Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Significance




This personalize scripture art created by Stephanie Spencer over at Everyday Awe... fits what I read this morning in a book by Joni Eareckson Tada titled, "Glorious Intruder." The chapter was on Significance, Believing God Will Use Me. 
What I want to do is post the whole chapter since God has gifted Joni to write something so life changing  I know it will touch your heart.

  Every morning Connie opens Diane's bedroom door to begin the long routine of exercising and bathing her severely paralyzed friend.
  The sun's rays slant through the blinds, washing the room in a soft, golden glow.  The folds of the covers haven't even moved since Connie pulled them up around Diane the night before.  Yet she can tell her friend has been awake for awhile.
  "Are you ready to get up yet?"
   "No...not yet," comes a weak reply from under the covers. 
   Connie sighs, smiles, and clicks shut the door.
  The story is the same each dawn of every new day at Connie and Diane apartment.  The routine rarely changes.  Sunrise stretches into mid-morning by the time Diane is ready to sit up in her wheel-chair.  But those long hours in bed are significance. In her quiet sanctuary, Diane turns her head slightly on the pillow toward the cork board on the wall.  Her eyes scan each thumb-tacked card and list.  Each photo. Each torn piece of paper carefully pinned in a row.  The stillness is broken as Diane begins to murmur.  She is praying.
  Some would look at Diane--stiff and motionless--and shake their heads.  She has to be fed everything, pushed everywhere.  The creeping limitations of multiple sclerosis encroach further each year. Her fingers are curled and rigid.  Her voice is barely a whisper.  People might look at her and say, "What a same. Her life has no meaning. She can't really do anything. "
  But Diane is confident, convinced her life is significant.  Her labor of prayer counts.
  She moves mountains that block the paths of missionaries.
  She helps open the eyes of the spiritually blind in southeast Asia.
  She pushes back the kingdom of darkness that blackens the alleys and streets of the gangs in east L.A.
  She aids homeless mothers...single parents...abused children...despondent teenagers...handicapped boys...and dying and forgotten old people in the nursing home down the street where she lives.
  Diane is on the front lines, advancing the gospel of Christ, holding up weak saints, inspiring doubting believers, energizing other prayer warriors, and delighting her Lord and Savior. 
   This meek and quiet woman sees her place in the world: it doesn't matter that others may not recogize her signifiance in the grand scheme of things.  In fact, she's not unlike Emily in Our Town who signs her address as:

       Grover Corners
       New Hampshire
       United States of America
       Western Hemisphere
       Planet Earth
       Solar System
       The Universe
       Mind of God

  In the mind of God...that's about as significant as you can get, whether you sit at a typewriter, behind a wheel of a  bus, at a desk in a classroom, in a chair by your kitchen table...or lay in a bed and pray.  Your life is hidden with Christ. You enrick His inheritance. You are His ambassador.  In Him your life has depth and meaning and purpose, no matter what you do.
  Someone has said, "The point of this life...is to become the peson God can love perfectly, to satisfy His thirst to love.  Being counts more than doing, the singer more than the song. We had better stop looking for escape hatches, for this our hatchery."
  It's my prayer that in these chapters, you will discover the signifiance that has been your all along as a Child of the King. You may not be able to know the meaning of every event, but you can know that every event is meaningful. 
                         And you are significant.  (quote from: Joni Eareckson Tada)

This for me is a keeper, one to print, paste near my computer, put in my bible, share with other, re-read countless times for what  God said to me was...Betty you are significant...I love you...I want to use you...You are mine,  bought and paid for. 

                                       You too are significant. 


10 comments:

  1. I know this chapter well, and it was one of the motivations the Lord used in my own life. Thank you for reminding us of it! I love the art for you, Betty. How beautiful, and a reminder of how much you are loved by your precious Savior!!

    Blessings!
    Judi

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  2. Hey friend...I just did some revising...no matter how many times I check seems there are mistakes that slip through.

    Thanks for stopping by...hope all is well with you, will stop by later and read your latest.

    There is so much encouagement in her books and I am finally settled in enough from our move to read, more important absorb.

    So very grateful for Steph over at Everyday Awe for her willingness to share her talent. She has a great post on dryness today, just came from there. She did one for my husband, Ace also so sometime soon I want to post about him. I just can't tell him...hehe... Blessings.

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  3. Oh, wow! This is SO powerful and encouraging - especially to those of us whose pace has been slowed by circumstances of life. It reminds me just how powerful prayer - MY prayers - are! Thanks for posting this!

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  4. Betty, thank you for painstakingly retyping Joni's words. I am truly moved...

    I think it was something I really needed to hear today!

    Thank you, precious, significant, wise-hearted Vessel of Honor! Thank you!

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  5. Glenda thanks for stopping by. Glad you were encouraged...I have loved this book and I know will re-read it many times. Every day I am painful aware of how much we are slowing down. Our "circumstances" have taken a toll on us added to just being 65...stress at any age is hard. Which is why I am looking forward to Diane new health site. She has done the hard part, the studying, will do the posting, now all we need to do is gleam from her. Thanks Diane...I know you are praying what to post. Of course I am looking for quick and easy ways and is there a way to make potatoe chips healthy...hehe...only kidding. Blessings girls.

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  6. Gee, we are at it, aren't we? The woes stage of our older bodies.

    But Praises to God who allow great deeds on people, using every frailty, whatever, for the good of all those whom they are addressed, for benefits for learning and for His glory.

    To Diane, we are all in the valley of anticipation..... as we await patiently for the sunshine of Alternative (holistic) healing.... diets, meals etc.

    We are all praying for the breakthrough.... and I lift it all up to God for His Divine License and blessings.

    Betty-

    Thanks for sharing the story... There are those who used their time and effort due to physical limitations to empower others who do the talk, the walk and the reaching out to the world. Others use their wealth while others their health. Any which way we are, May God bless us all.... but all is empowered to Pray for One Another... missionaries, officials, church leaders, lay men, ordinary people.... we all benefit from PRAYERS.

    My love and prayers to you, Betty.

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  7. Fabulous! Such a sweet telling; and it corresponds so well to Psalm 139. In God's mind we always were & always will be far more valuable than we can fathom.

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  8. Thank you Betty and Lolita for your encouragement. The blog is getting there. There is so much I want to share. It's hard to keep the posts short.

    Anyway...I appreciate your support and I know God appeciates your willingness to learn and do! God bless you as your journey toward be healthier!

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  9. Thanks for this inspirational story and for reminding us that GOd can use anybody as long as we are willing to be obedient. LOve others just God loved us.

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  10. These thougths came to my mind after reading your reply Joy. I carry two keys with me...one is obedience and other is pride and I chose which one to use on a daily bases...obedience does open the door to being used of God...pride locks it back up.
    Blessings my wise hearted sister.

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