In the Midst of the Storm

Photo: Pray It Say It e-cards

I feel an urgency to get this offering of “In The Midst of the Storm” out especially to those of you within the path of the hurricane. And to those of you with loved ones in these areas, pass this on. I wrote the following story after God brought me through Hurricane Fran.

Light in the Dark

On Friday, September 6, 1996, at 3:00 A.M., I got a wake-up call that I will never forget! The ferocious winds accompanying Hurricane Fran sledgehammered my sweet dream. I awoke to a world void of light and no silvery moon. I was in the basement of a wood-framed house surrounded and held captive by flag-pole-tall bending and breaking pine trees—disoriented, scared, and alone. It was like living inside the color black.

Fear choked me as I crawled through the house in what I hoped was the direction of the bathroom. Death knocked at the windows and doors begging for entry. But I wasn’t answering. I bumped into every wall, felt each sharp corner of furniture, and shouted in an attempt to drown death’s call. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4, New King James Version). I shouted the same verses repeatedly with ouch’s mixed in like choruses. I knew that if I could get to the bathroom, which was in the center of the house, I would be safe.

As I crawled and listened to the hurricane that raged all around me, I realized that it could very well be my last night on earth. I felt the coolness of the ceramic tile under my hands and knees as I made it to the safety of the windowless bathroom. I felt the toilet seat, propped myself up, and grabbed the Bible and mini-battery-powered clip-on book light out of my magazine rack. I turned to Psalm 119 and read, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

In the background, I heard the crackling and thump of snapping trees. Thunderously loud wind, crashing glass, and tree branches slashed all around the wood-frame house. Through my tears, I recited out loud, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Yet, still—I thought of death.

I wanted one moiré chance to tell my mother, father, and especially my son, Michael, “I love you.” No excuses. No long talks. I wanted them to know that I genuinely loved them—since forever—and until forever is no more. And then something happened.

Peace washed over me like the warm waters of a baptismal pool. It was like God wrapped His loving arms around me like a loving father comforts his child awakened by a nightmare. The wind seemed muffled. Time stopped. Whether I lived or died did not seem to matter. An incomparable light flooded my spirit. The tiny book light shone like a beacon illuminating the vast night sky that surrounds it, beckoning the troubled ships to shore.

I whispered a prayer, “Even if I did, I know that you are with me. If I live, you are still with me. Whether I live or die—all is well with my soul and for that truth I am grateful.” I stretched out on the bathroom floor and fell asleep.

A loud tapping sound woke me. I opened my eyes to the light of dawn filtering through the slit at the bottom of the bathroom door…**

© 2002 Stanice Anderson, excerpt from I Say A Prayer For Me: One Woman’s Life of Faith and Triumph, Walk Worthy Press/Warner Books

While "Light In The Dark" is a true story from my book, I believe that God wanted it to be for times such as these…freely God gave to me…and freely I give to you. And now, I feel compelled to pray.

Dear Heavenly Father,

I pray a special prayer today for those of us who Hurricane Katrina threatens. Thank you God that you are greater still than any hurricane…than any one thing and any combination of things. You alone are God Almighty and you promise never to leave us nor forsake us. Father keep us safe, keep our loved ones safe, keep even strangers to us who are no strangers to you SAFE. Station your infinite number of guardian angels around us to protect us, minister to us especially in the darkest hours. Lord for those of us that don’t know you as their personal Lord and Savior even during the storm let them experience first-hand and personally Your grace and mercy. Let them know that you are just a prayer away and that You are The Light that dispels ANY AND ALL Darkness. Grant us peace that surpasses all human understanding. In Jesus’ Name, I pray. Amen. So be it.

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You Are A Miracle

Click here: You Are A Miracle Flash Movie by Terri McPherson

Walking on Water

What am I doing?
I’m living so completely contradictory to what man says. Mine is not a traditional life but only life as I’ve come to know it. A series of leaps of faith, walks on water, climbs to mountaintops, exiles to deserts, dodging shadows in valleys and refusing to be a Jesus cliché. Everyday I awake expecting miracles, favor and success. My bank account says “it ain’t happening.” The bills say, “You’ve got to be kiddin’. Debt-free? We ain’t having it.” The mortgage company says, “Just half-step one time…” But the Holy Spirit empowers me call what is not as if it already is and believe that the impossible is highly probable and that the possible is just too easy for God--anyway.

What am I doing?
Calling what is not as if it already is. With a child’s heart, I’m choosing to believe and take God at His Word as poured on in Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 11 through 12. “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”

What am I doing?
Trusting God!

© 2005 Stanice Anderson

Letting Go

Perhaps like me, God has been teaching you the art of Letting Go. Letting go of the old in order to embrace the new. Letting go of what is not working so that He can bring to me what is. Letting go of trying to fix it or work it out on my own...and letting Him bring His perfect will and plans into my life.

