Have you forgotten.........

**WARNING**
This may be a fairly long post so get some water or
take a bathroom break before it's too late because trust
me you don't want to miss what I have to tell you today.

Last night on my drive home from work I was doing some very deep thinking (which you already know if you follow me on twitter/facebook :o) I got in to a... discussion... on Saturday with a co-worker about a lady that used to be a supervisor where we work. The lady is now a unit manager (which was a promotion) and my co-worker insisted that she has "changed" since she took the position (like a snooty "change"). I told my co-worker that I'm sure she has changed she has new responsibilities, new goals, even new hours, that's a lot of change. Then I said people change, things change, life just changes. Her reply was, "Well I never changed." WHAT?? So I asked her if she knew more than when she first started working here? Or if she has been able to develop boldness toward the staff under her? She just kept replying, "That's not what I meant, you know what I meant, that's not the kind of change I meant."

Well, last time I checked, change means simply something different, not the same.

I know a lot about change at such a young age. Here is a little bit of my testimony: My parents were divorced when I was 6. My dad divorced a second time when I was 14, to a woman I thought of as my mother and pretty much never saw her again after she had raised me for so long. Then I made a lot of bad choices as a teen, I did drugs and had a drinking problem. Cared less about my safety. I tried to commit suicide at 16, then made more bad choices after that wasn't successful.

I graduated high school on May 28, 2003 and then stole the guy that my good friend was dating at the time in early June 2003 (which turned out to be the best thing that I had done in a long time :o) Moved to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma with him on a whim in August 2003. Found out I was pregnant in September 2003 (big surprise!!), and married with a ring purchased from the CVS 25-cent machine on October 4, 2003 so I would have insurance to birth a child. (Exciting right!!) Mean while here I am 18 years old living in a state 6 hours from anyone that I knew, my husband is in the Army and NEVER around and I am L-O-S-T.

One night I came home from work when I was 5 months pregnant (and still had no friends). Travis was off doing the Army thing somewhere. I walked in the door to our rickety apartment, looked around after I turned the light on, and fell to my knees and cried. I woke up the next morning in that same spot that fell and realized that I must have cried myself to sleep. I believed in God, but that was about it. I knew he was up there and I was pissed off that he had forgotten about me!! How could he let me slip through the cracks!! It was my own fault though, right? I was the one who made all the bad choices so, now I'm paying, right?

WRONG. Something clicked. I started going to a church where I found out about Jesus. Then a month later, there I was, 18 years old, 6 months pregnant getting baptized (they said it was a "two for one" deal :o) God is just awesome like that!! There is some change for ya'!

Now let me tell you something people: Things change. People change. Situations change. Places change. Times change. Too much change for ya'? Great! Because here's the good part:

GOD DOES NOT CHANGE. JESUS DOES NOT CHANGE.

When every single thing in your life is upside down and you feel lost, alone and forgotten about, Jesus is there. He doesn't change, ever. Even when you are so far off the beaten path that you feel like you are already living in hell for your bad choices, Jesus is there, waiting. He's waiting on you to turn back to look at him, to acknowledge him. Want to know how I know? Because it happened to me!!

When I look back and think about my life before him, I see him standing there. Waiting on me to fulfill his will for my life.

When I was young and my parents divorced, he was there through my dad. He showed His love and compassion through my dad's love and compassion.

When I was "young and dumb" he was there. My friends and I always made wishes when we went over railroad tracks (which was everyday). I never wished, I always said the same thing. Every single time, "God please keep me safe and out of trouble." He did. Not once did I get "busted" by the cops for anything, and there were plenty of opportunities, trust me.

He was there when I tried to commit suicide. It happened at just the perfect time that my sister was there. She got me to the hospital. Jesus was there, I think he was maybe a little pissed, but he was there.

Then my friends met this guy at the beach, and brought him back to our little town. Jesus was there. That "guy" was my soon-to-be baby's daddy/husband. I didn't know. But God knew. He was there.

He was there when I reached the end of myself. The night I cried myself to sleep alone in that apartment He was there. He was calling out to me, begging me, to turn to His face. The same way that it rips us apart to see our children hurt and broken, I believe that God feels that way when we are hurt and broken. I believe it pains him to see our tears of sadness. That next morning I was at the very end of me, alone and confused (being pregnant didn't help those emotions at all by the way). He made me see him standing there. And I turned to Him. :o) What a glorious moment that was :o)

Now I see him every single day without fail. Do I ever get lonely? Yes, but I know now that is the liar telling me lies. Do things change and life feel unbareable at times? Yes, but I know that God will not give me anything that he knows that I can't handle and that I am not alone. In Hebrews 13:5 it says that God will never leave me or forget about me. And Romans 8:26-30 (The Message) says:

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

Did you miss it??

In verse 28 it says that God works EVERYTHING (even the inferno of change) for His glory!!

Then in verse 30 it says that he stays with us until the end. You must remember that.

Here is the words that changed my life today:

".... Remember how he told you...." Luke 24:6

This was in reference to the two angels telling the women why Jesus was not in the tomb, and the stone was rolled away!! They said it like, DUH!! Remember how he told you that he would die and rise again in three days?!?! Hello! Were you listening? It's Jesus, for Christ's sake :o) Listen to the man. Then in verse 8, (this is hillarious to me!!) It says, "Then the women remembered His words." An aha moment for the ladies :o) I can just see Mary turning to Mary saying, "Oh, Yeah!! I remember now!", or maybe, "Well now that you mention it, I think he did say something about that!" :o) (Don't blame me by the way, God gave me this insane imagination :o)

So please "Remember how he told you" when the winds of change start rolling in.

JESUS DOES NOT CHANGE.

Or, have you forgotten?

Get into Him.