brainstorming

Social Unrest for a Good Cause

Time to reveal my secret. You see, I've been too busy to blog because I've been working day and night to get Ralph Nader on the ballot in all 50 states. Go Ralph Go! He He He

However, I still have family responsibilites. One of those is Chief Procurement Officer, in other words providing food for the masses. So the Boy and I were at the local market on Sunday after church. For any who long for small time life, get this....they still bag your groceries for you!

We'd made a pretty good haul. After we were in line, I looked up and discovered to my horror that I had picked the lane manned by the Slowest Cashier in the Universe. I'm serious. She has one speed and one speed only, Slow and Steady. With a sigh I reminded myself, Patience is a Virtue. (Who said that anyway? If you google origin+"Patience is a virtue" the first hit is a web story of the Romulan Empire, titled "Patience is a Virtue". Sure, everything might be available on the web, but they never said we'd be able to find it.)

Anyway, back to the grocery line. I manage to be patient as she slowly checks out the man in front of us. It's Sunday remember. We're fresh out of church and still wearing our best behavior. After checking him out she adjusts a receipt for another customer. No problem. I'm not late to a meeting or anything and we are next after all. Being in her line should only entail an additional 5-10 minute wait, right? Finally it's our turn. She begins and manages to scan 5-10 of our items, then stops.

There are two young hispanic men checking out in the lane next to us. (I mention their heritage because we live in a pretty non diverse part of the country, and I'm unsure if that contributed to the events following or if age was the deciding factor.) They have two carts burdened with enough food for a whole passel of folks to eat well for a week. The first gentleman is through the line and waiting with his cart. The second one, whom appears to be paying for all the goods, is apparently purchasing adult beverages and has an I.D. to document he is old enough to do so.

Our cashier, Slow and Steady, leaves her lane, and requests the I.D. of the gentleman already through the line. She insists that both of them have to be of legal age. Hmmmm. As Through The Line guy protests he doesn't have an I.D., she persists. Meanwhile, I consider what would happen if I were purchasing adult beverages? I have the Boy with me, who is obviously underage. Would she be demanding his I.D.? Would she refuse to sell me alcohol because the Boy is with me on our shopping venture?

I don't think so. For some reason, she's decided it's imperative she treat these two guys differently than she would treat me. Not only that, Slow and Steady has abandoned me to get involved in a situation that no one asked her help with. At that point, Patience left the building, suddenly replaced by Social Unrest.

I interjected myself into the situation loudly, "Excuse Me. Can I Get Checked Out Here?" Quickly followed by, "Isn't there a Manager who can handle this?" (Lucky it wasn't the Girl with me. She is old enough that she would be mortified that I was making a scene in small town America.)

To her credit, the cashier in the aisle next to us quickly calls in the manager to intervine. He rightly determines that only the person purchasing the product needs to be of legal age. Slow and Steady returns to check us out. The manager speeds our departure by bagging our groceries himself. Apologies are offered and accepted for the delay and we're on our merry way.

As we walked into the parking lot, the gentlemen in question were about to pull out of their parking spot. I lifted my hand in a wave, which was returned with a smile.

Tribute to President Reagan

Ronald Reagan was the first President I cast my vote for in the 1984 election. I didn't follow politics nearly as closely then as I do now. In fact, I think I've come to appreciate him and his legacy more as I look back on his presidency than I did when I entered that voting booth.

There are many things I could say about what he did for this country.....ending the cold war, cutting taxes, etc. Yet in the end there is only one thing I really want to say in tribute to Mr. Reagan

I LOVE this man

He gave us back our pride in being Americans. He is probably the greatest president I will ever see in my lifetime. I'm in total agreement with the Powerline sentiment, Is there room for one more on Mt. Rushmore?

A Miracle Witnessed

I wrote this account for another forum in 2001. It's the true story of what I witnessed one day in 1999 in a former hen house. Some of you will not believe it. That's fine with me. I was there. I know what happened.

