THUS SPOKE GOD

Gentle Readers,

God once spoke to me, and He didn't say "You are going to hell" and He didn't say "You're a Nazi." No, he told me I wasn't going to die. Favorite Young Man was a busy two-year-old and I found myself in quite a bit of pain that worsened as the day went on. My husband took me to the doctor, where I fainted, so the doctor passed me off on the hospital and my husband hauled me out of the doctor's office with the help of some nice woman in the waiting room. (Isn't it amazingly wonderful how so many people will step in to help without even being asked?) I was in my hospital bed in screaming pain, worse than being in labor, and I bet and hope most of you women didn't know it was possible to experience more pain than labor. The thought entered my head that I was going to die, and as soon as it did, the thought was deposited in my head, No, you are not going to die. You will live to raise your son.

God didn't speak to me from a burning bush. He simply planted this knowledge in my head and went about His business. A few other people had need of him too. I was in the hospital for a long and unhappy ten days, but obviously I lived to raise F.Y.M., with whom I drank a margarita just a little while ago. 

I think God speaks to us all the time. Fortunately, I don't need the drama of a hospital bed and impending death to hear him every day. If I pay attention, he pokes my brain and lets me know what to do. What's right in this or that situation? I pray and ponder. He tells me -- not always as quickly as He did in the hospital, but when He's ready, He reveals the plan to me. 

Dr. Robert Schuller of the famed Crystal Cathedral in Anaheim has written that oftentimes when things become difficult, Christians think that God doesn't want them to embark on a project. Ha! I say to that and so does Dr. Schuller, though he doesn't use Ha! We need to look at the situation and pray and ask what the Lord wants us to do. A challenge can simply mean that He wants us to try harder. And there's no shame in trying and failing if pleasing God and walking in His footsteps is your aim. But if you fail, then often some good will come of it. A door closes; a window opens. But failing at first can also be exactly that -- failing at first. Keep running the race, or walking, or crawling if need be, and you can bypass failure like the tortoise passing the hare and give God glory for every minute of the journey.

And I got kibble today, so we're o.k. here. Lord, please let me sleep tonight. But if I don't, I'll find something to do. There's always prayer, or prayer, or some prayer might be a good idea, accompanied by some reading of the Bible. A little digression: Have you ever noticed that in the Bible, Jesus doesn't accuse people who try to do good of being Nazis? I thought President Obama gave a good, solid State of the Union Address. The one thing I wish he would have said, and the thing I would like to hear a heck of a lot of people say is the following: Let's stop calling each other Nazis. Being a Liberal or a Conservative does not make a person a Mein Kampf-reading follower of Hitler. Cut the Nazi crap, America. Nazis are on Lola's Mob Rule shit list, but I do not personally know any Nazis, and I promise you I will not call you a Nazi just because you disagree with me politically or religiously, as long as you are not spouting the rhetoric of Herr Hitler. Plus, a brown shirt can simply mean that someone works for UPS.

Infinities of love,

Lola