From Ordinary to Extraordinary

For where two or three are gathered

together in my name,

there am I in the midst of them.

Matthew 18:20

Today started out like any other day...but God put something extraordinary right in the middle of an ordinary day. The dictionary defines ordinary as "normal; having no special or distinctive features". When I read the meaning I couldn't help but ask myself if any day is really ordinary? When I stop and study that a little while, I would have to say no, our days are not ordinary. They may be "normal" in a sense that we have our routines and we go about our days in somewhat the same fashion as other days. We want them to be normal in the sense that we don't want to be sick, we want our families safe and sound. We long for normalcy in the midst of pain. We long for routine in the midst of things changing. But when I looked deeper at the meaning and saw that it said ordinary meant having no special or distinctive features, I knew that none of our days should be ordinary. Every day is extraordinary. The key for me is looking for it. Oh, it's always there, the extraordinary, waiting patiently for us to see it and find it and grasp it and love it and soak it up and share it. Today was extraordinary. I saw it. I felt it. I experienced it. I want you to experience it with me.  

My mom had an appointment to get a mammogram today. She is 18 years cancer free, Praise Jesus, and today was her yearly exam. Having had breast cancer myself, I know all too well that this day brings about nerves and fears and doubts and flashbacks and memories of a time that was both hard and painful, but beautiful and incredible. God changed my Momma through her journey and He changed me through mine. But this doesn't mean we don't get scared we're going to have to relive it again. I often tell people that I wouldn't trade my breast cancer journey for anything and some don't understand it. But God worked in my life in such ways that I cannot explain it. I saw His extraordinary goodness and grace daily. There have been times I've not felt the same way as I did then. At that time in my life I was so dependent upon God to walk with me, and talk with me and show me His goodness and grace in each day that I was looking for Him in everything I did, everything I saw, every place I visited, every person I met. It's easy to become complacent when you walk out of the journey healed and at times I've found it harder to see Him as much. But it's me...it's ALWAYS me! Why...because I settle for the ordinary. I no longer look and anticipate and wait for the extraordinary. Oh, I long for the extraordinary. There's nothing like it and once you've experienced the extraordinary things given by God, ordinary just isn't enough anymore. But I was reminded today that all I have to do is open my eyes and He will be there. He will show me. Psalm 33:5 says, "the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord".

So my mom and I arrive at the imaging center this morning for her mammogram, and they tell her that they have no orders from the doctor and that it will be a while. They have placed a phone call to her doctor for the orders, but they cannot take her back until they receive these orders. She comes over and sits down with me and our first reaction is, "well, great, how long will this take". Now one of the reasons this is a first response is because when you get to the appointment, you are so ready just to go in there and get the results, no matter what they are. Waiting is hard. Of course, the other reason for this reaction is because we tend to be impatient and we want what we want right now. :) We notice this man and woman sitting over a little bit from us to our right and she has heard the nurse tell my mom that her orders are not there. The lady, who is Louise, says the same thing has happened to her today. She is five years out beyond breast cancer and is there for a mammogram also, but her orders are not there either. Yes, different doctors, same problem. So we begin a conversation with them and learn a little about her story. When we found out she has been cancer free for five years, we say, "Praise the Lord", because we know...we get it...it's a huge Praise to God that we are all sitting in there sharing the same journey, serving a God who chose to heal us all for this moment, for this time, for His purpose. The man said, "Yes, you said the right thing; you said Praise the Lord and all Praise goes to Him". Three words. Praise. The. Lord. Three powerful words. Three words that began a worship session right in the middle of the doctor's office. Three words that turned an ordinary day into an extraordinary moment.

They called Ms. Louise back for her mammogram and we visited a while longer with her husband, who was a pastor. He pretty much preached and we worshiped the Lord right there in the waiting room. We talked and had fellowship as if no one else was around us, and the place was packed. They called Momma to the back and we hated to leave. This man was such a blessing to both of us, and we told him. God ordained this specific time for us to meet each other. I always say I do not believe in coincidences, but I most certainly believe in Godincidences, and that is what this was. 

