others, and in our walk with Christ.  I am beyond grateful to each of them and so thankful to call them friends!

Look at the people in your life.  I'm not saying all of them are sent by Go with a purpose, but know that he will use relationships and friendships according to His will for your life.  When you realize that and recognize that...  you will be blessed!

Today I Choose To Be Thankful

---From Michael

I feel like crap.

I know, that is one heck of a way to open a blog with a title like this, but it is the simple truth.  Actually, today I feel downright atrocious.  My headache is floating between the 7-8 range on the 10 point pain scale. My neck feels like it’s been replaced by a steel rod.  My endurance won’t allow standing for more than 10-15 minutes.  My visual and mental focus is making it tough to verify that what I am typing is correct.  My hands are fluctuating between being tingly and numb.  I’m kind of a mess, and, unfortunately, this has become pretty close to the norm for me.

Why am I thankful then?  If this has been my general existence for the last seven months…why be thankful for that?!?!?  The answer seems simple; because of yesterday.

Yesterday!  Oh yes, just yesterday I felt INCREDIBLE.  My headache was ignorable (3-4 range).  My neck was as loose as a swan’s.  My endurance was fine for everyday functioning.  My visual and mental focus was such that I could read normally and stay on task throughout the day.  My hands were fully operational.  I felt as good as I have in a very long time, and I did it without the assistance of any additional medications. 

Yesterday was a gift from God!

I knew it from the moment that I woke up.  There was a “pep in my step” that had not been there naturally for the last seven months.  I was able to shower and shave without feeling like I needed to sit down to regain my bearings.  I spent hours in the kitchen cooking various things while standing the majority of the time.  I was actually able to read my Bible…READ IT!  I have been relegated to listening to my Bible and trying to follow along for months, but yesterday I was able to read and comprehend what Paul was conveying. I was able to attend our Riverview group and actually socialize during our potluck and actively participate in our discussion.  I was able to actively spend quality time with my wife and children.  I was able to laugh.  I generally have to avoid laughing anymore because of the pain it causes in my head.  Last night one of the children made me laugh and I was able to do it heartily without any issues.  It may not sound like much, but for me it was like a day at Disneyland is for a child.

I realize that there are those reading this who are thinking precisely this, “Having yesterday is great, but you’re back to feeling like crap.  Doesn’t that tick you off?”

If I claimed that it wasn’t frustrating, I’d be lying.  There is nothing that I would like more than being able to feel great and resume a normal life again.  That is exactly what yesterday was about though.  Yesterday was short reprieve handed down to me from God.  Whatever this illness is, it has worn me down and, frankly, has taken me to a fairly dark place.  He knew this.  He knew that I was reaching a point where if I didn’t have “yesterday”, I would be closing in on a breaking point.

This morning, when I awoke feeling as I do, I felt that I was left with a choice: I could be angry for an incredible day lost or I could be thankful for an incredible day had.  Our Riverview study just finished up Colossians which is filled with verses regarding being thankful, but I felt compelled to move forward into Thessalonians this morning and there I found this:

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus…1 Thessalonians 5:18

I discovered that where I thought that I had two options, I had only one, and it was not even one of the two I was considering.  This is not about “yesterday”.  This is about EVERY DAY.  While I should be thankful for the incredible gift of reprieve that I was given yesterday, I should also be thankful for today, when I admittedly feel that darkness trying to pull me back in. I should be thankful for every single day that I am graced to experience on this side of life.

Being thankful is not simply an “if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” agenda…Give thanks in all circumstances, this is our calling and this is what I shall do.