Tuesday, March 6, 2018

We Are The Storm

To use an old quote........March is coming in like a lion this year....I hope that means it will leave like a lamb!  We started yesterday with rain, then sleet, corn snow, and then snow with high winds adding to the mix.  All the snow that left with our 50 degree weekend weather, has been replaced by a few inches of the white stuff today. Ugh!  It is really pretty to look at the trees and bushes dressed in winter white, but still.....ugh!  Let winter be gone..........come Spring, come!

We also have birthdays that come in March.  Our daughter, our daughter-in-law,  and myself.  My birthday will be coming in like a lion for me ~~ 70.  Seriously.  When did I get that old?  And how?  Only by the grace of God.  To have a child close to 50 and finding myself facing my seventh decade is a bit sobering.

Recently we heard a story about a man who came to visit a place he used to work.  He drove up and got out of his car, a little unsteady on his feet.  He walked around inside the place he had worked in the 50's and reminisced about his life then.  People gathered to hear his story.  Someone offered to walk him back to his car, thinking this 80 plus year old guy may like having someone to lean on.  He said he would like the company and then shared how old he was.  He was 102 years old!  Still on the move! (And still driving?)

When I turned 60 it was a big deal for us.  Truth be told, not many people believed I would live to be 60.  Lyme was sucking the life right out of me.  And then healing came.  Joel keeps telling me we are going to live another 30 years.  I am not so sure I want to, but don't tell him that!  He has great plans for a long life, and we should have plans and dreams.  That is what keeps us going.  How old was Moses when he did his best work for God?  Over 80 I believe.  Yeah.......

I remember when I lost a college friend.  I had roomed with her our first year, and lived with her a couple weeks while working in Minneapolis.  Shortly after that she was killed in a car accident.  The same thing happened with another woman we knew from Bible college.  And another friend died in her early 30's from severe diabetes.  Cancer claimed a few others over the years.  So, I guess what I am saying is how blessed I am to celebrate 70.  Nearly 3 decades of Lyme, and three different kinds of cancer have not ended my life.  I. am. still. here.  So are you!  Life is worth celebrating!  Every minute of it.  So on the first day of Spring I will be dancing a happy dance and rejoicing at 70!

Sometimes it is hard to hang on to that when storms come into our lives.  Just like the snow storm we had yesterday, the winds blow, visibility is low, and there is nothing we can do but stay safe in our homes.  A storm of sickness, disease, or tragedy can do the same.......and we find there is nothing we can do but stay safe and secure in our Father's arms.   I found a wonderful image yesterday that gave me pause and helped remind me that when the enemy comes against us, and he will.......we need to remind him that we not only can stand strong in the storm with Jesus but that we ARE the storm!



Seventy is going to be an awesome year!  I'm so grateful to be here to celebrate and live it.  And if Satan whispers lies to me,  I will remind him that this soon-to-be-70 year old woman is the storm. Celebrate your life today.  You may be walking in divine health, you may be battling disease, or like so many laid up with a nasty winter virus that won't let go.  Wherever you find yourself, celebrate!  Sometimes life comes like this March ~ as a storm....but then the Lamb comes and we remember with Jesus we are the storm!  So grateful. 



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