Red Wednesday's Wisdom - Shade

Two weeks ago, I made a trip to beautiful Wilmington, Ohio. I saw my dear friend Jeanne, and finally got to meet her friend, Kris. Jeanne often told me that Kris was a powerful prayer warrior. So when I got the diagnosis of cancer, we made plans for all of us to meet and have Kris go to war for me in prayer. I was so blessed by our time together. I came away with a deep appreciation for how God uses each of us in similar and yet unique and different ways, especially when He wants to speak to us on a very personal and intimate level.

Kris knew very little about me until we met. She said that she preferred it that way. It kept her more objective and open to the Holy Spirit’s prompting rather than being subject to her own interpretations. What Kris received for me in her prayer time actually took place prior to our arrival. After spending some time in getting to know each other, she started out by saying, “The Lord is your shade on your right hand.” I never thought about that before. What did it mean? She went on to explain that shade came out of her devotional time from Sarah Horby’s book, At the Name of Jesus. Reference was made to the shade in Isaiah 4:4-6; “Then the Lord will wash the filth from beautiful Zion. And cleanse Jerusalem of its bloodstains with the hot breath of fiery judgment. Then the Lord will provide shade for Mount Zion and all who assemble there. He will provide a canopy of cloud during the day and smoke and flaming fire at night, covering the glorious land. It will be a shelter from daytime heat and a hiding place from storms and rain.”

Kris went on to say that this shade was not the shade of darkness that I have been so familiar with in my own life. No, this shade was like the color green, and to Kris it was reflective of her homeland of England where there are no trees for shading. She said it was not the shade of Cincinnati where you often experience rain, coolness and darkness, which is exactly how it looks as I write this posting! Kris wanted me to know this basic message: the shade of my past is not the shade of my today. The shade of today represents a new and fresh approach to how I am to live in the present. There was such richness in what I took away from just hearing about this one word and what it would mean to me.

When I first heard the word “shade,” I was immediately taken back to a memory. It was the spring of 2010 and I was feeling pretty drained from a chronic upper respiratory infection. I also had severe congestion and blockage of my sinuses and ears. I knew nothing about the cancer that was growing inside of me. But after teaching one of my clutter healing classes, I asked my partners, those who help me in the classes, if they would pray for me. I was hoping to gain some insight into the spiritual root of my symptoms. In our praying, I was taken to the story of my all too familiar and stubborn friend, Jonah. We were reflecting on Jonah 4. In a nutshell, Jonah, once again, wants his way over God’s way. When he can’t have what he wants he tells God to kill him! The story tells about a leafy plant that God provided for Jonah to shade him from the sun. When a worm destroyed the plant and took away the shade that exposed Jonah to the scorching sun, he got angry and wanted to die.

For a year and a half I have been so puzzled by this story and its meaning for me. There were many times in my past when God used Jonah to address my own anger and my desire to have things my way. But this time, when I thought about those issues, I could see the growth and healing that I had experienced. So there was something else that God wanted me to glean from this story, but what was it????

I have come to realize that the shade in Jonah, and now in Isaiah, is a comparison about where I have been and where I am. As is reflective in Isaiah 4:4-6, God has literally been cleaning me out. Physically, my symptoms are lessening or have completely gone away. The filth of this cancer in my bone marrow has been cleansed by the Rituxan. From a spiritual perspective, I now understand that the shade is about God’s protection of me at all times, regardless of my circumstances or how things may appear to the visible eye. And as Kris said to me, “Colleen, the Lord knows how life has burned you and scorched you by the shaded shadows of darkness, and that is your past, but now He wants you to refocus on the shade of His protection, His provision, and His shelter.”

The word shade is defined by Webster as comparative darkness, which is caused by an object cutting off rays of light. It can also be an open area that is sheltered from sunlight, or it can be a secluded place, or a spirit.

