Categories
Personal Musings

ITCHING EARS

The five dog sculptures remind me of everyone voicing their own opinions. Howling into the wind.
EVERYBODY HAS SOMETHING TO SAY

Are your itching ears being satisfied by what you hear, see, read, and share?

I will admit that I hate watching or reading the news and always have. Even as a small child, I could feel fear hurled at me through news outlets.

However, over the past few months, I have been inundated with “news” through my social media feeds. I am frustrated with what I’m exposed too.

You may be thinking at this point “Great, I can agree with that,” but wait. I’m frustrated because as an eighth-grader I was exposed to 2 Timothy 4:2-4:

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

Where is the truth? Who is telling the truth? It doesn’t matter what side you lean toward, there are thousands of teachers, leaders, friends ready to say to you that you are right. It is astounding to me that 2 Timothy is being played out right before my eyes.

With excess time on my hands, I decided to learn more about Godly dreams that fulfill the prophetic words in Joel 2:28-29.  God says people will dream dreams and see visions. So, I asked God to give me new dreams. The first one I had after that prayer revealed that many of God’s gifts and attributes are hidden behind closed doors. The only one that was released was TRUTH.

In my dream, I asked, “Why?”

God’s answer, “I need My truth to permeate the world – the real TRUTH. The truth of My Son, who is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE.” (John 14:6) Then I woke up.

As a result of this dream, I’ve spent time observing what is going on from a different perspective. I’m convinced that God’s TRUTH is getting lost in the flood of good opinions.

You may ask, at this point, how would His TRUTH be displayed or determined? Here’s the tricky part for each of us – are we going to interpret that question according to our pre-existing thinking, or are we going to actually take time to seek God’s face, to get quiet before Him and listen, and I mean really listen.

Let’s take a little test:

How many of you have or are experiencing fear because of what you are hearing and seeing?

The Bible has a lot to say about fear like:

I John 4:18

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Or read: 

Psalm 91

I will say that I’m not yet made perfect in love, because I’m often blindsided by fear with all that is going on in the world and my personal life. I have to forcefully remind myself that God is bigger than all the bad stuff, and only He understands all of the moving parts.

In my quest to cope with the bad stuff, I turned to the book of Job in the Bible. For thirty-seven chapters, everyone gives their opinions of why bad things are happening to Job and expect him to act according to their thoughts. Then in chapter thirty-eight, the Lord starts speaking, and He is not happy – Job and his friends get a tongue lashing. Finally, Job puts his hand over his mouth until almost the end when he says in verse 3 of chapter 42: 

“You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.”

Maybe, just maybe, we need to put our hands over our mouths before we speak and listen to God for direction and guidance. I know it’s hard when there is so much coming at us from all directions, but God’s TRUTH will win the day every time.

Here’s my challenge to you (something I do consistently):

  1. Immerse yourself in the Bible regularly (reading or listening) – get a feel for how God reveals Himself through the words and stories.
  2. Then take time to ask God what He is thinking – start with 5 minutes and write down what comes into your head. Use the Bible to “Fact Check” – does what you’ve written confirm what you’re reading or contradict it?

Over time your ears will only itch to hear God’s Truth, and you will be able to pick it out of the crowd of voices, and it will release love, and not fear. (John 10:2-5)

Andrea

Categories
Personal Musings

LOSS OF HOPE

A PRESENT FROM GOD FOR MY ENJOYMENT

I wrote the following to myself on 1/5/20, but it’s a helpful reminder as we all face quarantine and loss during COVID-19.

When do you feel the most hopeless?

  • When I’m unproductive
  • When I’m not learning new things
  • When I’m tired
  • When I’m not active enough
  • When I don’t get out of the house to see the world around me
  • When I’m not creative

What happens to you when hopeless sets in?

  • I get sluggish
  • I become grumpy – nothing in the world is good
  • I’m unable to see God at work in me or the world
  • I’m unwilling even to look to see if God might be doing something

My normal state of mind is looking for what God is doing, which is how this blog got its name, “On A God Hunt.” I see Him working throughout the day. I rejoice in the small things, enjoying the little surprises that He puts in my path.

