Kathy Weckwerth

Everyday Encouragement

By: Kathy A. Weckwerth

When You Don’t Know What To Do

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There have been times in my life when I just haven’t known what to do.  Can you relate?

DSCN3140There are days when someone’s waiting for an answer from me and I have no clue how to answer them.  Has this happened to you?

There are moments when someone needs me to pray for them and I don’t know what to say.  Are you with me?

Recently, Dean and I met with several people to discuss some big decisions that we needed to make about our ministry.  We prayed together and knew a basic path that God had set before us.

When we met, we sat across the table and listened to a different path.  It was a lovely path and one that was exciting, interesting, and offered another direction to serve God.

I looked at my husband seated next to me.  His arms rested on the big green table in our dining room.  And as we listened, I quietly and gently pulled back the corner of the tablecloth.  Sound crazy?  Not to me.

As the vision was cast before us, my mind raced back to the many days of life that I sat at this old green table.  I purposely put my husband at the end of the table, and I sat in my dad’s spot.  “Why?” you ask.  Because Daddy had wisdom.  He had it in huge doses.  I’ve never met anyone with wisdom like my father.  And as a small child, I began to take note as to how he answered the unanswerable.  I listened as to how he directed answers to the people needing help, hope, and healing.  Now, if my memory would serve me right, I would be able to open the file cabinets of my mind and pull out the answers that I learned so long ago.

[callout]My father told me that scripture was the basis for all answers.  He said that if we spend time in God’s word each day, we begin to absorb it, think it, believe it, become it. [/callout]

Daddy also told me that anyone can pray and ask God for wisdom.  And he told me that you never rush into any life-changing, course-altering avenues without much prayer, wise counsel, scripture reading, and thought.

The vision across the table continued to whirl in front of us but I had a steady pace in my thought process and I remembered where I sat … in my father’s spot at the table.

I recited in my mind what he taught me about decision making.  Here are the steps to making wise decisions about anything:

When You Don’t Know What To Do~

1.  Pray~ ask God for help and tell Him that you need wisdom. Proverbs 8:17, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.”

2.  Seek Wise Counsel~ find several Godly people in your life who are smart and help you think through things. Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

3.  Read your Bible~ God’s word has the answers.  When it comes to wisdom, quote God’s word back to Him and say, Proverbs 8:34, “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.”

4.  Look at the pros and cons~ think about what’s happening and look thoroughly at the entire situation. Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

5.  Listen for the Holy Spirit~ God talks to us through His Word, through His Spirit, through others, through nature, through music … we must listen. Proverbs 8: 33, “Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.” 

When the vision was cast and Dean and I looked at each other, we gently said we’d discuss it and pray together.

Later that night, Dean and I knew some things after we ran them down the list of 5 things to do:  Pray, Seek Counsel, Read scripture, Look at pros and cons, and Listen for the Spirit.  We knew that this did not fit into the vision God had given us.  There was nothing wrong, it just wasn’t on our path for where God wanted us, our ministry, our church.

Sometimes it’s not that complicated.  Some days it’s deciding to return many phone calls and emails or what to fix for dinner.  But somedays, it’s life changing, course-determining steps and those are the days when you need help!

[callout]God wants us to live our best life and walk in His steps with the course He’s set for us.  He is a God of order and control.  No need to get frantic and cry … He’s got your best in mind. [/callout]

Today, release to Him the decisions you need to make.  Seek Him in a quiet corner of Your life, call smart friends, read your Bible, look at the details of the situation and then listen for the answer from God.

After all He says in Proverbs 14:15, “A simple man believes anything, but a prudent (cautious/wise) man gives thought to his steps.”

Blessings to you today on all your decisions!

 

 

Are You Really Living Life?

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As my family got situated in our theater seats, I pulled my coat off, set my popcorn to the side, and took my phone out to turn it off before the movie started.  I noticed there were some messages on my facebook account and quickly checked those.  It couldn’t be daughter #3, who was pregnant, since she was sitting next to me.  Shouldn’t be daughter #2, who was busy studying for finals.  Wasn’t daughter #1, because she was out grocery shopping. 

Jumping with balloonsI scanned the notifications and looked at my husband, Farmer Dean.  I said, “Deano, our friend is back in the hospital with more cancer treatments, and a kind worship director who I was friends with, died two hours ago of a heart attack.”  I slumped down in my chair in shock. 

The movie began and I silently reviewed life.  Just life.  Not mine or theirs.  Just living life in general.  Scripture tells us in James 4:14, “What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while, and then vanishes.”   

One morning you are posting your day’s events on facebook, and several hours later, you’re in the morgue.  How is this possible? 

