MarillaAnne Blog Entry

If This is God's Will -- Where's the Joy?
04/10/07

Well, there's a little problem with asking a storyteller a question: Storytellers don't answer questions with three words or less. PLUS You will always get a very very long story if you ask the storyteller when she's starting to feel alive again after spending a week cooped up, isolated and feeling like a pile of cold, cooked spaghetti noodles. (Really.)

Plus we all know I have this meme affliction wherein I twist every meme to meet my own objectives.

Yeah ... so ... out of Atypical's interview questions ... I generated at least an entire week's worth of verb-age.

I am starting with Atypical's question #4:

Can you give one example of a time in your life where joy welled up so much inside of you that it had to spray out, sprinkler like, on anyone who happened to pass by?

My very, very first thought was of the incredible experience that carried us from Oregon to New York. (I had wanted to go back to Texas but ... )

How many people do you know who have nothing ... nada ... zippo ... ZZ-EE-RR-OO in the bank account and no reason to believe money is "in the mail," "winging it's way to you," and certainly "we're in the money" is not a phrase they know?

Ok how many of those people would paper the nation with a resume and cover letter claiming to be able to "self re-locate" at that very moment -- in that very condition?

We did it with my husband's resume -- with a complete trust in God that He was perfectly able to make it happen. The very first clue that this was a perfectly fine idea was how the two of us felt about it's very existence. It's birth was the first time Billy and I had been on the same page in almost a year. That out of sync feeling that had been so disconcerting suddenly disappeared.

I want to tell you that from the time the phone rang 30 minutes after the first resume went out until we moved into our current apartment 90 days later -- every single moment of every day was filled with contentment, peace, joy ...

Yeah ... and I'd have to lie in order to tell you that. It was full of struggle, suspense, doubt, anger, fear, hurt, separation from my better half, etc. Of course, this drama was only one of six extreme drama's going on all at the same time. Oh yes ... when we do drama, we do it up right!

So, how is it that I reached a point of "sprinkling" joy everywhere? Because God is good ... Great ... AWESOME !!!

If you start at the beginning of the story and read all the way through, I created a page just for that: Our Moving to NY Story

You will find most of the dramas listed in this post: A Banner Week. I started my blog a few weeks after I sent out this "Dear Everybody" note.

The overview to strictly the moving story and some of the conclusion is in A Moving West Coast - East Coast Story. It also has footnotes with links to the hair-raising details of the money story. If you are looking for some courage to believe in God's care, I strongly suggest you find those footnotes.

The joy part? :: smirk :: Seek and ye shall find. It's a perfectly grand story that deserves it's place in time. So, I encourage you to persevere to the end.

I used this as an opportunity to go back and put these posts back in order the way I want them read and I turned on the commenting for each post.

It is perfectly legal to bookmark the story and come back to read in bits and pieces.

Enjoy

Comment

(4)

Last comment made by Terri B. ~ 04/13/07

Fun Stuff

New York

I enjoy your comments. And I want you to enjoy reading each other's comments. To that end purpose, I moderate comments. If you're impatient, MeeboMe.

Commenting Ideas

If you do not have a blog or site, skip the "web site" line, pull a name or "handle" out of your head, write a note, push the button. (No excuses!)
If this entry reminds you of a story of a similar place in time in your life, you are welcome to tell your story.
If you discover your story is taking more than 3 or 4 paragraphs (and if you have a place on the web for your writings), I will not be insulted if you take your story back and finish it at your own site. But then I will be disappointed if you don't come back and leave me a summary of your story and a link -- in the comments.
If you have already written a story about a similar place in time, please feel free to leave a summary and a link.
It's never too late to make a comment or tell a story.

Comments

Review Blog Post

atypical 04/12/07

Yeah, okay, so I feel really guilty that it is taking me so long to get around to commenting here. It's pretty much the same guilt as not getting back to my comments on the previous post.

I guess I keep waiting until I have a large block of time to respond, and that almost never happens. So, I need to just start typing, get as much said as I can, and stop when the time runs out!

I am glad for such an answer. The whole reason I asked you the kind of questions I asked is BECAUSE you are a story teller. There's nothing like kicking your feet up and listening to the weaving of a tale.

By the way, the husband and I have been blessed a few times in a similar "it could only be God" type fashion. Thank you for your story. Can't wait for the next one.

~ LOL I have no idea why you're feeling guilty ... I haven't even been talking to my blog ;~) It's feeling neglected!

When those "Only God" times show up, and I survive them ... well I'll tell you about that another day but I think you'll find yourself nodding your head.

As to the large block of time thing ... it's a mindset I'm having to over come from several different angles. You're not alone ... still, You'd think by the time a body's knocking on 50's door, they'd have basics like time management figured out!

Thanks for all the great creative writing ideas! ~pam

Terri B. 04/12/07

I like "Seek and ye shall find." My other favorite to help keep me on track is "...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."

Another good post!

~ Hey Terri! Hmmm contentment ... You know I once heard Chuck Swindall teach that "Joy is the banner that flies high over a grateful heart." I suspect that contentment is the banner flying next to joy over the same heart. What do you think? ~pam

Mary-LUE 04/12/07

Oh dear... I haven't time to click through the whole story right now. I think next week when the kids are back in school will work.

I'm excited to see the hand of God in this tale of two coasts!

~ Hey Mary! Dear, I didn't write the story in one day ... I really don't expect anyone to read the whole story in one day. I'm glad though that you find it intriguing ... it was certainly intense to live through it. ~pam

Terri B. 04/13/07

I think joy (not to be confused with happiness) and contentment go hand in hand. And yes, they are the banners of a grateful heart. If the heart isn't grateful then I think those banners really won't fly. If I'm feeling discontented and joyless, it really only takes some meditation on what I am grateful for to get the joy and contentment back. My sister has a practice of writing down at least five things she is grateful for each night before going to bed. Not a bad practice!

~ Ah, indeed, indeed, and indeed. ~pam