However, when I’m not feeling well, or life isn’t going the way I want it, the ability to find God’s presents seems to disappear. Instead, I roll over and my pessimistic underbelly appears. Internally I know God is still there doing great things. I just don’t care. I want to wallow in the muck, having a pity party. My mind drifts off to the frivolous or mind-numbing so that I can avoid life.

No, I don’t give up my faith, but I do abdicate my joy. I give away the vision that allows me to see the bright colors, and I only see gray. I miss the fantastic synergy in the co-existence of all the different aspects of the world, the pure beauty in creation like the common garden rock. God made each part for my enjoyment, and their working together creates impressive things, but at that moment, I don’t care.

When I finally recognize that I’ve abdicated my joy, I can begin to refocus, by cleaning up my God glasses. It’s then that I realize that even simple things are essential to my existence. My God has a much bigger plan than I can understand. It’s just waiting for me to turn away from my pessimistic underbelly and embrace the process of surrendering my circumstances and give my whole being over to His control. Only then do I regain my joy in the small things: seeing the cactus that’s blooming because of the recent rain, the bunny sneaking down my side yard to grab a bite of my bushes, the palm frond glistening in the afternoon breeze like emeralds in the sky, or the wave from the neighbor walking down the street. Each rather insignificant by itself but put all together, they create the fabric of a precious life.

Shake the rust off and enjoy life!

I encourage you to grab hold of your joy – look for the little presents God puts in your path for your enjoyment. JOY is a battle cry in stressful situations – it changes our perspective. It gives us hope. It allows us to help others, and most of all, it connects us with God.

I’m praying for you!
Andrea

Categories
My City-My Valley Personal Musings

PRAY FOR EVERY STREET – EVERY HOME – EVERY BUSINESS

Palm Springs Ghost Town
DOWNTOWN PALM SPRINGS DURING COVID-19 QUARANTINE
THE HEIGHT OF OUR TOURIST SEASON

“Social Distancing” and “Sheltering at Home” are phrases that have become our new normal. As tragic as this is, I know we will survive. For the eight weeks before these concepts became our collective norm – I had been sheltering in place and social distancing, while stuck in my house, recovering from cancer surgery. I’m keenly aware of the stir-crazy feeling many will experience during the COVID-19 crisis. The way I stayed sane was by keeping busy – having a purpose. I crocheted hats and scarves for the homeless. Those days when all I could do was sit, I often felt hopeless and helpless, even though I know that is not God’s plan for me.

I’m now supposed to go out walking to rebuild my strength. This past Sunday, as I was walking with my husband, God reminded me of my long-standing dream, that “Every Street – Every Home and Every Business” in my community would receive prayer. Over the years, I’ve seen The Church in the Coachella Valley come together to begin this process. However, God showed me that He has set up a perfect scenario for my dream to be completed!

The Executive Orders in many cities are now telling us we can only go out for “Essential Activities” if we maintain “Social Distancing Requirements.” For example, an excerpt from the March 17th Executive Order from the City of Palm Springs states:

“Social Distancing Requirements”
For purposes of this order “Social Distancing Requirements” includes maintaining at least six-foot social distancing from other individuals, washing hands with soap and water for at least twenty seconds as frequently as possible or using hand sanitizer, covering coughs or sneezes (into the sleeve or elbow, not hands), regularly cleaning high-touch surfaces, and not shaking hand, and such other standards or guidelines as may be promulgated from time to time by  City, County, State and federal authorities.

“Essential Activities”
iii  “To engage in outdoor activity, provided the individuals comply with Social Distancing Requirements as defined in this Section, such as, by way of example and without limitation, walking, hiking, or running.”

I want to challenge you to follow the “Essential Activity” order by putting prayer before walking, hiking, running, cycling, or while driving to and from essential activities. If every Christian takes advantage of these orders, we could make my dream come true: Every Street – Every Home and Every Business being prayed over while we face down the COVID-19 crisis.

