Where’d It Go? 11/18/18

South Cove County Park, Seneca, South Carolina

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ~ I Thessalonians 5:16-18

My get up and go has got up and went . . .

I guess we partied too hardy yesterday. But with no alcohol involved, the only explanation would be the fresh air, water and laughter. Actually, I think it was just an accumulation of the past few weeks. As much as I wanted to worship this morning, I had absolutely no gumption to get ready.

Oh what a beautiful morning!

And I didn’t even do much all day, except take a walk around the campground with Blaine. And we listened to another installment of Pastor Mike’s Revelation series.

For today, you get another section from my ‘God Moments’ journal, and a few pictures.

Near the end of our senior year, I broke up with Blaine. Shortly after which, I decided that I had more in common with a boy in my school choir. (by the way, that boy became a pastor. I would’ve been a horrible pastor’s wife! Way too selfish!) But God’s will soon won out. This time, He used my mother to bring us back together. After our High School graduation (June, 1977), one Sunday after church, she asked me if I wanted to go to McDonald’s with her for lunch. Now, understand that as a “have not”, we rarely went anywhere else for food except church and grandma’s! This was to be a real treat – not to mention it was just the two of us! No brothers!! I was so excited! Then we drove the wrong way and she said she just had to drop off a gift for Blaine for his graduation. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to wait in the car. I had to go in too. And guess what? It was his graduation party! It must have been cool outside that day, because I remember that I had a coat, which Blaine took back to the bedroom. I was so angry with my mom for dragging me there, not to mention – no McDonald’s!! (Talk about manipulation!) But then, it was time to go and I went with Blaine to get our coats. He kissed me good-bye and that was that! We were back together – forever! God’s plan. Not mine. God’s timing. Not mine. And I thank God for Blaine every day.

After we were married, we moved to Akron to live in a house owned by Ron & Joan (Blaine’s parents). It was over near St. Thomas Hospital. We started attending a church called Emmanuel United Church of Christ. We chose it because we attended some church organizational meeting where there were lots of pastors from the UCC (United Church of Christ). We chose based solely on the age of the pastor – he was the youngest one there. Rev. Richard Carse. Talk about being led by the Spirit, huh? (that’s sarcasm in case you didn’t recognize it) But God can even use our own efforts to further His plan.

After a bit, we bought a house in Lakemore, fixed it up, lived there a few years and had Chris. About a year after he was born, Blaine found another house in Greensburg to fix up and we moved there. We had to rent Lakemore for a while before selling it to the people who were renting from us. The house in Greensburg was quite old, but big and roomy. We worked on it some and then Kyle was born. So now you know where we were living. It’s important, trust me. I’ll get back to the spiritual growth part now.

We made friends at Emmanuel UCC and were actively involved, but once again, the people at this UCC didn’t use Bibles either. However, at that time, we didn’t really know any better. And there were no Bible studies to attend. (Although now that I’m thinking about it, I do remember an older girl at Grace UCC, Kim Birk, saying one time how she LOVED reading the Bible and all the stories in it. I remember thinking that was kind of odd – but not in a bad way, more like curious. She grew up into a wonderful woman and ended up decorating the interior of the Hartville Market Place) Anyway, back to my original line of thought. There were sermons – I kid you not – on things like “Green Eggs and Ham”, Madonna’s song, “Like a Prayer”, Michael Jackson’s song, “Man in the Mirror”, “Star Wars – May the Force Be With You”, etc. They actually did one rooted in scripture once. It was on the miracle of the fish and loaves, but instead of teaching the miracle, they tried to prove how it happened logically. They passed around the offering plate and asked people to put in gum. In the end, they had many more pieces of gum than people. Miracle proved, right? (more sarcasm)

So by now you should be wondering how I ever grew spiritually. I hope and pray that you are because it surely isn’t very evident, is it? But God was using every circumstance to grow me. Every one.

These are pictures from our short walk: