Karen's Crossing~~~permission to Rise Above The Storm

Recently in a devastating catastrophe an airplane facing a violent storm crashed into the Java sea. AirAsia flight QZ8501 came down on December 28, 2014 after attempting its final option of requesting permission to fly above the storm.

According to the news the request was denied because there were so many others getting permission ahead of them getting the same permission in the same area. From there only the black boxes of the airplane know the true secret of what happened next. The one thing that brought the plane to its final resting place on the ocean's bottom.

Spiritually we need to put in the same request the pilot did that day but to the Lord. Permission to fly above life's storms. Storms in life are inevitable, we can't get around some and others intensity are almost unbearable.

Storms such as relationship issues, money problems, health difficulties, rebellious teenagers, job hunting and so much more. All are storms we find ourselves facing. To one person they may be a devastating event while others see them as some whirlwind of circumstances.


Things that can effect our view of things can be our attitude, our level of trust, our spiritual maturity, and our faith in God. When we have these things it makes going through storms much easier. However, we will hit storms that are much bigger in intensity and we may need to ask God permission if we can rise above the storm.

In my last visit with my doctor he told me my cancer didn't look good. The three measuring sticks he uses to come to that conclusion I flunked each one. For two years my family had gone through these storms over and over again. I could tell this one wasn't going to go by without leaving some kind of damage.

Doing the best I could behind a curtain of tears I asked God permission to rise above the storm. To be strong and not let this recent news get to me nor my family. One by one the grandkids are beginning to show signs of reality and what was going on.

Aubrey one day was at my blood transfusion staring down at the floor. She told me, grandma I didn't think it would happen this fast." What do you mean, I asked her. "The oxygen and the hair loss and the hospital rooms" she replied back. My heart just broke and if it weren't for strong arteries the blood I was receiving would have seeped all out onto the floor. 

Then recently my seventeen year old granddaughter got on a website where you can plug in your picture and your boyfriends picture to see what your kids will look like. They wanted me to see what my great grandkids would look like before I die.  Stopped again in its tracks was my heart overflowing with the pain they were feeling yet with the love I am feeling from them. 

A cake from Brooke and a daily call asking me how my day was going. Anthony's gentlemen gestures to help me thru a door or up a stair and other random acts of love. Each one serving as their cry out to ask God permission to rise above life's storm of grandma's cancer and to say "We love you. " Grandma loves you too my precious ones. 

The beauty of asking God for such permission is knowing we won't be denied because too many people asked first. It's true though sometimes God allows us to go through storms simply to learn how to trust Him and how to survive. We learn from storms a great deal of things. 

For example, the major storm my head injury and epilepsy caused was something I learned a great deal from. If God had allowed me to rise above it and miss it all together I wouldn't have matured as a Christian like I did. The epilepsy storm prepared me for something much bigger and devastating, the storm of my cancer. 

The biggest thing about rising above life's storms is permission to have a better attitude, to be strong and not collapse under the storms pressure. Also to not be effected by it to the point where the storm has beaten us instead of us withstanding it. 

So my, not so little ones anymore, stay strong. Use God as your anchor. You may have weak moments but that is okay Grandma had plenty. Just lean on Jesus. Trust Him as the captain of your ship. You may get the wind in your face, water in your eyes but you will make it through.    Love you, Grandma

A Fluff and a Buff, Please

Work was over, if that is what you could call it. The day had been wild. Laughter was rolling around the room faster than the tears were able to roll down our cheeks. It felt good to be goofy as it helped to relieve any tensions deep down inside. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and it was time to come home and prepare for class at the church. Between the journeys from work to my class a dent was put in my spirit due to the things going on at home. Hesitating for a moment to assess the damage, I thought for sure I was fit enough to go on to class.

Wearing my “feelings on my shoulder” as I remained shook up from the recent dent I got in my spirit; it didn’t take much to make me “dent-shy,” if Webster will forgive me. It reminded me of the time I was hit by a drunk driver. For a long time afterwards the slightest movement made me jump. One day as a friend of my daughter’s was riding with me she stated, “Boy you can tell she was recently in a wreck.”

Sure enough, not to anyone’s fault emotionally it was easy to tell I was acting a little “dent-shy” as I didn’t want to be hurt again. All it took was one comment from someone in my class to make me crumble against the affects of my first dent that evening. I felt as if I was beyond being able to shine again to the point where no amount of fluffing or buffing could put my spirit back to where it needed to be.

In the midst of my pain God reminded me of the time prior to my second brain surgery. One day at my parents’ ranch I stood near the cattle in the field wondering what was in store just days ahead when my surgery was scheduled. Nervously I began to cry, and then I stopped myself, thinking I’m not going to waste any prayers. The same holds true 10 years after my surgery, “I’m not going to waste any prayers. I am not going to let God’s work come back useless,” I thought to myself.  I knew in my heart God had done a lot of spiritual body work in me mixed with the many prayers sent ahead on my behalf. Both were fluffed and buffed together with the price Christ had to pay for me to be a free woman, not one bound by the trials in life. All of which were things not to be wasted.

To some within the church I must have looked like an emotional wreck being brought in on a weekly basis via a tow truck. Surprisingly enough at the time we had just that, a red and white tow truck that came to church each Sunday. Thinking about that I began to chuckle as I thought about how the tow-truck of life is there to bring us to church for repair not to take us away. We need to have the attitude that we will not allow God’s work to be useless, permitting ourselves to be something that’s good for only parts whenever needed.

