August
19, 2006
2006
Queens Book Fair
Harvest Market
Queens, New York
11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
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| Excerpt - "The Call - Part I" |
The
morning of Good Friday, March 2001, began just like any other. I rolled
over in my bed and peered myopically at the alarm clock. Satisfied that
once again I'd beaten the alarm, I returned to my previous position and
contemplated the ceiling as I prayed in my mind. Good morning, God! The
alarm went off, beeping “amen.” Without interrupting the
flow of my prayer, I reached over, beat the clock into submission, and
continued. I thank You for waking me up this morning...
My
prayer complete, I jumped out of bed (actually more of a sideways
shuffle) and headed for the bathroom. It was a day I anticipated with
glee, not only was it a day off; it was also a day devoted to God. My
only complaint: why did the day have to begin so early?
Our
family had begun a tradition of attending three services on Good
Friday: one at 7 a.m. featuring all women preachers, another at 12 noon
in a Senior Center, and the granddaddy of them all at 6 p.m. This last
featured seven heavy-hitting preachers from the New York and New Jersey
areas, accompanied by seven bumping choirs who sang earth-stirring
songs (the Christian equivalent of the "Drop It Like It's Hot"
phenomena).
In
the first service, we heard a rousing round of women who brought new
revelation to the seven last words of Jesus on the Cross. One, which
stuck in my mind, was delivered by Rev. Jackie McCullough, who had the
words "It is Finished!" In her exposition, she posed the theory that
becoming a Christian finishes our lives as sinners, but our lives in
Christ have just begun. She relegated the stagnancy of many believers
to stuff-and-nonsense and pointed to the fact that mustard seed faith
will get you into heaven, but unswerving faith is what gets you through
here on earth.
This
was followed by a song entitled, "Lord I'm Available to You." It talked
about dedicating all the gifts we receive from God back to His service,
so that we can reach His people who are brokenhearted and in need of
freedom from whatever vices hold them down.
I
was in tears after the song and still pretty pensive as we traveled
from the morning service to the noon service. Since it was located in a
Senior Center, the structure of the church wasn't as grand as the
church that had hosted the morning service, but where the presence of
the Lord is, there is reverence.
With
the high from the previous service still in full force, I sang more
heartily than usual. I listened attentively to each preacher. The first
preacher got my special attention, because his sermon was geared toward
encouraging the youth. I'm a former youth choir director and overgrown
kid myself--you say the word "youth" and you've got my attention.
After
his sermon, I smiled in acknowledgment (kinda that "Good word sir!"
thing we do) whenever our eyes met... which seemed to be quite often,
now that I think about it. Being used to folks staring at me, I didn't
really take it on.
When it was my pastor's turn to render the word, I sang the song he'd requested: "I Believe, So Why Should I Worry or Fret?"
When
I resumed my seat, Minister No.1 was still nodding and smiling at me.
It wasn't a lecherous look or smile, so I smiled back and then
refocused my attention to the Word.
***
Having
congratulated all the ministers and schmoozed with their wives and
choir members, I made a beeline for the most important section of the
room. (Nope, not the bathroom: the food table!) I was almost there when
I was intercepted by Minister No.1. He shook my hand, smiled
beatifically at me, and asked, “When are you going to start
preaching?”
Stunned,
I looked around to see if someone else had silently eased up behind me.
No one else was there. He really must be short on conversational
material, I thought, and replied, “Me? Preaching? Where’d
you get that idea? That’s not me, you saw what I do…I
sing, that’s what I do.”
Throwing
up his hands in “I surrender” mode he said,
“Don’t get mad at me, I’m just the messenger.
I’m just telling you what God told me to tell you--that’s
what I do.”
I
politely smiled, shook his hand again and hightailed it away from him.
I proceeded to avoid the “crazy man" till we departed. Later that
afternoon, on our break before attending the 6 p.m. Good Friday
service, I told my sister and her husband about my conversation with
the elderly minister. “If people don’t have anything to
say, they really should just be quiet,” I concluded. With that
grand assessment I headed upstairs to my apartment, congratulating
myself on having nipped that nonsense in the bud.
