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Another Friday is here already!  Time for Five Minute Friday.  What is that?  Something Gypsy Mama dreamed up.  We write for five minutes on the given word.  I reread mine to be sure it makes sense. No, I don’t use spellcheck!  Then I add my photo and links and it is on its way.

Anyone is welcome to join.  The variety is delightful.  The most important rule of all?  We MUST visit the writer just before us, read her entry and comment.  Enjoy!

UNEXPECTED

I remember the two major days when this word took on new meaning.

June 27, 1970

I was in the hospital with apparently mild symptoms of toxemia, just over 8 months into my first pregnancy.

Each shift, the nurse checked the baby’s heartbeat.

On this day, none could be found.

It was recehcked by others.  Still, no heartbeat.

A final test was done

An EEG on my belly…to see if there was a glimmer of life so they could do a C-section

monitors have advanced haven’t they?

As I looked on the 12 leads scraping across the page, I saw the answer

There was no lead that scratched a different beat

My baby was dead.  We later found out she was a little girl.

UNEXPECTED had happened.

 

November 28, 1973

I lived in Jamaica at the time.  I had two young daughters. Life was full and sunny.

The phone rang.

A friend told me to wait a minute, my mother would come to the phone.

Her flat, unexpected words followed: “Your father died.”

My shock and denial filled words followed, “No, you mean Grandaddy!”

She then continued to tell of dropping my apparently healthy 54 year old father off at his office that morning to finish a short job he had to do there.  Returning to pick him up an hour later, she found him in his chair, dead from an apparent heart attack.

That morning he was feeling very tired and planned to return home to rest.

There have been many unexpected moments in my life.  Those two stand out!

 AS A RESULT OF HIS GRACE, I AM IN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.  I CAN ASK DIFFICULT QUESTIONS.

As a result of these two unexpected events, I found a God I didn’t know existed.

Yes, I was a Christian.  I was a pastor’s wife in 1970 preparing for missionary service.  In 1973, I was a missionary.

My response to those events showed me that I had an entitlement attitude toward Him.

I would serve Him.  He would give me a good life!

I found a God who is not a God of formulas.  He is a God of relationships!

There was nothing Biblical about my former expectation…whether I stated that belief aloud…and I never would have at the time.  Or whether I discovered that was my belief by my response to adversity.

And He said unto me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Yes, I did go overtime!

 

photo: © Jlueders | Dreamstime.com