MY BLOG POSTS

For a while this weekend, those of us here in Tampa thought Hurricane Isaac was headed our way. The storm was averted – good for us, not so good for our neighbors to the northwest – but we didn’t know that for sure until Monday morning. Or at least I didn’t.

My friend, Kristie, on the other hand, knew all about it. She was tracking Isaac on her phone, staying in contact with friends who knew about the storm, loading up her transistor radio with new batteries just in case she lost her Internet and cable. She was prepared. She has a pantry full of foods that could feed her family (and mine!) for several days – with power or without. Her flashlights were all in place – with new batteries, of course – and she has plenty of water for drinking, washing, and tooth brushing, should the storm compromise the water in her home.

I had a couple candles and some granola bars.

My emergency plan? To drive, walk, swim, or canoe my way to Kristie’s house. Otherwise, we’d all be dehydrated, starving, and completely clueless about what might come next.

But the whole thing made me think, not about this particular storm, but about Storms with a capital “S.” Life Storms. Stuff that comes out of the blue, knocks you flat with no warning, throws you around and leaves you bruised and broken and hurting.

My friend Melissa  has been hit with some horrific life storms recently. She lost her older brother to cancer just last month. Just weeks after his funeral, her mother had to be hospitalized due to some difficult health issues. She is still dealing with those issues, still hospitalized, still struggling. Yet, Melissa can still  manage to find joy in the middle of that storm. Other friends, Joel and Krista, are trying desperately to adopt two precious girls in Costa Rica. The red tape has been so thick I know it sometimes must feel like they will  never get free. They take two steps forward, one step back, and have been dealing with this for months on end. Yet they are still thankful, hopeful, rejoicing.

How do people manage to deal with life’s storms without falling apart?

They spiritual pantries are full. Like Kristie, the wise person “stocks” her spiritual pantry with everything she’ll need in case of a storm. People like Melissa, Joel, and Krista don’t just wake up one day and decide they’re going to be strong. They already have strength. They have spent time allowing God to work in their hearts and their lives. They have been studying, praying, communing with other believers, growing closer to Christ, more like him. Their souls are “stocked” with Truth, so that when they are hit, they can cling to it, hide in it, and be sheltered by it.

Living in Florida – on the coast – I know that storms are inevitable. They will come. The question is — will I be prepared? It is the same with life. Storms will come. We will get hit with the unexpected, the painful, with heartbreak and heartache. We can’t avoid it. But we can be prepared. That doesn’t mean that the storms will be easy. It doesn’t mean we won’t get beat up and bruised. But it does mean that we can survive them, grow from them.

How’s your “spiritual pantry”? Does it look like Kristie’s, ready for whatever may come?

“When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation.”Proverbs 10:25

“If you could have a superpower, what would it be?”

When a group of my students answered that question last week, Invisibility topped the list.

At this point in my life, my dream superpower would be Super-Metabolism: Being able to eat as much chocolate as I want without gaining an ounce. Sadly, that won’t happen.

But I kept thinking about that all day. The superpower thing, not the chocolate thing…..okay, maybe both. But anyway, back to my point: We all wish for what we don’t have. Super human abilities appeal to us. Being better than we are – Krista 2.0 – is exciting.

Later that week, in church, I listened to my pastor’s sermon. He’s spending a couple weeks on forgiveness. I thought about that for a while, too. Forgiveness is tough. Really tough. We’d rather eat glass than forgive someone who’s really hurt us. And asking for forgiveness?? We’d rather eat glass while rolling in it. At least I would. I hate saying “I’m sorry.” And, sometimes, I hate offering forgiveness. It seems too simple. When someone hurts me, I want to hurt them back. Forgiving them is so nice. It feels like I’m just letting them off the hook. Where’s the payback?

And that’s when it dawned on me: Forgiveness is the greatest superpower ever. True forgiveness is something we can only truly offer if we have accepted it in our own lives.  God offers us forgiveness through Christ. Complete forgiveness. No asterisks,  small print, no “but I’ll never forget what you did…” And our response — complete devotion to this wonderful Savior who lavished his grace on us, that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Christ’s forgiveness frees us from slavery to sin, it allows us to know we will spend eternity in heaven, it gives us joy and freedom here on earth to do what God has called us to do. And yet, while we are quick to accept God’s forgiveness, we Christians are sometimes very slow to offer it. Which is sad because it should be the opposite. We, who have been forgiven so much, should joyfully, lovingly offer it to others. We should humbly request it from those we have hurt.

This “superpower” has the ability to do greater good than almost anything else on earth, yet we often neglect it or reason it away. On our own, we can’t “tap into” its power, but we “can do all things through Christ” who strengthens us. We can offer forgiveness. We can accept forgiveness. We can seek forgiveness.

What a super world we would live in if we just used this power that God makes available to us, this Super Power called Forgiveness.

School started last week for us, yesterday for the schools in our area. I was the “new kid” several times growing up, and my own kids have been the newbies quite a few times as well, so I have a soft spot for those coming into a brand new school.

It’s especially hard when entering a school where the rest of the students have known each other for a while. They have all the friends they need, and the new kid gets ignored. Or made fun of. Or treated like an extraterrestrial (“What was school like where you came from?”).

So if you are one of the “old timers” reading this, here are some tips to help the new kids feel welcomed in your school (youth group/job/sport…):

• Greet them. You have no idea how great a “Hi, Krista!” feels to a new kid.
• Help them find their “niche” – whether a sport or a club or whatever – finding a place to belong helps the student and your school (she may be the best setter your volleyball team has ever seen!)
• Squash the gossip. It’s so easy to find things to “discuss” about new kids. Sometimes they talk differently, dress differently, or act differently. Don’t gossip about those differences – ask the new kid about them. Get to know him/her.
• Invite them to hang out with you. Save a seat for the new kid at lunch, ask him/her to sit with you at the football game, invite him/her to the movies with your friends.
• Be their friend. I know you can’t be BFF’s with every new kid, but you may find one in the newbies coming this year. Don’t miss out on a friendship God wants you to have by being shy or waiting for someone else to welcome the new kid. You do it!

“A Letter to my Eighth Grade Self”  – that was the journal topic I assigned my twelfth grade English students this week. I loved reading these entries – insightful, funny, sarcastic. But one theme that I kept reading over and over again was, “Don’t get caught up in the drama.” These 17 and 18 year olds realize that they had wasted some valuable time getting worked up over issues that really don’t matter at all.

I think that’s something we are all guilty of – from those in middle school to those in middle age. Think back 5 years — do you even remember the stuff that made you mad? I remember getting upset about stuff, but what was it that got me upset? No idea. What do I remember when I think back 5 years? I remember fun times with my husband and kids. I remember what God was teaching me then. I remember friendships that impacted me. I remember places I visited, books I read. You know, the important stuff. The rest – whatever it was – just doesn’t matter now.

So how should that affect today? I need to ditch the drama. I need to let go of petty things that make me mad, petty people who want to steal my joy, petty issues that cause me to lose my focus. I need to spend my energy on what matters – on WHO matters: my Savior, my family, my friends and my students.

“Finally, brethren,  whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is  lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise,  dwell on these things.” ~Phil. 4:8