Crazy Women in Caves, With Oil!

Feb19

I heard the following quote at a conference in 2007.

I ran across it again while reviewing my journals.

First the quote, then, why it was so important to me.

“David was in a cave with some crazy people and some oil.”

The back story on this (a study I did) comes from years of feeling inadequate, lonely, and unloved, until finally, after my mother’s death, I went inside myself. I slowly took myself away from  most forms of social activity. During that time I became increasingly unhealthy in my body. At one point, for a couple of years, it was difficult to even get off the floor to get a drink of water from the kitchen. I only moved when I absolutely had to. I had two engagements each week that expected me to show up, so I did. No more.

The healing part of this story is for another time, but when I began to heal, the Lord put on my heart that I was a cave dweller.

Now cave dwelling is fine. For a season. But it was time to leave the cave for a while.

I argued that He had provided me a pretty cool cave, and that I was comfy here. To which I heard, “Comfy is what you come back to, to rest, but to come back, you first have to leave.”

As the healing was beginning, I had a handful of gals come to my home once a week for coffee and a book study. I had shared with them that I was literally a crazy lady hiding out with my friends in my cave on Wednesdays! (Note, I still wasn’t LEAVING MY CAVE.)

First I looked up CRAZY – full of defects and imperfections. Thanks a lot.

Before actually leaving my comfy cave, I looked up caves in my faithful, old, blue, 400 pound Strong’s Concordance. (No Google or https://www.biblegateway.com/  back then!) I looked up all the cave words I could find. Over 20 references!

I won’t name them all, but here is a short list of things people did in/with caves;

  • Lived in caves
  • Bought caves for burials
  • Some belonged to families so that they could all be buried in the same place
  • Some kings hid in caves, then they were executed and placed back there after the fact
  • Mighty men and prophets hid in them and were fed there
  • They were used to sleep in when travelling
  • Eat. Rest. Strengthen.
  • Used as shelters and strongholds
  • Living places for the homeless
  • A place of death (plague)
  • A place of prayer
  • And even a hiding away from the Lord place

What is the oil for?

  • Beautification
  • Fresh oil meant prosperity
  • Lack of oil meant judgement, curse, agricultural disaster
  • Good oil meant stability and prosperity
  • Used to anoint and sanctify
  • Used to consecrate tabernacles – made the tabernacle “Most Holy”. If anyone “unholy” touched the “Most Holy” item, they would die.
  • Sign of the Holy Spirit

Now, here we are. Present day. How does that apply, and why must we leave our caves?

As you can see by the uses for the oil, it can be a pretty powerful thing. It can give stability and prosperity. It has power to give life, and to take it.

The cave, (our homes) are used for many of the things caves were. (Hopefully/fortunately not graves) We eat. We rest. We heal.

We have all this power (oil) in our caves, and we’re not using it.

We need to use our caves to pray, eat, rest, strengthen, then, we need to take our oil and use it for good. We can share it with those no hope.

That power is simply wasted when it is hidden away in a cave.

I have a friend who says that the world needs our words. Could those words possibly be the healing balm/oil that someone needs?

We have it, and we’re hiding.

We find comfort in our caves, but there are others, without hope, who can be helped by a little bit of our oil, if we can just leave our comfort but for a little bit.

So go. Spread your healing oil around and then, you can always come back to your cave to rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 for 5 Brain Dump – February 12, 2018

Feb12

Once again, a challenge has been made by the lovely Julie JordanScott.

The quote is from Laura Ingalls Wilder, “It does not matter what happens. It is what one does when it happens that really counts.”

The prompt was; Write 5 memories where something significant happened. Write about what you did as a result.

Here is what I wrote, 5 for 5 Brain Dump style (3x). If you don’t know what 5 for 5 Brain Dump is, Here to find out more about it.

I write today on my #4 choice, as it has been on my mind as of late. I went to a meeting in May of 2006. I listened intently to the lady as she told her story. She told what the Lord had done in her life, and just how He was using her to help others along the way. When the meeting was over, anyone who wanted, could go down and they would pray for you. I waited till last. Basically I just wanted to see how she operated after the fact.

Now she had a lady with her to help her pray with people, and to help her to set up and tear down. It was getting late, she had this lady talk to me and pray with me.

Everything began normally, but after I responded to a few of her questions, she got very loud, and seemingly annoyed, almost angered. She thought my attitude in God’s presence was pretty cocky. She went on for almost 10 minutes. A couple of girls who had come with me told me later, that if it had been them they would have been in a puddle on the floor. Fortunately for me, I had a friend behind me writing down everything that was being said! It wasn’t pretty, and I was greatly distressed.

On the way home from that meeting, I wept, and wept, and wept. I took those notes and for days to my quiet place, and poured over them again and again. Finally, at the end of that week, I went to mentors home, some 2 hours from my house, and cried it all out to her, until there was nothing left.

Well she confirmed all that I had been thinking of in my chair. She told me it was very mature to to think it through like that, and not just be ticked off at the woman. She told me if there was any truth in her words – to take it. If there was any untruth – leave it. Her quote? “We are Iowa farmers. Like any good cow, we can chew up the hay and spit out the sticks.” (I love this woman!)

The only thing I hadn’t considered, and perhaps the most important, relayed to me by this woman I had trusted for years, was this; What she said was true. Her delivery system stunk. It was way off. Regardless of what you have to say, you must be kind. She, this woman who spoke so harshly to me, was not in any way kind.

So the lesson I learned, was that you can give people any information you want to give them, even bad info. If you are not kind to someone less mature, they may walk away and perhaps never seek help again. You must always remember to be kind, so that people can see God.

HeavenlyHosts

 

 

 

 

Roots and Rituals

Feb5

 

 

Today on Writing Camp with Julie Jordan Scott, we were encouraged to take a favorite quote and use it as a writing prompt.

If you know me at all, then you know my favorite author is Billy Coffey.

My quote was found in his latest book “Steal Away Home”.

 “It’s the small things you take for granted that become very big things when they’re gone. Beneath the unanswered questions and secret fears of everyday beats the thin pulse of tiny ritual that serve to root us.” Billy Coffey

Here is what I wrote, 5 for 5 Brain Dump style (2x). If you don’t know what 5 for 5 Brain Dump is, Here to find out more about it.

I read a short piece once about a man who absolutely hated some little blue glass kittens that his wife insisted be on the front window sill. She put them there, he would move them. She put them back. Over and over, 30 or 40 years worth.

When his wife passed, he put those little blue glass kittens back on the window sill, to remind him of her.

My grandpa, used to complain and complain that he could not sleep through my grandmas window rattling snoring.

When she passed, he could only complain that he could not sleep without her snoring.

We have a large tray that our coffee pot, sugar, his coffee cup, a spoon rest and spoon sit on in our kitchen. Every day, when hubby makes his coffee, he sets the sugar on the counter. I move it to the tray. He takes it off.

It used to make me angry. Everyday. I really had to think of how much I would miss that if he were to pass.

Those little things. Those little rituals. How important will they be in the passing of time?

How are we rooted to these rituals?

I remember – They are exactly what life is about. And I smile.

Coffee Tray