Finding peace in the midst of the storm

Darrell and I got back early this morning from a four day trip to OKC to see our grandchildren and of course their parents, Tiff and Trav.  Fortunately, we flew which really enabled us to have more time to visit.  Flying always triggers some level of anxiety for me even though I have flown for years.  Aircraft was my dad's business, so you would think it would be second nature to me but I will still give Darrell the "white knuckle" grip or if he isn't with me, the person sitting next to me is my new BFF, anything or anyone to keep my mind off of flying.  For me the best part of the trip is landing.

On the contrast, Darrell is always at ease, pulling his hat over his face and cutting some Zs even before we take off.  So it was on Friday morning, Darrell next to me, sleeping like a baby.  We had a row all to ourselves so I was left alone to my thoughts.....not always a good thing.  About 20 minutes into the hour flight, it was announced that there would be some "turbulence" the rest of the way into OKC.  I just thought "great", Darrell is asleep and no one was next to me to hear all about my children and answer my interrogating questions.

I started using my self talk and reminding myself of what Darrell always tells me.....it's just like driving....bumps in the road.  So as we hit the first series, I remained calm and managed fairly well.  As we got closer to OKC, those "bumps in the road" got bigger and longer in duration (kind of like labor pains).  I thought about waking Darrell and looked over at him and it occurred to me (certainly not the first time in nearly 30 years).....I was not in the "boat with Jesus" and Darrell could not calm the storm of turbulence. (Matthew 8:23-27)

Storms of life come to all.   A well known saying is that you are either in the midst of a storm, entering a storm or leaving a storm.  So anxiety, worry, fret, doubt, fear are all centered in our soul and focused on what we feel or see. We need to find rest for our soul.

Psalm 62:5 says Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. (NIV)

There is an old hymn entitled "It is Well with my Soul" pinned by Haratio Gates Spafford as a result of devastating storms in his life.
(www.biblestudycharts.com)
"This hymn was written by a Chicago lawyer, Horatio G. Spafford. You might think to write a worship song title"
'It is well with my soul', you would indeed have to be a rich, successful Chicago lawyer. But the words,
"When sorrows like sea billows roll ... It is well with my soul”, were not written during the happiest period of
Spafford's life. On the contrary, they came from a man who had suffered almost unimaginable personal tragedy.

Horatio G. Spafford and his wife, Anna, were pretty well-known in 1860’s Chicago. And this was not just because
of Horatio's legal career and business endeavors. The Spaffords were also prominent supporters and close
friends of D.L. Moody, the famous preacher. In 1870, however, things started to go wrong. The Spaffords' only
son was killed by scarlet fever at the age of four. A year later, it was fire rather than fever that struck. Horatio
had invested heavily in real estate on the shores of Lake Michigan. In 1871, every one of these holdings was
wiped out by the great Chicago Fire.

Aware of the toll that these disasters had taken on the family, Horatio decided to take his wife and four
daughters on a holiday to England. And, not only did they need the rest -- DL Moody needed the help. He was
traveling around Britain on one of his great evangelistic campaigns. Horatio and Anna planned to join Moody in
late 1873. And so, the Spaffords traveled to New York in November, from where they were to catch the French
steamer 'Ville de Havre' across the Atlantic. Yet just before they set sail, a last-minute business development
forced Horatio to delay. Not wanting to ruin the family holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go as planned.
He would follow on later. With this decided, Anna and her four daughters sailed East to Europe while Spafford
returned West to Chicago. Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife in Wales. It read:
"Saved alone."

On November 2nd 1873, the 'Ville de Havre' had collided with 'The Lochearn', an English vessel. It sank in only
12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters
Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being
torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was only saved from the fate of her daughters by a
plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. When the survivors of the wreck had
been rescued, Mrs. Spafford's first reaction was one of complete despair. Then she heard a voice speak to her,
"You were spared for a purpose." And she immediately recalled the words of a friend, "It's easy to be grateful
and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weather friend to God."

Upon hearing the terrible news, Horatio Spafford boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved
wife. Bertha Spafford (the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna born later) explained that during her father's
voyage, the captain of the ship had called him to the bridge. "A careful reckoning has been made", he said, "and
I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep." Horatio
then returned to his cabin and penned the lyrics of his great hymn.

The words which Spafford wrote that day come from 2 Kings 4:26. They echo the response of the Shunammite
woman to the sudden death of her only child. Though we are told "her soul is vexed within her", she still
maintains that 'It is well." And Spafford's song reveals a man whose trust in the Lord is as unwavering as hers
was. "  (www.biblestudycharts.com)

There are lots of  scriptures that speak to finding peace and putting our souls at rest during the mist of our trials and tribulations. A couple of options if your soul needs rest...  word search of bible verses related to peace and soul and I would recommend a sermon  we heard at Tiff/Trav's church in OKC  by Pastor Craig Groeschel.
http://www.lifechurch.tv/watch 


Have a great day!

Fruits

The countdown is underway for the end of school. I know teachers look forward to the summer as much as their students.  We have been busy making some plans for the summer, really just confirming when and who is coming etc.  With 5 children, spouses, grandchildren and their dogs, it is a family circle going on at our house all the time.

