"A Happy Trouble"

"For I know WHOM I have believed, and am persuaded that HE is able to keep that which I have committed unto HIM against that day." 1Timothy 1:12

Dear Friends,

This past Monday was Labor Day...the day Hurricane Gustov was destined to hit the coast near New Orleans around 9:00 a.m. After getting up, and throwing a load of clothes in the washer, I grabbed my Bible, loaded my boat and headed to the river. I wasn't too sure about the weather , but when I got to the river, the sun was shining and the water was as still as could be. I wasn't concerned anymore about the weather except for those in the path of the hurricane down south. I got my boat unloaded and into the water and realized I had forgotten my life jacket. I have never done that before. It wasn't a good feeling to be without my life jacket, but I decided to go ahead and go for it and paddled to my favorite spot. When I arrived at the log where I couldn't go any farther without crawling over it, I pulled out my Bible and began reading it in my boat. As I read, the wind started blowing briskly in the trees overhead. I thought, wow, that must be some of the outer bands of the hurricane blowing. After a while, I decided to head on back, and while I was paddling the wind blew my cap off while I was still in Big Creek...that worried me a little bit, since it was more protected by the hills beside it, and I thought I better get on in before the wind gets worse. Thankfully, the wind was behind my back, which was most unusual, I usually paddle against the wind on my way back. But because of the hurricane, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction Monday morning. The wind actually helped to blow me back to my destination, against the current, and after a while and no incidents,I thankfully arrived safely back at shore.
On my way home from the river, my Dad called and asked me what I was up to that morning. He gently scolded me for going paddling alone again, and invited our family over that evening to celebrate my Mom's 78th birthday ( if you're keeping up with these emails, I mistakenly said a while back my Mom was 78, I goofed:) and my 46th birthday. We were born 3 days apart, my Mom on August 30 and me on September 2nd, 32 years apart. We gathered at my Mom and Dad's around 4:30 p.m. that afternoon and they had already cut up tomatoes and onions and boiled corn from the garden, baked beans and had quite a spread on the table. My Dad grilled out hamburgers and hotdogs, yummy, and later we had a delicious white cake my Daddy had made, with some Banana Split ice cream to celebrate. My brother Ralph and his wife, Wendy was there, along with their son, Daniel ,who recently finished serving 6 years in the Marines. My sis and her new hubby were out cruising somewhere in the Caribbean dodging tropical storms on their honeymoon. My other brother and his family already had made other plans, and my brother and his family in Texas...well they didn't make the party either. We sure missed ya'll. By the way, thank you all my dear brother's and sisters for all your birthday cards to me, your calls, your email from your honeymoon Jill, and coming by to see me, Ralph...ya'll are great, I love you, and I am so thankful GOD gave me such a special family. What a special blessing that at almost 82, my Dad is still able to grill out for our family, and he and Mom love us so much and continue to lay down their lives for us after all these years. When we got ready to leave, the kids and I got in the Yukon and I asked them if they thanked Grandmother and Granddaddy for the meal. At 16 and 18, I still check up on their manners when I have mind enough to ask them. They assured me they did, and I guess I was thinking about that...when I began backing up and then a sickening familiar sound-crash! We came to an abrupt stop. The look on my kids face, and the "oh no's" said it all...I had backed into my nephew's new 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse, a really nice car. I didn't just back into the bumper, the car was behind me to the left, I hit the passenger door and frame for the front fender...where both will probably have to be replaced. This immediately caused quite a stir. My sister-in-law who was standing nearby offered to go in and tell her son for me, which she did, and when he came out, here came the rest of the family, except my Mom who couldn't bear to see the damage. My nephew came out and after seeing the damage was so very gracious about me backing into his car. After my brother, nephew, and Dad assessed the damage, I made the decision to call my husband and let him know of my latest fender bender...I say latest because this is the second time this year I have backed into a car without looking. A few months ago, I was at my Mother-in-law's, again with my kid's and some of their friends in the car, and backed into a young man's new truck...didn't even think about looking behind me, as I was talking