I believe this simple task is a God-given purpose for this time – something that will change the world as we seek the Healer for our communities, while we stay active in mind and body. I use the following as a reminder as I B.L.E.S.S. my community through prayer walks/drives:

Body – Pray for health, protection, and safety.
Labor – Pray for work, income, and security.
Emotional – Pray for joy, peace, and health.
Social – Pray for love, marriages, families, and friends.
Spiritual – Pray for salvation, faith, and grace.

https://blesseveryhome.com/B.L.E.S.S_Acronym_Compilation.pdf

I’ve also turned my prayer walks/drives into picture scavenger hunts using the camera on my phone. These hunts remind me of my amazing neighbors (yard art), and God’s creativity (plants, flowers, clouds, landscapes). Each of these photo albums serve as a memorial marker of what I’m doing with God.

I’m praying you will join me in this adventure.

Andrea

Categories
Personal Musings

Ultimate Upgrade

Andrea in the hospital after cancer surgery.
OVERNIGHT STAY IN THE HOPTIAL

The past few months have been a wild ride. In the process, I’ve lost a lot of my fear of death. With the diagnoses of cancer, I went through all the typical thoughts:

  • Will surgery cure me?
  • Will I need chemo or radiation treatments?
  • How will the outcome affect the people around me?
  • Will I die from this?
  • How will we pay for this?
  • Then, how sick will I be from the surgery itself?

Then God did something amazing to show me how much He loves me.

On the scheduled day of surgery, I woke up with a blood clot in my leg. I reported to the pre-op, had IV’s hooked-up, met with my surgeon, had an ultrasound, and met the anesthesiologist for my surgery. After five hours of lying around, I was sent home with an appointment to visit a Vascular Specialist. The next couple of weeks were a wild ride, with more ultrasounds, as the clot moved up my leg. The medication to reduce the lump made me sick, and fear of the cancer spreading grew as we waited for the swelling to go down in my leg.

Finally, a month later, surgery was again scheduled. In the meantime, we adjusted our medical insurance, which reduced our out of pocket expenses significantly. I had Christmas at home. God worked all things for my good. I calmed down, and my fear lifted.

The weekend before my surgery, a friend said to me, “I see an angel in the OR watching out for you.” I laughed, thinking what a random comment, but the morning of the surgery, my OR nurse introduced herself – “I’m Angela, your OR nurse. Think of me as your angel watching out for you during the operation.” God’s sense of humor strikes again.

Then the anesthesiologist for my surgery came in, and it was clear that God is in the details. I fear anesthesia because my body reacts negatively to the drugs. To put this in perspective, I had shoulder surgery three years ago. It took six hours for me to wake-up (in the end, a recovery nurse stuck an alcohol swab under my nose, so I would wake-up enough to go home), and I spent two days nauseated. However, a year later, when my other shoulder needed surgery, the outcome was different. The anesthesiologist, standing in front of us, worked a miracle, getting me out of the hospital within two hours without nausea. God postponed the first cancer surgery so that I would have this doctor taking care of my anesthesia.

I came out of surgery with little to no nausea. Amazing, considering that there were six incisions in my stomach, one of which was extra swollen because they needed to cauterize a vein. After leaving the hospital, I never took narcotics for pain, and a week later, I found out that they got all the cancer with clear/clean margins.

I realized, that for me, having cancer is less fearful than surgery and that cancer treatment is scarier than death. I know without a doubt that God has the number of my days perfectly planned. In fact, I now see death as the ultimate upgrade – free of pain, rejoicing in heaven with Papa God, having finished the race that was set before me. Where are you in your journey? Are you ready for your ultimate upgrade?

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My City-My Valley Personal Musings

Rainbow Prayers

Rainbow Flag Flying Over Palm Springs
The rainbow flag that revealed a new aspect of God’s love to me.

Living in a community where I regularly see rainbow flags flying, I shouldn’t have been surprised when God grabbed my attention with one on a Sunday morning during our Breakfast and Bible Study group as I looked out the window and saw a giant one flying over the city.

At that moment, I saw the rainbow flag through a different set of eyes. It was as if I got a God’s eye view of our efforts to be noticed and protected by Him. From my vantage point, the flag looked small in comparison to the vastness of the landscape around it, even though to the people under it, the flag would have seemed huge. A lot of the time, I think I’m doing something big for God, but is it?

