by jimmy | Dec 6, 2012 | Blog, God Sightings |
Searching out my faith. I work in downtown Austin and there is a large group of homeless here. They have high instances of schizophrenia. I often see people talking to themselves. Lately I have been thinking about this one woman I see. One morning in my quiet time I felt that Madeline might be her name. I feel led like I need to go and speak with her and tell her about Jesus. And let Him free her from some kind of bondage that is trapping her. I don’t even know about schizophrenia other than it has been a part of my family. It is a big part of my life and I feel like I am walking out some of the darkest days of my life not in a bad way but in a way that is going to help me and my family. Some way that will shed light on our past and the life of my grandfather. I don’t know; just feels that way. I think or feel that these people are oppressed by something. Something we cannot see. As I walk through this little mini mission trip downtown, I feel like I am putting together a jigsaw puzzle and can’t make the pieces fit. I feel the Lord working but I am just not confident that I am making the right moves. As I left lunch yesterday I walked back up Congress Ave. with a good friend, Chris Bourne. He and I talked more after a great lunch. I had my leftovers and as I walked up the street I caught the eye of a...
by jeannie | Apr 30, 2012 | God Sightings |
I think it would have been impossible for me to share this story a year ago but as I sit tonight thinking about the wonderful night we just had I feel it may be time to share. Tonight we told the kids we were going to Nicaragua for the summer. It was an amazing time. They are so excited and can’t wait. Beck actually asked if he could pack tonight. We had to tell him he needed to finish school first. But we then went upstairs and started talking about Nicaragua and I felt led to tell them about sometihng that had happened to me a year ago. Almost to the day. So we all got in Libby’s bed and with the lights out I told them of one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It is hard to share but I hope it blesses you. It was in our old house. We had just gotten back from the international weekend with Young Life. It was a powerful weekend and another story for sure. We were a couple of weeks from moving out of our house. It was a very difficult time for us all. One morning I woke up very early for me and was pretty wide awake. It was 5:16 am. This is not the normal time that I wake up, I’m more of a 9:16 kind of guy. But as I laid there I felt a nudge to pray. To get quiet and listen really. I seem to talk too much when I pray and this was a time that I was really just...
by jeannie | Jan 14, 2012 | buildingaboat, God Sightings |
Many have asked specifically about my 13 year career that I left in December of 2010. Now that a year has passed, it seems the time to tell the story. Most around me saw it as a perfect opportunity: Flexibility. Lots of Money. Many stay at home moms would say, “I’d still be working if I had what you have.” So as that part of our life changed, and we left the money, career, home and downsized, questions raised. I’ve never sat and written out how this was a God ordained opportunity for us. God’s timing for Jim and I both to step away. I had a side business for my photography but protected my time and work there due to my corporate job. With many new friends in Mexico and actually knowing people living in poverty, the tension for us just became too strong that there was more than staying in a job to protect a lifestyle we liked. Both our hearts were passionate about something else and that was growing. Parallel to all this, the same tension existed in my corporate work. My career. Back and forth, being thankful for it, but disagreeing with some of what we were doing, and it was the one area of my life that didn’t bring much joy anymore. Being part of the small group that got the business really going early on, I felt a sense of ownership, a sense of obligation to stay. A time had come where I felt a longing to be doing more of the other things I was filling my life with in missions...
by jeannie | Jan 14, 2012 | buildingaboat, God Sightings |
One day after much work and the exhausting staging process of preparing our home to sell, we were done. One of the first moments I had gotten to sit down, I was home alone, and I sat on our couch looking out at the pool and feeling very sad. Remembering all the memories, I was starting to think about our kids, how sad it was taking them away from this place, questioning whether we were doing the right thing, etc. As the tears were about to begin, the doorbell rang and I got up and answered it and saw a girl selling magazines. I was struggling b/c I wanted to be alone, but started talking to her and asked her if we could order some magazines but not have them come here since we were moving. She stated we could have them delivered to a women’s shelter. I agreed and got her some money. She started talking, saying, “You smiled at me. Everyone’s been so mean to me.” as I paid her, she said, “You’re such a blessing.” I responded, “You are a blessing too.” She turned her eyes to me, and smiled, and we ended up talking for a while. She told me about wanting to give up but how God had different plans for her. She was very poor and struggling. We had this incredibly intimate conversation about God, and as we hugged goodbye, she whispered in my ear, “God bless you.” I walked in and immediately felt this Godly passion return and a clear message in my spirit… “You need more of that… Not more...
by jeannie | Jan 14, 2012 | buildingaboat, God Sightings |
from journal 4/20/2011 a few weeks at the new house. Every day I feel it. The tension of the temporary. Being here only for a mist and making our lives count. There’s no one that’s immune, no one that doesn’t want their life to have meaning. We long for the beautiful, but settle for the false representations our culture presents us, only leaving us longing… This morning alone, I drive past some run down townhomes near my home, and see many people waiting for the bus. I see a quietness, stillness as most of them wait alone, not speaking and then I notice the property sign, “Hope” Properties. Every day I try to catch someone’s eye and smile, and wonder when I’ll just walk over and meet them. I continue driving toward my home and see a fence falling apart, and notice the truck across the street is full of wood meant for the house with a perfectly intact fence already. I watch a documentary trailer on Brazil that deeply moves me. I close my eyes and want to be there in the village, among the people, surrounded by trash, being light to disheartened, broken people, and making their world better… As I close the screen, I’m greeted with the iTunes latest unsettling ad for a popular musician and CD cover. I’m struck by the contrast of my worlds today. The sadness of people in need in a world that offers much. Plenty and not enough. The magnitude of the beauty of our human spirit met with spiritual atrophy. I sit in my pretty home with my pretty things...