From a spiritual perspective, I now see how those symptoms from 18 months ago were reflective of the darkness that is in this world that wants to cut me off from experiencing the light of God. I now realize that the part I overlooked in Jonah was the part where Jonah wants God to kill him. That is a pretty dark place to be in and God’s light can seem very dim. Here is what I did not recognize about myself, prior to my diagnosis of cancer. There have been times in my past when I have said that I am ready to die. It wasn’t out of anger or not getting my way like Jonah, but the feeling was still being expressed. I apologized to God and said, “Please forgive me for the times when I said that I was ready to die, or when I joked and said, You can take me at any time!” I now know that I am ready to die from the spiritual perspective of knowing Jesus, and knowing I am going to be with Him when I leave this earth. But, when I made those comments, it was because I was operating from a physical and fleshly perspective, I wanted to escape any further pain or suffering, just like Jonah. I too was tired of being burned and scorched.

“The Lord is your shade on your right hand”. When studying these words I found them in Psalm 121:5 and I thought about God always being beside me, like my Body Guard. He is my power, my strength, and my shield at all times! Nothing can harm me! He is my shelter and my protection. Nothing can separate me from Him!

Here is the truth about what I have learned about myself. I am ready to die, but I still want to live. I still want to experience ALL that God still has for me. Cancer is one of those words that immediately turns our thoughts towards death when we hear it spoken. For me, when I now hear it or speak it, I want to hear and speak life! Shade has a new meaning for me. It means life and it means that I picture God at my side as my personal Body Guard!

This picture was taken by my friend Melissa as we were resting and bathing in the warm fall sun. I was so surprised when we viewed the picture she had taken. It was depicting this week’s theme about shade and a reminder to me of Psalm 121:5, “The Lord is your shade on your right hand.” I thank You, Lord, for being so visibly present in my life through Your Holy Spirit!

Red Wednesday's Wisdom - Letting Go

In my Home Touched business and ministry, we focus on getting organized and learning to let go of the “stuff” that can enslave us rather than serve us. And sometimes it means asking myself the tough question, “what do I need versus what do I want?” Please keep in mind that the “stuff” I am referring to is much more than just our material possessions, it is also mental, emotional, situational, spiritual, physical, and relational.

Letting go is a daily ongoing process for me. And the area where I have been most recently challenged with it has been in launching this blog. Truth be told, I recognize that I am in a lifelong recovery process of letting go about the worry that relates to what others might say or think about me. In fact, when I am helping others to get decluttered, which I define as the letting go process, it means that I also let go of hiding the real me, and admit to my own struggles as I help you to let go of yours. It is one thing to know that I am not perfect, but when I share and expose my imperfections with others, I am being authentic. I do this because I want to convey the message that you and I are on the same playing field and we are more alike than different. I am not better than you and you are not any better than I.

So, in working with one of my clients and friends, Dan Busken (who gave me permission to use his name), I shared my concern about the blog. I was most burdened by how the blog would communicate my performance as a writer. This was the honest and raw struggle that was brewing inside of me because I could not control the constraints that go with writing, designing, and formatting a blog. I do not have the control that I have in a Word document where I am the final writer, formatter, and designer. Consequently, all these questions were hitting me! How many mistakes will there be? Who will judge it? Who will criticize it? Did I say too much? Did I say too little? Who will like it? Who will not like it? Will I be accepted? Will I be rejected? Talk about the clutter I created from the build up and pile up of all that “stuff’’ that was going on in my head and in my heart!!! But in my spirit it was a very different scenario. All I heard was this quiet and simple response, “This blog is not about you and your performance. It is about Me and the message I want others to get through you!” That response gave me the peace I needed to launch the blog, and let go of all those concerns that wanted to bring me down.

In preparing to write this particular posting, I prayed and asked the Lord to provide me a Scripture that would affirm this theme of letting go. I also wanted to know if my concerns about blogging were to be shared as examples of my own need to let go. I no sooner made that request and a text came through from Dan. It simply said, “Galatians 1:10. Good for new bloggers like you.” I was taken by the “quickening” of God’s response and I was surprised that it was Dan who was giving me the message. This was the first time that he had ever sent me a Scripture and the reason for it. With excitement, I ran to my Bible and opened Galatians 1:10. Here is what it says, “Obviously I am not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.” These words were written by the apostle Paul, and what a man to identify with. Every time I see the beautiful damask border of the blog site I am reminded of Paul, and here he is again! What God had been speaking to me in His Spirit was now matched up in His Word. I had my green light to move forward.

When I saw Dan and thanked him for the text, he said, “I apologize for the delay. I wanted to send this to you a week ago!” I responded, “It may have been your 'delay' but it was God’s perfect timing for me!”

