Above Reality: Where Miracles Still Happen

Above Reality: Where Miracles Still Happen

ABOVE “REALITY” is a partial autobiography… my personal story of growing up lost, always wondering about God, and hearing His voice in a pained plea for Him to prove Himself.

God was not a subject for discussion at home, growing up.  I often escaped reality in dreams of becoming a musical star.  But, marrying too young, I went from battered wife to struggling single-mother of three, and later to Nashville music performer still hungry to know God.

In 1984, having lost everything, God became real, and everything changed!

The following is the introduction to my book, Above “Reality”: Where Miracles Happen and Healing Begins.  If you’ve longed to know God; if you’ve heard Corrie ten Boom’s and others’ testimonies of faith, and wondered how they could be so sure of Him, I hope you will also read my story. Yes, God is real!

“You’re going home, Susan!” The voice spoke to me as clearly as anyone ever had in my life. It was the second time I heard those same words as I sat frozen, unable to move from my place in the sprawling sanctuary of Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville. Fear gripped me at the sound of the bodiless male voice that spoke so calmly, but with such unnerving authority.  It was not at all how the movies had ever portrayed the voice of God.  No thunder, no heavy reverb, but with an unmistakable finality that caused my heart to pound wildly and my resolve to begin to crumble like a snowy peak breaking up before an avalanche.

Near panic, I thought to bolt for the door, but even the slightest movement made me fear I would shatter into uncontrollable tears and humiliate myself before so many strangers. My life had been out of control for so long, and I felt certain these “do-gooders” (I called them) would not understand or care that I had lost all but the last bit of heart to live. I could not have guessed what God was about to do that would change my life forever!

The One I was always told was “unknowable” showed me that Sunday morning in 1984, He will move heaven and earth in our lives. And sometimes speak right out loud, if we earnestly seek Him. He wants us to know Him! He CAN be known!

The most brilliant among us in this world lives out our years with little more than a philosophy about why we exist at all, and calls it “reality.” Our perception of truth is limited by our waning physical strength, fickle emotions, self-motivated opinions, and a short supply of any faith that counts.

Most tragically for many, reality is a prison of seemingly impossible circumstances forged by our own or others failings apart from the One who loves us most of all. It doesn’t have to be that way!

In my book I share some of my own experiences, believing God. Were they miracles? I’ll leave that to your own faith to consider. I offer them in my book, just as they happened.

We were created to live connected to the One who created us… without that connection, understanding this life is impossible! But, with God ALL things are possible!

God loved me at my worst, and I can’t help but love Him back. He loves you, too! I pray you will seek after Him and not stop looking until you find Him, then hang on for dear life. You won t be disappointed!

The Lord knows my weaknesses and my fears. He hears my complaints and my prayers. He admonishes me regularly, that I might grow up to be more faithful. And, most amazingly, He extends His all-sufficient grace to me when I least deserve it.

If I accomplish nothing else with this book, I pray that every reader will be impacted by a deep understanding of God’s amazing GRACE. He invites even the worst of sinners to surrender that “worst” to Him; to look beyond what we call reality here, and share a personal relationship with Him, even now, above “reality,” where miracles still happen, and healing begins!

I pray now you will seek to know Him. It’s a life or death matter!

He is the reason Corrie ten Boom was able to survive three concentration camps in 1944; the reason she shared God’s love there during the Holocaust and all over the world, in person and in her many books, including “The Hiding Place.”

In these times, when the world seems as shadowy as in those World War 2 days, there is peace to be found, and assurance of God’s love in Jesus Christ.  [Matthew 7:7-8]

Superman | What Real Love Looks Like

Superman | What Real Love Looks Like

I had a strange dream a while back. It was so real, I couldn’t get it off my mind. So, I decided to share it with my good friend “Kathy,” who had recently sent me a Tony Gaskins article titled, “What A Real Man’s Love Looks Like.”

In my dream, I and several others were preparing for some sort of event. I noticed our swimming pool (the one we don’t actually have) needed cleaning and was covered with fallen leaves and twigs. As I waited for instructions on what to do about that…

I looked up and saw SUPERMAN flying across the sky at tremendous speed.  His face was heavenward, as he lay on something like a large fiery bullet. Flames surrounded his neck at the tip of the object.

