A New Normal Reality Check

Hello faithful family, friends, and followers and welcome to spring! I am thankful that it feels like spring here in Minneapolis, but we send our sympathies to those in the west already dealing with record high temperatures. Of course, this is Minnesota, which means we are probably not really in the clear until at least mid-April. Nonetheless, we are enjoying the warmth and the opportunity to enjoy outdoor walks again. This week has been positive and at the same time held some unforeseen emotional opportunities for growth, as they say…

On several occasions I have shared about Joy’s work with Bundles of Love and the blankets, quilts, burp cloths, sweaters, mittens, hats, and booties she makes, but for some time, we have been exploring opportunities that would allow us to serve together in some form or capacity. Fortunately, this past week we found that opportunity. On Tuesday we volunteered at a food-shelf near our home that is supported by our church and serves the Hispanic community in our area. We were warmly welcomed and felt it fit well for us as a setting to serve others together and we have already signed up for next week. But while the time went well overall, it was not without an unexpected reality check that happened in the process.

At the food-shelf we did several different tasks ranging from repacking food and personal care items, to stocking shelves, to sorting and stocking recently donated items. The individual tasks of packaging items and stocking individual shelf sections went smoothly, but then, I started sorting donated canned items, sadly many of which were well past their expiration dates and needed to be discarded. The idea was then that Joy would take the useable donated canned items and place them in the appropriate sections on the shelves. And, that was when the reality check hit. I think both Joy and I often feel that so much of life is largely normal these days, that we are get caught off guard when traumatic brain injury jumps up and bites us on the back-side.

Around our home, Joy is more and more comfortable on her own doing normal activities like baking for example, understanding where and what various ingredients are and how to use them. But when faced with cans of beans, corn, peas, pumpkin, pineapple, soup, etc., they all blurred into one for her. Tears began as she felt totally overwhelmed trying to understand what was printed on the labels, what that meant, and where the various cans should go. We paused and took some time together working more in tandem and soon the cans were all sorted and in their correct locations on the shelves. In all, it was a brief setback and despite this reality check, we both felt the time went very well and look forward to future opportunities there.

Fortunately, as is so often the case, we had a very special and very appropriate Psalm as a part of our reading this week. There are few more tender words when feeling insecure or discouraged than Psalm 56 which says:

Be gracious to me, O God…

When I am afraid,

I will put my trust in You.

In God, whose word I praise,

In God I have put my trust;

I shall not be afraid.

What can mere man do to me?..

You have taken account of my wanderings;

Put my tears in Your bottle.

Are they not in Your book?..

This I know, that God is for me.

In God, whose word I praise,

In the LORD, whose word I praise,

In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.

What can man do to me?..

For You have delivered my soul from death,

Indeed my feet from stumbling,

So that I may walk before God

In the light of the living.

To know that those tears Joy shed were kept by God in a bottle, and he recorded them in His book, was the tender and encouraging reminder we both needed. But then also this week, two authors I was reading, Gerald May and Brennan Manning, each referenced and suggested meditating on Song of Solomon, chapter 7, verse 10 which reads: “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” Focusing on the fact that God not only is willing to comfort us, but also desires us, is an even greater blessing and encouragement. Manning shares the value of such meditation this way:

I believe His desire for you and me can best be described as a furious longing… When you take those words personally, I mean very personally, a number of beautiful things come to pass:

• The drumbeats of doom in your head will be replaced by a song in your heart, which could lead to a twinkle in your eye.

• You will not be dependent on the company of others to ease your loneliness, for He is Emmanuel—God with us.

• The praise of others will not send your spirit soaring, nor will their criticism plunge you into the pit. Their rejection may make you sick, but it will not be a sickness unto death.

• In a significant interior development, you will move from I should pray to I must pray.

• You will live with an awareness that the Father not only loves you, but likes you.

• You will stop comparing yourself with others. In the same way, you will not trumpet your own importance, boast about your victories in the vineyard, or feel superior to anyone.

• You will read Zephaniah 3:17 (JB) and see God dancing for joy because of you.

• Off and on throughout the day, you will just know that you are being seen by Jesus with a gaze of infinite tenderness.

I am a witness to these truths.

And so, we will leave you this week, on this first day of spring, with the above verse Manning shared, knowing that in good times and in challenging times: “Yahweh your God is in your midst… He will exult with joy over you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance with shouts of joy for you.” Zephaniah 3:17 (JB)