I beg your pardon...

I'm watching the biopic about Johnny & June Carter Cash, "Walk the Line." I actually met them, once, a long time ago while I worked for a radio station. Here was a man with more hits on the Billboard top 100 than the Rolling Stones (I love that, for some strange reason), and yet, for a time, he thought he was a big nothing. That amazed me. Then, it stopped amazing me, when I've looked at my own life, and how I've been afraid to go out and be all that God wants me to be, simply because I've looked at my family background, looked back at my own mistakes in life, looked in the mirror and said to myself, "Who do you think you are? Do you REALLY think YOU have what it takes to accomplish that goal?!"

I'm not saying that I have what it takes to be a top-selling recording artist, I'm saying, what's stopping me from being the Christian Storyteller that I'd like to be, or the writer, songwriter, artist, and public speaker that I feel God would like me to be? Have I been believing that the Goliath in my life is more powerful than the Lord who lives in my heart?

I'll admit -- these past couple years have been enough for many people to say, "Oh, maybe the Lord is telling you and Tim to move on... wipe the dust off your feet... people aren't listening to the message you're preaching. It's a message straight out of the Word, but this area just doesn't want to hear it. It's too entrenched with families that have been here for decades, possibly hundreds of years. Maybe unbeknownst to you, the ground is cursed."

It's been hard to give your heart out to people, to honestly care about people and pour yourself into their welfare, just to have them turn their backs on you the moment they hear something they don't 100 % like, but something 100 % true, out of the Word of God. Funny, it seems that as soon as we take one step forward, the enemy tries to violently push us two to three steps back.

For example, our church is a testing facility for the Census Bureau, we're organizing a Storytelling day for children who normally don't go to church, and we're holding a CPR course at the church. We really have been pushing forward. Then, on Saturday, a beautiful day here, we got a call from ADT; there was trouble at the church. My husband left, and said he'd be back soon enough.

He came back about an hour later, soaked from head to foot. A one-half inch pipe somehow burst in the attic, causing the water to pour all over the place. The ceiling in the kitchen collapsed, at least three inches of water filled the church, and it was literally raining on my husband's head as he tried to turn off the main water valve. When I got there, it wasn't half as bad as when my husband walked through the door. It was depressing, to say the least. But, as we were using every available shampooer to suck up the water, there was one thought that kept playing over and over and over in my head.... DON'T.... GIVE..... UP.

In the interim, I've been made aware of prayers going up for us. Pastor Ronnie has become a good friend to us; even though our families have never met, we are still joined together as members of the family of God.

I've wondered, why in the WORLD is the enemy attacking our little church with such a fury? In comparison to Joel Osteen, Rod Parsley, anyone on television, or most churches, for that matter, we could be considered nothing. We have tried to fulfill the commission of our Lord to the best of our abilities, and we fall to our knees to pray for our area. There are times that Tim and I have stayed up to pray for this area, for our state, for the world. I have felt like the Israelites when they were facing Goliath. He seemed SO BIG, and they seemed SO SMALL But, we have a champion who is ready, willing and present to help us, if we call on Him -- and when He arrives on the scene, He is the only one who can truly defeat the enemy. We just have to trust. And that can be harder than it seems.

As I was thinking of all of these occurrences, I kept thinking of something I have said many times before to people: Jesus NEVER said, "Take up your fluffy pillows and follow Me." NO -- instead Jesus said, "Take up your CROSS and follow Me." The cross was a place of loneliness, pain, and being forsaken, last I checked. And contrary to what some of those televangelists said back in the 1980's, the REAL battle for you begins when you accept Jesus as your Savior, because that's when the enemy knows he's lost one to the Father, and he will play the dirtiest that he can to make you turn away from following Christ. Some days are going to be lonely, other days will be painful, while many days you'll feel forsaken. Yes, Jesus said, "Take My yoke upon you, for My burden is light." But think about it,,, there IS a YOKE involved. In this life we WILL have trouble... that's a promise. But here's a promise that's just as sure: Jesus will NEVER leave us nor forsake us, and He has overcome the world!

"Goliath" may be throwing everything at us, but the time is coming when he WILL fall. And then our church will be known not for the pastor or his wife who are there, but rather, for the GOD who SUSTAINED all who went there during the darkest times, so that they could go out and spread HIS word of deliverance and hope to a world that seems so hopeless. In the meantime, because I'm the Lord's and He is mine, I'll walk the line....