The voice of a news broadcaster was reporting, “Superman is removing the object at the risk of his own life. He will not let it go, even as his head and neck are in the fire!”

Suddenly the dream changed…

My husband was driving our car, his brow creased with concern, as I rode silently beside him. He had managed to cut a cantaloupe in thirds, and as he drove on, he held a piece of it on the back of his neck to cool the burn. I commented about how “clever” it was of him to think to do that. But he just turned and looked at me with obvious pain in his eyes and said, “It really hurts, Susan!”

I woke up, startled.

Some Kind of Superman

As I lay there thinking about my dream, I was reminded just how hard men like my husband work to show love for their wives. And yet, how fragile men can be in some ways.  So much is expected of them. And real men, who really love and take responsibility for their role as men, bear it well, if we women would only stop to recognize it.

I looked at my still-sleeping husband in the dim light of the room and wanted to say, “Forgive me, for looking to you sometimes to be some kind of Superman.  All the pressures of a business owner; enduring health issues the past few years that would best most people.  Yet always concerned for me; always the go-to guy for another need or repair in our daily lives.

A Dreamy Reminder

I believe my dream was the Lord reminding me that my “Superman,” committed and loving as a man can be to our life together, is really only human, and that life and duty “really hurts” for him too, at times.

As his wife, it’s important for me to encourage him more, and be ever more attentive to his needs. It’s important to help share the weight of things from which we women can tend to abdicate, just expecting our men to handle them. There’s a balance, of course!  Men LIKE doing certain things—and they are happiest if we women just let them do those things without our “expert” directives.

After sharing my dream with my friend Kathy, she responded, “We all should be reminded of this! I have a husband who is healing from a broken back, yet he still rides fiery bullets for me.”

The dream was a reminder for me to also be the “real woman” who loves her real man in deeper ways.  That’s when a woman is able to realize what a real man’s love looks like!

Summer of Pain, Renewed Hope

Summer of Pain, Renewed Hope

I’ve learned that blessings can come on the mountain tops, but also in the valleys of our lives. For me, summer 2019 would bring one of those valleys, and more than a little pain. But it would also bring renewed hope!

My husband Philip and I had worked out vigorously for months at a local gym, also around our small farm property near Nashville.  We mow eleven of sixteen acres, where countless trees regularly shed wagon loads of branches to toss on our ever-rising burn pile.

I had forgotten I wasn’t twenty years old anymore, and I was beginning to feel the pain of over-doing a thing!

As weeks passed, the pain worsened, and three MRI’s revealed rotator cuff tears in both shoulders, plus pinched nerves in my neck that caused further pain in my arms and hands. “The perfect storm,” it seemed.  Later, in October, cervical (neck) fusion surgery would be necessary to relieve the pinched nerves, and the first weeks of recovery would be excruciating.  The thought of possibly two more surgeries, one shoulder at a time, was unbearable.  I spent the summer hoping none of those surgeries would be needed.

What I needed was a miracle!

The Coming Storm

Philip and I work together in our small software business a few miles from home, where I enjoy doing promotions and editing Philip’s national blogs. I’m also a writer and blogger, but with painful arms, writing became a challenge.  If only God would just heal me, instantly!  After all, when He walked the earth, He made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk. Still, I prayed…

“Lord, if it’s your will that I go through all this, please be right here with me.”

August came with an unusual thunderstorm for our area, turning the skies black and threatening, and Philip urged me to hurry home from the office. At once, lightning and thunder began pounding our little town. Windshield wipers were all but useless against the downpour, as I drove through the gate, onto our long gravel driveway.

Suddenly, the driver’s side of my car was engulfed in tree limbs.  Part of that rotting old tree, Philip and I had talked about removing one day, had finally succumbed to the storm. Shaken, I hit the brakes, and then tried to drive forward toward the house, but a large limb had pinned my front wheels in place.  I couldn’t move.

Looking up then, I watched helplessly, as the larger part of that same old tree crashed down right in front of my car.