Letting go of the old ideas that are not based on the THE living WORD of God but soul-draining stuff grafted on my mind over years of listening to what the world has to say...simply because what God has to say is contrary to the lies I've been bombarded with all my life. Lies and misconceptions like from the poem, Invictus, by William Ernest Henley, which I had to learn in high school, "I am the master of my fate the captain of my soul."

Then ushered in by the Madison Avenue ad agencies was the "me generation.” The world instructed me to look into the mirror and repeat affirmations like, "it all about me and my inner child." And let's forget the golden-arched message "you deserve a break today." What I deserved was death by inverted crucifixion but what I got was God's unmerited favor! He sent his only son, Christ Jesus to die on the cross for me and my sins; so that I could have life and that more abundantly. I'll be honest with you. It would be extremely difficult for you to pry my "only" cup of coffee out of my grasp--even at the expense of 3rd degree burns on my hands. Give up my only son? Any son? Any child? For anybody? Unthinkable! No way, ever!

Yes, letting go of the hype and replacing it with God's truths. Letting go of the bitterness so He can replace it with His Love. Letting go of the anger so He can replace it with His peace that surpasses all human understanding--especially mine. (Philippians 4:7)

Letting go of the plans and dreams I have for myself or allowed others to force-feed me so that He can orchestrate into my life His perfect plans prepared long before I was born. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

Letting go of the fear-based procrastination and embracing the life and reality of God's words, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2nd Timothy 1:5) Letting go of all that's broken in my life--relationships--emotions--ideas--concepts--beliefs about myself and others.

LETTING IT ALLLLLLLLL GOOOOOOOOOOO. The burdens, the frustrations, the hopelessness, trying to understand the profundity of life when His ways are so far and above our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts could ever hope to be. (Isaiah 55:9) The most viable and empowering solution eludes me like my own shadow in the blazing afternoon sun -- Free-Falling back into the all-powerful and loving arms of God and RESTING. Resting like David who in Psalm 131 wrote, "I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me." (Psalm 131:2)

A group of us discussed such things in the last Feast on THE WORD Gathering. The Lord brought to my remembrance this poem which I printed, distributed and now, I feel led to share with you.

"Broken Dreams"

As children bring their broken toys
With tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God,
Because He was my friend.
But then instead of leaving Him,
In peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help,
With ways that were my own.
At last, I snatched them back and cried,
"How can you be so slow?"
"My child," He said, "What could I do?
"You never did let go.

Author Unknown

© 2005 Stanice Anderson www.stanice.com

I am

I am but a miniscule fragment
of God’s imagination
A grain of sand
on the Seashore of Life
And still I matter.
I am because HE IS.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson www.stanice.com

Stanice On Writing

I’ve been writing since I learned how to construct a sentence. One of my poems was published in school magazine when I was nine years old. It seemed like, in the millisecond, my happy childhood ended, as the verbal and physical abuse at home escalated. Coupled with being raped at 14 years old, I was emotionally silenced and sequestered by the secrets. I remember making a vow to myself—“No one must ever know.” Therefore, the written word became my saving-grace.

As I grew older, I attempted to show the world a well-adjusted, funny, and extraverted woman. It was only in my writing that my real voice could be heard. It dared to whisper a different story. Words befriended me, flowed from my soul, and spilled onto thousands of pages over the years. However, as if by tried by a jury with my warped sense of self as foreman, most of my pieces were sentenced to life in file folders neatly stacked in corrugated boxes and exiled to the backside of closets.

Resurrected Dreams, one of the stories in my memoir, I Say a Prayer For Me: One Woman’s Life of Faith and Triumph, best describes my relationship with the written word.

“Out came the sun and dried up all the rain. In my forties, writing found me again. It helped shatter the chains of my painful and shameful past. Words fed my starving spirit and soothed my aching life. In spite of the fact that I abandoned the words and left them to die by the side of the road, they waited for me at the crossroads of life to point the way, ‘Just believe!’ they insisted that we and you are one.’ The itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.”

As an exercise of my belief, I send my words out into the world.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson, Author and Inspirational Speaker, www.stanice.com

4 Candles

Be Still

Recently, my ex-husband called me to wish me a Happy Birthday. As we talked I shared with him what was going on in my life. He listened and then offered these simple words. “Be Still.” As soon as he said it, the fullness of God’s Word sprung up from my heart like a child’s abruptly opened jack-in-the-box. “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10). It confirmed for me that God was using my ex-husband to speak His Divine wisdom into my life.

