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You are here: Home / Archives for closet

Unexpected Tears

February 20, 2019 By admin

“Don’t touch anything without your gloves on!” shouted our trip leader.

A group of us inhaled one last deep breath of fresh air before entering another moldy home. Dinner time was approaching, my energy was vanishing, and the last thing I wanted to do was haul out loads of grungy items. Within ten minutes, I was covered in sweat. This was not my idea of a relaxing Spring Break.

I was a young, outgoing, and single-minded teenager. My view of Spring Break consisted of going to the beach, and shopping, instead here I was doing this grimy, dirty work.

“Jana, are you just going to stand there? I need help carrying this bed-frame outside,” a classmate of mine said.

I snapped out of my daydream, yet could not shake off my grouchy mood. Instead of working hard, I kept thinking about my friends enjoying their break without me. I obviously did not want to be cleaning out filthy houses in New Orleans! The true reason I agreed to participate? Because I still needed community service hours to meet school requirements.

Hurricane Katrina had taken place months before our visit, but New Orleans still needed desperate help. Each home we entered reeked, making my eyes burn and stomach churn. The waterline reached clear up to the ceiling in most the homes. Piles of individual’s belongings were smothered in grime. Our job consisted of clearing everything out, and then completely gutting the house.

I walked into a bedroom and started to clean out the closet. I reached into the closet, grabbed a mangled up jacket, and instantly froze in my tracks. I owned that exact same jacket. The room felt eerie, lonely, and cold, it was just me and that jacket. As I peered into the closet, I saw numerous items that were just like mine. How would I feel if my closet had been destroyed? Tears immediately sprang to my eyes. In that moment of silence, I thanked God for what I do have.

People’s belongings, memories, and meaningful items were washed away in hurricane Katrina. There I stood, observing the destruction firsthand. I became ashamed with my self-indulgence, begging God to veer me away from my egocentric viewpoint.

I knew God had put me in that moldy room at that exact moment. He knew how stubborn I was being. Through Him I learned to see the world through a whole new perspective, and appreciate the blessings He has provided.

Jana Kubrock Carter writes from the Pacific Northwest.

The post Unexpected Tears appeared first on Answers for Me.

Read more at the source: Unexpected Tears

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: News and Feeds, Vegetarian recipes Tagged With: answers for me, beach, closet, destruction, homes, house, most-the-homes, pacific, selfish, story-harvest, upset, willing to help

Christmas In My Closet

December 20, 2018 By admin

The other evening I started looking for my leftover holiday wrapping papers. I moved luggage, shoes and long-forgotten odds and ends in my closet. I actually had to remove my childhood baby doll carriage from its retirement spot in order to reach the corner of the closet. As I wheeled it out, I noticed a small tear in the top of the carriage. I felt sad for my old toy and patched it up with tape. Along with a couple of salvaged dolls inside, these are a few remnants of my childhood. They used to be my constant companions. I parted with the doll playpen and a little metal bed the last time we moved. Yet the carriage and the old babies are there to greet me every time I open the closet.

Suddenly I became melancholy. Doing some quick math, I realized that the carriage is 50 years old this Christmas! I was flushed with memories as I recalled that Christmas when my suspicions about the Santa Claus myth were affirmed. My dear father, in his haste to take some large presents upstairs a few days before Christmas, asked me to carry the box that held my carriage. Evidently he did not understand how much I was able to read in the second grade or he was too tired to care. As I followed him up the stairs, it seemed that all the glitter and mystery of Christmas shattered like a fallen glass ornament. I wanted to believe that there was a Santa yet somehow I knew it was all just for fun. It was time to start growing up. Even so my brother and I continued to place cookies and milk out for Santa on Christmas Eve for many years.

Earlier last week, I experienced several days of missing my mother — her voice, her baking and little gifts. Six years have passed since she died, six years since my brother had Christmas with us, and about 10 years since my whole family — grandparents, my brother and our children celebrated together. I rarely consider what present I would buy for Mom anymore. A woman friend and I each acknowledged that Christmas can be sadly nostalgic as we miss family members. Last year she lost a mother and this year her father is ill. Another friend will probably lose her father this winter. That can change Christmas and create a bittersweet mood.

Christmas is a time of great and broken expectations. A multitude of memories are wrapped with all the songs, parties, cards, shopping, decorations, and food. Such holidays mark periods of our lives — who we were with, beginnings for babies, divorces, endings for senior family members. Even if we try to avoid the commercialization of holidays, loss can creep into the season and steal away the sparkle. Sadness and depression can darken our days inviting us to believe that this world is cold and we are alone. Yet even in our losses, there is a promise of restoration, reunion and rejoicing if we know Jesus Christ.

I have been reading 1 John this week. In the middle of the first chapter is the reminder, “God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him,” MSG. How bleak and empty this place would be without my Savior — a dark closet of painful memories and imitation babies. He came to bring us light, truth, love, and hope — a clearer picture of our God. And I am promised that after inviting Jesus into my life, I am never alone again — He dwells within me — God with us. There is no other god like Him.

This week I am clinging to a verse in I John 3:20: “For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.”

Questions for personal journaling or group discussion:

1. Who or what do you miss this holiday season? Could you mark this person/pet/place with a small ritual such as a special candle, treat, or dedicate a gift in their memory?

2. How could you “take Christmas out of the closet” of melancholy memories and create a new positive experience for someone else?

3. Find some Scriptures that speak to you about Jesus as Light, Truth and Love. Memorize a verse for this holiday season.

Karen Spruill writes from Orlando, Florida.

The post Christmas In My Closet appeared first on Answers for Me.

Read more at the source: Christmas In My Closet

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: Dear God, News and Feeds Tagged With: answers for me, baking, carriage, closet, father, jesus, maturity, personal, week

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