Running for Cover

Heart pounding, I thought to wait a bit for the lightning to let up before getting out of my car. But what if another tree fell?  As it was, with limbs blocking the driver’s door, I’d have to climb over the console and go out the passenger door. Having two bad arms made the whole experience more traumatic, as I grabbed my purse and keys and jumped out into deepening mud puddles. Still about 400 feet to the house, I realized the skimpy sandals I’d worn were no substitute for track shoes I could have used to outrun the storm.  I ran and prayed frantically, past the long row of swaying southern pine trees.

“Lord, HELP ME make it to the house!” After all, I remembered, He had once calmed a terrible storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Finally, safe inside, heart still pounding and soaked to the skin, I was just thankful to be alive.  But truly, if I was hoping for a miracle, I felt sure only the Lord kept me from being crushed under tons of enormous tree limbs, now strewn across the driveway.  I would find out later, the only real damage to my car was that caused by the limb under my wheels, that had kept me from a more tragic outcome.

Surely, God proved He was with me, saving me from that falling tree. And I was reassured He would also be with me through this health crisis; my own “perfect storm!”  Through all of it, my sweet husband has been more than supportive and encouraging.

As I write this…

It’s been nearly seven months since that first (neck) surgery, and five months since the second surgery to repair my right shoulder. Recovery was harder than expected, and I had prayed I would not need a third operation. I’m thankful, that prayer was answered!

In March, however, my husband suffered unexpected “sinking spells” that sent us to the emergency room at Centennial Medical Center in Nashville where doctors operated twice on him to insert a permanent heart pacemaker. Six weeks later, Philip is feeling well and too strong for his own good. Hard to keep a busy entrepreneur down! God is good!!

For all of it, I’m clinging to the promise in Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord; not to harm you, but to give you a future and a hope.”

One thing I understand, God doesn’t promise us a pain-free, tear-free life, but He does promise never to leave us, nor forsake us.  I know there’s a purpose for this season in my life, and I’m thankful for the reminder that came with that summer storm… even a fallen tree.

Thankful for the months since, that have brought me closer to Him. And thankful for the blessing of renewed hope for the future.

As Corrie ten Boom would say, “Jesus is victor!”

 

Remembering Corrie | Love, Don’t Hate!

Remembering Corrie | Love, Don’t Hate!

Love, not hate

remembering Corrie

“Don’t HATE, Corrie!”  Betsie said.

It was November, 1944, and Corrie was stunned by the look in Betsie’s eyes, full of love and compassion, even for the Nazi guard who was beating Betsie unmercifully.

Corrie ten Boom, younger than her beloved sister Betsie by nine years, could not stand by and watch any longer.  She would never forget the hate on that Nazi woman’s face as she whipped Betsie violently, again and again.  Where did such hate come from?

Suddenly, Corrie knew the answer too well, seeing this latest injustice toward someone she loved.  Hate, even rage, rose up like gall in her own heart, until she was close to choking on it.

Corrie and Betsie had grown up in a household of love and compassion, kindness, and faith in God.  Hate was an enemy they had never met until now. How would these two amazing women deal with a world that seemed bent on hate?

April 15th marks TWO anniversaries for a remarkable and beloved, Dutch watchmaker and Nazi holocaust survivor, Corrie ten Boom.  Born that spring date in Haarlem, Holland (The Netherlands), she would step into eternity on her 91st birthday.

Remembering Corrie ten Boom [April 15, 1892 — April 15, 1983]

Years ago, writer Linda Ellis’ profound poem, “The Dash,” shared the message, that the dates of a person’s birth and death are not as important as how that person spends the DASH in between.  It’s hard to think of many who spent their “dash” as well as Corrie ten Boom, whose life touched and continues to bring hope and encouragement to many, all around the world!

Corrie’s autobiographical book, “The Hiding Place,” written with Elizabeth and John Sherrill, was the basis for this stage play, “Ten Boom the Musical.” Her book became a major motion picture in 1978, sharing the powerful true story of Corrie and her family during the Nazi occupation of Holland.  Her “dash” included life in a loving Christian family that would later risk their lives to hide Jewish people from Nazi persecution and death. The family’s work with the Dutch Resistance finally led to imprisonment, where many of them died.  Their story tells of a great love, courage, and unflinching faith in God.  From a quiet life to unexpected intrigue, great pain and ultimate victory, Corrie’s experience has encouraged millions all over the world through her speaking and her many books.

