11.20.05
The True Meaning of Grace Notes
by Dee Andrews The word “grace note” is a musical term meaning (according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary Fourth Edition): “A note not necessary to the melody, added only for ornamentation: it is usually printed as a small note with a slant line through the stem, just before the note that it embellishes . . ..” In other words, it is something extra. A special accent. Something added. The word “gracious” (in the same dictionary) means: “1. having or showing kindness, courtesy, charm, etc. 2. merciful; compassionate . . ..” and so on. Theologically and Biblically, “grace” means “the unmerited love and favor of God toward mankind; divine influence acting in a person to make the person pure, morally strong, etc.; a special virtue, gift, or help given to a person by God . . ..” In doing a Google search this afternoon for the word “Grace Note” I found an article from Christianity Today from October 28, 1996 entitled “Grace Note” by a man named Luis Palau about his favorite Old Testament passage, Psalm 32, and I found it to be a better description of and/or definition of “grace note” than I can give. In that article, Palau said, in part:How does all of the above fit in with this endeavor, our “Grace Notes” blog, you ask?After an evangelistic luncheon in suburban Chicago this spring, an elderly man slowly walked toward me. He introduced himself as a retired university professor once nominated for a Nobel Prize. I asked him, “Do you have eternal life, or are you still on the way?” “When I was a boy, I had faith,” he answered, “and then I lost it. Now it’s too late. God will never take me back.” “Professor, why do you say that?” “Because I am so unworthy, that’s why. I’m so unworthy.” I assured the professor that God could take away his guilt-even 40 years’ worth. David wrote, after he had committed adultery and murder and after a period of miserable silence, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’-and you forgave the guilt of my sin” (Ps. 32:3-5, NIV). David found relief and happiness in knowing his transgressions were forgiven, his sins covered, and the Lord did not count his sin against him. Sin needs to be taken care of. Either God covers it or we cover it up.
There’s a big difference. As Rudyard Kipling said, “Nothing is ever settled until it’s settled right.” When God covers it, it’s settled forever. Psalm 32 is a clear statement of the New Testament gospel. For troubled souls overwhelmed by their guilt, sin, and failure, few passages in all of Scripture can give peace like this one. Offering assurance of forgiveness, Psalm 32 lets us know that God has set us free.
Because when others serve as “ornamentation” to embellish our lives in the ways described above and in all of our posts so far, they, whether knowingly or not, are serving as examples of graciousness that comes from God.
We are encouraged by their acts of kindness and courtesy and mercy and time. Hopefully, we will all also be encouraged to go out and do the same in these stressful times we live in.
Have you been a grace note in someone’s life today?11.15.05
The Gift of Faith
by Patrick Mead I served as minister in Morgantown, West Virginia for eight years. They were some of the best people I’ve known in my soon-to-be 49 years on this planet, but one of them stays with me everyday. The lessons she taught me were life changing… and she didn’t know it. Phyllis Johnson lost her husband several decades ago in a coal mining accident. Since that time she has had to subsist on a widow’s pension; tiny by any standard. Her life had enough pain in it that no one would have blamed her if she complained constantly… but she never did. She had the gift of faith in a way that I just don’t see very often. No matter what her week was like, she greeted everyone with a smile and a reminder of the love of God. Her faith wouldn’t stay in, so I had to change the way I preached. No more rhetorical questions such as, “So, is God good?” for she’d say “Yes!” And so on. I truly believe that, if her legs had just fallen off in the parking lot, if you asked Phyllis “How are you doing today?” she would have responded “God’s been very good to me.” And she’d mean it. She went to yard sales and charity shops to buy left over cards which she’d then painstakingly address and send to anyone who needed encouragement or a kind word. She spent her days in doing as much good as her few monthly dollars and advancing years would allow. And, as far as I know, she still does. When I get down, want to whine, or feel doubts nibbling at my heart I remember Phyllis. What would Phyllis do? Ah…. okay. I’ll believe.Grace at the Chain Pharmacy
by Raymond Fleming My wife, Gale, was sick. It was one of those weeks when everyone in the family got sick at once. Slowly, we recovered and returned to work and to school and went about our normal routines. Gale’s flu-like symptoms returned, however, after a couple of days. She said to me one morning, “I’m tired of feeling so bad. If I don’t feel better by the end of today, I’ll make an appointment with the doctor.†She couldn’t make it to the end of the day for an appointment. About mid-morning, she drove herself to an urgent care office near where we live. The doctor diagnosed her with pneumonia, prescribed antibiotics and told her to go home and get some rest. On her way home, she stopped at the pharmacy near our home. Gale handed Dean, the pharmacist, her prescription and our insurance card. We don’t get many prescriptions, so the problem with the card wasn’t any surprise. Maybe she gave him the wrong card? She checked her purse and found another more recently issued card. Dean slid that card through the reader. There was still a problem. “Well, I can pay for it,†said Gale. “I’m not feeling well and I need to get home.†“It’s going to be well over a hundred dollars,†said Dean as he handed her a bag containing the bottle of pills and an inhaler. “Come in or give me a call tomorrow,†he said. “Maybe there’s a problem with the Blue Cross computer.†“What about the money?†asked Gale. “I’m not worried about it,†said Dean. “Go home and get some rest.†The next day, an even newer card with a different identification number arrived in the mail. Apparently, the insurance company was rolling out the new cards and we just hadn’t received ours yet. Gale called the next day, gave Dean the new number and we owed only the co-payment on the prescriptions. Who said you don’t get personalized service from a chain pharmacy?11.04.05
Above and Beyond
by: Dee Andrews Those of you who are regular followers of my blog, “Finding Direction,” know I had to have rather “emergency” open heart by-pass (five of them!) surgery in early March 2004. My husband, Tom, came home from work one afternoon after I’d called him telling him I had indigestion really bad and made me go to the hospital emergency room to see about it. I didn’t want to go, but he insisted, which, as it turned out, literally saved my life. I wasn’t in the middle of having a heart attack, but was on the verge of having a fatal one they discovered upon doing a highly risky angiogram (due to my having been diabetic for 34 years and having had three strokes, already, etc.). Within a few hours, before I could even begin thinking about (blessedly) the ramifications of what I was about to undergo, the heart surgeons performed the five by-passes and gave me, what I considered to be, a “new” heart and life. It was a tough time. Very tough time. I had a series of very serious complications following surgery and was in the hospital for well over a week the first time. I couldn’t even begin to have visitors for several days, but friends and family were great, sending me absolutely stunning flower arrangements, cards galore, prayers in abundance and much love. In thinking about it all now and trying to relate to anyone the signifcance of all I then experienced, how I felt throughout all that was happening and what other people’s loving actions toward me and for me truly meant to me is still difficult. But I have tried to do so because I hope what I have to say will encourage others to know better how to be of true help and support to those in similar circumstances. So, on the first anniversary of the date I had the surgery this past March, I wrote about that night on my blog in “Out of the Darkness . . . .” I also wrote a bit before, but want to expand here, about the loving actions of a couple of dear friends, one of my shepherds at Tammany Oaks church and his wife, David and Becky Gilbert. I want to do that because what they did for me while I was in the hospital twice, nearly the entire month of March in 2004, went way above and beyond anything I could have expected or even thought of, but which meant the world to me at the time. And, I mean, the world I was in, which was confined to a room alone in a hospital, mostly in I.C.U. with I.V.s running everywhere, for weeks. I was in the hospital in Slidell, Louisiana, while the church and David and Becky are in Mandeville, about 20 miles west, both on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain. David worked in New Orleans and, like most everyone else on the north shore, was a long distance, couple of hours a day or more commuter and very busy man. But, the first thing David did for me when he found out I was in the hospital was to take the time to find out that the hospital I was in had a service whereby outsiders could directly email notes to patients in the hospital which the kind hospital volunteers would bring around room by room. And he sent me several emails written early in the mornings directly to me in the hospital offering written prayers, scriptures and meditations for me and on my behalf. They were wonderful. Then he came by on his way home from work in New Orleans, way out of his way to go to his home and family, to visit me several times. One morning in particular, after I’d been in there way over a week the first time and had had a really bad night, he emailed me the words to one of Zoe group’s songs, “He’s Always Been Faithful to Me,” which were just so encouraging and meaningful to me that morning because I was not doing well. But what David and his wife did next really struck me. I was so taken by the words to the Zoe song that I called Becky later that morning long distance at work in Mandeville (where she’s our church secretary) to tell her to tell David how much the email had meant to me. I also told her I didn’t know the tune to the song and was having to make up one in my head, but had “found” the tune from an old time hymn that fit so was singing that to myself, so it was working out well for me. Well - that wasn’t enough for Becky. She got in her car during her lunch hour and drove 30 miles over to the hospital to see me just to sing the song for me so I could hear the tune! We sat together in my hospital room with her singing a hymn to me with me trying to follow along. It was wonderful! Is that Christian love, or what?! Then, when David found out how much I liked the song, he ordered the CD for me, went out and bought a little portable CD player and brought it to me when I was back in the hospital the second time, just two days after I’d come home, when I was still not doing well at all. I listened to that CD over and over each dark, lonely and painful night the remainder of the time I was in the hospital and it brought great comfort to me. The doctors were giving me some medication through an I.V. in my left arm every four hours that was very painful. Very painful. And, being able to listen to and concentrate on that Zoe CD and think about God’s love and David and Becky’s - and others’ - love was about all that kept me going. It was a very difficult time made immensely better by their acts of kindness. So that’s why I’m writing about them today, nearly two years after, because they were true “grace notes” in my life in a time of great need and have been over and over again, since. We can all do the same things. We can witness to the significance of others’ lives and be there for them in many, many ways. We just have to think about it and act upon our thoughts, as God would have us do. That is how I want to live. How about you?11.01.05
A Tale of Two Tommy(s)
by: Donna Gossett This whole blog thing sometimes becomes a great vacuum that seems to suck up all of my time. But I think the blessings that have come from it far exceed the harm of a few wasted minutes (OK more like hours, or days even!) Let me tell you about two of my blogging buddies both of them are named Tommy. As you all are aware Katrina caused massive destruction on the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. Dee and her family were greatly affected and are still trying to pull together the pieces of their lives. Our friend John Dobbs in Pascagoula Mississippi is still suffering through wide spread damage. He nor his neighbors have yet to move back into their homes. From day one on August 29th Tommy Stewart started writing about the storm. By September 2nd he was spearheading a massive relief effort. By that weekend he himself had made a trip to the coast. His church continues to coordinate work groups to go each weekend. On October 9th Tommy and his wife went back down, this time to Pascagoula where they met and worked with John Dobbs. I know it has been a great encouragement for John to have folks he has never met to come down and help out. I am not sure of Tommy from Kentucky’s last name. He is a fellow NASCAR enthusiast and got involved in JD’s trivia games along with me (until I realized they just made me feel stupid). I don’t think Tommy knew John personally before last week. I tried to go back and read some of his early post, but I think he met John just as I did, through blog-land. On the weekend of October 20th Tommy and his wife were going to take a little vacation to get away from it all. Instead they made a trip to Pascagoula as well. They got involved in delivering supplies and helping with whatever work needed to be done. To hear his account you know he was blessed as much as he delivered a blessing. Both of these men named Tommy have given that precious commodity called time. To be able to extend grace to people you have never met, to get dirty and work hard, just because they know it is what Jesus would do; that is a perfect picture of grace in my eyes. Thanks guys, you truly have been an inspiration to me.