|
Take - Are We Going Somewhere?
|
Take – Are We Going Somewhere?
Matt 20:22
“You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" NIV
When God nudges us to take a new or unfamiliar yoke, we usually don’t know what we are getting into. Often, after tentatively accepting a yoke, when reality sets in, we wonder what we could have been thinking. People occasionally ask to travel with me on a Pocket Full of Quarters journey. When they ask to come, I cringe. Not because I don’t want company but because I know that they don’t really know what they are asking.
When people ask to travel with me, I do my best to warn them about what to expect. I explain that I don’t sleep much and since Halleluiah is small, they probably won’t either. I mention the bugs, snakes, spiders, lumpy beds, black water holding tanks, and mechanical problems. I remind them that while we will see beautiful sights, this is not a vacation. I even share my shower horror stories. I firmly say this will be a working trip and that they are expected to participate in the ministry. You’d think that would scare everyone off yet some occasionally are still gluttons for punishment.
Monday morning October 1, 2007 marked the dawning of The Divine Adventures of a Yahweh Sisterhood. Christian author and speaker Barbara Gobbs (www.barbaragobbs.com) and I left Jacksonville, Florida for the final leg of the 2007 journey – back to Phoenix, Arizona.
I met Barbara and her husband Bob the very first Sunday I visited North Phoenix Baptist Church. I wasn’t particularly thrilled with meeting her because that Divine Encounter helped me realize that God was probably going to make me move to Phoenix. I was still whining about the possibility of a cross-country move and when I met her, I knew God was sending me a gift to make his unpopular instructions more palatable. Not only was Barbara a Christian speaker and author, she also owned a house in Jacksonville, Florida and had left a daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter behind when her husband also dragged her to the scorching hot desert. That first hot Sunday in September, Bob and I walked into a Sunday School class in this mega church and sat right down beside a couple that had the same names as Bob’s parents, Bob and Barbara. Like us, Bob and Barbara missed Jacksonville and their family and planned to return there someday.
A few months ago, Barbara asked about tagging along and even after all of my warnings, she still wanted to come. Barbara is a “girly girl” and I had trouble picturing her dirty or in the shower with spiders. I suspected she would back out and when she admitted that she had never actually camped, I really thought she would change her mind. As the day approached, my excitement grew. It looked like I would have a traveling companion. I e-mailed her that we needed a name for our adventures and she suggested The Divine Adventures of a Yahweh Sisterhood. I love a good name.
I picked Barbara up at 6:45 AM. Neither of us is a morning woman, but since I had to drop Bob off at the Jacksonville airport at 5:45 AM, the yoke of an early morning was thrust upon us. She was ready right on time and we raced to the car in the pouring rain. We began our adventure by praying together and as we drove off, I noticed her damp hair. I had never seen a hair out of place and wondered if she was really ready to drink from this particular cup.
“Barbara,” I asked. “What made you ask to come?”
“I wanted to stretch my skin,” she said. “I know my calling is different than yours but I thought I’d grow from this experience.”
It didn’t take me long to realize how much Barbara was going add to the trip. When I talk with and listen to people, I can quote scripture but can never remember the scripture reference. Several times already, Barbara has chimed in with chapter and verse. She quickly figured out the tricky combination that makes living in Halleluiah bearable and when we stop or start, she goes into gear opening or closing curtains or moving cushions, tables, or suitcases. She can actually manage to keep up with things like keys, ear buds, flashlights, and receipts and, like me, she can find humor in almost everything. Barbara is a fabulous navigator. I’d been in the car for less then 2 hours and I knew this sisterhood was going to work.
So far, Barbara and I have encouraged a cocaine addict to find the courage to get back into church even though she feared the church’s judgment. We prayed with and ministered to a Christian man who was turning to Indian religion and Wicca in search of a cure for his terminal illness. We walked through a zoo chatting with a lonely construction worker who no longer went to church. We quoted scripture, encouraged, and gave the plan of salvation to a motor cycle riding recovering alcoholic who had long ago abandoned his Christian faith and religion. We met and ministered to a discouraged Christian woman still reeling from losing her son in a car accident and have offered encouragement and blessings to many more as we have laughed, prayed, studied, and written our way across seven states.
Life has not been without its struggles for The Divine Adventures of a Yahweh Sisterhood. Barbara returned from the shower the first morning with dripping wet hair.
“Cheryle,” she said. “We have a problem. Either your hair dryer doesn’t work or their plug is broken. I think God is laughing his head off.” If you know anything about women, you know that a broken hair dryer is a true emergency. Thankfully, the problem was their plugs. The day was saved when Barbara was able to use the outlet inside Halleluiah to dry her hair.
During a picnic lunch, God tested Barbara’s faith by sending us swarms of Daddy Long Legs Spiders. While they are extremely poisonous, their mouth is too small to bite (so I’ve been told). Not reassured, Barbara said, “With my luck, I’ll find the one deformed spider that has a large mouth.”
Later that night, we discovered one of them had hitched a ride in Halleluiah. Barbara quietly said, “Cheryle, I have a favor to ask. We have a friend that I need you to remove.” I looked over my head to find a giant Daddy Long Legs crawling along the ceiling. Not wanting to hurt him, I got a paper towel and gently tried to capture him. I came away with a long leg and no spider. Our “friend” had escaped and Barbara had visions of him climbing on our faces in the middle of the night asking for his leg. We wondered how spiders sought revenge. A few minutes later, Mr. Long Legs appeared limping across my pillow. Knowing Barbara wouldn’t sleep if I missed him again, I decided to take no prisoners. I grabbed the paper towel containing the missing legs and swooped him up. As I dropped him outside, I whispered a prayer that he was only stunned.
When Barbara went to sleep before me, I had to open the cabinet above her to get my pajamas out. Halleluiah loves to welcome new guests by throwing things at them and when the third thing had hit the sleeping Barbara, she raised a sleepy head and asked what I was doing.
I answered, “I’m throwing things at you.”
She mumbled, “I’m sure it was done in love,” and dropped her head back to the pillow.
One night, when I finally finished writing, I decided to check Halleluiah’s battery. He had some kind of problem that involved batteries and converters and when I took him to the camper hospital, they performed surgery and removed the converter. Unfortunately ordering the part took longer than I had so they sent me home with instructions to have the camper hospital in Phoenix order and transplant a new one into Halleluiah. The result was that that the battery gradually drains down when we’re plugged in and I have to start the car to charge it. That night, when I checked the battery, we were down to one dot of power. I worried that starting the engine would wake the slumbering Barbara but knew the blaring low battery alarm would wake us both.
When I started the engine, Barbara raised her head and asked, “Are we going somewhere?”
When we take the yoke of Jesus, we will go somewhere. This yoke finds Barbara faithfully serving God by sleeping with spiders in Oklahoma City. It has taken me away from my family and to all 50 states. Jesus’ yoke will take that recovering cocaine addict back to church and the recovering alcoholic into a heaven unlike anything he could ever imagine. The journey with Jesus is thrilling, frightening, humorous, fun, and more rewarding than any route we could ever take by ourselves. When we ask to ride along with Jesus, we may not know what we are asking or where we are going but the journey will never be disappointing.
|
|