Today is Wednesday. For the past fifteen months our Wednesday Boomer Babe has been Connie Pombo. Alas, we’ve bid our dear Connie adieu as she embarks on a new journey. Connie made the decision to pare back a great many things in order to spend more time with her loved ones during this season of life. Although we will greatly miss her weekly voice,
I know I speak for our entire Boomer Babe Blog Team when I say we wish her God speed and safe travel. We love you, Connie!
As Connie moves on to another life chapter, I am keenly aware of the new life chapters all around me. Virtually everyone I know has had a major life change in the past year. Sure, life is all about change. Change happens all the time. Without change we would perish. However, the magnitude of changes our fellow Boomer Babes are experiencing have helped me to more clearly see how vital it is that we keep our faith first. That we keep our relationship with Jesus Christ the most important relationship in our life.
Because it is only through faith that we can gain the balance we so desperately need to navigate the life changes that come our way. A simple truth that so often gets lost in the melee.
Eva Marie’s post yesterday caused me to think about the places where we gain balance—the places where we feel safe. The places where we feel the most close to God. The sanctuaries of life. While I loved the vision of peaceful sanctuary Eva shared, I couldn’t help but think about my son. Many of you know my only son was in jail in Minnesota, awaiting sentencing. We were hoping and praying the judge would sentence him to a long-term residential treatment program. Alas that did not happen. Earlier this month my son was sentenced to serve four years in a state prison. His sanctuary will be an 8 X 12 cell.
However, is he further away from God than someone who walks through a majestic forest, feeling the breeze on their face, appreciating the majesty of an awesome God? Is he further away from God than someone who always strives to do the right thing, to walk the right path, to live as God intends us to live?
I think not.
We all have the same access to God, through His son. Therefore, we are all, technically, the same distance from God. Right? Stepping into God’s Sanctuary is something we can all do at any time, in any place.
The challenges we have being distanced from God have nothing whatsoever to do with God. It’s all about the choices we make. We choose to be distanced from God. It’s not the other way around. The tag line for the God Allows U-Turns ministry has always been, “The choices we make change the story of our life.” When Scripture admonishes us to “Choose this day whom you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15) it is clear that we alone have the power to choose. We alone can choose to walk through the forest and see a dark and dangerous place, or be awestruck with the majesty of creation. We alone can choose to live in our self-imposed prison cell of fear, unforgiveness, blame, guilt, and/or anger.
Free will, choice, faith, and focus. A never ending conundrum.
I love Eva’s message of Stepping into God’s Sanctuary. I’d like to challenge all of my Boomer Babe sisters to make a choice today to make the place where you are a Sanctuary to God. Whether it’s your car in rush hour, at a cubicle in the office, in your home doing laundry, or in a classroom. Today really is the first day of the rest of your life. Make a choice that will change your life. Choose this day whom you will serve.
And I would hazard to guess that God is going to do amazing things in the life of my son as he serves his time in prison. For some of us, God has to put us in a place of trial and tribulation before we can clearly see His plan for our life. For some of us, Stepping into God’s Sanctuary is a long time coming. However, once we get there we never want to go back.
9 Comments
Allison and Eva,
Both excellent articles! The forest, the ocean, a prison cell and the faces & praises of his people…all excellent examples of where God abides.
We sang a song at church a few weeks ago, “how great is our God!” He is!
I’m actually getting excited about the rain that is coming here in my part of TX today. I think that’s where God abides too — refreshing the earth, and “speaking” in cracks of lightning and claps of thunder - He reigns and roars!
Thanks, Allison!
You were the beginning of my writing journey…my first major publishing credit was in a God Allows Turns’ book which changed the course of my life. I first blogged on the GAUT blog site (not actually knowing what a “blog” was), and now for the past fifteen months I’ve been part of the Boomer Babes Blog Team (what a ride it has been!).
Making the decision to spend the next two years with my family and extended family was a choice of the heart. In fact, as I watched my son and husband in a triathlon on Sunday, I realized I was there because there was no other place on earth I would rather be. And now as I plan to spend more time with my folks in California, I realize it too is a choice of the heart. As Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz says, “There’s no place like home!”
On April 12th of this year, I celebrated 12 years of cancer survivorship, and how thankful I am to have accomplished everything on my passionate to-do list, except “spend more time with my family.” I recently listened to Randy Pausch (professor at Carnegie Mellon) who gave his “Last Lecture” on the Oprah Winfrey Show. If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you to listen to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trplwjVwt7g
What struck me most about his lecture was he never intended to give it to the students at Carnegie Mellon; it was only meant for three people (his children!). His closing thoughts were, “If you live your life well, your dreams will come to you!”
Technically, I’m not leaving you…I’m just “dreaming” along with you!
A GREAT BIG BOOMER HUG TO ALL OF YOU!
Connie
P.S. I’ll be posting comments from time to time. How could I not? After all, I’m the “Comment Queen”!
Allison
so sorry to hear about the judge’s decision. But as you have so eloquently described, God is still present, no matter where we are.
The Bible says God is close to the broken hearted. May you and your son be keenly aware of that close presence.
Allison,
Well said…and written!
I remember something that an inmate I corresponded with once wrote. He said: Many people are in prison. For some, it’s behind prison walls. For others, its the other side.
Chris will find peace and God where God finds Chris. I believe it.
Eva
Amen, ladies! Thank you for being here.
Allison,
I was visiting my friend, Sarah, in her sanctuary yesterday–prison. I’ve had the privilege of seeing God woo her back to Him over the last 8 months. She’s growing. Changing. Becoming more like Him. I sooo agree. Prison is one of God’s sanctuaries.
I’ll pray for Chris today that he and God meet there. And have an amazing time together.
Allison,
My prayer are with you and your family at this time. I know your mother’s heart is being torn in half. I pray that will God carry you every step of the way and that beauty will come from these ashes. I also pray for your son’s safety and spiritual growth during this time.
(((h))) Jan
I am praying that your son’s cell is a sanctuary where He continually embraces God, and feels God’s loving, healing embrace!
Connie, How many of us have all struggled with the balance of our “ministry” at home with following our passions and God-given desires? Good for you in listening as you feel Him leading you!
Allison, praying for your son during this journey, that God will lead the right people/influences and that the end of the story will be one of rising above prison and being able to sing like Paul and Silas!
Cindy