Mama Chick’s Blog

Occasional Devotional--Bad Carpet

Psalm 105:4—…Seek His face always.

When Lance and I went on our house hunting trip in Delaware, we bought a house that was let’s say…the before picture of an HGTV episode showing a badly decorated room.  The previous owners spent a lot of money on ugly carpet.  The living and dining room were the highest grade of tacky salmon/peach carpet; however, it was the den that took the prize for the worst carpet known to man.  It was black, brown, beige, hi-lo pile swirl.

Since we were newly married at the time and I had mononucleosis, no job, and the Delaware housing was expensive, I knew that any wishes of “can we get new carpet?” would not be granted. 

After mono and after I landed a job, Lance and I were quietly watching M*A*S*H reruns when we smelled a funky smell.  We looked at our black, terrierish dog, Scooter.  He had a sheepish look on his face which meant that he had deposited a “present” for us in our den.

This is where the “seek and ye shall find” came into place.  Lance and I could smell the offense, but couldn’t find it in our black, brown, beige hi/lo swirl.  Lance took the high road of tiptoeing carefully while I my “bionic” nose was closer to the floor.  After a few minutes we came nose to toe and found what we were seeking. 

God asks us to be just as diligent when we seek His face.  The rub I have with some Christians is that they think their way of seeking God is the best way.  God is too simple and too complex and created human beings too intricately to only find him in one method.  God is simple in that he asks us to believe and we can live eternally, but he’s more complex in that just as we have different personalities, God has many serendipitous forms to capture our attention. 

One day I watched one of my bossy, know-it-all friends badgering another friend who was earnestly asking questions.  Friend #1 said that her way to know God was right. They had two completely different personalities.  So, friend #1 needed God to have steps 1, 2, 3 to know him, whereas, friend #2 needed to ponder questions and come to Him in a round about way.  Then friend #1 started to argue with friend #2 about her approach to God.

So, I asked friend #1, “How did you drive to my house today?”  She replied that she had come from Holcomb Bridge Road and turned left and wound around and then turned left again to my house. Next, I asked friend #2 the same question.  She replied, “I took a right, right, a right and then a left.  I said, “Who drove the correct way?”   They both said they came the right way from where they lived.

That’s how I think people who are seeking God come to him…the right way from where they are.  For some people, seeking God means to delve into deep Bible study because they are knowledge seekers; for some, it’s a long walk in nature where they see everything about God’s creation; for some it’s serving God where they see who God is and what he’s about; for some, it’s chasing after a cause that brings them closer to their pursuit of His face.

Which way is right?  God is powerful and can bring people to him from any direction.  Even individuals in families can come from different ways. In my marriage, I tend to see God in ordinary things in life, whereas, Lance sees God when he is doing acts of service for people. 

God is a God of freedom; and freedom lets us have individual pursuits.  The point is not how we seek his face; the point is …”to seek his face always”.

Love Your Guts!

Mama Chick

Jenny Lou Jones

Occasional Devotionals

By Mama Chick

John Cusack

I’ve gone through many favorite actors during my lifetime.  First, it was Cary Grant who I always thought was so smooth, so tall, dark and handsome so…dreamy.  Then later I got hooked on Pierce Brosnan, during his Remington Steele days before he was James Bond.  He was so smooth, so tall, dark handsome and so…you get what I’m saying.  Next was Harrison Ford.  He didn’t quite fit the debonair guy but what I liked was his piece of everyman, his quirky smile and his MacGyver-like qualities that helped him get out of a snake pit, become a successful fugitive and so forth.  However, now, my favorite actor now is a toss up between Will Ferrell and John Cusack.  I know some think that Ferrell is a complete numskull; like all three of the 3 Stooges rolled into one.  But in his few dramatic roles, he’s great; I even believed he really thought he was Santa’s helper in Elf.   But, today, I think my real (fake) crush is John Cusack. 