The flag hung there limply for several minutes. Then I saw the wind begin to move the tops of the trees around us then move down into the valley, until the flag unfurled in a splendor of bright colors. It struck me that without the wind of the Holy Spirit, all my efforts are not worth much. I’m like that flag wrapped around the crane, just waiting for something to move me.

Yes, I lost track of what was going on in our Bible Study, as I pulled out my phone to look up the origin of the flag and what the colors symbolized. I also made a quick check of what the colors often signify in the Bible. There are some differences, but it didn’t seem important because my mind was already moving on in prayer, using the words assigned to the colors by the flag’s creator:

Red – Life
That life in Christ would become central in all our lives.

Orange – Healing
That God would pour out healing and restoration on people and my community.

Yellow – Sunlight
That the Son of Light (another name for Jesus) would shine on each person that they might know the warmth of His love.

Green – Nature
That all would see the Creator through nature.

Blue – Harmony or Serenity
That there would be calm unity in our diversity, which allows for real love and concern to be shared.

Purple – Spirit
That the Spirit of God would move in our lives, that we would live in the fullness of God’s plan for each of us.

In the weeks since this event, I’ve been praising God for giving me new insight into His loving nature. Now, no matter where I see the rainbow, up in the clouds, or as a flag, I take a moment to pray for the people and communities under it. I hope the next time you see a rainbow you will join me in praying!

Andrea

Categories
Personal Musings

Sharing My Light

Andrea enjoying the lighted Advent Wreath at age two.
1963 – I’m enjoying the Advent Wreath

Growing up in a Christian home, my family celebrated the season of Advent – the four weeks before Christmas. I loved this time, not because I was waiting for my Christmas gifts, but because we got to light a candle every night during our family devotions. We would dim the lights, and my Mom or Dad would try to read from our devotional book. Each week we would light another candle on the wreath until Christmas Eve when the big Christ Candle would be added.  Even with all the lights off in the room, it felt as bright as it did when all the lights were on.

In my curiosity, I looked up the word Advent: A coming into place, view, or being, arrival – onset, beginning, commencement, start – the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.

Candles are part of bringing people together
Sharon, Andrea and Debbie celebrating life by the glow of candle light.

My rabbit trail of thought then took me to the idea that each one of us in a place, with a specific view, that signifies the commencement of something that only we are designed to start. We are the candle that brings light into the darkness. As we connect with others who are also carrying light, we begin to change the environment around us. Yes, our little light is important, but like the time my family spent around that wreath enjoying the stories and basking in the light of the candles, we get strength from being together and sharing the Word of God. We grow in our impact on the world. We grow in our love and acceptance of others. We grow in faith. In those moments, when our light seems to flicker, there are others around to reignite us.

What if the blaze of our collective light is what it will take to ignite our community with the transformational love of Christ? What if I share my light with someone who doesn’t have it yet?

I want to see the whole wreath light up with the Christ candle in the middle, driving back the darkness, giving hope and joy to all who are touched by the glow. Do you?

Will you join me in finding one person this season with whom you can share the light of Christ?

Andrea

Categories
Personal Musings

Enjoying the Moment

Fall at Lake Chelan
Enjoying Lake Chelan in the Fall

Early this past fall I took a trip to Lake Chelan in Washington and had planned to write this as soon as I returned from my trip. However, when I got home, I was diagnosed with cancer. Everything around me changed overnight, and I have spent the last month coming to terms with the season I’m in right now. It’s not bad, just different

In contrast, the fall is so quiet, and I could hear the squeak of the geese’s wings resisting the air as they flew over my head. The water was perfectly calm, and at one point, I was the only person sitting on the beach. Peaceful is the word that comes to mind.

Summer Floats
Beach time in the summer at Lake Chelan

Normally, my whole family (four generations worth) gather in the summer to enjoy the cold water and summer activities. However, this year, I had the privilege of a fall visit. The difference was stark. Not just because there were only three of us in my uncle’s condo (instead of 12-15), but the whole community was calm and laid back. The summers are frenetic – lots of people, constant movement from one activity to another – swimming, hiking, putt-putt golf, tennis, and more, with the background filled with birds chirping, bees buzzing, jet-skis and boats revving and people talking, laughing and shouting with joy.