pretty sternly to my son at the time about something that happened inside. Then, a couple of years ago, I was in my husband's truck at night, and I turned into a fire hydrant in the parking lot of a gas station, crunching his front fender...that was an expensive kayaking trip. That accident happened after I backed the Yukon into my friend's brick wall in her driveway, yakking as I backed out... which happened after I backed into my husband's truck in our driveway when his truck was new. And I haven't even told you about the times I've gotten stuck in the mud, and the river in my husband's truck and had to be pulled out. Our body shop man just grins when he sees us coming...it's humbling. We've put his kids through college with my accidents...just kidding. So when I called my husband, who had stayed home because of a bad headache, he wasn't too "happy" to hear about my latest escapade. On the way home, I was trying to soothe myself, and the verse came to my mind "In everything give thanks for this is the will of GOD in CHRIST JESUS concerning you,"I Thessalonians 5:18 and "All things work together for good for those who love the LORD, for those who are called according to HIS purposes." Romans 8:28. Sure would have been nice if these same verses had come to my husband's mind...but they didn't seem to that night, in fact, I think his headache got a lot worse.
The day before this little accident happened I read a great devotion in Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening that really spoke to my heart and I knew I wanted to share it with you. It was so timely...with what was going on with our weather with Hurricane Gustov earlier in the week, and as I write tropical storm Hanna, Ike, and Josephine, loom on the horizon. Charles Spurgeon talked in his devotion about seasons of great trial, not the little trials that I spoke of above, but those that shake your foundation to the very core of your soul, and those hurricanes, and storms just seem to blow in one right after the other. Our family had a year like that in 1992 when one storm after the other blew our way. John Mac was 2 and Hannah Beth was a newborn. I started having incapacitating pain in my back that gradually stiffened my muscles so much it felt like they were too small for my body. I began having severe allergic reactions, and developed searing pain all over my body while taking Prednisone for the allergic reactions. In the midst of this storm, where my emotions where stretched to where they had never been stretched before, my husband and I made the painful decision to resign the church he was pastoring so we could move back home and have more help with our babies...and it was painful, we loved our flock. Once we returned home, the kids and I lived with my Mom and Dad until my husband could work a couple of more weeks and get us moved. During that time, when I was still in searing pain, which continued for several more months...,my 2 month old baby girl, developed breathing problems, and almost died before the doctors were able to find what was causing it, a growth growing across her windpipe. She was in Children's Hospital in Birmingham, heavily sedated, while they tried to shrink the growth with Prednisone...the same medicine that had set me on searing fire. This was a tough decision for us...but our backs were to the wall. The medicine worked for a couple of months and then one day I was feeding her and she began having complications. I called the doctor and he urged us to get her back to the hospital immediately in Birmingham, an hour and a half away. She ended up having surgery, a very dangerous one, to remove the growth from her windpipe. Thankfully she didn't have to have the tracheotomy to breathe they thought she was going into the surgery. I was still very sick during this time, and each day was putting one foot in front of the other and surviving for me. My husband went from being a pastor to being in the restaurant business with his family, which honestly I think I thought I was above. But my husband's family had worked hard to help my husband and I during our seminary years, and while we lived on the pastor's salary of a small church. Now we were coming home and GOD was giving us the opportunity to help them. I realize now, that I was prideful about that...the LORD sure has had to work in my heart through the hurricanes HE allowed in our lives to humble me and help me learn to trust HIM and HIS plans for our lives. I remember one night laying in the floor with terrible pain all over my body and my back muscles were literally like bars of iron they were so stiff. My babies were asleep, my husband was at work, and I picked up my "Streams in the Desert" that was lying beside in the floor where I lay in pain. The reading that day talked about GOD bringing us to our "wits end," so that we will cry out to HIM, and HE will show HIMSELF so strong in our lives to rescue and deliver us. Psalm 107:25-31 says,