It was a Saturday morning in June 1999. I had slept in. I had plans to go to my cousin's house later in the day. She had invited people to come there to meet for prayer and to worship the Lord.

As I lay in bed I felt God tell me to call and ask my friend Ann to go with me to my cousin's. (I know some of you will find this incredible, but since I began my relationship with God about 8 years ago, I have found he will speak to me and direct me sometimes. I usually know it's him when it's something I had not planned or wanted to do on my own.) I hadn't planned to invite her because she lived 45 minutes in the opposite direction, which would add another three hours to my drive (it was already going to be 3 hours - so now it would be a total of 6).

Ann didn't drive. She had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was under the age of 30. As a result she was unable to work or drive.

I was still lying in bed when the phone rang. It was Ann (tells you what God thought about giving me a little push in the right direction - and I replied....I was getting to it!) I told her about the meeting and asked if she wanted to go.

Although she had been pursuing her relationship with God about 6 months before this, some circumstances in her life had caused her to be discouraged and to back off some. She wasn't sure she wanted to go. I told her, "Fine, but all I can tell you is you're supposed to be there for some reason." She decided she would go with me.

Another reason she hesitated was her legs weren't working at the time. She was barely able to stand with a cane. If you're familiar with MS, symptoms can be episodic. Hers were becoming more frequent.

She had lost use of her legs a few times in the last year, and had lost her vision probably 4 times in the last couple years. It also causes painful electric shocks in your body, which happened to her all the time. Because of her increasing symptoms she had tried the latest meds, but had to stop due to the side effects.

With MS, when you have these episodes, you never know if you are going to get the lost function back this time (your sight, walking, etc.) They pump you up with steroids and hope the function returns. So far she had been lucky with little permanent damage.

So, it ended up that I went to pick up Ann and take her with me. The meeting at my cousin's was in a small former hen house behind her house. Ann barely made it inside into a chair before her legs gave out on her. She was in a lot of pain.

The meeting was informal, just a bunch of believers (maybe 20 people?) getting together to worship, no speaker. There were instruments up front for people to play and we began to worship. Ann still wasn't sure if she wanted to be there. Of course I told her to not participate if she didn't feel like it. She could just observe.

At one point my cousin's husband came up to Ann and asked if he could prayer for her. She told him no. When she talked to me about her hesitancy I told her the only thing I knew is that man had exhausted the resources we have to do anything for her.

At this point my cousin approached her and asked if she could pray for her. Ann agreed. My cousin knelt beside her, I was on the other side. The moment we began to pray, Ann's body began to shake uncontrollably. She looked down and asked if someone was moving her chair. Of course, no one was, it was the power of God upon her. It was an awesome thing to witness.

We probably prayed and talked for 15 minutes dealing with a lot of issues of forgiveness, and the love God has for us. Afterwards, Ann and I got up and went to my cousins house to go to the bathroom. It was when we sat down on the steps at the house she realized the pain in her legs was gone. She also had reported during prayer that her legs were hot.

By the next morning her legs were working normally again. She told us the heat in her legs and the bottom of her feet continued all through the next day.

It's been over two years now and Ann has shown no further symptoms of MS. She has gotten her driver's license and now works full time. Praise God!

I had no expectation that day of witnessing a miracle, but I'm convinced that we did. For some reason, God decided to intervene and allowed us to see His power, and in the process delivered Ann from MS.

It does lead to a lot of questions. Why her? (there were other people there with illnesses) Why then? I don't know these answers. And Ann, God love her, tells people she wouldn't have believed it either if it hadn't happened to her.

One thing I'd ask you to note, God doesn't need a big show, with an important spiritual leader to touch his people. This was in a hen house remember.

I don't know why he asked me to share this with you, but he did. I hope that it blesses and encourages you. I will treasure it for a lifetime.

Back to 2004: Ann is still a close friend of mine. She remains healthy today. Even though I was there and I saw what happened with my own eyes, I often need to be reminded that I saw God's power firsthand that day. It makes me understand the nation of Israel wandering and mumuring in the desert. How quickly we forget all He has done for us.