Red Wednesday's Wisdom - More On Its Beginning

How did last year’s seed planting for Wednesday Wisdom grow into this year’s Red Wednesday’s Wisdom?

If you recall, my first treatment was on a Wednesday. My folks and I were all dolled up in our red. And as we waited to see my doctor, I found myself reflecting on the comments that had been made about how cute we all looked. So, in my desire to see through the eyes of others, I asked one of the nurses to take a picture of the three of us with my cell phone. I treasure that picture and its memory! It’s on my refrigerator, and when I went to Lauren and Craig’s, it was on Lauren’s desk. She made a point to say, “Mom, I just love that picture!” I agree. That picture is a reminder of how intentional we were to wear our red. But it was not until we were asked the "WHY" to wearing red that I realized the impact of what that question meant to me. Here I was walking into a situation that had the potential to be very scary for me, and yet, there I was looking into my cell phone seeing the three of us, and feeling peace in my spirit.

God tells me in Philippians 4:6-8, “Colleen, don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell Me what you need, and thank Me for all I have done. Then you will experience My peace, which exceeds anything you can understand. My peace will guard your heart and mind as you live in Christ Jesus.”

I had peace because the truth of those words lives inside of me and I saw those words being manifested in my parents who were there to support me and to love me as they always have. And despite the fact that I felt such a deep pain in my heart for them as they witnessed their child going through this journey, I was so thankful that they were with me at that time and through most of this past summer. The three of us were being surrounded by God’s Divine intervention of love, His Holy Spirit, and His perfect timing to have us all together so that I did not go through this alone!

I have journaled almost every day since I was pregnant with Lauren, my oldest child of two that God has so graciously blessed me with. As I wrote in my journal about that first Wednesday treatment with all its red stories, and that picture that reflected all of it, I saw how the seed of last year’s Wednesday Wisdom had grown into the fruit of this year’s Red Wednesday's Wisdom. That “off the cuff” photo of me with my parents in red became instrumental to what God was putting on my heart to journal. It became clear to me that God was going to use Red Wednesday's Wisdom to bless, grow, and stretch anyone who had the desire to experience His touch. By sharing my story in Red Wednesday's Wisdom, I hope you will see how God wants to help you in knowing and sharing your own story.

After sending out an email with an update on my first treatment along with our family photo, many of you replied by saying you were going to wear your red every Wednesday, so I took what you said to heart. I made it a point to wear my red every Wednesday and so did my Rituxan buddies along my side. You honored me and the Holy Spirit with every Wednesday treatment.

So, the Wednesday treatments are over. Why am I going to continue writing Red Wednesday’s Wisdom? Stay tuned to find out how God uses everything in His creation to speak to us about the plans He has for us; in my case it’s red birds and red feathers!

These next pictures represent why I will continue to be writing Red Wednesday’s Wisdom. You will hear more about my feathered friend, Lynn who is pictured here in the first shot. The second pictures is the vase of beautiful feathers, not flowers, that she presented to me. It was in commemoration of what I will share with you in the next weeks.

Birds of a feather flock together, and we certainly do!

Red Wednesday's Wisdom - How It Began

I hope that by sharing the following story with you over the next couple of weeks, that you will have a better idea as to why I am writing Red Wednesday’s Wisdom, and how it gives credence to why I believe in God’s presence in my life and His desire to be in yours as well.

First of all, I want to remind you that all four of my Rituxan treatments took place this past August, 2011, on Wednesdays. I make a point to tell you this because last year during the months of August and September, my friend Val, who was my Rituxan buddy at my second treatment, was meeting with me every week so that we could begin to edit the book that I had, and have been writing. The writing reflects my 17 years of being in a personal relationship with Jesus and the healing that He brought to my broken heart and life. Out of those 17 years, 11 of them have been spent in writing and teaching others how they too can experience a personal relationship with God, through His Son Jesus, and to receive the healing that He has for each of us, if we want it. Through God’s Holy Spirit, the whole reason for red, He is the One who shows us how we can declutter, heal and rebuild our lives with His simplicity, His order, and His nurturing ways.

