It’s been a long time since I wrote anything on this blog. I recently began collaborating with some other women to write a book about being entrepreneurs and it inspired me to think about writing again. I’ve been asking God to help me to start again as I wasn’t really getting anything to share with you until today.

If you know me, you know I hate to exercise. However, I’ve been on a journey for over 3.5 years now to get healthier. I’ve reduced toxins in my life, lost weight and the last piece was to get moving. I’ve always joked that exercise is over-rated. It just gives you another year or so in a nursing home. However, I decided to change that negative thought and I signed up to walk in our local walking club sponsored by the local Y. Today was my first day.

As I was walking, I was looking around at the parking lot we were walking through and thinking about life. The first thing I quickly noticed was a bunch of goose poop everywhere. They have always had geese living around the shopping center because it has a pond feature in the front. As I pondered the situation in the parking lot, I was struck with a thought. There is going to be a lot of “poop” that gets in your way in life. You can walk through it and life gets messy. Or, you can just walk around it and keep pushing on. Thank you God for the reminder.

Then there was a big pothole in the road. I thought wow! If I weren’t paying attention, I might have fallen into that and hurt myself. Then I felt a gentle nudge…pay attention. Know where you’re going and don’t get lost down some rabbit hole. They usually waste a lot of our time and sometimes we can get hurt.

There was trash around the edges of the parking lot and my first reaction was to get angry. Then I started thinking about the ones that threw it there. Could it be that no one has ever told them not to do that? Just like someone who sins. Rather than being angry, maybe I should pray for them. So I took a minute and prayed for those who “know not what they do.”

They gave me a map to follow at the beginning of the walk but I don’t do well with maps. Thank goodness for GPS’s since I’m a realtor in a town where I didn’t always live. If I had to follow a map, I’d be broke. After I looked at it for a minute, I just decided to go my own way. In my mind if I walked for 1/2 hour, it didn’t matter if I was walking the right course or not. However, I was once again convicted. Not because I couldn’t read the map but this thought came to me. Have I been reading my Bible enough and do I understand the path God wants for me? The Bible truly is God’s tool to guide and direct my path. I need to spend more time there rather than taking my own way. It always ends best when I listen to Him instead of winging it.

I was almost done with my walk and was rounding the last building when I ran into two geese. Whoops. I guess I really was on the wrong path as they flapped their wings at me. I had gotten too close to the nest. It scared me to death. It spoke to me though.

I’ve been seeing so many things going on in our world lately. I recently thought to myself, I’m so glad I’m not raising kids in this world. However, I know that if the kids are here, God has appointed their days and has a path for them too. These geese taught me that we need to stand up for our children and grandchildren and protect them from the dangers lurking. Over the years, I tried to teach my kids that family is everything. When the world goes mad, we still have family. We should love them, fight for them and be strengthened by them.

There were times on the journey today where I was obviously going against the grain. Everyone was walking one way and I was walking the opposite direction. I stood out like a sore thumb that I obviously couldn’t read a map. The Lord reminded me that the path He puts me on may not always be the most popular but I need to keep going anyway.

I think there might have been a good reason why my friends couldn’t go with me today. God had ordained the morning for just He and I.

There are so many life lessons if we watch and wait for God to show us. I’m blessed to serve a God who calls me His daughter, I’m in His family. He gives me His Word to guide my paths and if I pay attention, He will keep me from getting myself in a mess or even getting hurt. As I headed to the car, I saw a beautiful pear tree full of blooms. I thought about how beautiful it was and then reflected on my life. No matter where I’ve been, what I’ve done…even the things I did and knew were wrong, He loves me as His child. He’ll protect me, fight for me and defend me. He makes all things beautiful.

Romans 8:28 (NKJV) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

I’ve often toyed with the idea of writing my cancer journey in a book. My thought has always been, “That’s not fun enough! No one wants to hear about my struggles.” However, after reading Michele Cushatt’s book, Undone, I realize that being real about our struggles is a great encouragement to those in the battle. None of us like to hear of one’s sufferings, but boy is it wonderful when someone clings to God and can witness His goodness through it all no matter how ugly it might get. I love Michele’s unwavering faith in her statement, “The day cancer showed up in my life, God showed up bigger.”

We all have our struggles and shortcomings in life, don’t we? What if, when we were faced with a not-so-pleasant situation, we remembered Michele’s quote, “Just because something is hard, doesn’t mean we’re not called to it…And just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean it’s not good.”

So many times as we go through the refining fires, we get angry with God and life and want everyone to feel sorry for our problems. However, if we can hold onto the promises of God and keep our eyes on Him, things change. God allows us these times in our lives where we feel undone so that we can once again be reminded of the beauty of our lives even when nothing is going right.

Michele’s words immediately took me to a place of my own struggles and revelations during my cancer battle. She was describing attending a Christmas Eve service when she said, “I’d been given a second chance at life. The opportunity to live better, love more. I wanted to slow the service, hold each moment like a jewel in my hand, turn over the sights and sounds and marvel at the sparkle and shine. Facing the reality of death does this to a person. It transforms the routine into something of the miraculous. It turns handholding into a moment of magic. An organist’s music into the songs of angels. The faces of your children into the makings of history.”

Thank you, Michele, for the reminder to live better, love more, and not take routine for granted. Thanks for your authenticity. Thank you for sharing your journey with us as an encouragement that even when everything about life seems to be “undone,” God is there.

If you haven’t read this book yet, do it today. This is not a typical blog for me, but once you read the book, you will understand and be glad I said something. In the meantime, please continue to lift Michelle in your prayers. She is in the heat of battle of yet another round of cancer.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37-39 NIV)