Father God, I pray for your mercy to cover the people of southern California now during this time of crisis. You are the God of the miraculous, and I pray that you would intervene in California in a miraculous way to turn tragedy around for your glory. I pray for Your divine intervention in the weather conditions in California, that the Santa Ana winds would die down and that rain would quench the flames.
I lift up to Your care the people impacted by the fires. I pray for Your comfort and Your incomprehensible peace to fill their hearts in the midst of the material and personal loss. I pray that You would be with each of the evacuees and that You would turn their eyes upward to You rather than around to the flames. I pray for Your protection over the homes and properties that are still in danger of being destroyed. I pray for medical care and mercy to reach them in the evacuation centers, and I pray for peace and harmony in these centers.
Lord God, I pray for a hedge of protection around firefighters battling the fires and among volunteers who are giving their time to help the people impacted by the fires. I pray Your blessing upon each of the relief workers and upon the state, federal, and private relief efforts. I pray that You would work through each of these people to reveal Yourself to southern California and to the rest of the nation.
Father, above all, I pray that you would use this devestating situation to turn hearts to you. In the name of Jesus, I come against all efforts of the enemy to turn people away from You during this crisis. I praise You, Lord, that You are greater than our enemy, that You are greater than our material wealth that we treasure too much in this country, and that You are greater than all of the trials and tribulations of this life. I pray that You would move in this situation in such a way that no one can question the divinity of Your intervention. I thank You, Lord, that no matter the heartbreak we cause You, it is not Your will for any soul to be lost. You are merciful and kind and loving beyond anything our feeble minds can understand. I ask that You enter into this situation and reveal Your power, love, and mercy to a watchful country. In the holy and mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-petsincostumes-ugc-photos,0,2095412.ugcphotogallery?coll=bal_home_xpromo
You have to scroll through a little bit as more pictures keep getting added. She was number 10 last time I checked, but she could be further back now. She is the mininature long-haired doxie "Felicia the pumpkin," as my husband wrote, "Straight out of the pumpkin patch."
Several months ago, my mom forwarded me the following from a daily email that she gets from mountainwings.com:
How much of your breath (spirit) is knocked out because you are running someone else's race?
Are you trying to outrun someone's car, house, clothes, looks, job title, etc.?
How much pain are you in trying to keep up with someone who may be running for an entirely different reason, heading to an entirely different place, with entirely different muscles?
Slow down or maybe speed up, but run your race to the best of your ability.
Whether you realize it or not, you are the real pace setter.
Don't run fast when you should be running slowly. Don't run at all when you should be walking, and don't walk when you should be running.
This was intriguing to me because we live in a world where we are constantly asked by the media to keep up with the proverbial Joneses. I've certainly fallen victim to this mentality myself, but recently I'm seeing evidence that God has been changing my mindset in this area. This month, I ran across an old friend from high school. He now lives in California and writes screenplays, which is exactly what he wanted to do when we were growing up. I think somewhere I still have a peace sign key chain that he made in 7th grade art back when we were friends and neither of us was making a name for ourselves outside of Crofton Middle School. That little peace sign might be worth something soon. Within the same week of running across him, I received in the mail an alumni newsletter from the University of Maryland with a feature about an alum who is now the Pixar Technical Diector and Character Shading Lead and who worked on Cars and Ratatouille. We used to hang out together in college. We took a Shakespeare class together and went to the Maryland Renaissance festival together and reguarly communicated on IM. He is now also living his dream.
What struck me was not so much what these two folks are doing now, but how different my reaction was to their success than what it would have been 5 years ago (or even less). Normally, I would expect to feel a little jealous of the "glamour" of what they're doing compared to my daily life. But I didn't feel jealous at all. Instead, I realized that just as they are living their dreams, I am living mine. It may not be perfect or exactly how I imagined it growing up, which I'm sure is the same as they would say about their lives. Nevertheless, all my choices have led up to exactly where I am right now, and where I am right is right where I want to be. My life may not be exciting enough to make the newsletters, but it's what I wanted--a happy marriage, a dog, and a house in suburbia. Once I stopped focusing on other people's lives and comparing my dreams to theirs, I realized God had brought to fruition in mine the very things that have truly been the desires of my heart (Psalm 37:4).
Of course, I say all this with hesistancy because being too happy with the way my life is going makes me a little nervous. The last time I was happy with my life tragedy struck, and I don't want to invite any more tragedy by enjoying where my life is right now. On the other hand, I want to freely praise God for bringing me through so much darkness to get me where I am today, and I want to stand in awe of Him for planning the course of my race so carefully that it would always be precisely what I need it to be. And I guess that is exactly why I should trust him with the future, tragedy and all. God has always directed my path exactly as I've needed for my own growth, even when the path has gone through places I never want to revisit.