Thinking past, present, and future

So, I'm thinking again. Dangerous, I know. With Dan now #2 on the hospital transplant list and the holidays upon us, my brain is going non-stop. My emotions range from rejoicing to fear to uncertainty to laughing (and to cheering for the UH Warriors football team). And many memories have surfaced from the past 29 years of marriage and 22 years of serving in Hawaii.

The past
My good friend Matt stopped by my office today and we did quite a bit of reminiscing from youth choir days (1986-91). We performed 6 musicals: What Really Happened to Joseph, Friends, Surrender, And It Came To Pass, The Pledge, and Revival in the Land (that may not be the exact order). We took the Joseph musical to the Big Island and performed in 3 locations, along with mission activities at 2 churches. Talk about an act of faith, and God poured out His blessings. We also performed Friends in several churches on Oahu. Each musical had a unique message that touched our hearts. Each year we met new youth and said aloha to the seniors, always a sad event. I think Dan would agree that we have been so blessed to know each and every youth and to know many of them are still serving the Lord in many ways and in many places. We weren't perfect, just at the right place at the right time with eagerness to serve God and love people. God also gave us great families with great kids.

The present
Right now, I'm listening to the radio while I type and one of my favorite Christmas songs is on..."You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch". I love it! Christmas isn't Christmas until I hear some favorite songs like this, watch The Charlie Brown Christmas and Christmas at Rockefeller Center on TV, make and eat some Chex Mix, and sing in the church Christmas cantata. The cantata is this weekend and I'm really looking forward to this one, it is like the youth choir musicals, with a drama going on and choir songs in between scenes. This Saturday I also have Christmas JoyBreak, an annual event sponsored by the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention. I'll be busy working, and also enjoying the fellowship of 130+ guests and the wonderful music to be provided by the Hongos and Master's Touch Hula.

The future
"Future" sounds so ominous, I picture the ghost of Christmas future from the Dickens story, his face shielded by his dark hooded robe, pointing that bony finger for Scrooge to follow. With Dan close to getting his liver transplant, the future is a little ominous. Of course, I remain hopeful that all will go well through the surgery and recovery, but there are so many variables. And thanks to the previews on TV for that new movie "Awake", I have more to worry about. Part of me wishes God would send me a letter detailing out the future...and part of me is glad not to know. I don't think either of us would have wanted to know in 2006 what 2007 held for us. I hold fast to the many many ways God sustained me/us through difficult, often painful times in the past, knowing the God of my past will be the God of my present and future.

Hope
You know, God has sent us a "letter"...His Word. It's a love letter with which He romances me with true stories of heroes and heroines, songs and poetry, creation and beauty, war and peace, to the ultimate redemption of my soul. God provided so many ways to show me He loves me, and when I just didn't get it, He knew He had to become like me, to tell me in human flesh how much God loves me. And being a just God, but also a loving God, He took my punishment for not choosing Him first, for my sin, He took the punishment by sacrificing not me who deserved punishment, but His only Son. For me. For everyone. What a romance, He pursued me to the point of death, to give me what I never knew I always wanted...Himself.

"His promises are 'yes' in Jesus. (2 Corinthians 1:20)
Sometimes that's all I have to lean on.
I don't understand His plan, but I surrender.
I'll walk the path if You're with me,
Standing on His promises for me."

Debbie