Adam came home Friday. Just for the weekend. He’s staying at Chapel Hill again this summer. But, it was good to see him for at least a few days!
Meagan went to the prom Saturday night. Yes, Meagan has graduated but she went with Oscar Trejo, a senior our youth group (Focus). She borrowed a dress, and Holly and Megan did her hair makeup. Thank you ladies. Meagan is so funny. When she stresses, there is really no comforting her. Then when it’s all over, she’s as cool as a cucumber. She reminds me of someone else I know. (me) Chloe spent Saturday hanging out with Nanny. I didn’t do anything constructive on Saturday, ‘cause I was sort of running around, but after everyone left Mark suggested we eat. The only problem was I was very uncomfortable. I wanted to dress to match Oscar and Meagan’s color scheme for pictures. See my pants were too little, they had shrunk obviously!! And I had on lil’ heels, which I NEVER wear. My back was acting up, which horrified me when I realized that I might fall. So, initially the thoughts of going in somewhere to eat sounded less than desirable, but I quickly got over it and we went to a fish camp. For those of you who don’t live in NC, fish camps are very popular here. Mark and I had a nice dinner. I was able to talk to a lady who works there. Come to think of it, two ladies who work there. One lady’s daughter is in my class at church, but the mother doesn’t come anymore. Another lady’s autistic son used to be in the youth group, and she never came, only sent him. She told me that he’s having some health problems, and we talked about church and I told her I’d pray. The other lady-I bragged on her how awesome I think her daughter is. So, in the end, it most definitely a good thing that we went.

Sunday at church, Roger continued preaching on Daniel. The sermon title was “Can One Person Make a Difference?” http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=daniel
Daniel agreed to some of the things that the king had ordered, but when he was instructed to eat the food he refused. I think it’s so significant that when it was something that was going to literally enter him he said “No.” As Christians we are misled into thinking that going with the flow makes us somehow makes us more desirable. If you’ve known me for very long, you know that I really have problems with legalistic thinking, so please know I’m not talking about spiritual arrogance. I DETEST that. Think about the way Daniel handled it, he begged that he would be allowed to do what God wanted and felt confident that righteousness would be shown. He didn’t say “sinners, going to Hell, I WILL NOT eat this, and you better not either!” It’s hard, very hard, but I believe that when we do what we are supposed to do and live it in front of people, sometimes that speaks and does more in a person’s live that our words. There are certain people within the body of Christ, such as pastors who do give guidance and instruction, he’s supposed to. But not every person is called to do that, and I firmly believe that there are far more people who aren’t called to judge than are doing it. I know I reference it often but James 3:1Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. Sorry, that was sort of a soap box moment. Anyway, Daniel did make a difference, and you and I can too.

I am experiencing this in my own life. I say experiencing because I’m still learning. Sometimes I fail, but I try to start over. See the ways that God has chosen for me to impact peoples lives, wasn’t part of my plan or what I wanted. But, as I let go of my grip I can see that as I soften myself to say “whatever You want” and actually mean it, things happen. For example, I’ve really wanted to become friends with lots of people at work, and at church and we are and have been, but I mean closer. I wanted them to consider me a blessing in their lives. But I just wanted them to feel that way. I didn’t want to do anything to inconvenience me. But as I truly allowed God to instruct me, and the few times I’ve actually followed I’ve seen Him do something. Not me, Him. So as that spills over into lives and then keeps on producing fruit, something that’s as good as dead, suddenly blooms with new life and new hope.

I really didn’t want to go to that fish camp Saturday. I wanted to get something to go, and then go home and put on sweat pants so that I could both breathe and eat. But, it just may be that one or both of those ladies may at some point in their lives think about something we discussed.

Today you may feel like there’s no point in doing anything, or maybe in doing anything else. But somehow God has His perfect way of supernaturally doing anything that He wants to happen. Please don’t give up. You may make that difference today. How many what ifs do you think people play over in their minds as they have to face the fact that they could have made a difference? That doesn’t have to happen today. Not this time.