I looked across the rows of seats at the big bump that was sticking out of my child’s coat.  A baby is coming soon … new life.  We will be there at the delivery, we will embrace that child, we will welcome new life into the world, and we will thank God for sending it.  And then what happens? 

We become calloused to the very air we breathe in and breathe out. I don’t think to thank God for the days and nights He blesses me with.   I become expectant that God, in His ever-loving kindness, will give me 78, 88, and 98 years to live on Planet Earth.  Somehow, collectively, we expect that God will grant us good health, great jobs, lovely homes, and perfect worlds.  But we don’t expect to die. 

Sure, sure, it’s in the back of our minds.  Everyone knows that, right?  But somehow, we always believe we will evade it for a very long time. 

One year ago, my Best Life staff showed up in St. Joseph, Missouri, at a lovely little church for one of our conferences.  We prepped and prepared, and our worship leader worked with the church’s worship director, a wonderful man named Dan.  Dan set everything up for us, brought in a band to play (including himself on guitar), was ever-patient with our leader, showed incredible humility, direction, leadership, and authenticity. 

Just shy of his 57th birthday (April 4th), Dan got up on Saturday morning, posted on facebook, and died that same afternoon of a heart attack. 

As I reflected on both him and my girlfriend who has battled cancer for years, I lifted up prayers for the family of Dan and healing for our friend in her hospital bed.  But something struck me and struck me hard.  What am I doing with the hours I have been given?  What am I doing with the days that I fritter by? Do I really embrace and value them?  How will people remember me? 

I pulled out my Bible and read the words that I have etched into my mind … the Bible verse that is our premise for Best Life Ministries.  Jesus says in John 10:10b, “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”   

[callout]God wants us to live life to the fullest.  God wants us to get up each morning and live like we have one foot here on earth and one foot in Heaven.  Not scared of dying, but not afraid of living. [/callout] 

One moment we’re here … the next we’re not.  I want to live my life to the fullest.  I want to know that each breath is valuable.  I want to embrace each moment as though I can open up the scrapbook of my life and see that day by day, moment after moment, I lived … really lived.

 Care to join me?

Finding Your Way Through Grief

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A few months ago, I was returning home from a speaking engagement.  The church was in a rural community, located a couple hours from my home.  As I looked at the beautiful, orange sun beginning to set, I suddenly panicked.  I didn’t remember the road to get back home. 

P1000666I pulled off onto the side of the road and reached for my GPS in the glove box. And then I remembered, my address doesn’t show up on the radar.  I quickly dialed my husband’s cell and it rang once, going directly to voicemail.  I knew it was turned off.  Oh my, I thought … time to pray. 

But the sun was setting, and I began to fret.  All of a sudden, the bleak miles without farms or any memorable landmarks began to make me feel a deep sense of panic, and a dark blanket of being completely alone surrounded me.  

How long would I be lost?  Should I just pull over again and try to make more calls?  And if I did, how would I describe where I was. 

With the last remains of the sun going down behind the trees and fields, I saw an elderly couple outside and did what any sensible woman in high heels and a cute jacket would do … I  stopped for directions. 

Oddly enough, I wasn’t that far from home after all.  It was just a few miles down the road. 

This morning, as I watched the sun coming up, I remembered that moment in time.  The few minutes where I seemed utterly and hopelessly lost, and it resonated so strongly with where I am today. 

You see, not quite one year ago, I lost my dear friend, Mary, to cancer.  My children so sweetly dubbed her “Grandma Mary” because she was just like a grandmother to them.  She served in the role of cheerleader, companion, mentor, mother, cook, assistant, and our ministries’ Director of Prayer and Care Support for the past six years of my life. 

I have been on a journey of grief.  I seem to have gotten lost.  The more I wanted to stop on the side of the road and rest, the more that life kept me busy, and the more I wandered the farmlands of my life.  I couldn’t seem to find my way through the sadness, through the emptiness, and through that dull ache that happens when that special person in your life is no longer on Planet Earth, operating in the role they were to you, in place that took up space in your world. 

I have to be honest and tell you that yes; I did make a few calls.  But they were calls that were dead ended, much like the forward to the message on a cell phone … no help … no comfort.  I did stop for directions, but no one seemed to know the way back from grief.  There was no GPS to take me from the aching of loss, to the Land of healing … or so I thought. 

For those who expect us to get up and move on suddenly, after a loss, I only sympathize and wonder how they will manage when they get lost on this road called “Grief.” 

For those who didn’t have the ability to deliver comfort or know the way home, I believe some day they will experience this same road without a map. 

