...to live is Christ....

Mom continues to struggle. She will have several difficult days, then she'll have a couple of good ones. It's interesting that it's on the days that she's feeling better, someone will call and want to come visit. It's on those days that she once again takes up the mantle, searches God's heart, and speaks to those before her the message she feels He wants her to share. Last night was a bad night..... I think every night when she goes to bed she hopes it will be her last. I think she's disappointed when she wakes up the next morning ("disappointed" not disgruntled-she's ready to continue life where she can sing with the angels, but willing to continue ministry here for as long as God wills it). Each day when she wakes up, it has been dictated by the Lord and she greets the day anticipating the reason for her life. Wow..... On a normal day, I anticipate what is scheduled before me, what responsibilities are mine, what preparations on this day I need to make for the next. Sometimes the Lord has to smack me in the face (figuratively, of course) to get me to recognize ministry opportunities. Every day, I miss chances to live Christ before those around me. Little things like courtesy when I drive, patience while I wait, unselfishness with selfish people, love that's undeserved, joyfulness in difficult situations exist so God can use me to reflect Him. Yes.... I fear my reflective mirror is a bit clouded and smudged. And the fact is, I keep it angled toward myself so much that the times when He is reflected are few.... Back in the day when Michael Jordan was a big deal, there was a phrase that was going around, "I wanna be like Mike!" And kids would dress like him, imitate him, practice to be like him. I want to be like Christ. And yet, for too many mundane hours of each day I look nothing like Him.... Daddy would be proud of Mama. She is courageous, loving and committed to the One they served so faithfully together; the One she now continues to serve until....one breath on earth, the next by Daddy's side before the God they love.