Blogging is a new venture for me: new learning skills are yet to be developed. And as I continue to discover what I still need to let go of and what I still need to hold on to, I am thankful that my relationship with God is renewed and refreshed with every day. In letting go, it may not be what I want, but it is what I need!

I love sharing the handouts that I have received over the past 11 years. They come from people who have taken my clutter healing classes. The handouts reflect what people have taken away from the classroom and what they came back wanting to share. Here is an example of one that was written anonymously about letting go.

To “Let Go” Takes Love
To “let go” does not mean to stop caring, it means I can’t do it for someone else.
To “let go” is to not cut myself off, it is the realization that I can’t control another.
To “let go” is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.
To “let go” is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To “let go” is to not try to change or blame another.
To “let go” is not to care for, but to care about.
To “let go” is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To “let go” is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
To “let go” is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to
affect their own destinies.
To “let go” is not to be protective, it is to permit another to face reality.
To “let go” is not to deny but to accept.
To “let go” is not to nag, scold, or argue, but instead, to search out my own shortcomings
and to correct them.
To “let go” is not to adjust everything to my desires but to take each day as it comes and
to cherish myself in it.
To “let go” is not to criticize and regulate everybody but to try to become what I dream I
can be.
To “let go” is not to regret the past and not worry about the future: it is to celebrate the
“now.”
To “let go” is to die to our old selves in order to live in the Other.
To “let go” is to not see life as an end but as a beginning.
To “let go” is to empty out our humanness making space for the Divine.
To “let go” is to fear less and to love more.
It is facing the unknown by trusting.

-Anonymous-

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you in letting go. He is like the wind. You can not see Him, but you can see His moving power!

Red Wednesday's Wisdom - Authority

Think of how often you communicate with people during the course of your day, and that will give you a glimpse into understanding why the word “prayer” is so often mentioned in what I share and write. Prayer is an example of the on going communication that takes place between God and me all day long. If I want lasting relationships in my life, and I do, I need to know how to communicate with others. My relationship with God is dependent upon that same communication skill so that He and I can share thoughts and feelings, ask questions, and listen to one another.

This Wednesday’s theme is about the word “authority.” The theme came out of the first Wednesday when I no longer had Rituxan treatments, and I met with my two friends Jack and Marsha, to pray. Our prayer was a pretty specific request, to gain insight into the spiritual root or cause of this cancer in my bone marrow.

I love how “marrow” is defined as being the innermost, essential, or choicest part. Those words are so descriptive of how I see God in my life. He is the marrow of my heart, and it is my heart that seeks to understand this cancer from God’s perspective.

Here is what I have learned over the past 8 weeks, I need to AVOID what has the potential to be spiritually infectious to me, and I have come to realize that what is most infectious to me is disrespect. I know there are people who I have allowed to treat me with disrespect, but here is the clincher – in my allowing it, I have been disrespectful to myself!

So what is the cure? I need to take authority over that disrespectful spirit and make the decision to replace it with an attitude of respect. What does that respect look like? Look up the word “respect,” and you may be as surprised as I was, to discover that it means to feel or show honor. Honor! Are you kidding? I have never even considered the thought of honoring myself, but that is what respect means. For me, that respect translates into my relationships where I am to honor God, myself, and others. It means that I honor God for who He is – GOD. And that I honor myself for who He created me to be – Colleen. And I honor others for who He created them to be – my family, my friends, my neighbors, and even the stranger that I have been inconsiderate and rude to - in traffic, a grocery line, waiting on the telephone, or not getting my order right! That disrespectful spirit has affected the very marrow of my life!

Look at the word “AUTHORITY.” What else do you see when you look at it? Until I wrote the word down, I never realized that it contains the word AUTHOR. Here is why I LOVE God’s Word, the day after I came to the realization that the word “author” was in the word “authority,” I was leafing through my Bible and my eye was caught by a title in Romans. The title of the chapter just blew me away, it says, “Respect for Authority!” “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.” (Romans 13:1) In other words, God was literally showing me in His Word that He is the Author of authority!!! How great is it when we are in communication with God Himself! As I reflected on just these two sentences from Romans 13, I was reminded of how I can even be disrespectful to the stranger who is my own President. And on a more personal level, I know there have been disrespectful moments directed to the people I love the most, my family. Please forgive me. Romans13 is full of wisdom, and I would encourage you to read it in its entirety.