But for me, here’s what I learned: 

  1. Grief is part of life.  It’s made up of the pieces of loss and sadness that are consistent with being born and dying.
  2. Grief is painful.  It will hurt, and running from it, ignoring it, or not processing it, will never work.  It continues to leave you stranded on the side of the road.
  3. Grief takes time.  Each person deals with grief differently.  What one person gets over in two weeks, another may not feel comfort for two years.
  4. Grief is a lesson.  Each time I suffer loss, I learn more about loss.  Each time I learn more about loss, I am able to bring comfort to someone because I know it, I get it, I have been lost before.
  5. God is the only True Healer.  I wanted other people to show me the way home to the Land of Comfort.  I wanted a GPS that would program my heart and mind there, and take me directly to feeling better.  I wanted it to go away.  But I learned that God, in His infinite wisdom, has given us His Word and His Spirit as Comforters to our soul.  There really can’t be anything or anyone else that will fill that void….He wants to do that for us. 

Today, if you’re grieving the loss of a parent, a child, a friend, a job, a house that you wanted and didn’t get, a child that you thought you were adopting and it didn’t go through,  or whatever your circumstance, God understands. 

[callout]You see, He’s the One who will get you from wherever you are lost, to wherever you need to go to get back.  And the truth is….you really don’t go back … it’s different … never the same … but God is with us in the “getting lost” … and He’s always about the … “getting found.”[/callout]

 

For More Information About Kathy A. Weckwerth & her ministry, Best Life Ministries, log onto www.bestlifeministries.com

2 Sides of the Fence

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Over the years and career of this path I’ve been on, the one called My Life, I have settled into the cool feel of grassy blades tickling my toes, while standing on that carved out path.  I have also felt the bite of rugged stones and sticks that have jabbed into my toes, reminding me that my side is not grassy and lush that day.   But for this day, I want to tell you about the fence. 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIn every life we have a fence.  It’s a fence that separates you from them, me from her, them from others, and we all experience being on the path and looking across that old wooden fence to see what’s happening on the other side. 

During my years at church ministry, I often saw the needs of so many, and watched how the pastors and staff would support … or would not. 

Elderly would call up needing a ride to the doctor and the secretary would arrange a ride.  Or a woman in need of financial support, going through a divorce crisis with her many children would call up and they would chastise her for her decision and begrudgingly send over a small check for gas, while the children were living on bread and peanut butter. 

I have stood on my side of the fence peering across the rough tops of each of its posts as someone has asked me for financial help, and I reached into my pocket for a few small bills, while another soul wrote and begged for yearly support and I tossed it in the garbage. 

And yet, at times, I have stood on my side of the fence, in my bare feet, cut and bleeding from the travels and begged for others to support me, only to find generous checks and large boxes of chocolate chip cookies, or a mere click of their computer keyboard to say, “Sorry … uh, uh.” 

The path continues.  The journey twists and turns and as I get older I watch to see what happens when someone who has much on the green grassy fields of their side of the fence steps up to the fencepost to say yes or no to that certain traveler on the muddy, rugged, rough side.  I listen and I watch.  

At times, I am pleased and I can feel my Father saying, “They chose wisely.”  And at other times I am in awe at the selfishness and haphazard responses of those who can help but will not. 

Yesterday I found myself at the fence.  I reached into my pocket to pull out a few dollars of financial support and a few moments of prayer support.  I wished that I could do more.  I could not.  I did what I could and gave all I could give. 

Today, I found myself at the fence.  I reached out to someone and said this need is bigger than our resources for our ministry.  They looked me square in the face and turned and walked away. The chose not to help. 

What happens when God calls us to meet at the fence?  What happens when He says I need you to help someone?  How do we respond? 

When we look at the book of Esther 4:13, Queen Esther is challenged by her cousin, Mordecai.  He needs her to go before King Xerxes to try to save the Jews from being killed by Haman and his evil plans.   

With Queen Esther on one side and Mordecai on the other, Mordecai simply says this, “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape.  For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.”  

God does not need us to stand at the fence dumbfounded.  We do not need to look at our ragged and torn shoes and dry ground and look across at the neighbors lovely lush field and his brand new boots and not wonder if God wants them to help us, or us to help others.  

When we are asked to help someone, we have the choice, as Esther did.  And if we do not respond, and turn and walk away, God tells us simply that He is the Ultimate provider, but in Esther’s circumstances, it’s quite clear she will lose out on the blessing of helping, as God will give that blessing to someone else. 

Where are we today on our path?  Are you looking across at a need that your friend or neighbor has?  Perhaps it’s a neighboring church or ministry that needs you or something you have to offer.  But you stare them down and walk away. 

Or maybe it’s you in need and you’re begging God for provisions, but that someone He has sent to you says, “No.” 

Will we miss out on that blessing?  Will the relief and deliverance arise from another place because we were not obedient? 

