Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thank you

I just heard a podcast that was speaking in part once again about the church being people and not a building, and I was thinking of the many things the individuals in the Body of Christ have done for me in the past three years (I could go farther back than that, but...). I'll just recap a few...

Darby and Brandy were led to give me their used car instead of selling it. That was a real blessing, and about a month after I received it I was using it to carpool with a Christian friend to a new job (June 2007). The job was also a provision through a brother, Ron in the body of Christ.

A year later at the end of July 2008 I had the stroke. After, Scott and Dawna, friends who were in transition as far as "church" goes, took me into their home for six weeks so I could start recovering. Then my son Jonathan (also a brother in Christ) took me in for a time. Last October, he and his two brothers (also Christians) moved me close to where the other two of the three of them live. They have been there to take me to speech therapy and doctor appointments. They have also seen that I get out, and Micah has also put his name on my bank account and is still helping big-time.

There is also Brenda, who has been getting together with me regularly--even when I've felt I have nothing to give. She is continuing to encourage me that I can still improve while she receives me where I am right now, has been giving me flowers through the summer and fall, has taken me to Nashville, IN, this summer and to Christmas at the Zoo.... Then there is Kathy who prays with me, has put plastic on my windows for winter, and encourages me about the future, while encouraging me to also receive the present and learn from it (she just loaned me The Shack so I could read it a second time).... I can't forget Mike and Jane and my former church friends in Greenwood who bought me a new wardrobe or the friends who helped by paying toward my heat last winter.... There is Sharon who prays for me, and my new church friends who paid for me to go recently on a women's retreat, and my son's in-laws who say and mean it that I am welcome at all holidays and anytime. Also, there is my counselor (whom I've come to love as a friend--I can't help it that I didn't know of the two year rule, Lori) at church who is helping me get to God and healing on some big emotional issues so I will have less baggage and be ready for my future.

I really thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for what you mean to me, and I want to again say how blessed I am. I have God (I'm still learning that even when I'm being a stinker He loves me), and you all too.

I also want to say that God is wonderful, and being wonderful He also gives us people to love and people to love us. If we are doing that loving in the way we are each specially gifted, we are fulfilling our calling, and our love helps lead others to God and healing in Him. We do it best individually, and as we do we are the church. God brings it together and forms it into His symphony by the Holy Spirit while it is also very individualistic. Church is not a nameless, faceless impersonal entity, but a living breathing organism. Many times we need love from individuals more than love from an organization--we are relational beings, and it is only in relationship that we are made whole.

So, here's to relationship--between us and God, between us as people in God, and between us and the people God wants to bring to Himself and add to His family. God bless you all and may He help us keep acting from His love more and more.

PS There was another comment I really liked by my last post, and I accidentally deleted it when I meant to approve it. Please forgive me and feel free to comment any time anyone.