No sooner did I get through Romans 13 when there was yet another scripture that came up for me on authority in 1 Peter 2:13. Talk about making sure that I got the reinforced message!!! The title of the chapter is “Respecting People in Authority.” I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried! 1 Peter 2:13 says, “For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority – whether the king as head of state, or the officials he has appointed.”

As I reflected on these two scripture references, I was taken back to the one Scripture that I read all last year when I prayed for our nation. That scripture has routinely come back to me as I have dealt with this cancer diagnosis and its spiritual root of disrespect. The Scripture that I prayed in 2010, and that has now resurfaced for me, comes from 2 Chronicles 7:14, “Then, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”

Here is the bottom line. God is the Author of all authority and He wants me to respect those in authority. In other words, He wants me to honor them and be considerate of them. He also wants me to take the authority he has given me to care for myself, honor myself, and be considerate of myself. This is not selfishness but learning to care and love myself in God’s way!

As I personally deal with my own issues of cancer and it spiritual root of disrespect, I recognize how I am just a small reflection of the bigger picture that is filled with disrespect for God, the country that He has blessed us to live in, and the people who are its citizens. The marrow of who we are has been infiltrated with disrespect. I appreciate the words my Aunt Millie sent to me in an email that expressed a similar evaluation to the one I have just made in regards to our country. Her e-mail also included the scripture from 2 Chronicles 7:14. Here is how her e-mail ended in a quote from Ronald Reagan: “If we ever forget that we are a nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

Lord, I ask Your forgiveness for the disrespect I have had regarding authority, especially, toward You, myself, others, and our country. Jesus, thank You that I can ask for forgiveness because of what You did for me on the cross, and may I continue to learn from You and be more like You in humility, gentleness and love.

"Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you." (Exodus 20:12)

"May you live to enjoy your grandchildren. May Israel have peace!" (Psalm 128:6)

My heart always seeks to honor my parents, despite those "missed the mark" opportunities . And when I see the honor and respect that my own daughter demonstrates towards her family and me, I feel deep gratitude. I love the promise that speaks to us about a LONG and FULL life when we are willing to respect the authority of what God tells us in honoring our family. When I see that I am still alive, still living in the greatest country, and enjoying my grandchildren, I know that God is fulfilling His promise in my life! The authority of God always blesses me and grants me peace!

Red Wednesday's Wisdom - The Feather

In my desire to know, experience, and love God on a very personal level, I also found out just how cluttered and messed up my journey to spiritual and physical health could get. I am a living example of what has been tested and tried - from traditional religion and medicine to eastern religion and medicine. When the New Age way of thinking got added to this mix, I got all tangled up in the occult world of horoscopes, astrology, psychics, palm reading, numerology, hieroglyphics, and various “healing” modalities.

I am so thankful for what I have gone through and learned, because in the process, I discovered God’s truth and love for me. Consequently, I was freed and healed from the demonic lies and traps that held me in pain and bondage. I ultimately recognized that the only way I can truly know, experience, and love God is through the truth that is found in His Word and what He says. Anything else is counterfeit. God speaks through His Word and He teaches me how to sort through the cluttered mess and confusion of whatever I may face.

As I have said many times, red for me is symbolic of the Holy Spirit’s presence in my life and God’s love for me. In the beginning stages of learning about God’s Word, I constantly heard this one verse over and over. It became so visible and audible that I even saw it framed in gold leafed lettering, and it now hangs on the kitchen soffit above my sink for everyone to see. It says, “I know the plans I have for you says the LORD…. to give you a future and a hope” Jeremiah 29:11.

This new venture into blogging is God’s plan for me, and He has used my daughter Lauren, to get me to realize it. I have agreed to do it because I have learned that God’s plans are far greater than mine. There is peace in doing life God’s way rather than my way.

Prior to getting the cancer diagnosis of Waldenstrom’s, my friend Julie would call me up and say, “Do red birds mean anything to you? Whenever I pray for you and your health I see red birds.” I replied, “No, they mean nothing right now, but maybe down the road they will.” And that was it; our conversation about red birds was over, or so I thought.