Today, I have my eyes wide open.  I’ve tied my shoelaces and I’m hiking the path.  Will I need help?  Probably.  Will my neighbor?  Most likely. 

[callout]But the real question is this … will I watch and listen for God, who is gently calling me to the fence post?  Because somehow, somewhere, in the face of that someone in need, I see the face of Jesus.[/callout]

The Church for $1.00

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John 10:10b “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It was over one year ago that I sipped my iced tea and nestled into the big green chair. I had just finished a week-long fast and a time of diligent prayer to seek God for the future of our ministry, Best Life.

My friend, Kathleen Sogge, had called me so excited about the Bible verse that God had shared with her for Best Life….only it was the same scripture that He had given me weeks before, but in a different translation. She didn’t know that.

I had read it and questioned God by saying, “What does this mean? What does this have to do with Best Life Ministries?” I re-read it out loud, [callout]Isaiah 58:12 “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; You will be called Repairer of broken walls and Restorer of streets with dwellings.”[/callout]

For a few months before that day, God had been pressing into my spirit that it was time for a headquarters for the ministry. The Spirit had prompted me to drive the highway outside of our home and pray for revival…for the hearts of women to be drawn to Bible Study and deeper relationship with Christ. I didn’t question God, but continued to pray as I would drive. But where would we meet?

My husband, Farmer Dean, and I began our search. Throughout our small hometown of Benson we looked and found nothing. We went to the neighboring towns and couldn’t afford anything. And I knew this one thing for sure: I was to pray for an entry way, a room large enough for women to sit and listen to teaching, and an office. I was to remain faithful. I continued my prayer.

Dean and I met with the town board that owned the old schoolhouse across the road from us, but when we got into the building, I felt God tell me “No, My vision is too big for the building.”

Over the next couple of weeks, two of our farmer-grandpa-neighbors called us. They felt God prompting them that we were to look for an old church. What!? Where could we possibly find an old church? Dean and I talked about it at 8:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night while driving home from town. Where was there an old church? How could we ever afford it?

At 8:30 on Wednesday morning, 12 hours later, my husband called me from town. He was elated….and somewhat in shock. “You’ll never believe what’s on the cover of the paper today!” “What?” I asked. “A church from 1900, for sale on Craigslist,” he answered. “How much?” I asked. “$1.00,” he exclaimed. “WHAT!!!” I shouted.

I threw on my sandals, jumped in my car and drove like the wind to get there. If it was like many of the old churches that I had loved throughout the years, it would be tiny and have the sanctuary part, but that would be it. After all, pastors from the early 1900’s would study at their home libraries.

I’ll never forget it as long as I’m alive. The day was bright and sunny, the sky a rich blue with beautiful painted white fluffy clouds streaked across the skyline where the steeple stood, high above the old church. I stopped. I waited. I looked up at God and said, “You are amazing.” Some little birds called back and forth, while the breeze swept my hair across my face. I pulled open the big white doors and stepped inside the entry way.

The rich aromas of years gone by filled my nostrils. I took in a deep breath and looked at the tall ceiling with the ornate tin, glanced across the sanctuary at the old oak pews, the piano, the organ and the colored glass windows.

Next, I stepped to the side of the sanctuary in an extra area that could be my office, and I said to God, “This is it. I’m home.” I remember telling the kind man that was showing me the church, “I want it. When do you want your dollar?”

I didn’t even stop to think about the cost of moving it; the details of anything….I just knew…it was God’s hand moving.

[callout]There are times in life when we’re on what I like to call “The Moving Sidewalk Syndrome.” God has you in one of those places where you can’t stop, you can’t get off, and you just ride the ride. This was it now! [/callout]

When Farmer Dean arrived later that afternoon, he looked at me and said, “Oh, my goodness, Kathy….this is exactly what you prayed for!” But, you know the real truth? This was bigger and better than anything I could have ever imagined!

As we walked out the front doors and turned to look at this big beautiful church, I looked down at the large gray stones that were holding it up. They were the church’s original foundation. Those rocks were laid in 1900 and had stood the years of time. And God gently, ever so quietly, brought back to my memory the verse…. “….your people will raise up the age-old foundations.”

At the end of this month, my people are raising up the church and it will be moved the twenty-one miles to our grove, where it will continue to serve in ministry, after sitting empty for the past 32 years.

For God’s timing….we are elated. That a church would sit empty for 32 years, and God would prompt me to look for a headquarters, and would prompt the board to sell the church for $1.00 at this time, plus prompt two sweet neighbors to call us, without knowing what the other suggested, and to have it be better than anything we ever hoped or dreamed….is our God. The Great I Am. The Great and Mighty, Everlasting God.