Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

Y’all – I have been a Christian my whole life, baptized by immersion as a repentant believer when I was 12 and must share with you that I have had a deep and joyful renewal of my faith in the past couple of weeks that astounds me.

Where did this come from and how did it come about, you ask?

I mean, me here in my older life with a multitude of serious health problems and just as many cares and worries and anxieties as any of you and more than some others – what’s the deal?

The deal is that I have been doing a lot of studying from the Word, a lot of praying, a lot of listening to a series of sermon tapes and CDs on "Death, Dying and Destiny" that my dear friend Greg England sent me (which you must get and listen to)and am beginning a series of sermons online by another good blogging buddy Patrick Mead called "Reimagining the Church" (here’s the link to over 200 of Patrick’s sermons) and also talking for hours with family and friends about deeply and vital spiritual things.

Blogging and the wonderful, uplifting Christian blogging community have been a part of it.  All of you who stop by and visit with me each day and read and comment and join me in prayer for my health and family and all that we pray for together are a big part of my joy.

How can you get it, you ask?  It is a gift of God, I truly believe, but we can put ourselves in a place to be open and ready to receive it if we will but do so.  I think our fellowship with one another and the encouragement and comforting we get from one another is the best way to start.

My daughter Rebecca called me yesterday morning and we ended up talking and encouraging and rejoicing with each other in our mutual study and prayer and thinking on spiritual things for nearly 2 1/2 hours!  When we finally both reluctantly had to go, she told me that our two hours together was very comforting to her and I was very happy she said that because as I told her, I felt the exact same way.

Then I called my 85 year old mom (hi mom) who is as deeply spiritual and rooted in the Word as anyone I’ve ever known (as was my dad) and we had the very same kind of conversation.  With Rebecca and my mom both there were numerous times when they would say things and I’d nearly shout out, "Exactly!"  We were all on the same wave length about our Christian walk.

We had two guests last night who spent the night, a son (who we call our own adopted son) and his dad, whom I had never met, from Chicago (it’s a long story about how we met, but we’ve known "Chicago" Dave since he was a college student in Illinois in 1990).  I even shared how I felt about being a Christian and what I consider to be the good news with Dave.  I couldn’t help myself. 

It came up in our conversation about him getting married in August to a sweet Hungarian girl.  They are going to Hungary for the wedding and to spend two weeks with her family.  Dave is Catholic and she is Lutheran, so he was talking about the difficulties they would have being married in a beautiful Catholic church over there because of all the rules and regulations and red tape Catholics impose on their members who they consider to be marrying outside their faith.  They’ve decided to skip it and be married somewhere else.

That gave me the perfect opportunity to share with Dave that I consider myself to be "just a Christian" and told him that we should be happy as Christians and it should be simple (in one way of looking at it) and joyful and not complicated by a lot of man made rules and regulations.  I told him I am a New Testament Christian and that the church as we read of it there was a happy and beautiful gathering of God’s people under God’s grace and Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice for us on the cross.

That is what we need to preach and to share with everyone we meet.  That is the good news of the gospel.

Please join me in prayer today for the renewal of all of our spirits as Christians no matter how long you have been one.  Join me in prayer that we can remember we are redeemed and given eternal life because of the sacrifice and blood of Jesus Christ and that we should be more joyful in that than many times we are.

I’ve found that the older I get, the more joyful I become and I think that is a good thing.  That is what we’re all searching desperately for and seeking – joy and happiness in our hearts and in our lives.

Thanks for dropping by and sharing that joy with me today.  Y’all are great!

Cheers & Blessings to each of you today.  And joy in your hearts!  Dee

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P. S.  The unflappable Bobby Ross found his interview questions and is working on them this morning, he said, to get them to me today, so watch for his interview this next Tuesday morning.