Val and I did not set out to meet every week on Wednesdays, and to say that it just turned out that way would be negating God’s divine orchestration. Whether we admit to it or not, and whether we are aware of it or not, God’s divine order is always at work. So as Val and I met on Wednesdays to share, pray, and edit, we discovered that the Holy Spirit had been at work growing the same spiritual gift in both of us; the gift of wisdom, also referred to as knowledge. If you look at 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, you will see that these verses give you insight about the different spiritual gifts. Wisdom is one example of those spiritual gifts. All of them are meant to be used in our helping one another.

The wisdom I am talking about is far greater than the worldly wisdom that comes from man. The spiritual gift of wisdom is much greater and deeper. It is the Godly wisdom that is experienced when we have a relationship with Jesus, His Holy Spirit, and His Word.

Consequently, Val and I began to wonder if the Holy Spirit was putting it on our hearts to refer to our meeting days as Wednesday Wisdom, so Val and I prayed and we asked for the Lord’s guidance in His Word. Of all the 66 books in the Bible, the Lord led us to the one book that is filled with God’s wisdom. It is called the book of Proverbs, and it is also known as the Book of Wisdom. Here are the two scriptures that we were specifically led to:

1. Proverbs 3:5
“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart; do not depend on your own
understanding.”

Understanding is a synonym for knowledge or wisdom and we were being
reminded to depend on what God knows, rather than depending on what we
thought we knew.

2. Proverbs 4:7
“Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do,
develop good judgment."

God was reinforcing that our coming to Him in prayer was the wisest thing we could be doing. We had asked for God’s wisdom to describe our Wednesday meetings, and it was affirmed by Him leading us to the book of Proverbs (The Book of Wisdom), and the wisdom Scriptures that we were to reflect on.

Even as I am in the process of writing about Wednesday Wisdom and doing my morning devotions from the book called Jesus Calling, I see God’s “attention getter” with these words in the book of Colossians 2:3, “In him lies hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” The "he" that is being referred to is Christ. Therefore, wisdom = Christ!

Two weeks ago, a parishioner at my church shared that she had been praying for my healing. She also had a Scripture to share with me. Prior to this exchange that we were having, I had asked her to please share any specific Scripture that the Lord had put on her heart for me. The Scripture she shared with me was Proverbs 3:5. The first Scripture that I mentioned above when Val and I prayed last year about Wednesday Wisdom!

So, as Val and I continued to meet for Wednesday Wisdom, we began to think that Wednesday Wisdom could eventually become a Home Touched web site feature. Catalin (Cat), who is married to Val, is a web designer, and he registered Home Touched as a domain name over 11 years ago for me, but we have never received the green light to create a web site. Often times God says, “WAIT!” And over the years, I have learned that God’s wait is much different from my wait. So even though the three of us explored and played with different ideas for the web site, it became clear that God was still saying, “Wait!”

The day was Wednesday, July 26th 2011, and of all the people who could have been with me on this day it was Val. The doctor’s diagnosis from the bone marrow test was Waldenstrom’s, a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer. After much discussion with the oncologist, and Val asking more questions than me, Dr. Partridge made a brief exit. I glanced at Val with tear filled eyes as I expressed the feelings of shock, as well as relief. Finally, I had a diagnosis to go with the laborious search to explain the symptoms I had been experiencing over the last 2 years. But what was hitting me even harder, was that the two of us were witnessing the hand of God as He had been preparing us, and particularly me, for this day’s Wednesday Wisdom and for future Wednesdays as I faced upcoming treatments. How could I have known that Wednesday Wisdom would be about me being diagnosed with cancer?

I look forward to continuing the story and telling you how RED became part of Wednesday's Wisdom.

What Cancer Can Not Do

What Cancer Cannot Do
Author: Unknown

Cancer is so limited……
It cannot cripple love.
It cannot shatter hope.
It cannot corrode faith.
It cannot eat away peace.
It cannot destroy confidence
It cannot kill friendship.
It cannot shut out memories.
It cannot silence courage.
It cannot reduce eternal life.
It cannot quench the Holy Spirit.

One of my friends Barb, with her bible study group, proudly showing of their red in honor of what the Holy Spirit can do, and what cancer can not!