Yesterday, two friends and I started texting back and forth. As usual, the texts got funnier and funnier. That usually happens with these two. (Audrey and Jami)

Jami and Robert were on the road from Texas to West Virginia for a funeral. They have been working in the area that was devastated by the recent flood. It hasn't been an easy time for them, and on the way home she sent this picture with the caption, "Meanwhile I am on a never ending road." (They had been on the road since 4:30 AM. It was well up into the day and they were STILL in Texas!)

I wrote back with words of comfort, since I was sitting in my warm little barn enjoying looking out at the snow! I said, "Oh dear! No you aren't!! This too shall pass! Just like you are passing that semi right now!"  (Easy for me to say!)

After this long, drawn-out, and funny bantering back and forth between Audrey and Jami and me, I could not quit thinking about Jami on that long long road...with only Robert for company (Another joke).

I decided to look up scripture about the road ahead. If you want a good Bible study, you might want to do the same. I only picked a few to mention here today.

Philippians 3:13-14 talks about forgetting the past and pressing on toward the goal.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says to trust in the Lord for direction on your path.

Isaiah 30:21 encourages with...whether you turn to the right or left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way. Walk in it!" (sounds like the Mandalorian, for you STAR WARS fans!)

Psalm 119:105 tells us that His Word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path.

Proverbs 16:9 reminds us that we can plan, but God establishes our steps.

Psalm 25:4-5 asks God to show us His ways and teach us His paths.

There are many more, and I encourage you to read them all. Don't just read them, but take them to heart! I believe one of my favorites, though, is Job 22:28 (And if you don't know what Job went through, read that book!). 

"You will succeed in whatever you choose to do and light will shine on the road ahead of you." I love the idea of a light shining on the road ahead (also in Psalm 119).

Finally, Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 talks about two being better than one, because if one falls the other can pick him up! Don't you love that? 

Sometimes a note in the mail is a "pick-me-up!" Sometimes it's a phone call or a text. Sometimes it's just a smile to a stranger you pass in the soup aisle in the store.

We are all on a journey. We all face a long road ahead of us. Sometimes that road is boring, and sometimes it is filled with wonder. Whatever road you are presently on, keep looking for that LIGHT and listening for the VOICE saying, "This is the way."

And don't worry if you fall or somehow get off track. Lots of people are waiting to pick you up and point you in the right direction. Safe travels!

Strange names, aren't they? These are names right out of the book of Jeremiah. Johanan was an officer in the army who came to Jeremiah the prophet and said, "Please pray to the Lord the God for us. As you know we are only a tiny remnant compared to what we were before. Beg the Lord your God to show us what to do and where to go."

"All right," Jeremiah replied, "I will pray to the Lord your God, and I will tell you everything He says. I will hide nothing from you."

Then they (Johanan and his officers) said to Jeremiah, "May the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever He tells us to do! Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we send you with our plea. For if we obey him, everything will turn out well for us." (Jeremiah 42)

What follows is a long reply from the Lord that He delivers through Jeremiah. Read this reply in the rest of chapter 42.

Now we skip to chapter 43. This is what Johanan and a bunch of other men replied.

"You lie! The Lord our God hasn't forbidden us to go to Egypt! (verse 2)"

Now skip to verse 7.

"The people refused to obey the Lord and went to Egypt."

Skip on down to Chapter 44 verse 7.

"And now the Lord God Almighty the God of Israel asks you: why are you destroying yourselves? For not one of you will survive—not a man, woman or child among you who has come here from Judah..."

First of all, I think it is telling that in the first part of this story Johanan refers to the Lord as the Lord THE God and the Lord YOUR God. Then he changes it to the Lord OUR God. 

It made me wonder how many times I have said to the Lord MY God, "Tell me exactly what You want me to do, and I'll do it." Then, I turn around and do just the opposite. Help me MY Lord, to learn from Johanan. Help me to "stay out of Egypt" if you are telling me not to go.

​(Of course if you are telling me TO go, may I be quick to obey!)

​Yesterday, Tommy and I went to the store. We saw two people who looked to be about my age (85) working at checkout. One obviously had some sort of problem that caused her to have to sit on a stool to check out customers.