What I like about Cusack is his sly way of becoming a leading man almost by accident.  He first starts off as an “any man” character.  He could be your annoying brother, your cousin twice removed from your father’s side, the guy in your chemistry class that sniffs too much.  But usually by the end of the movie, he’s the charming, medium height, dark and quirkily handsome.  There’s just something about him, whether it’s the twinkle in his eye or his half-hazard way of communicating, or his deft humor that gets me.  He’s a good-looking nerd, and that’s my type.  (Sorry, Lance, you know you have some techno-nerd in you!)

Today, I was reading my devotional of Jesus washing the disciples feet.—John 13:1-17.  You know the whole, pedicure “washing the feet” thing really doesn’t resonate with me.  I don’t like to have my feet touched and besides I’m ticklish.  But in Jesus’ time, it was cultural for people to wash their feet.  But in today’s time… we don’t have the dusty roads and we don’t walk very many places so the whole metaphor doesn’t work that well plus if we needed out pinkies brushed and fluffed, we probably go to a salon.   So, I started thinking about how could this passage of the biblical foot soak be relevant today?

Let’s pretend that I invited my new heart-throb, John, (we’re on first name basis now) plus my 12 favorite friends to my house for dinner.  After dinner, John got up, took off his shirt and stood there in his best GAP undershirt, held up some cleanser with scrubbing bubbles and headed off to my dirty bathroom in the back of the house.  And when I protested because I hadn’t gotten around to cleaning that part of the house, he shhhhed me so as not to go on anymore. Then as we all gathered around, he began to clean the porcelain throne with his outer Old Navy, fall plaid shirt.  When I yelled for him to quit, he told me that in order being his friend, he required himself to do the lowliest of tasks for the host.  And then he asked if I’d accept his gesture.  And he added that’s not all; I’ll also go to each of your friends’ houses and clean their toilet too. 

What a quandary!  Let him clean and have an inner-circle friendship or stop him and have no relationship to dream about. 

That’s exactly what Jesus was saying to his disciples.  Jesus offered to wash their feet…a lowly task, for sure.  He was asking to be a biblical esthetician.  He said, not only will I clean the grime and dust and particles off your sweaty, dirty feet, I’ll also offer you cleanliness for hidden dirty part, your heart.

Jesus said, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”  Of course this was a metaphor for him cleansing our sins within.  What he means is that he wants us to let him into our dirtiest parts of our lives; the things that no one knows about; the things that only a few people ever witness; the things that we are ashamed of; the things that only the paparazzi could find out.

We cannot be eternal friends with him unless he knows all about us.  The deal is, when we are clean, he doesn’t remember the dirt, the complete mess, the muck and mire that had been part of us before his arrival. 

He reveals a new person!  The old is out and the new, improved is in!  Let’s let him wash our feet/clean our cesspool/change our lives.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Upcoming Chick Events and more...

WHAT'S COOKIN'?

Saturday, October 11, 2008

9:00-11:30 a.m. at the Depot

Price:  $10.00 (includes breakfast and great giveaways)

Chicks own Karin Calloway (Mary Clark) will demonstrate quick and low-cal meals to get ready for the holidays.  Mama Chick will show how to throw together fun table decorations for the holidays. 

and...

We will unveil our Chicks Cookbook!  It's here and it's great.  Buy one for yourself or for a Christmas gift--we'll even wrap it for you.

Sign up sheets are located at Guest Services and space is limited!

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CHICKS/Unmasked Winter Retreat

February 20-21, 2009

Marriott Hotel, Augusta, GA

Vonda Skelton, our speaker will speak about "The Lies Women Believe" and help us to "Get Real"  with our lives and how to live out our testimonies. 

Put this date on your calendar!  Our retreat is a place where our TNC women really connect, make new friends, laugh alot and have an intimate meeting with our Savior.  Since we negotiated this before the price of gas went up, there will not be an increase in price from last year.  Yea!

Look for details and sign up starting November.

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Spring Dinner Event--UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Friday, April 24, 2009

6:30-9:00 p.m. at the Depot

More on this later.  Sign ups will begin in April.

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Also, if you do not receive the Chicks' once a month devotional from Mama Chick, please send me a quick e-mail at jlou7@comcast.net.