That wisdom was carried upon the wings of forgiveness—set up long before the Lord put on this man’s heart to call me with the Word. It was God’s love poured into our hearts that enabled us to ask and receive forgiveness from each other and to also forgive ourselves—long ago—which opened the doors wide enough for moments like these.

The next day, during the Feast on THE WORD Gathering in my home, as I shared my testimony of my ex-husband’s call, and others present shared their testimonies, the Holy Spirit led us to a prophetic Word. It was like Part II of an already awesome Word. The promise that results once we each determine to ““Be still, and know that I am God." in whatever situation we find ourselves.

"You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.' " 2 Chronicles 20:17 (New International Version)--Personalize it by saying your name.

I believe that this blog entry is like a rock thrown by the Holy Spirit into a still, clear lake. It is producing a rippling effect of clarity and promise into our lives today. Receive, Partake, Feast on THE WORD and be encouraged.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson

Courage

Courage is not the absence of fear but going forward in spite of the fear. Whenever, I’m fearful, the Word I’ve hidden in my heart--so I can call it up whenever the need arises is 2 Timothy 1:7. “God has not given me a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

Also, check out the two new slide shows complete with me singing original music in the background. Links are posted on www.stanice.com.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson

Birth-days

It's my birthday...so today I celebrate God's gift to me--LIFE. And the icing on the cake is ETERNAL LIFE as freely given to me when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and thus was BORN AGAIN. ("In reply Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." -- John 3:3)

As I read what has become embraced by me as the "Birthday Psalm 139," I'm reminded of God's love, favor and purposes so inventively built into our lives. "...For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be..."

My prayer today is that the Holy Spirit empowers us to continue to believe, walk and breath in God's promises, plans, and purposes for our lives. In Jesus' Name I pray this. Amen. So be it!

© 2005, Stanice Anderson, Inspirational Speaker & Author of I Say A Prayer For Me: One Woman’s Life of Faith and Triumph, www.stanice.com

Self-Inflicted

Let us take a moment to briefly look at what a mutated and degenerative web we weave when we duck, dodge, and deceive. We know what the right thing to do is and yet we try to get around doing it. We try to find an easier or softer way—but that way always results in unnecessary and self-inflicted pain. We don’t have to surrender to living that way. We can look up and call on God to help us do what we, in and of ourselves, lack the power to do—the right thing!

© 2002, Stanice Anderson – excerpt from I Say A Prayer For Me

Unconditionally

Photo: My Son & Granddaughter
Many of us have done things in our past that we are not proud of, are embarrassed about, or even feel a residue of shame when we think about the selfishness and self-centeredness of some of the bad choices we made. However, some of us have also experienced the unconditional love of a child, whether our own or someone else’s, and as a result of looking into these forgiving faces our cooled hearts are warmed and we get a glimpse of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness.
© 2002, Stanice Anderson – excerpt from I Say A Prayer For Me

Thinking vs. Faith

A little something that I heard on the radio while in St. Vincent and The Grenadines last week:

"THINKING can get you to the bottom of the mountain but FAITH can get you to the top of the mountain."

Poem: Morning in St. Vincent & The Grenadines

Caribbean landscapes and rhythms loom lush
The anxious flap of an exotic bird’s wings
The sway and swing of a sister’s firm hips that
Stride familiar with steep hills and deep valleys
The splash of the sea on the shore’s volcanic rock
Beats out the three-quarter time.

An unclaimed yellow dog barks in thanksgiving at a discarded meal
The mooing of yonder tied-to-the-side-of-the-road cow,
Allows the rhythms to simmer and syncopate.

The wind tiptoes across the small waves of the sky-blue reflected waters
The subtle creak of coconut trees
The palm trees clapping their huge fanned leaves in what must be praise
Puffs of foliage like green paint-soaked sponges dabbed
onto a freshly blue-washed canvas.
Rich hues of orange, aqua, blue and neon green roofs
atop pastel and white houses scattered amid the hills and mountains
like squadrons of carnival-colored mushrooms and
textured paint splatters left by an artist
abruptly called away to a more urgent task.

Could there be more urgency than these Caribbean landscapes and rhythms command?

Tree-adorned mountains loom like giant watchmen
posted at the gates of Paradise.
The distant hills look like a weary giant lady dressed in parrot green accented with dried-brush beige
She lies on the ground to rest
Face tilted up and away at the sky
Knees bent and slightly parted, she welcomes the trade winds’ caress.
With intrinsic beauty she basks in the sun’s summer kisses.

Cars and trucks beep and accelerations strain to meet the hills’ demands
Like sound samples recorded in metropolitan places and patched onto the artist’s palette of Caribbean landscapes and rhythms that God
birthed into this morning in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

© 2005, Stanice Anderson, Inspirational Speaker & Author of I Say A Prayer For Me: One Woman’s Life of Faith and Triumph, www.stanice.com