Yahoo, Year Two!

What a strange mix of emotions I have experienced in the last week.
As we got near the one year mark, I was really 'riding the waves'.
I spent 2 full weekends writing my talk for Magnificat and really was struggling with it. The first weekend, I had 22 pages done (16 font......smile) which was just about an hour's worth. But I had only written down about 1/2 of my story. So I thought about it all week again, then sat down and tried again. I had only a week to go. In my head, it seemed like such a simple thing to do - make a quick outline and then fill in the blanks. But I couldn't seem to condense it to a usable amount. I wrote 18 pages that weekend and ended up deleting all of that too.
On the Sunday before the talk, I was talking to my friend and saying that this story of God was so awesome and so promising, but that I didn't have a speech ready yet. And I was really getting stressed about it. I said that since God provided the story line, He really needed to get busy and type it! That gave me the idea to spend some real time praying to Him for the guidance. Tuesday night it just poured out onto the paper as I sat there meditating. I was supposed to go to Adoration at 7 PM and had really been looking forward to it. My hope was that in the quiet spent before Jesus, I would be enlightened. But I started typing at 5:30 and at 6:30, I was flying through pages as the story poured itself out. I asked Jon if he would go to Adoration for me. He, Jerry and Paul covered my hour. I guess Jesus wanted to see them instead! I let my fingers keep flying. At 1 AM, my speech was completed and I slept like a log. The next day, as I read it to Jon, I could hardly read through it without crying a number of times. Jon cried too. I told him I was going to keep reading it until I could do it with a lot less emotion! I had an hour to speak it and there was not a lot of time for me to keep regaining my composure.

I was feeling really nervous, as I had expected I would, Saturday morning. Jon and I left at 7:15 AM to get to the Mass that was being celebrated for the Magnificat Team and all the women who would be a hostess. It was during Mass that God graced me with the peace I needed to deliver His speech as He intended. Remember now, I have been dubbed the 'cockeyed optimist' by my older brother because I seem rather silly in my connecting visual aids with God's hand. But I can't help but think it is God putting those litte bread crumbs in my pathway to let me know I am still on HIS pathway.
I was sitting and listening to Fr. Joseph give the homily and it was touching on exactly what my (God's actually) talk was about. I smiled and asked God to help me tell it according to His will. About 5 minutes later, I was looking down at the leather cover on my Magnificat monthly missle and it is a gold color. The word MAGNIFICAT is imprinted in gold leaf. I then noticed the ribbons that mark the pages were a dark red color and they were the same color as the jacket I had on. It hit me that the color of my jacket and the color of my gold blouse were an identical match to my MAGNIFICAT book. I laughed and took it as 'confirmation' that it was God's story I was going to be sharing. I wasn't going to worry about whether the women coming to the breakfast would get anything from it.........God did the inviting, He had the story, I only had to tell it. NO WORRIES THEN.

After I received Communion, I was thanking God for the enormous amount of love and strength He had showered on our family this past year. As mentioned in the speech, I learned to let God steer the ship. I stepped aside a number of times and let the Holy Spirit be the wind in our sails. As I thought about that, the face of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta came into my mind very clearly. I then prayed that I could learn to be like this beautiful saint. She had said that she didn't want people thinking it was about her at all, that anything that came from her was all about God. People were to listen ONLY TO THE MESSAGE OF GOD. She wanted to remain completely in the background. I prayed that the words spoken that day would be what stood out in everyone's heart. Since these were God's guests, I felt real peace knowing that I didn't have to be in charge of it. Just deliver it and step out of the way.

I didn't trip while I walked to the podium, first bonus.
I made it through with relative ease, second bonus.
I had my family and friends out in front of me, best bonus. It reminded me that God delivered so many people to our doorway this last year to keep our spirits up and focused on His Glory. And I believe the Glory of God was told on Saturday.

It could have been a day where we marked the time with what we had been doing. But God in His love and most abundant kindness filled our day with love and activities. After the morning prayer breakfast, we went home. Then we all went out to lunch and sat on the balcony of a nearby restaurant and enjoyed the blustery day. The laughter was carried away on the wind. Jon and I then went to the monthly 5 mile rosary walk with our friends from church. As we neared Stone Mountain Park, we were driving under a long tree lined street. The wind was blowing and it caused the leaves to fall like a snow storm. It was so awesome and I just kept thanking God over and over for such a beautiful sight! I have never encountered it before.
All that RED AND GOLD falling around us. The colors of my Magnificat Book! FUNNY OLD WORLD ISN'T IT?
Then, during the last hour and a half of the walk, it was pouring rain. We were soaked! But I was so joyous as I was being 'refreshed in the Spirit'.

Jon and I got home, got changed and then headed out to meet Paul, Jerry, Mike and some of our friends for dinner. We got home at 10:00 PM and I got the kind of sleep I had missed most of the previous week.
What could have been a day filled with some painful rememberances, God filled our day with love and signs of LIFE.
Our God is an awesome God.

Hebrews 13:11-12
" At the time, all discipline seems a cause
not for joy but for pain,
yet later it brings the peaceful fruit
of righteousness to those who
are trained by it.

So Strengthen your drooping hands and
your knees. Make straight paths for your feet,
that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed."

He has disciplined us in this last year to help us
conform our lives with His will. I would not trade
it away for anything. What God has in mind for Paul
remains between those two. I will continue to care for Paul
as I would Jesus, my Lord. That is all I am being
asked to do. Just as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta -tend to
everyone in your pathway as you would Christ, for
that is where you will find Him! And that is what is between God
and me.

I remembered the title from a year ago
Yahoo! Week Two! I started that week out with
great hope and was rewarded with Paul waking from
his coma. With even greater hope, faith and love,
we start year two.

"Jesus said to them, "Those who are healthy do not
need a physician, but the sick do."

May His loving hand touch your lives today and help
heal all that troubles your heart.

Love,
Jon and Rebecca