While waiting on Momma to finish her mammogram, I got to visit with Ms. Louise again. She got a good report today, but she is quite nervous because she sees a doctor on Friday about a place on her lung. She's had two brothers and a sister pass away from lung cancer and I could tell she is scared. When she came out of the dressing room, I got up to hug her. I told her I would pray for her and that I would ask my family to pray also. So please pray for Ms. Louise on Friday. She didn't know the way out so I walked her to the door. I opened the door and gave her husband the thumbs up sign and told him we would be praying. This is the moment that is hard to explain...hard to put into words. Ms. Louise stopped walking, turned around and it was as if light just lit up around her entire body. She was surrounded in light. She was beautiful. She turned back to me and blew me a kiss and said, "I love you". I cannot begin to tell you how I felt inside. It was as if she were an angel. God was there in that very moment. He was in our midst and He put us together as if we were family. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 18:1, "After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself". The connection with David and Jonathan was a spiritual connection, a kindred connection, just like we had today. Friends, only God could knit people together so closely in such a short time. Only God.

When Ms. Louise turned back to me and blew me a kiss and I saw light surrounding her entire being, I knew this was an extraordinary moment. Deuteronomy 33:12 says, "Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for He shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders". This is what I saw. I could see Ms. Louise resting on the chest of Jesus. He's got her in his arms, just as He does you and me. What a beautiful picture God gives us in this scripture. Our Heavenly Father carrying us and holding us to his chest. Oh how He loves us. He loves us enough to give us moments like this. He loves us enough to change an ordinary moment into an extraordinary experience. We just have to look for it.

What started out being a delay that had us aggravated turned out to be such a blessing in so many ways, one that I won't soon forget. Hebrews 13:1-2 says, "Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels". You never know when or why God will put a special messenger in your path. He put one in our path today and I am grateful my eyes and heart were open to see it. Look for Him...He's always there, carrying you close to His chest just waiting to turn an ordinary day into an extraordinary moment.

I love you all,

Kacey

Facing our Fears

For the Joy of the Lord is 

your strength.

Nehemiah 8:10

I've been struggling for weeks knowing the Lord wanted me to write, but not knowing what it was He wanted me to write about. I kept asking Him to give me something - a story, a joke, anything - until it dawned on me that I have a story. It's Jesus. Jesus is my story everyday, I just may not hear or see Him the way I'm supposed to. But always know this...if I don't hear or see Him, it's because of me, not Him. He never moves, never leaves, never forsakes us.

I was sitting in the doctor's office a couple of weeks ago awaiting my yearly mammogram. For those of you that don't know, I have had breast cancer and just recently came off all medication treatment and was officially labeled as a breast cancer survivor, rather than a patient with breast cancer. That was a wonderful day! At first I went every three months, then every six, now every year. As time wore on, it got easier to become complacent. Now don't misunderstand me, it's always nerve-wracking, the what-ifs always in the back of my mind. But, the more I heard, "everything looks great", the easier it was to become comfortable and, well, complacent. This last time, though, I was in the waiting area with my mom, thinking about where we would go for lunch afterwards, when the nurse came through and very casually said, "I think we're going to have to ultrasound you today", and kept walking. I cannot begin to tell you all that went through my mind in just seconds. See, when they come out after a mammogram and want to do an ultrasound it means they see something they're not happy with. So the sweet, sweet girl that does the ultrasound came and got us (my mom went with me) and did the ultrasound. I know her and she tries her best to make it less scary and routine. However, in those moments, I relived the day I was diagnosed with cancer and all the years of radiation and treatment in between...in moments...like a slideshow in my mind of every hurdle, every tear, every moment spent waiting. What didn't cross my mind at the time was all the moments of Jesus I experienced...all the answered prayers, all the great news, all the battles won and the victories achieved all by the grace of God. I was told that day the area was most likely benign and was scar tissue and they would check it again in six months. Whew! It was only afterwards that I saw all I should have seen the moment they said the word "ultrasound". I panicked. I froze. I was full of fear. Instead of being full of peace and joy and the knowledge that God was with me no matter the outcome, I did the opposite and became full of fear.

