"THANK you Jesus"
"Thank you JESUS, Thank you Jesus, THANK you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus....
I was awestruck. The shabby room slowly quieted down as the large black woman stood, persperation running down her body in the hot un-airconditioned room, saying over and over Thank you Jesus. As she said it she looked around the room, finding eye contact with someone each time she spoke. It was a profoundly powerful moment.
As the room settled, she continued to say it until others took up the chant and soon this room full of well below poverty people joined her in Thanking Jesus.
None of these people have cars, none of these people have air conditioning in their homes, most of these people have no jobs, none of these people have iphones, or even cell phones, none of these people get their nails done or go to the beauty shop to have their hair done. They don't take their children out for ice cream cones or go to the movies. Their kids don't have bikes. They don't go to the beach on vacation. They are poor. Really poor.
Many of them are older women caring for one or more grandchildren because their own children are either drug addicted or incarcerated.
Many of them are teenage mothers, babies with babies.
Most of them have incomes below $1000 a month.
Still, with fervor and feeling, their prayer that rainy, hot, muggy morning was Thank you Jesus.
I was humbled. I was chastened, I was grateful to be there. Tears stood in my eyes.
God is honoring me with the opportunity to serve these people, they think I am helping them. Not true, they are helping me. Helping me to learn how to have gratitude no matter what the circumstances of my life are on any given day. That my gratitude to Jesus is not dependent on my circumstances, my gratitude to Jesus is for what HE did, for me.
It would appear that they have every right to complain and bemoan their situations. They live in abject poverty, in the middle of a rich city, state, country. They have so little , and yet, when they say, with so much depth and feeling, "Thank you Jesus", they know that they have so much. They have all any of us need. They have Jesus.
"Thank you Jesus"
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
It's Gonna Be Sunny in Tybee, A Story of Faith
For several years when my daughter was young, between the ages of 6 and 10, she and I took an annual trip to Tybee Island, Georgia for a vacation before school started. She went to private school, so she didn't start school in the middle of August, as all public schools in the south do, she started when you should start, the week after Labor Day. So we would head down there after public school opened and have the beach to ourselves. The tradition started after we saw Parent Trap, that cute remake with the then cute Lindsay Lohan. The twin who lived with her father took a trip with him right before school started every year, so we started to do it too.
One year, she was seven I believe, we headed out down I 75 South, Tybee bound. We both had on our floppy sunhats, and were so happy to be on the road. We stopped in Forsyth for our McDonalds, which was our traditional road food, and got back on the road as fast as we could. One of the many things that is great about Tybee is that you can leave the ATL at 8 am and have your toes in the sand by noon. We were staying on schedule.
This particular day though, after we left McDonalds, it started to rain. I thought Uh oh, I hope it doesn't rain all week, there is not much to do with a seven year old at Tybee if we can't go to the beach. Pretty soon, it was pouring rain, and I'm thinking, we better go back home!
I glance over at TJ, and she is just grinning, and looking so happy. She had taken off her sunhat though. She saw the look on my face, grabbed her sunhat, jammed it onto her head and declared, "it's gonna be sunny in Tybee!" I wanly smiled back and thought, what a hopeless optimist my daughter is!
As we drove down I 16, rain coursing the windsheild, I was all gloom and doom in my head, but everytime I even glanced over at her, she smiled at me and said, "it's gonna be sunny in Tybee!"
As we drove through Savannah, I was actually frightened. It was raining so hard that there were minor floods running down the gutters of the streets. It was so dark out I thought I would never again see the sun, and the lightning strikes were immense. I considered stopping and getting a room in Savannah, instead of making the trip out to Tybee. Tybee Island is the last of a string of Islands off the coast of Georgia, near Savannah. From the first island to Tybee is eighteen miles. I was truly afraid, as hard as it had been raining, that some of the bridges may be washed out.
There was Taylor Jane, beaming, hearing nothing of stopping in Savannah, it was gonna be sunny in Tybee! It is such a lonely feeling, far from home, alone with your seven year old daughter and fightened of something. You feel such enormous pressure, the situation as well as not letting your daughter know that you are scared to death!!
I kept driving, fearing that I was going to drive into a flood so deep we would be stranded. That's how hard it was raining. Not once did Taylor Jane express any fear or doubt. She was so sure it was going to be sunny in Tybee it made me continue on, as frightened as I was.
We drove across the first island in the rain, as we passed over the second or third island I began to see off in the distance in front of us the sky clearing a bit. You could see the end of the storm, even though we were still in it. With ten more miles to go, we were still in rain, but we could see blue sky out in the distance.
