1.1.25 Just a little bit of time until the first few seconds of 2025.

 1.1.25

Just a little bit of time until the first few seconds of 2025.

I would like to end 2024 with some thoughts about the problems with "What if...."

This year I have tried to tell some personal stories of my history and my family's way of learning together. Late this year I came across some great teaching from Katherine Wolfe who was living a "normal" life and then had a massive stroke at at 23 from a birth defect. Her husband was just finishing law school and after 4.8.08 she would be mostly in a bed or wheel chair.  She has gone on to develop a work of helping others who go through had life changes through strokes and other hard life changes. 

Their organization called Hope Heals holds summer camps for people with disabilities and she and her husand and two sons work together to help others.

She was speaking about the problem becomes a person going through a hard time can ask God, "What if...."  She said what If I gotten and early diagnosis.  How did the medical people who took many pictures inside my head prior to this date miss this massive bundle of nerves (AVM)?  What if they had found it?

What if.

She says that the blessing in life comes from being "poor in Spirit".  Being humble.  We true with who you are and who God is. That is true humility.  What if I use my situation to see my blessings and opportunities  What if I focus on the unseen, spiritual things instead of the seen things that are passing.

What if I focus on my love from and for my family instead of health and wealth goodies.

When everything is stripped away what do I have that cannot be taken from me. It is my attitude and my trust in God to get me through whatever He as brought be to.

What if this is it?  The life I was meant to live. I will find joy in it.

Today I made my weekly trek to Walmart.  As I pulled up my friend David was sitting in his car having lunch.  I asked him how it was going and he said he was good.  Later as I was about to finish he usually walks me toward the checker and loads an extra cart and walks me to my car. 

Today was different. He stopped to talk when I said, "David, how was your Christmas?."  

"It was good. I have this job. (He keeps floors clean and shiny and helps customers in need.) I had a stroke you know and my life was never the same.  I was a heating and cooling mechanic.  I almost died. It took months for me to recover. I make $12/hour less here.  I lost my home. But I have a great life.  I was accepted in the home of my son and his wife and I get to live with my grandson and that has worked out great. I had a great Christmas."

David walked with me to the front and I was checking out he was explaining to Ken and fairly new employee who has special needs to know exactly how he wanted an extra cart for me on my way to my car. 

When we get out of the bubble wrap of affluence we learn that everyone has a story.  God has spared us from the perfect life to give us a great life of being connected God and others for our daily joy in life.  Maybe God let's our life be hard so that it can be good.  We move from 

What if

To seeing our own abundance and then we start to realize that love is not in limited supply. 

Matthew 5

5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the [a]mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 2 And He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,

3 “[b]Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the [c]gentle, for they will inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.