When we arrived we expected to just drop off the donations and leave.  But, we got swept up in the amazing number of donations and amount of work to be done and ended up staying for a few hours to help sort, box and weigh the donations to prepare them for shipment.  What an honor to be a (teeny tiny) part in helping those devastated by the earthquake in Haiti.

Now we prepare for our next phase of assistance, a project called Buckets of Hope.  Bridget and I prayed that God would help us find a place where we could buy 5 gallon buckets (with lids) without it taking all day.  We had called and stopped at several Wal-Mart’s with no luck.  Then we prayed and stopped at a Lowe’s in the Richmond area.  We walked in and a kind gentleman asked what we were looking for.  When we told him what we needed and why, he helped us gather 50 buckets (from one store- yay!) and even gave us a discount.  Go God!

The following is a beautiful video of Christian recording artists coming together for the Haiti relief effort.  While it has been four weeks since this tragedy occurred it will be years before that country will be able to (even begin) recover.  Let us come together now and not forget that we are called to help our fellow brothers and sisters!

Helping others is a Finer Thing!

Sometimes it feels like I live in a bubble, a very blessed bubble. Wednesday I traveled to NYC to sightsee and be a part of Martha Stewart’s blogging show (and yes I will post on that later).

With all the fun I was having I was out of touch with what was going on in the rest of the world…but when I got home Thursday evening the images of Haiti and the reality of the devastation there brought me to my knees.

I cried for the children, for the mama’s who lost their children and the children who lost their mama’s, for the innocent victims of a natural disaster.  I cried out to God to “fix it”..why do people have to suffer so much?

It is easy to get caught up in the day to day stuff and forget that other people are suffering.  It is a shame that it takes a tragedy of this magnitude to stir me from my self absorbed bubble.

But stirred I am.  I want to DO something for the people of Haiti.  And thanks to the power of social media and the internet the options are endless.  Here are a few of the ways we can help:

You can text “haiti” to 90999 and $10 will be donated to the Red Cross.

You can text ‘disaster” to 90999 and $10 will be donated to Compassion International (a charity I have long supported and believe in)

You may think that $10 isn’t really going to help…but just know that in the last few days over $5 million dollars has been raised by people giving $10.

Be a part of that- the Bible tells us that we are blessed to be a blessing to others.

Let us live that out today and everyday.

People are often taken aback when I say that I am thankful for my illness.  There are many reasons that I feel that my MS diagnosis has been a blessing for me and my family.  I would have probably never slowed down and lived for the moment if not for MS.  I would not have been forced to deal with the deep-seated emotional issues I had spent my whole life holding in.  I would not have learned to let go of the small stuff and be (a tad) less controlling.

In the grand scheme of things our time on this earth is not about us.  It is about how we live our lives for God’s glory.  I spent a week or two really upset last month when I found out I also have systemic lupus. “It’s not fair” and “why me” came out of my mouth and my heart.  I was feeling very sorry for myself And then I remembered:  my trials and issues are really insignificant.  When you are able to step out of your pity party and look at the world around you, it is easy to see that I don’t have it so bad.  I have learned about the plight of chronically ill people in third world countries- hello?  How can I complain when they have no access to healthcare at all?  There are orphans in Eastern Europe that are institutionalized for life (just put in cribs at the age of four) simply because they have Down Syndrome.  Babies that are suffocated at birth because of deformities.

I think of how much this type of atrocity must pain our Lord.  How He must yearn for us to get out of our own little self absorbed box and find ways to help those that are less fortunate and more oppressed than we could ever imagine being.

What would the world be like if we all took an interest in other people’s problems rather than our own?  If we focused on loving everyone we come in contact with instead of trying to leverage situations for our own benefit?

I have been just as guilty as the rest of allowing myself to wallow in my trials.  But, the Lord is speaking to my heart so loudly lately, particularly through a passage in Isaiah 58:6-12

Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break over every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.  Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say:  Here am I.

If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sunscorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Now, I don’t know about you but I am interested in feeling like a well watered garden and am thankful the Lord provides the guidelines for doing so.

And, in the midst of a season of thankfulness I pray that none of us lose sight of the true reason for the season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Some of you may remember that I broke out in (what they thought were) hives about six weeks ago.  After almost a month with no relief, the results of a skin biopsy revealed that the hives were actually lupus.  Further testing revealed that I have systemic lupus (and my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis is still also accurate).

The lupus diagnosis hit me kind of hard.  I am normally a pretty positive, give it to God, don’t worry about what you can’t control kind of gal.

I don’t know if it was because this was so unexpected r maybe because I am just human, but I felt sorry for myself with a capital S for a good week.

Isn’t it somebody else’s turn to have some problems?

Why does so and so go through life with no worries and they aren’t even walking with the Lord?

Haven’t I proven myself faithful to You yet, Lord?

I didn’t want to feel that way and prayed that God would help me crawl out of my funk…and He is never One to let me down when I ask for direction.

Ironically (or not) it was the word’s in the book of Job that turned my attitude around:

What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.  I have no peace, no quietness, I have no rest, but only turmoil. Job 3:25-26

Yup that is exactly where I was- keeping myself up at night with the “what-if’s”, the fear of the unknown, googling all the complications that can come from having two complicated autoimmune disorders…

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?…have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place?…Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind? (from the book of Job)

Ouch! God reminded me through those verses and snippets of life experiences He has already brought me through, that I am gfocusing on the wrong thing.  I should not be focusing on the trial but the comforting promise that God already has it handled. This is no surprise to Him.

So, my answer to being thankful and having peace through difficult circumstances also comes from the book of Job (Job’s answer to God and mine too)

I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. Job 42:2-3

I’m not worried.  I’m not mad.  I am thankful that I have a God carrying these burdens for me.  I just have to remember to give Him my burdens each time they rear their ugly heads.