Update 3/24/10 Day 135

Dear friends,

I have a definite opinion about jello. Capable Carol brought some over tonite for our cell group meeting. Now Carol is a fabulous cook. Her ham dinners are the stuff of legend. But jello is bad stuff. It has a slimy consistency, it slides off the spoon, and it comes in colors not ever found in nature. Jello is the Edsel of the food world. It simply was a mistake to invent it. Now I hope I'm not offending anyone, but you know honesty is my policy. Jello must go. It's too unpredictable, too slippery, and too...jelloey.

Smitty (who is also in the anti jello camp), had therapy today at the aptly named Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital. We've been connected to them for so long now, it will be kind of sad when it's time to finally go. God bless those dear people who work in that place of hope. No doubt about it, the Great One put us there for our good, from November 18, when Hannah was first an inpatient in the Brain Injury Unit, to the present, where Stephen receives the very best in outpatient physical and occupational therapy. I remember arriving there with my little girl, wondering what in the world I was doing in the TBI unit of a rehab hospital. She was still a very sick little pup when we first got there. I remember getting down on the floor and crying out to God to bring her out of the flat, emotionless bubble she was trapped in. He answered in His mercy, and Hannah continues to amaze everyone with the long strides of her recovery. A number of her teachers (outstanding is the adjective for these folks, who have been foot soldiers in the day to day of helping our daughter climb her mountain) emailed me today in response to some questions I had. Imagine the joy to my heart to hear how hard Hannah is working, and how superbly she is doing, especially in light of the past 4 plus months! I pray the Great One will multiply back to Hannah's teachers a thousand times all the love and care they have put into her. We are mightily blessed to have them.

I read a passage from scripture today from "The Message" translation of the bible. I typically use the NIV, but this passage really captured me today when I thought about it:

"You're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. You're blessed when you follow His directions, doing your best to find Him. That's right - you don't go off on your own; you walk straight along the road He set..." Psalm 119:1-3

As surely as morning follows night, I long to "walk the steady road revealed by God". How many times I have not! How many times I have drifted off, like jello off a spoon, not wanting to follow the way of life, and looking for satisfaction where it cannot be found. Such error there is in thinking about God's instruction as limiting! On the contrary, it is liberating. He alone knows the snares up ahead, and it is because He wants us to truly experience the abundant life that he lays a right path before us. We aren't puppets however. He'll never force us to "do our best to find Him." And He's not hard to find. He's at your kid's baseball game. He's in the middle of your happy joking at dinner. He's on the scene of a horrible car accident. He's behind the bars of a maximum security prison. He's walking the halls of Sunnyview Hospital. Everywhere there is hope, or trouble, or need, or joy, or any other facet of the human condition, the Great One is there. He is not far from any one of us. But are we far from Him?...

I love you dearly, even if you're a fan of jello. Or eggs. Or the New York Yankees.

Your friend (walking as steadily as I can) on the pilgrim road,

Loriann

P.S. Please keep praying for Judy W.