As we left the store, we passed two young people standing on the side of the road begging. This is a common sight in our town, and probably in yours as well.

I am questioning my "good intentions" and have been for quite some time. What do you think?

*two books good for thought:  "Toxic Charity" and "Charity Detox" by Robert D. Lupton

​For many years we have been sponsoring children through Compassion International. We also have children from Hippo Valley Mission in Zimbabwe. We used to sponsor through World Vision, but they stopped mentioning Jesus in their brochures.  

We choose children for different reasons. Some are chosen because they are older. Not as many older children are chosen, because the younger ones are so cute!

We get a new batch of children each month. If someone doesn't choose them, sometimes there is one who stands out to us, and we take them on.

That happened this month. One of the children is named Patricia. As soon as we saw this cutie, we said, "if no one takes her, she is ours!" No one did, so we now have another Patricia in our family!

This happens quite a bit when we go to churches looking for sponsors. It happened in Ohio a while back. Tommy and John boy were in a church and as they usually do, they put the sponsorship packets on the pews. There were two men in that church who were best friends, and had gone to that church all their lives. They always sat in the same pew together. Their names were Pete and Eugene.

After church, they came up to Tommy and John boy and said they wanted to sponsor a child. The guys told them that was great. Then they told them why they wanted to sponsor him. The child's name was Peter Eugene, and his packet was lying on the pew between them—Pete and Eugene!

​I have probably written about this before but I think it deserves repeating since we have had discussions on the topic for the past few days with a good friend.

A lot of these discussions centered around the verse of scripture in Romans 8:14-17 in the Message Bible.

I know it is easy to tell someone else what to do and even to plan someone else's life (which I have been known to try and do!). However, as the Bible says in Psalm 37:25, "once I was young but now I am old."

The Message says, "I was once young, now I am a graybeard."

​Ha! I like that!  

Since I am in that OLD category now, I think I may have picked up a few things along the way.

When troubles come (and they will), and when the answers seem to be doing everything they can to hide from you, the best thing you can do is seek help in the Bible. Not from friends or relatives or books, and certainly not from me!

Having said that, I am going to give advice here, and it is indeed from the Bible. When you have no idea where to turn or what the answer is, and the Lord seems to be silent, guess what? He has already given you all you need in His Word. So now, turn to the scripture I told you about in Romans 8.  

"God's Spirit beckons! There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike 'what's next Papa?' " 

Most of our ministry has been spent hauling "stuff." John thomas and Tommy have written several musicals through the years and all of them have lots and lots of props. Those props have to be loaded into the car, unloaded at the church where we perform, loaded back into the car after the show, and finally unloaded back at the house.

We run into many of our "old" friends at the churches where we unload all these props. When I say old, I include Tommy and myself in that category. As I help carry heavy equipment and Rubbermaids™ full of props, I see many of those old friends coming in to watch our show. I see them come in on walkers, using canes, in wheelchairs, and on oxygen.  

As I lug that "stuff" into the church building, I wonder why Tommy and I aren't using all those accessories. Maybe we will eventually, but for now, we just keep hauling.

​We like the tv series "All Creatures Great and Small." If you haven't seen it, it's  a true story about a Veterinarian in England. I have read all the books, and we have watched all the series that are out to this point.

Last night, there was a scene where the housekeeper went to the green grocer to get lettuce. The senior Vet has been a real pain to some people in town, including the grocer. When the housekeeper asks for lettuce, he hands her the most wilted, rotten looking one in the bunch.

We were talking about that this morning. John boy said the scene made the grocer as much of a jerk as the vet. If he had "heaped coals of fire" on the senior vet's head, he would have looked much more noble (Romans 12:20 and Proverbs 25:22).

I have to admit that my usual reaction to someone who is hateful is to be hateful back. It seems as if that is the practice these days. Yell at me, and I'll just yell louder.  

What if those of us who claim to be followers of Christ tried always to return evil with good and to give a "soft answer" which "turns away wrath?"  (Proverbs 15:1.) Why, we might just think we had already started living in heaven!

"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on EARTH, as it is in Heaven." 

Wow! Heaven here on this earth! What a wonderful thought!