The lack of activity and noise gave me the space to take in the changing season. The trees that had given us shade and fruit this year, had one last job before resting – to fill the horizon with brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red – a feast for the eyes. As their leaves fall off, details that went unseen in the bustle of the summer stand out like significant memories to be treasured. Even as the water of the lake was receding, things that were hidden in the depth and murkiness of water in motion became vivid monuments to the surprises waiting for us yet to discover. Creation reminding me that even now God is showing me new things – hidden things.

Crazy Mad Squirrel

As the nip in the air, the clouds in the sky and the shorter days encouraged me to bundle up, I was prompted to grasp hold of the moment and enjoy it by a funny little squirrel who climbed up a tree to give me a piece of his mind. He had a plan and my presence was messing that up. I find myself doing the same thing to God at times. I have a plan and He seems to mess it all up. After a few minutes of gyrating and chattering at me, the squirrel moved on with what needed to be done. I know God watches patiently as I do the same thing, but when I realize that His love and faithfulness is there for me – no matter what – I’m able to move on with life.

I’m so glad that I had time to sit back and reflect. God knew I would need to be ready for my next season. I needed to know He still had things to reveal to me and that slowing down can give me time to reflect on His greatness.

I know it can be difficult, but I pray that you can find a quiet moment to absorb the wonders of creation. God has something special to show you, too, no matter what season it is!

Categories
My City-My Valley Personal Musings

My Chicken Line

Treasure Hunters Mark, David, Andrea, and Nancy

I stepped across my “chicken line.” My friends, husband and I went out on our first Treasure Hunt (see the book by Kevin Dedmon), where we looked for people that God wanted us to find. I can’t lie, for me, there is nothing scarier than walking up to someone and trying to carry on a conversation, but this adventure takes it one step further. We needed to share with them something that God wanted them to know.

What if we didn’t find the person? What if we got what we were supposed to say wrong? What if the person wasn’t receptive? What if…what if? I had to believe it was God’s problem, not mine. So, we sat down and asked God to give us clues to the person He wanted us to meet. We used a form we found online with different categories like: Where is the person? What are they wearing or is there an identifying mark? Do they have something obvious for which you can pray? What does God want to reveal to them?

Ten minutes later, we had our Treasure Maps filled out.

As a group, we decided to go to my place first. We did a lot of people watching. I found myself relaxing into the moment. Then something switched, and I became aware of each person walking by as a God-given treasure. Even if they weren’t someone on any of our lists, I saw potential in each person. It made me thankful that God loves the individuality of each of us. I thought, that I don’t have to fit into a certain box or fit into a preconceived pattern for me to be a valuable treasure in God’s eyes. It was a freeing moment. In the half-hour we stayed in that space, many people came and went. My husband and one of our friends, started conversations with a few of the people, but we finally decided we needed to move on to the next place.

We went to my husband’s place next. It was a new grocery store in town. He was looking for a woman, with dark hair, buying a yellow zucchini. He walked into the store and within the first two minutes found his treasure. As he tells the story, he was so shocked he had to take a moment to compose himself. Eventually he did approach the woman and told her our story. She was polite but didn’t over engage. He left her with a blessing.

Meanwhile, one of our friends found two people that fit at least one clue on his list. He chatted with each of them. He even got to pray with the ‘blue pants’ lady from his sheet.

Our whole group had an ongoing joke about needing to go to IHOP. So, we went there next. Why not? We had just found three of our Treasures. Maybe we would find more. The friend that hadn’t found any of her clues was looking for a female, red hair, inside a building with issues with her lower extremities. Our other friend who had already found two on his list still had a strange clue of finding someone with a name he couldn’t pronounce.

Our server came, and his name badge was “Ilaya.” Our friend asked how to pronounce his name. Even now I can’t get it right. The server said he was English, but his name was Russian. Wow, we just found another one. Our friend tried to engage the server, but it fell flat. What’s up with that God?

