The rescue plan

So many thoughts going through my head this past few weeks. Holy week since being married to a pastor has become a very scary week in many ways. Every single year since marrying Tim we face some kind of massive stresser during Holy Week. It's inevitable and yet every year we end up surprised by it. This year I had family stress leading up to and including the Holiest of weeks and just when I thought it was over I ended up with Kaleb's lips turning blue during the Easter sermon on Sunday and rushing him to the ER for help with an asthma attack. Needless to say, I didn't have a whole lot of time to reflect on the resurrection. However, yesterday afternoon I was out walking and listening to my iPod, I had the playlist set with music I used to listen to while I spent time in Austria and I was transported back in time to my own resurrection story. Giving my life to God came in stages over a vast amount of time; but it was in Austria, on a snowy drive to Munich on December 8th 2005 that I gave up the old me forever, she died and I was became a new person. Life didn't change much at first, but I did. Gone was the old Laurie and in her place is the woman that writes this now. I didn't change over night either, it's been a journey, a step by step walk that has led me to places I never would have dreamed of. It also hasn't been easy. I think that is the fallacy that often people believe. That you give your life fully to God and everything is simple, life is good, we will prosper and succeed. That's not the reality though is it...? If you yourself have given your life fully to God then you know what I am talking about. It often becomes harder, it is full of sacrifice and yet there is hope where there was no hope, joy where you didn't think you would ever see joy.

I see things more clearly now than I did back on December 8th 2005. I see that this life is temporary, along with all of it's pain and suffering. No stresser during the Holy week will change my knowledge of that. No amounts of visits to the ER on Easter will change that I know my risen King is coming back for me. His rescue plan has begun and one day he will come to bring me home.

I know that Easter is over and this post is past due... but Easter isn't the only time we should be thinking about our new home, our hope, our King who is even now planning his return for us. Today, next week, next month... it doesn't matter when you choose to take the time to think about his gift to us, his sacrifice, his death and his resurrection, rather I think it should be something we think about daily.

Happy belated Easter everyone... may you have a blessed year thinking of the second stage of his rescue plan!

A few spins and a cop

Sometimes God gives us moments where we have no way to move forward without thanking him. I had one such moment this past Tuesday. I was driving up north to take my Grandpa to the hospital. I was tired, stressed, and upset. The week was already long and it was only Tuesday. I had been advised by a few people not to drive on Tuesday due to bad weather but I went anyway; however, after being advised to be careful I was driving even more carefully than normal. The roads had been clear the whole way up. I was on the 400 North bound, it was wet but clear. As I approached Barrie (in the outside lane) I began to notice that my lane was becoming very snowy so I slowed down a bit and began to look for an opportunity to get into the middle lane. There were cars beside me so I waited... the lane got worse. Finally I had a chance to move over and I made my move. I felt the wheels begin to slide, and before I knew what was happening I was fish tailing and then spinning. Somehow, (by the grace of God and the hands of angels) I missed every single car on the road and ended up parked on the shoulder facing on coming traffic. I sat for seconds, not minutes, but seconds, trying to catch a breath. Then I looked up, through my snowy windshield I saw the lights of a cop car. I turned the car off, and got out of the car on very shaky feet. The cop jumped out and ran over to make sure I was okay, and I can promise you, I have never been so happy to see a cop in my life. He was so gentle and so kind, even went so far as to wipe a tear off my cheek (one I didn't even realize I was shedding). According to him I spun around twice, and he said a few times how amazed he was that I hadn't hit anything or rolled the car. (Tell me about it!). My next problem of course was that my car was now facing on coming traffic and I was in a very snowy shoulder of a busy highway! How on earth was I going to get it turned around given how shaking I felt?! He seemed to sense my question because he gently nudged my shoulder and asked me to back up so he could move my car, and then he did, with ease I might add. I watched him drive into the lane to back up and all I could think was 'I hope he doesn't die trying to help me'. I don't know that I have ever appreciated a cops job more than I did that day. He may not even have realized how dangerous that move was but from my vantage point I can promise you, one wrong move and he would have lost his life for me. It was crazy! Yet, I can also tell you how much I appreciated it. I never would have been able to do that for myself and I would have been hours waiting for a tow and I never would have made it to the hospital as it was; all of this, from the choice to move into the next lane when I did, until I drove away and continued down the highway took about 7 or 8 minutes. I drove away and the only thing I could think or say was 'Thank you God.' It is moments like these that stand as a reminder for the harder times that God is with us, even if we forget to ask him to be. He is watching over us, even if we haven't 'prayed' for him too, he is protecting us even when it looks like we are skidding out of control, and he is comforting us, even if he is using strangers.

As I head into this Easter weekend I can't help but also remember that he died for me, he willingly died to rescue me. He deems me worth to be loved and rescued and he shows me that daily in the little things, and every once in a while it takes a few spins and a cop on the highway to make me see it.

L