I'll never forget the feeling I had coming over a rise just before reaching Tybee and seeing clear, blue sky ahead. I almost cried.
Triumphantly, she screamed, " it's sunny in Tybee"! As we got closer and closer it began to clear, by the time we drove onto Tybee, we were in sun. It was indeed, sunny in Tybee.
I was flabbergasted as our toes hit the sand, albeit a little later than expected, the rain had slowed us down, but we had come through the storm and here we were, on the beach at Tybee on a gorgeous sunny day. I was convinced her belief alone had made it happen.
That story has become a metaphor for our lives, whenever a situation seems bleak or dark, we always say "it's gonna be sunny in Tybee!"
Thinking positive always makes every situation better. Belief alone can change any situation. We just have to have the faith of a seven year old who knows her week at the beach was going to be sunny!
For several years when my daughter was young, between the ages of 6 and 10, she and I took an annual trip to Tybee Island, Georgia for a vacation before school started. She went to private school, so she didn't start school in the middle of August, as all public schools in the south do, she started when you should start, the week after Labor Day. So we would head down there after public school opened and have the beach to ourselves. The tradition started after we saw Parent Trap, that cute remake with the then cute Lindsay Lohan. The twin who lived with her father took a trip with him right before school started every year, so we started to do it too.
One year, she was seven I believe, we headed out down I 75 South, Tybee bound. We both had on our floppy sunhats, and were so happy to be on the road. We stopped in Forsyth for our McDonalds, which was our traditional road food, and got back on the road as fast as we could. One of the many things that is great about Tybee is that you can leave the ATL at 8 am and have your toes in the sand by noon. We were staying on schedule.
This particular day though, after we left McDonalds, it started to rain. I thought Uh oh, I hope it doesn't rain all week, there is not much to do with a seven year old at Tybee if we can't go to the beach. Pretty soon, it was pouring rain, and I'm thinking, we better go back home!
I glance over at TJ, and she is just grinning, and looking so happy. She had taken off her sunhat though. She saw the look on my face, grabbed her sunhat, jammed it onto her head and declared, "it's gonna be sunny in Tybee!" I wanly smiled back and thought, what a hopeless optimist my daughter is!
As we drove down I 16, rain coursing the windsheild, I was all gloom and doom in my head, but everytime I even glanced over at her, she smiled at me and said, "it's gonna be sunny in Tybee!"
As we drove through Savannah, I was actually frightened. It was raining so hard that there were minor floods running down the gutters of the streets. It was so dark out I thought I would never again see the sun, and the lightning strikes were immense. I considered stopping and getting a room in Savannah, instead of making the trip out to Tybee. Tybee Island is the last of a string of Islands off the coast of Georgia, near Savannah. From the first island to Tybee is eighteen miles. I was truly afraid, as hard as it had been raining, that some of the bridges may be washed out.
There was Taylor Jane, beaming, hearing nothing of stopping in Savannah, it was gonna be sunny in Tybee! It is such a lonely feeling, far from home, alone with your seven year old daughter and fightened of something. You feel such enormous pressure, the situation as well as not letting your daughter know that you are scared to death!!
I kept driving, fearing that I was going to drive into a flood so deep we would be stranded. That's how hard it was raining. Not once did Taylor Jane express any fear or doubt. She was so sure it was going to be sunny in Tybee it made me continue on, as frightened as I was.
We drove across the first island in the rain, as we passed over the second or third island I began to see off in the distance in front of us the sky clearing a bit. You could see the end of the storm, even though we were still in it. With ten more miles to go, we were still in rain, but we could see blue sky out in the distance.
I'll never forget the feeling I had coming over a rise just before reaching Tybee and seeing clear, blue sky ahead. I almost cried.
Triumphantly, she screamed, " it's sunny in Tybee"! As we got closer and closer it began to clear, by the time we drove onto Tybee, we were in sun. It was indeed, sunny in Tybee.
I was flabbergasted as our toes hit the sand, albeit a little later than expected, the rain had slowed us down, but we had come through the storm and here we were, on the beach at Tybee on a gorgeous sunny day. I was convinced her belief alone had made it happen.
That story has become a metaphor for our lives, whenever a situation seems bleak or dark, we always say "it's gonna be sunny in Tybee!"
Thinking positive always makes every situation better. Belief alone can change any situation. We just have to have the faith of a seven year old who knows her week at the beach was going to be sunny!
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