Then I saw the red-headed, female, walking as if her feet hurt. She was a server in another section of the building. My friend didn’t want to get up and talk to her, probably because we had just watched the last conversation fizzle out. Anyway, we spent time talking about changing our approach, so it didn’t come off as confrontive or weird, but as a friendly blessing. I could see my friend still wasn’t going to jump into a conversation, so I gave her a piece of paper and suggested she write a note and give it to the server on our way out to encourage her Treasure. Our other friend also wrote a note to our server as a blessing. They passed them off on our way out. Though we don’t know how those notes were received, there was a sense of accomplishment handing them to the Treasure.

Though I was the only one that didn’t find a treasured person, I came away with some great treasures:

  1. Be aware of the people around you, they are God’s treasures, and He wants you to see them
  2. Instead of leading with questions that would make people uncomfortable, give away words of encouragement and appreciation
  3. If all else fails, write your message from God to them in a note
  4. Even if you don’t find your specific treasure, you have succeeded because you stepped out in faith.

I know God was with us as we went on our Treasure Hunt and we found Him working in strange places and interesting ways. As an extreme introvert who almost failed her Evangelism class in college, this adventure was way, way out of my comfort zone. It took a lot to get me to step across my chicken line. However, I’m extremely surprised to write that I’m looking forward to our next Treasure Hunt. I had fun! As the Hunt finished-up I realized I didn’t want to stop looking. What if my person was waiting for me and I just missed her? What if…what if?

Oh well, maybe next time I’ll be the one who finds three people on my list.

Praying that you find your Treasures!

Andrea Sanger
Live180


Categories
Personal Musings

Thirty-six Years and Counting

Andrea & David on their wedding day 9-3-83 at 3pm at Messiah Lutheran in Seattle, WA.
Wedding Day

This week my husband and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary. Our story is a serious God Hunt sighting. Only God could keep us together this long.

The week before our wedding, I looked at my future husband and realized I didn’t have that gooey love feeling that you see in movies. At that moment I wasn’t even sure if I liked the guy enough to spend the rest of my life with him. It was terrifying.

Then I remembered that God had orchestrated our meeting, through a series of dreams I had as a junior and senior in high school that sent me two states away from my family to a tiny college that wasn’t even accredited yet, to meet my future husband.  The dreams didn’t include romantic promise but promises of working side by side to do great things.

I’m laughing right now because I can hear my husband in his home office, which is next to the spare bedroom where I’m working. Working in adjoining offices isn’t new to us. We spent eighteen years working for a church with offices right next to each other, but somehow this is different. No longer having a regular paycheck means we really need to depend on God and each other to make it through each moment. I love it. We have arrived at the place that God promised me thirty-six years ago as I sat in my room trying to decide if it was worth it to go ahead with the wedding.

In the years since that moment, we’ve done some crazy things. We ran a half-way house – living in a tiny one bath, three-bedroom house with three to five guys in various stages of recovery and need. When we finally bought our own home, we continued to have people living with us, adults preparing for mission work, teens who needed a break from their parents and even an eight-year-old whose Mom spent a month in treatment. After several years of that, we decided it was time to adopt and we selected a late-placed, hard-to-adopt child, while we were in the middle of building a new home. The night we moved into our beautiful new home, that I thought would be our forever home, we both looked at each other and said, “We won’t be here long.” Eighteen months later we had sold or stored our furniture, rented out our houses, and bought a twenty-two-foot travel trailer which we parked in my mother-in-law’s driveway while my husband finished seminary. I spent the next sixteen months homeschooling our new child, which lead me to a day when I packed all my worldly goods and was ready to walk away from the marriage. Obviously, we all survived, but it was touch and go for several hours. When my husband finally finished seminary, we moved to Palm Springs for his job.

Moving to the desert was crazy for me because I had vowed as a little girl that I would never live in the desert, be married to a pastor, or work as a secretary. Shortly after moving to the desert, I became a church secretary at another church in the area. We bounced around from house to house in the desert. At one point after our son had moved out, we lived with one of our friends in her house. That doesn’t sound that outrageous, but how we got there was. We had a perfectly fine home at the time. However, God prompted both of us at a conference to call our friend and ask if we could live with her. Amazingly she said yes, which lead to a rich time of ministry to the youth of our church, as we used the house as our meeting base while the church was going through a remodel. When we finally moved out on our own again, both of us were working for the same church and growing in our ability to work together.

When the time came to leave the church, God had already prepared a new ministry for us to join – one that took us back to the very beginning. We are back working with people who are in various stages of recovery and growth, that often have the same questions that the youth we worked with had, and a need for unconditional love while they explore their relationship with God.

As I look, back at the rich, full life I’ve had, I’m thankful that God reminded me that day when I had iceberg feet, that He had a greater plan for our relationship than that romantic gooey stuff. It’s a good thing since my husband isn’t the classic hero type in a love story, but he is perfect for me. Every night when I fall into bed, he is there to hold my hand. Just as I drift off into my dream world, I know that my real world is so much better because of the man holding my hand. The man God picked out for me long before I ever met him, the one that would take me on great adventures and encourage me to be all I could be. Our story has been an epic God Hunt for me.

I look forward to many more years of hunting down God sightings with my extra special husband at my side.

Praying that God blesses your day with extra joy!

For more information about our ministry go to www.live180.org.

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Personal Musings

What Do the Blue Angels and Prayer Have in Common?

Four Blue Angel aircraft flying in a tight diamond formation with trailing smoke on a backdrop of perfectly clear skies.
Are you this in sync with God?
Photo by Todd Diemer on Unsplash

I recently watched a documentary on the Blue Angles, the Navy’s flight demonstration squadron. I have a love for this group that goes back to my childhood in Seattle. Every year during Seafair, my mother would make sure we went to Lake Washington to watch the Blue Angels perform. We would find a place where their show takes them closest to the ground. It felt that if my arms were just a little bit longer, I could touch their wings. The rumble of the engines and feeling the rush of air as they passed overhead is forever etched in my memory. The documentary was about how they make that magic happen.

As I was preparing a team for praying at a conference. Most of the people in the room had gone through this training in previous years when it occurred to me that we were like the Blue Angels. As we reviewed the guidelines for prayer with others, I saw a picture in my mind of the lead pilot, slowly reading through the complete flight plan in the hours before they were going to fly. I was struck with how important it is to be ready to go into a prayer session with everyone prepared – to practice, practice, practice – like the Blue Angels who spend long hours together training. They hang-out with each other in their off-hours. The goal is to be able to think and move as a unit, to trust each other with their lives. I love the imagery of this in my faith walk. Spending time with God practicing spiritual disciplines prepares me for the daily journey with Him. However, hanging out with God just for the joy of it, is equally important. My ability to trust Him grows, allowing me to think as He thinks and see the world the way He sees it. We turn into a team that does amazing things.

I want the guidelines to be second nature, so that I can be completely in-tune with what God is doing right in front of me. I want to be keyed into His voice, His commands. I want to be so in sync with His movement that I’m in the right places at the right times, even when it feels death-defying. It’s exhilarating – my happy place.

In that space, I’ve seen bodies healed. I’ve seen people tormented by regrets and anger set free. I’ve seen people transformed to the point that they step into their true destinies. It’s the fulfillment of both Luke 4:17-19 and Matthew 10:7-8:

(Luke 4:17-19 New American Standard Bible)
And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

And

(Matthew 10:7-8 New American Standard Bible)
And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.

I know that this only comes with practice, sometimes failure, and the ability to own up to the times when I’m out of sync, which is also something that the Blue Angles do at the end of each flight. They debrief with each other and look for places where they can improve. I feel that this is an area often left out of prayer teams, but it’s important. None of us gets it right one hundred percent of the time, but when we have others around us helping us to think through the process, we can improve and grow in our ability to be in the middle of what God is doing.

The Blue Angels have a saying when they are debriefing: “Glad to be here.” That is how I feel when I’m praying for others, so glad to be the person God is using to show someone else how much He loves them. It’s a privilege that deserves my full commitment to the process. I encourage you to fly strong and safe with God.