It’s that time of year again. The air is crisp, the leaves are starting to change, and kids are picking out their Halloween costumes. I’m sure this year we will have lots of visitors from the movie Frozen (smile). Unfortunately, it also means that the gory, horror movies will be flooding the television and movie theaters. I’m not a big fan.
Growing up, the elementary school in my neighborhood would turn into a haunted house for Halloween. That…I could handle. For a small fee, you could enter the hallways and prepare to be scared. When I was 15, my friend and I decided to go check it out. The hallways were dark, of course, and decorated as you would imagine. At various points along the way, someone dressed up in a gory costume would jump out and grab us. The ghosts and goblins were teens from the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the guys would take this as an opportunity to grab the girls inappropriately and there was more than one occasion that I had to threaten bodily harm if they didn’t back off. Boys! The funniest thing about this adventure was the reaction of my friend. Oh my goodness! She was freaking out! Picture a 5’8″ girl (my friend) practically jumping into the arms of a 5’0″ girl (me) and that is what it was like. A lot like this…
I loved watching Scooby Doo when I was younger. He and Shaggy were two of the biggest scaredy cats. They were always 
getting themselves into trouble. One of the famous lines in that cartoon was Shaggy asking Scooby, “Will you do it for a Scooby snack?” Just about every time Scooby would give in and do what Shaggy wanted…which was usually doing the scary part of whatever adventure they were on at the time. Well my friend and I eventually made it out of the haunted house…in one piece. And I didn’t have to give her a Scooby snack to make it through (smile). Good thing she didn’t go through it by herself!
Remembering this story from my childhood has gotten me thinking. We all go through some scary times in our lives. Things that get our heart beating so fast we wonder if it’s going to pop right out of our chest. It could be a medical diagnosis, a phone call from a loved one that was in a car accident, a child that is struggling in some way, the death of a loved one…so many things. Even if you feel your life is perfect…you can’t escape the inevitable fact that someone you love at some point will leave this earth. I’m not trying to be morbid…it’s just a fact that we all face trials. One of the things that make what happens in life bearable is that we don’t have to go through them alone. Yes, God is always with us, but He created us to be there for each other. Have you ever had a situation that you just couldn’t pray about any more…you just didn’t have any words left? Did you have people in your life that took on that burden for you? Prayed for you when you didn’t have the strength to do so any more? That is what life is supposed to look like. I have been blessed to have such people in my life. Sadly, there are some who do not.
I feel that there is a miracle that happens when we live out the command that God gave to us…love God and love your neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40). When you love like Jesus, something magical happens. You can build a bond with someone who you barely know when you meet their deepest desire to be loved. I have experienced this first hand. I will let you in on a secret. When you get this…I mean really get this in the deepest part of your soul, you won’t be able to stop. God has given us a capacity to love that is beyond our understanding. I think it’s because we are made in His image…and God IS love. Give it a try. I dare you (smile). I promise you won’t be disappointed. And if it seems like it doesn’t work…then do this…
Increase the dose…because love matters.
proceeded to get more and more angry and then she did something really weird…she opened our mailbox and started to go through our mail! At that point, I was done with this conversation and told her she needed to move along…and leave our mail alone. She started to come up our porch steps and got in my face a bit…which really freaked out my sister. I made sure she stayed behind me and told the girl she needed to leave our property. She gave me a bit of a fit, but finally started to back down. As she reached the final step, she turned around and announced that she was leaving now, but if she heard one “peep” out of us we were going to “get it.”
I was standing on my deck. It was the first cool evening of the season…the first sign that fall was nearing. I was alone with my thoughts…contemplating the prompting I was feeling from God to share my story. A prompting to start a blog. I couldn’t imagine that I was “hearing” Him correctly. I knew absolutely nothing about blogs. I kind of knew what they were, but I had no clue how to start one. I was also questioning Him…once again…if what I was doing was right. Loving my son was so easy. There is nothing he could do that would take that love away. I guess for me loving meant accepting and that is where I was getting tripped up. Like a child on a long trip that asks repeatedly, “Are we there yet?” I kept asking God the same questions.
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
would open the closet and show me that there weren’t any monkeys in there, but it didn’t matter. In my mind, they were going to magically appear just as I fell asleep. What’s a parent to do? You get “monkey spray”…of course. My mom got a can of Lysol and proclaimed that it was monkey spray. All the monkeys hated this spray and it made them go away. And so it began, the nightly ritual of spraying away the monkeys. My mom would open the closet and exclaim, “Get out of here you monkeys!” as she sprayed the can of Lysol. And I bought it…hook, line, and sinker. Genius! And…I had the most germ free closet in America (smile).
I did have faith. I trusted that God would listen to and answer my prayers. But my trust was fading. I truly believed that God could do anything (I still do). I still prayed, but the prayers felt forced. The Bible tells us that when we don’t have the words to pray, the Holy Spirit will pray the words for us. I had run out of words so I knew that the Holy Spirit had taken over. Surely he would know what to pray to make God move in this area. The change never came. So, I had to take a look at that. If this was something that God “hated” so much, why wasn’t He helping my son? My son was willing, asking for help, but nothing changed. Why?
Love Matters 