Louder Than the Voices

One of the main things I have to do today is packed to go to Springfield. If you have known me long at all, you know I'm getting ready to go to my favorite conference of the year. This is mainly because of the family of distinction banquet that will happen tomorrow night. This is the night when we honor some of our biggest successes from the past year. Most of these people have work themselves right out of needing our assistance. Some have found their dream jobs, some have went back to school and are still exploring all the opportunities they never believe they would have, and some have even started their own businesses, their own successful businesses. As I get ready to pack I think about the song Suitcases by Dara Maclean. I know you probably get tired of hearing this, but it is one of my favorites. This song is all about dropping life's heavy burdens and giving them to Jesus. I have to tell you as much as I enjoy the conference and enjoy getting to go, one of the things...

To say life has been crazy at our workplace the last few months would be a grand understatement. Crazy as it was, things got a whole lot more chaotic the first day of April. There are 15 people out in the offices taking energy assistance applications and two of us in the main office trying to keep up with all the oddities that comes along with that fact that no two circumstances are even exactly alike. There have been days I have probably been close to tears and I know the girls I mentioned earlier have been in the same boat. The thing is though, we all have decisions to make about these clients and applications, and those decisions affect peoples lives--lots of people. Last week, I attended a meeting with other LIHEAP program coordinators from across the state. Several of these people are good friends of mine and the night before the actual meeting, some of us got together. I was asked a question that was supposed to be followed with a decision and I said I was done making decisions...

  We recently had a family friend who lost her job. When I was told the reason that she was given, I didn’t believe the accusation but I did remind her there are reasons for everything. I have had that on my mind a lot this week. I lost a job once, and at the time, I felt heartbroken. The thing is though, if I hadn’t lost that job, I wouldn’t have went to Effingham the next day to sign up for unemployment, I wouldn’t have decided to go to Walmart to see if my friend who worked there would like to go to lunch with me. I wouldn’t have had that friend tell me they were looking for help, I wouldn’t have filled out that application, I wouldn’t have had the job interview and I wouldn’t have went to work there. I know now all those things happened because God made Andrew, this guy from Oklahoma, just for me. On the same token, the night before Andrew was to move to Texas to a new store, the last minute decision was made that he really needed to go to Effingham, IL. Someplace he had n...

So, I am doing something I never really do. It is 20 after four on Saturday morning and I am writing my post for the week. It's funny how God works. I normally write my post on Friday morning and then put them up on Friday night to auto publish on Saturday morning. Because I was going to be leaving early yesterday, I started my post on Thursday. For the first time since I had started this, God had not sent me a real clear message of what he wanted me to say. This morning it was clear he was waiting on yesterday. I normally have a friend that rides up to Springfield with me, but yesterday; she had other plans. As much as I missed her company, I realized God had a reason for me to go by myself yesterday. I have been running at a crazy pace and even though I spend every morning in prayer and Bible study, it wasn't two hours of just having time alone with God. We honestly got a lot of things worked out that I really didn't know I was having problems with until I had that time a...

Isaiah 41:10, my favorite, I mean, VERY favorite, verse. Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee on the right hand of thy righteousness. I learned that verse when I was 12. The year before everything in my life started getting complicated. The year before my dad had his first heart attack, two years before he died and three years before my mom had a marathon stay in the hospital. Don't think for one minute that God's timing being perfect is wasted on me. I have known for years that He gave me that verse because I was going to need it. Ironically, for some reason, I look back and realize that even though I think 12 was when life started getting hectic, maybe it has really been all my life and I was oblivious to a point. My mom was sick a lot when I was little. In fact, I know one of the first things I seriously worried about was what would we do if something happened to her. B...