A marathon is an endurance contest... and someone will win the prize. Check out these reflections from a twenty-six-year marathon that ends in recovery of self-esteem and serenity. The author desires to share with others who need to know emotional healing is possible and that it often comes through reflection of one’s past. A farm becomes her Holy Place and she hopes that you too, can find the prize of peace in your own continuing marathon of life’s often surprising, unwelcome events.

SATELLITE REFLECTIONS

Are you tuned in? Are your receptors turned on?  My eyes and ears are miniature satellites absorbing signals from the heavens.  God may be sending me a message in a sunset or in a movie on TV. It might come through a friend’s voice or the sound of a soft rain.  My ‘dish’ catches an abundance of God’s grace when I concentrate on Him, especially with Christian broadcasts.

Like the robin perched amidst a flock of ordinary blackbirds on the light wires, my life can sing a song of praise. “Do not model yourselves on the behavior of the world, but let your behavior change, modeled by your new mind.” (Rom. 12:2)

I must get rid of the ground clutter in order to zero in on God’s signal meant for me.  Distractions, like the wrong kinds of TV programs or acquaintances, often keep me from receiving a clear signal. “Do you not yet understand?  Have you no perception? Are your minds closed?”  (Mark 7:18, 19)  When I focus on Jesus, he helps me tune out other distractions.  He becomes my spiritual hearing aid to distinguish his Word in the gospel.

Sometimes I pay for the type of programming I select.  In choosing a bad relationship, the price is lived out in emotional pain and crippled spirituality.  I have been guilty of putting someone else before God.

When moving away from family and friends, loneliness encouraged me to pray for a Spiritual friend who would be on my wave-length.  I met a lady, who had also been praying for a new friend after the death of her husband.  The similarities in our lives were astonishing:  same birth month; same hobbies and interests, even both of us had scarlet fever as children

Although we had different church backgrounds and two generations of age between us, we shared a common love of Jesus.  At times we called each other, not knowing that the other needed a listening ear, but the Master Program Director knew!

Reading the Bible every day is what we call fine-tuning our wave-length. The Universe is crowded with radio signals.  What type of recurring feed are we allowing to enter our satellite system? We must hear the Word of God and live accordingly.  “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”  (Luke 11:27)

There are no installation charges when we choose to get on God’s satellite.  We already possess the equipment to tune into the Master’s channel.  Do we appreciate God’s timing in our area of need? Yes, He knows the needs of his children.  My new friend and I believe that He answered our simultaneous prayer--..because we were listening.

EMPTY POCKETS

“What’s in your pocket?”  “I have a pocketful of change.”  “Did you empty your pockets?”  You never know what will surface in the laundry tub from a corner of someone’s pocket.  “Look, there’s a dollar bill!  “What’s that log, bouncing around the whirlpool?”

Pockets are an everyday subject of conversation. There are the pockets of Pelicans, who use their bills to carry fish back to their young and squirrels who carry nuts in their cheeks to a safe storage place. How about the built-in nursery in a kangaroo pouch or the valuable resource discovered in a pocket of natural gas or oil?  Those pockets have a practical purpose, but pockets on clothes fashions can be either serviceable or just plain decorative.

I can’t turn my pockets inside out to empty them and they surely aren’t a decoration because they are hidden, high and low, inside the garment of my skin.