I've fallen...but I CAN get up!

I was packing yesterday and came across a memory. This is one of the things about the moving process––actually, it's about the ONLY thing about the moving process––that I enjoy... Coming across items or mementoes I've forgotten. That happened to me last night.

Take a look at the golf score card below. Notice the "9" on the sixth hole by Mark's name...

 

I ran across this last night and was taken back to an afternoon in Loveland, Colorado, probably seventeen years ago now, when Joe and I played golf with Mark and Michelle Young, some friends of ours from where we used to live out there. Well, Mark's a great golfer but was obviously having an off day. Especially on that sixth hole. I can still see it so well. He kept hitting the ball and it kept plinking into the water. The thing was...Michelle and I got so tickled. We tried not to laugh at first, but you know how that goes. The more frustrated Mark became, the funnier it got. 

I read that card last night, saw the "9", and just giggled. Memories are so precious. So are the friends who help make them.

Then as I cleaned out another drawer, I came across this picture...

It's Mark and Michelle, and me and Joe at Winter Park, Colorado (1990) on our (Joe's and my) first time skiing. Joe and I didn't have any ski paraphernalia, so Mark and Michelle loaned us stuff and off we went! Michelle let me borrow her pink jump suit. Lovely, isn't it? Not to worry, you saw me comin' for miles! 

After a few runs on the bunny slope, Joe and I graduated to greens and we rode the ski lift with Mark and Michelle up to green run called Allan Phipps. My world has never been the same. 

Joe took to skiing pretty naturally. Me? Not so much. Michelle and Joe took on off, blazing a trail. And Mark, patient man that he is (except for golf, apparently), stayed behind with me, giving me pointers, as I inched down Allan Phipps. I don't exactly remember the progression of Mark's words of wisdom and encouragement, but I do remember what they finally boiled down to. "Tammy, keep your butt down!" How eloquent. I remember looking down the mountain, ski tips pointed inward, trying not to break my neck, and being so scared of the slippery slopes and bumps in the trail.

It's funny now, looking back, but it wasn't that day, especially when blind skiers (and I'm not kidding) started lapping me. Truly. I was halfway down the mountain on the Allan Phipps run when a blind skier who had passed me once, led by their guide, passed me again, going down for a second time. There's a spiritual lesson in there, for sure, which I won't delve into now, but the laughs Mark, Michelle, and Joe and I shared once I finally made it down...oh, those are still precious. To this day, Mark says he still can't see pink without shuddering.

In Ecclesiastes 4:10, it's written:

If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

I'm so thankful for friends in my life who have been, and who are, here to help me up when I fall. Or when I'm going through a "down" time in life. Friends make all the difference.

I pray you have friends like that in your life, and that you are a friend like that to others.

Winners of Fellowship CD

The winners of the drawing for a copy of Fellowship Songs, a CD of worship music are:

LISA

and

LYS

Ladies, please send me your snail mail info through my contact page on my website and I'll send you your CD.

Just hit SEND

I just hit SEND, and Within My Heart––all but the epilogue, which I'm writing––is winging its electronic way to my editor's inbox. Gracious, this book has been a struggle. I started it at the end of 2008, got a few chapters written and then Mom was diagnosed with cancer last February. And then my world kind of tilted.

I'm not sure whether God has brought the stories I've written in order to help me with the struggles I'm going through at the time, or if the struggles I'm going through at the time just happen to find their way into my stories. Feels like a Forrest Gump question, huh? But whichever way it works––and I think maybe it's both, as Forrest would say––I'm grateful for the journeys God has led me on with these particular characters. But I must say...

I'm SO GLAD this first draft is done. Whew! My editors have been beyond patient and I'm grateful. I'm also grateful to you, Deb, for reading and helping me to maintain perspective. Writers often get so close to the story, we can't see what's right in front us. So thank you, friend.

And now...I'm getting out of this house for a little while, and am going to go grab a Venti Iced White Chocolate Mocha Skinny with Whipped latte (as if anything with whipped cream could be "skinny"), or something else equally decadent that I absolutely should not have. Then I'm coming back to start packing this house. I welcome shorter term goal-oriented tasks. Especially after the last fourteen months.

Blessings on your week!

P.S. I often listen to the Forrest Gump Suite as I write. It's playing on my laptop now, in fact, as I'm typing this and a light snow is falling outside. Beautiful. Okay, where's my latte...

The forbidden fruit

It’s another snowy day here in Nashville (at least while I’m posting this), and I’m tucked inside, writing, still pushing toward home on this book. But I wanted to share a bit of an epiphany moment for me that happened this past Sunday.

I’m being so blessed by the teaching at the church we attend, and this past Sunday’s lesson was no exception. We’re studying Genesis and we’re currently in the third chapter. The pastor, Lloyd, asked the question this week, “When did Eve sin?”

When did Eve sin? When was the moment of rebellion for her? Was it when she reached for the fruit? When she pulled the fruit off the tree? When she took a bite? When was the point of sin? He suggested that the pulling of the fruit off the tree and eating it was an outward expression of what had already happened in Eve’s heart. And I agree, because I see me in her.

Something happened at a point in time when Eve decided that God was not good. Somewhere in her heart, she decided God was not trustworthy, because she decided that his prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was actually depriving her of something she needed. Her actions say that she decided that God’s limits were, in fact, God saying “I have something really good...but I’m not gonna give it to you.” 

So, she decided to get it herself. 

Sound at all familiar? Ever want anything so badly you just decided to go for it, even knowing it wasn’t part of God’s will for your life? In summary, Lloyd suggested that the root of all of our sin is unbelief. The lack of believing in God. But even more specifically, the lack of believing that God is good. That everything He does is for our good. Period. He’s perfect love and everything He does stems from that love, including what that love "prohibits." The serpent came at Eve and somewhere in there, in the midst of conversation in the garden, in the day-to-day, the serpent managed to convince her that God was not good. 

Likewise, the enemy is constantly looking for ways to convince you and me that God is not good. But you know what? You can’t determine God’s goodness by your circumstances, by how your life is going. You can only determine God’s goodness on the basis of the cross (Igbok--God’s promise that “It’s Gonna Be OK”). The cross inexplicably says, “God is good. All the time. Forever. In every way. Period.”

Our faith is grounded upon our confidence in God’s goodness. To say it another way, as Lloyd did, the foundation of our faith is our trust in God’s goodness. And yet another way to say it, our faith is only as strong as our conviction that God is good. I love it when God takes something I “know” and yet turns it (and me) inside out and shows me another depth to him. And to his perfect love.

The worship leaders at Fellowship recently released a CD containing worship songs they’d written. We’ve been singing them as a congregation and I’ve been incredibly blessed by the music and lyrics, so I picked up a couple of extra CDs with the purpose of sharing them here. If you’re interested, leave a quick comment indicating you are and I’ll “draw” two names and post the winners next Tuesday. 

Now, back to Timber Ridge, and Rand and Rachel. And...it’s already stopped snowing here in Nashville. But not back in Colorado 1877... 

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Clash Entertainment, Inc. is dedicated to bringing excellent, enlightening, even edifying entertainment to Christian teens and tweens. We have a passion to see that Christian teens have available to them entertaining media that doesn’t undermine their faith. The Christian teen/tween is the most underserved demographic in media – we believe the Lord has led us to begin to fill that gap.

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Be sure and click the link on their homepage to learn about winning an iPod Touch!

I'm guest blogging over at Bustles and Spurs today. Drop by if you have a minute. We're giving away a copy of Beyond This Moment and a DVD of one of my favorite movies.