"For HE commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. Those aboard mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the deeps; their courage melts away because of their plight. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end-all their wisdom has come to nothing. Then they cry out to the LORD in their trouble, and HE brings them out of their distresses. HE hushes the storm to a calm, and HE brings them to their desired haven. Oh, that men would praise the [and confess to] the LORD HIS goodness and loving-kindness, and HIS wonderful works to the children of men!


Some of you are kind to say I have a good outlook through my trials or that I have a strong faith. I don't, always, believe me...I get discouraged just like you. I know what it is for the LORD to "command and raise the stormy wind and lift up the waves of the sea," and for my "courage to melt away because of my plight." I have been to my "wits end" on more than one occasion and it is a humbling place to be. I know this, that my GOD heard my cries to HIM at my "wits end," HE delivered our family from that year of hurricanes, changed forever, and I praise HIM...for HIS deliverances then, and for thousands of times since... yes I do! I am so very grateful for the doctors the LORD raised up to deliver Hannah Beth from suffocating to death and for my dear doctors (www.ehcd.com) that GOD has raised up to help deliver me . Yes, I continue to have a thorn in the flesh, but I am thankful that HE gives me enough struggles to keep me leaning on HIM, and learning that "HIS grace is sufficient and HIS power is made perfect in my weakness,"II Corinthians 12:9. Those strong winds that blew in 1992 helped to blow me closer to my LORD JESUS and grow my faith in HIM. I know those hurricane force winds will come again in our lives. Like the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina three years ago expedited the evacuation efforts and prevented the loss of lives this time, I know the lessons the LORD has taught me in past "hurricanes," will help me to cling to HIM, trust HIM and drive me even closer to HIM the next time... "for I know WHOM I have believed, and am persuaded that HE is able to keep that which I have committed unto HIM against that day." 1Timothy 1:12
As a young pastor's wife, in my foolish pride, I thought I knew everything I needed to know about JESUS, but I didn't know HIM as I know HIM now. I know now, that HE is able to deliver me when there seems to be no way, that HE will make a way, and in the process, reveal HIS sweet love to me. I know now, that HE has plans for me and my family, that I may not understand, but they are "plans for good and not for evil,"Jeremiah 29:11, to fulfill what HE has created each of us to accomplish..."HE who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion,"Phil.1:6. I know now HE is sovereign over everything and HE directs our paths, when we have no idea what HE is up to..."Trust in the LORD with all thine heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge HIM and HE will direct your paths" Proverbs 3:5-6. Now I realize I have only begun to know HIM, and the depth of HIS love for me...a love that gave HIS life on the cross for me,a love that rescues me when I am at my "wits end," a love that draws me to HIM in my "Happy Troubles" and transforms my troubles to give me joy...a joy the world cannot comprehend. I catch glimpses of HIM, and bigger glimpses when HE allows the strong winds to blow in my life....they are indeed "Happy Troubles" that blow me to HIM. These winds of trial have taught me to lean on HIM, my ROCK, my STRONG TOWER, and that indeed HE is faithful to deliver me from all my troubles as it shares in Psalms 34:6, "This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; HE saved HIM out of all his troubles."
After 16 years, we are still in the restaurant business, and GOD has helped me to learn to accept where HE has blown us and be grateful for what HE has supplied through our family to provide our needs. I praise HIM for what HE has worked in our lives through the storms that blow us to HIM to help us love HIM and know HIM more intimately...and I know this, too, I don't want to be caught in the "hurricanes of life, on the stormy seas" without my "LIFE" jacket, JESUS CHRIST. HE is my Deliverer, not just from the storms of life, but more importantly, HE paid the price on Calvary for my sins and yours, to rescue and deliver us from the fiery and everlasting flames of Hell. John 3:16 says, "For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only begotten SON that whosoever believes in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life." I know that this world and it's "storms" are passing away, and my SAVIOR and everlasting life in Heaven awaits me after my journey through earth is over...the storms of life are blowing me to my eternal Destination, safe in the arms of JESUS.

In that devotion that was so spoke to my heart so deeply last Sunday, Charles Spurgeon shared about the"Happy Troubles" that blow us to JESUS:

"In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father's arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with troubles so pressing and so peculiar, that he cannot tell them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them; for he will learn more of his Lord then than at any other time.
Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that drives thee to thy Father! Now that thou hast only thy God to trust to, see that thou puttest thy full confidence in Him. Dishonour not thy Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand worlds to thee. Show rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper. Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness when underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord thy God shall certainly, as surely as He built the heavens and the earth, glorify Himself in thy weakness, and magnify His might in the midst of thy distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. "

Reading this devotion got me to thinking about indeed how happy my troubles have been when they have blown me to the arms of my dear SAVIOR. I forget in the midst of my trials sometime that this trouble I'm experiencing is the very thing that my FATHER is using to blow me closer to HIM...so therefore it is "A Happy Trouble."

When my brothers and sister and I were growing up, my Dad and Mom took us to church each Sunday morning. Often, my Mom did not feel like going due to her own battles with her chronic health issues that began when she was pregnant with me and continue to this day...but often she went anyway, and then fixed a big meal for lunch afterwards. My Mom and Dad knew the force of those hurricane winds that blew when my Mom had to spend six months in a hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, when I was four. With seven mouths to feed, one breadwinner, and money "taking wings" for medical bills, my Dad and Mom learned that GOD was faithful to our family, as HE supplied all our needs in CHRIST JESUS. One of my favorite songs I learned growing up in that Methodist church we attended was "The Solid Rock." JESUS is the Solid Rock and I know that my ANCHOR, JESUS CHRIST, has held me and my family in the midst of our hurricanes and stormy seas, and HE will continue to until HE takes us home to be with HIM where there won't be any more storms.

Well, I don't know if my husband has found the "Happy" part of me crashing into my nephew's car yet...but somewhere GOD is using it for good. Maybe it just happened to use for this week's email:)...I'm so sorry, Daniel, for crashing your car. Thank you for the grace you have shown me. Thankfully, GOD doesn't waste any of our troubles, including me crashing my nephew's new sports car...and I am very happy about that.

With all HIS love,

mitzi

Thank you, my dear friends for your birthday wishes to me. Your emails, writing on my "wall", and your cards encouraged me so much. What a dear blessing you are to me...thank you, each one of you, for showing GOD's love to me on my birthday...and by the way, thank you so much for asking me to pray for you, I count it an honor and a privilege to lift you and your requests up to the LORD.





"The Solid Rock" by Edward Mote

My hope is built on nothing less than JESUS' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on JESUS' name.

When darkness seems to hide HIS face, I rest on HIS unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale, my ANCHOR hold within the veil.

His oath, HIS covenant, HIS blood Supports me in the whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way, HE then is all my hope and stay.

When HE shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in HIM be found;
Dressed in HIS righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.

Chorus:
On CHRIST the solid ROCK, I stand All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.