“Don’t Hate!”

If Corrie was alive today, and could see what’s happening in our nation and our world, what would she say to us now?  She had survived three concentration camps during a devastating World War that took the lives of an estimated 50 to 80 million people, military and civilian. Six million of those were Jewish people—killed simply for being Jews! HATE did that, and Corrie had seen the enemy up close and personal.  And yet, I believe her message for us would include a loving warning, like the one given to Corrie herself by her sister Betsie, even about the Nazis…“Don’t Hate!”

It was a harsh winter in Germany, in 1944.  Corrie, Betsie and hundreds of others were forced into hard labor at Ravensbruck prison, a Nazi death camp for women.  The sixteen-hour days of back-breaking work, with little to eat, were literally killing many of the women.  Betsie, born with pernicious anemia, grew weaker by the day. Seeing her collapse to the ground, Corrie ran to Betsie’s aide, only to be pushed violently aside by a cruel matron others called “the Snake.”

To Corrie’s mind, the beating was the last straw. A devoted Christian woman, but how could she continue to turn the other cheek1, while another person she loved was so cruelly mistreated?  The brutality and deaths she had witnessed caused a deep bitterness to grow toward those who purposed to cause pain.  Finally, Corrie just wanted to get her hands on that Nazi guard and pull her away from Betsie, but other prisoners held her back, fearing more retribution.  Restrained now, by the arms of women who had as much reason to hate as she, Corrie’s tears boiled over.

Pray For Your Enemies

The beating had finally stopped. The Snake threatened and ordered all the women back to work. But, Corrie was still reeling from the scene, and rushed to comfort her now bleeding sister.

“I HATE THAT WOMAN…” Corrie stopped, puzzled by the look on Betsie’s face.

“Don’t hate, Corrie. Pray for that woman!” Betsie whispered. “THEY know how to hate and look what it’s done to THEM!  You can’t protect me here, Corrie—you mustn’t try!”

“How do you pray for such monsters?” Corrie wept. She had trusted the Lord since she was five years old, and had never seen the face of evil, as here in this place.  Jesus warned believers, “Be sober and vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”2

Here, behind the ominous, barbed-wire fences of Ravensbruck prison, the smell of death was all around her, choking her with a hatred she had never experienced.  JOY had always defined her life. How was she to deal with such evil?

The True Hiding Place

Corrie remembered the words of the apostle Paul to believers… “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might… take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day; and, having done all, to stand.”3

Corrie was the strong one, feisty even; now she definitely wanted to make a stand. But is that what Paul was saying? She loved the Lord, and was often steadied  by Betsie’s wise counsel, as they grew up. Betsie was right! They were here in this place of death to bring hope to others—not to hate—not even the Nazis.

What Would Corrie Do Today?

The Bible tells us that in the last days, people will be offended and there will be much division. Hearts will turn cold toward others, and hate will abound.4  That people will be as we see many becoming in our world today.5

In Luke 6, Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

On her knees, Corrie asked the Lord to forgive her and to give her the right heart toward these enemies. She prayed the infection of hatred in their hearts would heal also; that they would learn to love again.  If our adversary, even the devil, can cause hate to eat at our souls, then we have already lost the battle. Hate steals any compassion we might have for another soul, while it steals our own peace.

God allowed Corrie and Betsie ten Boom to be imprisoned at Ravensbruck to bring light and hope, the love of God, to others suffering that horror. Even if it meant they themselves should die there! Betsie did die, but that miraculous event would encourage Corrie’s heart for the rest of her life as she traveled to more than 60 countries to tell others, “No pit is so deep that God’s love is not deeper still!

Putting Out Fires of Hatred

It seemed the whole world was on fire during World War 2.  And it seems that fire of hatred and division is spreading across the globe in these times, when LOVE and compassion are desperately needed!

On this anniversary of Corrie ten Boom’s birth, and her going home to the Lord she loved, we pray the world will stop and consider LOVE, not hate!

I Peter 4:8 (AMP) “Above all, have fervent and unfailing love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. It overlooks unkindness, and seeks the best for others.