To me over the years the church had served as my “spiritual body shop.” It was a place to go to get the dings out, a new paint job, redone, refreshed, re-fixed, refueled, “A fluff and a buff if you would please.” I knew in my heart the only person who can tag me “totaled” was myself. One day God’s going to lovingly reach down from heaven with a big grin on His face with a sign that says “total” as in “complete,” not “totaled” as a wreck.

Until then we need to hold on to the promise Hebrew 4:16 gives us when it tells us, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.” We don’t have to be ashamed of our dents. We don’t have to get the dents out first. We don’t have to do it alone. We can do it today and any day with God’s help. Once completed, oh what a shine as His glory serves as our new paint job reflecting His love, grace, and mercy.

“A fluff and a buff, please.” A fluff and a buff.

Copyright 2000 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipe Publishing 

Always on Duty

We live in a broken world full of broken people, But isn’t it comforting to know God isn’t ever broken? He isn’t ever caught off guard, taken by surprise, or shocked by what happens next. He can take our worst and add His best. We just have to make the choice to stay with Him and keep following Him through it all. Lysa TerKeurst




I must confess that at one point in my life I felt like the fairy tale character Humpty Dumpty. I was so shattered into pieces I figured there couldn’t possibly be enough of the King’s angels to put me back together again. The best I could do was lie on my bed and stare up at the blank ceiling above me and wonder if my prayers were ever going to make it past the roof of my house.

I looked at life through a broken lens, everything seemed cracked, and nothing seemed to be intact. Satan had me believing the lie that I was insignificant enough that I wasn’t worth keeping an eye on. Basically I was all alone with too many problems for a busy God to keep up with. There were more important people to deal with. Even the time clock at work confirmed my analysis as I clocked in each day when it would display the word, “insft.” To me that stood for insignificant not in shift.

Wow, how blind can we get by believing the lies Satan plants in our heads? The lies like God is broken, He’s caught off guard, taken by surprise and shocked at what is happening. It is a list that unfortunately can go on and on if we allow it.


The truth is God can and will take our worst and add His best but we have our part to play in the equation. We need to be willing to stay with Him long enough for Him to do His best in our lives. Often we either get too inpatient and go on our own way or we give up entirely not wanting to wait around for the “snail mail” our answers come in from Heaven. We want instant replies and on the spot results exactly as we think they should be answered. When they don’t come we figure God’s given up on us so we might as well follow suit.


Satan has it too easy. We give in too quickly, we fall for every lie Satan tells, and we flip the blame for everything going wrong in our lives onto God in a heartbeat. We are the ones with a choice to gloat over our worse or give it to God to add His best. God is not insignificant and neither are we when we have Him on our side. A Savior and King that is never off duty, always in shift watching over our every need.


Yes, Karen, there are enough of the King’s angels to put you back together again. Praise the Lord!




Our host today is Twinkle Mom at Sunflower Faith, this was a great quote today. You need to go over and visit her and see what others have to say about it.

Tattered, Torn and Faded

“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 33:17-18





In my Bible the page this verse falls on is kind of tattered, torn, and faded. It’s a scripture I have leaned on so many times the imprint its left on my shoulder remains there like a fresh tattoo. In fact it’s where I am right now as I suffer from the heart disease called “broken” secondary to being crushed in spirit.




Each day as I read this scripture I curl myself up in a fetal position in between the “He delivers them from all their troubles” and “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” There I wait patiently for my Heavenly Father to put His arms around me and tell me everything is going to be okay.




Upon reading this scripture and believing the truth in it that God will hear the cry of the righteous and deliver them from all their troubles we need to know in our hearts that eventually things will be alright. Truly as much as we would like to have the added clause at the end of the verse that says, “PS Come to Me and you will never experience being brokenhearted or crushed in spirit” its not there. We can read it all we want, change translations, or peak in between the lines but it’s not going to show up it’s a waste of energy. When you are feeling brokenhearted the last thing you need to waste is your energy because you have so little of it.




What we need to be doing with our energy is turning to the Great Physician for treatment of our temporary disease. Crying out to Him and waiting for the delivery to happen. We can either do as we’re told or turn our backs on it pouting as we say, “If He really loved me this wouldn’t be happening right now.” It’s not God’s fault I am brokenhearted right now. He didn’t cause it but He can cure it with His love, strength, wisdom, grace and guidance.





The problem is we need to want to be cured, to take our medication of being patient and wait for the Lord to work in us. We need to know and believe in our hearts that we don’t have to wind up like Humpty Dumpty where there weren’t enough of the kings men to put him back together again. With our Lord and Savior, Kind of Kings there is enough of Him to put us back together again. Definitely enough of Him to heal the tattered and torn and faded spirit that lies in pain within us.




It’s our choice to make our pain a permanent tattoo or a temporary one that will eventually go away. We may not know when it will happen or what the process will be but that’s where faith and trust come in to sustain us. If we do this before we know it we will find ourselves rising from our fetal positions to stand strong before the Lord facing the world in His strength.



Our job is wound care, God’s job is healing. God can’t do His job if we aren’t properly taking care of the wound in the first place. Too often we like to pick at the scab, open the wound up all over again only to create a bigger irritation and more of an infection than we had in the first place. Nope, instead we need to pick up the Bible and spread upon our wounds the healing ointment of knowing God hears He’s not ignoring us. He delivers not abandons. He is close not far away. He saves He doesn’t throw away. He restores the tattered and torn and brings back to life the faded in spirit.




Praise the Lord for His healing, Praise the Lord for His care!

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing