Okay, so…first of all…I’M BAAACK! I am sorry for the months of awkward silence, but there has been a lot going on in my life, and I was advised to keep my head down and move toward the finish line.  (In other words, don’t bare my soul and my life through a weekly blog!)  All of that is over, however, as I closed on the short sale of the house that Keith and I owned this past week.  This has been another path in an incredible journey and I am so thankful for God’s faithfulness.  To summarize the past few months…I have moved to a new home, Josh and Lauren got married, and I began developing a new design business.  All daunting tasks by themselves, but somehow I have been able to keep everything juggled!  I am eternally grateful to the people that have come along beside me to help in all of the decisions and steps.

As I thought about my return to the blogging world, I decided to try and focus more on living the life that God has put me in, knowing that everything will be flavored by my circumstances.  I am a widow.  I get that.  I had a friend who described this blog as a “blog for widows.”  That’s fine, except I think that would be a very sad thing if my widowhood was my only point of connection.  I am a fellow traveler, and I am observing things as I go.  So, I don’t intend for this to be a widow’s blog, but rather a blog by someone who happens to be a widow.  There.  Enough about that.

I live in South Florida (I don’t understand that, as there is still a lot of Florida south of me, but that’s what they call it.) Most of the people that call this area home are from somewhere else.  Most of them are older.  Many of them are from the Midwest and the Northeast. A lot of them are tourists. You can draw your own conclusions about all of those factors, but when you put them all together, it makes for some entertaining moments if you open your eyes to watch them.

There is a large intersection close to me that has an interstate onramp that’s a little tricky.  It is one of those that starts out with 2 lanes turning left and then merging into one to approach the interstate.  That’s not so unusual, except this one is a little backward.  Instead of the right lane merging into the left, as most of these tricky merging lanes are, this one has the left lane merging into the right. (Stay with me…I’m going somewhere with this.)

I absolutely love watching the combination of people mentioned above navigating this particular onramp.  First of all, you have the people who thought they were playing it safe, and got into the left hand lane, no matter how long it was, in order to be sure that they did not have the stress of merging with the other lane.  They claimed their spot in the safe lane (so they thought) and all they had to do was hold their ground.  Then there are the rebels (again please keep in mind the demographic that I described) that pull up to the right lane and inch forward to be sure when the light changes that they can squeal to the front of the merge.

Then the light changes.

It’s perfect when I am about 4 cars back so I can watch what happens.  Suddenly the people who thought they were in the safe lane have to figure out a way to merge.  The ones who were trying to be rebels realize that they have control of the road and choose when and where to allow the poor schmucks next to them into “their” lane.  All of this happens in just a few seconds, but I have literally seen traffic come to a stop here because someone decides that they are going to hold their ground and refuse to allow a car to merge.  Sort of helps you understand road rage if it wasn’t so funny.

Of course there are numerous spiritual messages in this little parable.  I think you get it.  My favorite one is thinking you are in the safe lane and realizing that nothing is as you thought it was once the light changes.

Life changes.  Stuff happens.  Sometimes really icky stuff happens, no matter what lane you are in.

This morning when I came to my computer, I had an email from the blog site letting me know that I had a comment on one of my posts. It sort of surprised me, as I haven’t written here in so long and I was surprised that anyone was still reading.  This comment came from the post entitled, “Fellowship of Suffering.”  It was from a young man that found me through Facebook, I guess.  Anyway, he compared me to an ignorant savage who is in bondage to religion like slaves of 100 years ago.  When I first read it, I was a little stunned.  I started to take the comment down, but decided to leave it up. I edited out some of the language, but decided to leave his comment on the post. I am definitely secure enough for someone to disagree with me.  I also understand that there is no possible way someone who does not have a relationship with Christ can understand the meat of that post.

His name is Marvin, my new young blog postee, and the interesting thing is that now that he is on my radar, he will become a part of my prayer life.  His life has “merged” with mine, and he now has a prayer warrior interceding on his behalf.

So, dear ones, enjoy the journey and look for those people whose lives God wants to merge with yours.  Try not to fly right by them with your head in the clouds, and certainly don’t block them from merging.  You really might miss a blessing.

I Corinthians 2:14 says, ^“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

There are a lot of folks out there watching your life.  Do your best to help them see.

Blessings, my friends!