Fear.  I hate that word. I hate the feeling. I hate everything about fear. It's a giant in my life right now...a paralyzing, gripping, crippling fear at times. Instead of being ashamed, I want to write about it and talk about it because this is where I'm struggling. Maybe writing about my feelings and about what I'm trying to do about it and really looking at what God says about it will help you, too. Psalm 18:28-30 says, "You, LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. As for God, His way is perfect. The LORD's word is flawless; He shields all who take refuge in him." (NIV) When I talk about fear in my life right now, it's not one specific thing - it's a lot of things. Because it's a lot of things, I feel like it's a giant in front of me - always there, always hard to get around, impossible to defeat. Of course, I can't help but think about David and Goliath in the Bible. Goliath was a giant and David was a scrawny little thing, the youngest son of Jesse, a shepherd boy. But the Bible tells us that David would kill the lions and the bears that grabbed the sheep and he would rescue the sheep. David had a heart for God. He volunteered to go up against Goliath. David says in 1 Samuel 17:37, "The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of the Philistine. Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you." And he did it! He killed Goliath! He defeated the giant before him. But make no mistake here, David didn't do it in his own strength; he did it with God's strength! And when I read this story and hear the words that David said, I don't hear fear in him. I don't hear worry. He doesn't seem paralyzed by fear, or want to run and hide. He wanted to run toward Goliath. I've asked myself why and it's because he was full of the confidence of God being with him. He was certain beyond a doubt that God would take care of him. I even believe he thought if he died trying to defeat Goliath that it was God's will and he was okay with it. This, right here, is what I need to tell myself every minute of every day if I have to. Because here's the thing...God's in charge, not me. I want more than anything else in my life, with everything in my being to be in the will of God. This being so, it would stand to reason that my life would be full of joy and peace instead of fear. But see, satan is very real and he knows he can use this against me. He has a way of creeping into our minds and before we know it we're sitting in a place of fear asking ourselves what happened to our joy and peace. Matthew 19:26 says, "But Jesus looked at them and said to them, 'With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." That's a promise straight from our Almighty God - all things are possible with God, not just some things, ALL things. That's cause for shoutin'!

So all these things I worry about - safety of my children and family, sickness, all the things that seem silly when I read God's word - He's got it. John 12:46 says, "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." We should never be in darkness, and fear is dark, no matter what that fear is. Matthew 6:27 says, "And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" I think about this and know it in my heart, but boy is it hard some days. But I don't want to spend the days I have in fear, but rather in celebration and joy because of all Jesus has done for us. Because the bottom line is this...if we know the Lord as our Savior, we are only passing through this life. Our lives truly begin when we get to eternity. James 4:14 tells us, "Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." We're not here for long in the scheme of eternity, so why waste it in fear? That's not what God wants for us. Our job is to tell as many people as we can about the Heaven that God has prepared for us if we know Him. We are to get others so excited about it, that fear vanishes. Jesus came to this earth and died for us so that we can live with Him forever. Our time here on earth is fleeting, but it is to be lived to the fullest in Jesus. He can fill us with a peace that nothing or no one can ever fill. Psalm 144:4 says, "Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow." Compared to eternity, it's a blink of the eye. I don't want to spend my future in fear, do you? We don't have to. We may not know the future, but we can know the God who does. 

What I've realized is that living in fear is exhausting. However, God gives us such hope and tells us over and over again in His word not to fear because He is with us always. He put it in His word so much because He knew we would need to hear it. When I read the promises God gives us, that fear starts to diminish...I start to feel a peace come over me that I know are the arms of God. He's our father, our daddy, wanting to protect us in all things. He doesn't want to see us hurting. One day, that trumpet's gonna sound and the eastern sky is gonna part and Jesus will descend to call His children home. At that point we'll stroll hand in hand with our Savior through Heaven, singing and praising Him, visiting with our loved ones, in a place that's too beautiful for us to fathom. The sun will always shine and fear will never be an emotion we ever feel again. When we look at it like this, why would we ever fear when God is on our side? Just like David, let's run this race with the confidence that because God is with us, fear has no place in our lives. Let's look toward the big celebration we'll have in Heaven when we get there. 

So I say all this, and I"m thankful that God has given me these words today, because the more we can talk about it and encourage each other, the better we will be. The more we read God's word and brand these verses into our minds, the less room there will be for fear. Joshua 1:9 says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." God commands us to be strong and to not be afraid. The joy of the Lord is our strength says Nehemiah! Joy is our strength...not fear. I want to be the kind of woman that is so full of God and have so much of Jesus in me that satan is too afraid to approach me. I want him to know better than to mess with me because whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. I'm a child of the King and so are you, so let's straighten up our crowns and walk on!

I love you all,

Kacey