By the middle of November, 2013 both volumes of the threshold were finished. At first I didn’t know what to do with myself but it was natural for me to spend more time with my mother in the nursing home.
Ma came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas and we spent New Year’s Eve together watching old movies in her room eating hot fudge sundae’s with nuts, whip cream and a cherry on top.
On January 25, 2014 my mother died. I was in the throes of promoting my book and working with the marketing department at Westbow press and the Bohlsen Group Publicist’s. The landslide of responsibility which came in the preparation to sell the property was mounted on top of my continuing health issues.
Now it’s May 1, 2014 and I’m reflecting the facts. The family home is on the market to sell along with my lot of trees and I’m living in an apartment. I’m seeing a neurosurgeon and being tested for an operation on my neck. I’m riddled with arthritis and have been placed on the disabled list.
But the biggest and the best fact of all is God’s grace, I still stop and pray to my Lord Jesus. Amid the changing of addresses, piles of paperwork and the loss of my home surroundings for the last 20 years and my childhood I have found again and again the comfort of my heavenly Father.
Each time I stop and pray I experience joy. Each morning I sing “I’ll Fly Away” and “There Is a Redeemer” my voice bellows and echoes off the plaster walls in the emptiness of the old family home. I wait with anticipation to see what God will unfold in the next phase of my life.
Even though the home may be empty, even though my personal and emotional framework is in pain and falling apart my inward response to God’s call has been blessed. I lift His glory and love each and every trial He puts me through as the Holy Spirit teaches me with His gentle kindness.
Through the process of being dislodged, upset and forced to deal with natural circumstances at 60 years old I’m at peace with Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. Who could ask for anything more?
Regardless of how fast time flies and how the social, political, economical, educational, judicial and other man-made systems are plagued with trouble and continue to fail, I’m at peace with God.
If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you know what I mean and the peace I live in. If you do not know Jesus Christ and the revealed Holy Scriptures you are lost here on earth and going into the eternity of hellish torment to come. Ask Lord Jesus into your heart with sincerity, read the Bible and grow in the peace of God.
Taste the goodness of the Lord and find out if you are one of His. He calls all to come, can you hear the call? Stop and pray.
Mona Hadeed
May 1, 2014 at 4:22 pmHi Michael I empathize with you in your pain and pray that God’s grace will carry you through this call to change and new direction. His grace is sufficient and as He calls us to His own we experience His blanket of love over us, comforting and consoling. All Gods blessings.
Michael D. Rourke
May 2, 2014 at 11:01 pmYour concern is appreciated it’s good to hear how Jesus moved in your life. The grace of God is the greatest gift through His Son Jesus. Through God’s grace healing and heaven are promised through faith and faith alone, not works or human achievement. Christ alone on the cross did all that God required for our salvation through Him. When Jesus said “It is finished” there is nothing – no- human work or ceremony that can be added to the finished work of Christ our Savior through faith and faith alone. Christ alone is the head of the church, no human, no human rituals added, just Christ alone rules His chosen people, His church throughout the world. All glory and honor to Christ and Christ alone.
In His service.