I was thinking about how people know us.  In Spanish there are two words for "know".  One refers to knowing facts about someone or something and the other is to really know them personally.  Depending upon which word is being spoken, the listener understands the extent of the person's knowing.  This week as usually, I entered a classroom at one of my schools.  This particular classroom is a self contained classroom for students who currently have a difficult time managing their behavior.  I engaged several students while in the room and as I began to leave, one of them spoke up and said, "Ms. Horn, I knew it was you before I even saw you."  I said "really (profound, huh!).  So I questioned him as to how he knew it was I in the room.  He was covered with a blanket cause the temp in the room was freezing and he was doing his work "undercover".  He spoke up and said, "I knew it was you cause I smelled you".  Not wanting to immediately take an offense to such a comment, I pressed for an explanation.  He said, "I know your perfume.  You wear it everyday."  He was so right.  I wear the same perfume everyday, an expensive gift from one of my daughters for Christmas.

I began to smile cause his statement brought back a very familiar thought and smell that I had of my grandmother.  She always smelled of roses cause of her hand/face creme.  I understood fully his knowledge of me.

However, I began to think further about really how do people know me.  This week I had an interview at one of the high schools in the district and found myself trying to enlighten the interview panel of who I am.  Not too sure how that went but have since given further deliberation of how I really want others to know me.

Matthew 7:16 says "By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?"

So it is by the fruits that we produce that people know us.  Galatians 5: 22-23 tells us what fruits we should exhibit
 ^"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

More things to ponder upon in this race of life.  As I was running today, I was reflecting upon my last several runs which were slow by my standard.  Difficult and certainly lacking due to lack of running periods.  I had a span of several weeks that I did not run which for me really impacts how well I do.  This morning, I was able to cut back on time on each mile, running fast and more solid.  It caused me to think about the Fruits of the Spirit and how they can be weak in our life if we are not walking by the Spirit of God and exercising them daily.  But the more we yield to His Spirit, the more we show love, joy, peace forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  We become "fruiter", all for the glory of God and to bless others.

The question comes to this.  By what fruits do people know us?  How do they recognize us? So start branching out this week. Bearing fruit by living in the Spirit of God, dying to flesh but being propelled by His Spirit. I am running toward that purpose.

Easter

I am already enjoying this long weekend.  Easter is the high point of holidays in the Christian faith.  It is only fitting that I will be blogging about the Love room at such a time as Easter.  But before I move on to that room, I wanted to cap off the Faith topic with a short summary to the big meeting last Monday.  I alluded to the fact that our district was adjusting due to funding cuts.  As with all departments, Special Education offered up their sacrifices....ie: my position.  Actually in all fairness to the district, attempts were made to at least insure that everyone of us (there is 14) still had a job.  So the creative solution, was to offer teaching positions to those who hold a teaching certificate, that would be me.

When I think of the certificate that I hold, I think of God's humor and have to smile.  Spanish 6-12 grades  just doesn't appear to be my forte.  And that is right, for me to fill a high school teaching position in Spanish, has always been beyond my innate ability.  So I am weighing my options, interviewing in the district this week and seeking God.  In the midst of all of the events this week, we did see God moving on our behalf.  After the meeting on Monday, I went to Darrell's office to share with him the results.  I mentioned that all of the 14 sped counselors (7 offered the classroom and 7 will remain counselors) were bumped to 187 days for next year, so a loss of 10 days to our pay.  Darrell shared with me later that within 15 minutes of my leaving his office, he received a call from the Dean at the  seminary where he has been adjunct professor (but has not been teaching very much in the last 2 years) asking him to teach a class in the fall.  This class will more than replace what I lost financially with those 10 days.  God knows where we live and already had a plan of provision.  Praise His name.

So off to the Love room.  My conception of the room has always been that those who find rest in this room would know, beyond a shadow of doubt the love of God for them.  To understand the different types of love spoken about in scripture would be to move beyond our one definition of love in the English language.  We express love for chocolate, movies, books, vacation get aways, our pets, children and spouse basically all with the same word, LOVE.  However, the Bible does differentiate between the various types of love.

About.com Christianity simply describes these 4 types of love.

Eros
The Greek word for sensual love is eros. This is the type of love between a husband and wife.  The Song of Solomon in the Old Testament is a great example of this love.

Storge
Storge is a term for love in the Bible you may not be familiar with. Even though this Greek word for family love is not specifically found in Scripture, examples of it are seen throughout the Bible. This is a family bond love such as between parents, children and other family members.  Such love is implied in the relationships Noah and his family, Jacob and his family and Mary/Martha with their brother Lazarus.

Philia
Philia is the type of love in the Bible that most Christians practice toward each other. This love is a brotherly, friendship love.  Romans 12:10 exemplifies this love.

Agape 
Jesus Christ showed this kind of divine love to his Father and to all humanity. Agape is selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love, the highest of the four types of love in  the Bible.

It is this love, Agape, that our love room is centered on.  The central verse in the room is:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 15:3 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Our sins have separated us from God but He made a provision for us to have a relationship with Him through his son Jesus Christ.  It was the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ that is payment for our sins.

So how do we enter into this relationship with God through Jesus Christ? Romans 10:9 says; "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

This is our Easter message, the very heart of our home and the upstairs refuge.  Do you know Him, Jesus Christ?

I leave you with Casting Crowns singing " East to West".