Tag Archive | Personal

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

 

 

 

 

A-Ha Moment.

Jan9

I’m part of a live-streaming group called the PeriGirls. (Shameless plug) They are a tribe of  over 10,00 women live streamers. I have learned SO MUCH from these women! They have activities for absolutely anything and every thing you could be interested in.

If you don’t know them you can Go Here  to find out more.

OK. Back to the A-Ha moment.

The other day, the topic of discussion for the PeriGirls was to talk about an Epiphany or A-Ha moment you have had. It was so interesting to hear other women’s stories, told in their own words.

My Epiphany or A-Ha moment came a couple of days later, and that’s what I want to tell you about.

I was watching a movie with my husband. The scene took place in a news room. A pre- cell phone news room. There were phones ringing, and ringing, and ringing. Everywhere.

A thought crossed my mind about schools. The school system. The schools I went to back in the day.

School, the place itself, the place they MAKE children go to, are by their very nature, very loud, busy, crazy noisy and chaotic.

All that noise without stopping, did the same thing to me then that it does to me now. It gives me brain fog, and makes me want to hide. The difference is that back then, I had no recourse. There was no fix. I had no idea how to make it stop, nor did I even know that something needed fixed. It’s just the way it was.

Nowadays, there are some schools of thought that say we need to teach children in the way that they are wired. That we teach to their strengths. These children feel needed, nurtured, accepted and loved.

These children, are taught that they are amazing just the way they are. They are taught that different is not bad, it’s just different. The square peg does not have to fit in the round hole, nor should we make it try to.

Thirteen years of schooling, old school style, took up until my mid fifties to untangle.

I AM fearfully and wonderfully made. I no longer need to hide. I AM made in the very image of God. God does not make junk, nor does He make mistakes. He wired me how He wanted be to be wired. He knew my days before I had even one of them.

Guess what?

He knows you that way too – Ponder that for a while!