The Bible is filled with symbolism, but our focus is never to be solely on the symbolism, which is a very prominent theme in New Age thinking. Our focus is to be on God who is the Creator of all creation. God uses symbolism and His creation to speak to us, but so does the enemy, and that is why it is so important to look at these “signs” in relationship to what God’s Word says and what the voice of His Holy Spirit tells us in regards to our experiences.

After my last Rituxan treatment, I was lovingly taken into the home of my friends, Johnny and Lynn. Lynn and I had taken a brisk morning walk on the Loveland bike trail, when I saw what I have never seen before – a red feather in my path. Just seconds before seeing this feather I had this sense in my spirit that I was to continue writing Red Wednesday’s Wisdom, even though my treatments had ended. I picked up the feather and I asked Lynn, who is an artist and has a keen eye for color and beauty, “Have you ever seen a red feather on the ground?” She said, “Never, but I am sure it’s the feather of a red bird, a cardinal.” I shared with Lynn what I had been thinking about in continuing to write Red Wednesday’s Wisdom, and how this red feather was an obvious attention getter for me.

Over the past 11 years, God has used feathers to represent a quill for me. When I start seeing them on a regular basis I know that it’s time again to concentrate on writing that class, that curriculum, that book, that article, that BLOG! But this was the first time I had ever seen a red feather!

A few days later, after leaving Lynn’s, I was working at my client’s home. And as is typical in my business, my clients often become close friends. My friend Vicki tells me to stop working at 2:15 PM and says that she wants to take me somewhere. We end up in the salon she likes to go to, and I am clueless as to why we are there. While waiting to see what is to happen, I share my red feather story with Vicki. How she remained straight faced when hearing my story, knowing what she herself was about to do with me, was beyond my comprehension, but she did. As it turned out, her gift and surprise to me was a strand of red feathers to be weaved into my hair!!! All I could do was cry! I was moved by the fact that Vicki knew nothing about my red feather story and I was in awe of how God had neatly arranged all those precious red feathered moments with my friends to take place!

Vicki is a decorator, so naturally she wanted a way to decorate me in red every day of the week! The feathers in my hair were her way of doing this for me. Every time I am asked about the red feathers in my hair, it is an opportunity to share this story and talk about the power of God’s Holy Spirit in transforming me, loving me, and healing me!

After getting "feathered" by Vicki.

A good 6- 8 weeks had gone by since I had that conversation with Julie about the cardinals that she would see when praying for me. Their appearance now had meaning as I thought about them in relationship to the red feathers and God using it all to leading me in writing Red Wednesday’s Wisdom.

As I write this post, I am drawn into my kitchen to retrieve the decorative rock that Lynn gave me while I was staying at her home. The inscription says, “My help comes from the Lord” Psalm 121:2. The red feathers will always remind me that my help does come from the Lord and they will also symbolize the plan that God has for me to continue writing Red Wednesday’s Wisdom in this blog format. It will be used for God’s purpose and for His glory. I am honored to be His servant and child!

I love being a witness to God’s detailing, timing, and presence in my life. For He is not dead but alive, He is the Resurrected and Living God! It is so awesome to see how He uses all of us to come together as a body to help one another. We can see it when we slow down enough to listen and reflect.

Even the Damask border that my daughter was drawn to as she and I were led to designing this blog, has its own symbolic meaning. As we prayed about this pattern being used as our border, I had to laugh when I went to get my blood drawn one Wednesday and saw that one of the techs was wearing a Damask printed smock! In our research we learned that the Damask pattern actually derived its name from the city of Damascus, which today is the capital city of modern Syria. In Acts 9 we can read the story about Saul, who was on the road to Damascus. While on that road, he had an encounter with Jesus in the Spirit and he was forever transformed. I hope that Red Wednesday’s Wisdom can help Jesus to transform us as He did with Saul, who became known as Paul, and wrote more of the New Testament than any other author.

I pray that Red Wednesday’s Wisdom will help all of us to know, experience, and love God more intimately. May God’s infinite wisdom bless all of us as He continues to show us the plans He has for us that give us a future and a hope, no matter what circumstances we may face!

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!