A
month later, the nagging thought occurred to me: what if he
wasn’t just making conversation? Again I thoroughly and
ruthlessly squelched the idea. Not me! Why would God choose me? I mean,
I’d been there for 37 years. I think I would have felt any
leanings in that direction by now. Plus, I'd heard many extraordinary
and captivating testimonies of “the call.” I just knew
that, were I to be chosen, I would be alone--not in a crowded room
where I could say that God was probably talking to my neighbor and I
accidentally overheard. I expected nothing less than the Hallelujah
Chorus overhead as a ray of light shone down through a fluffy white
cloud, illuminating just me.
Can you say "wrong?" I received “the call” during one of the lowest periods of my life…
***
-
I
have a weird aversion to loose buttons (they're fine on
clothing, but loose in a sewing kit, they skeeve me out.
Don't know exactly what that's about and not sure it's important
enough to worry about (or even mention ... LOL) but there you
have it. What about you? What are your idiosyncrasies?
-
I
love to laugh, so here's a little chuckle for you:
Life
Support:
While I was watching a game last weekend, my wife and I got
into a conversation about life and death and the need for
living wills. During the course of the conversation, I
told her that I never wanted to exist in a vegetative state,
dependent on some machine and taking fluids from a bottle.
She
got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all my beer.
Man,
sometimes it's tough being married to a smart ass.
==============================================================
Getting to
Know You
==============================================================
Name:
Age:
State or Country:
Faith or personal mission
statement:
List
Membership:
What
prompted your joining? (No need to stroke my ego, just tell
me what made you give up the email address?)
What
would you like to hear about?
Thanks
again and I look
forward to us getting to know and learning from each other. You may
utilize the form on the Contact Me page of my website to submit your
response.
Last
week's give-a-way has not yet been claimed. I don't know if
that was because:
-
no one wanted to read Fly
on the Wall
- no one read the
newsletter
However,
the window of opportunity to receive your FREE copy of Fly on the
Wall is still open until May
17th.
Okay.
Now--to the contest for this newsletter:
In
a recent meeting the librarian mentioned having done research for
someone about the lifespan of an eyelash. The
first person to respond with the correct answer
to the lifespan of an eyelash via email or
my Contact Me
page will receive an autographed copy of the
Unedited Edition of
my book Age is
Just a Number: Adventures in Online Dating.
I'd
be interested in hearing your opinion after reading.
|
| Divine's Latest Adventure |
Hi
Folks,
Have
you ever heard of
NVU? It is a FREE alternative to Microsoft FrontPage. Prior
to
discovering NVU I had Microsoft FrontPage on all of my computers.
However, with the purchase of my new computer last May, I
realized that it didn't automatically come with the Microsoft suite.
Quelle horror! or Qué Pena!
I
ordered a sample copy of FrontPage 2003 and used that for a month. (Yippie!). I
then found one of those download sites where for a membership
fee
(under $5) and short time periods you're able to download any software
until the link is exhausted (Yay!)
Now,
some would have
thought it a bit funny that in order to have access to said download, I
had to make my payment to a company called Internet Ventures who also
"happened" to sell porn, but not dear old Divine, she just wanted her
download FREEBIE.
Needless
to say, Divine
has made her download, but has yet to receive an access key
code
to convert the trial membership to the full version of FrontPage.
On the other hand, Divine has access to all the porn she
could
ever want (if she weren't on dialup) and a $29.99 bi-monthly deduction
that she has yet been unable to stop.
Not
only a classic case of :
- If
it seems too good to be true, it usually is.
- If
it seems a little strange, it usually is.
But
also a
classic example of how easy it is to slide into the gray areas of our
lives. Her search for a Freebie, brought Divine back into the sphere of
a former addiction--pornography, but thank God, after attempting to
take a peek, (yes she did), she realized that dialup prohibited proper
downloading and viewing. (Thank God!)
After a repentant ... "but all I wanted was an html
editor" conversation with herself and God. She was
reminded
that the same actions and
vigilance it took to break the
addiction, was needed to continue to remain free of the
addiction--staying away from any avenues or outlets that might
resurrect the urge.
She then ran a search for "free html editors" on google and
came up with NVU
which is being
utilized to create this communication to you.
If you have issues with pornography or any other addiction,
I recommend the good old Holy Bible
for inspiration and courage and the following websites (found by doing
a google search for "breaking addiction") for assistance to break the
yoke.
It's
not easy, but then again--is anything worthwhile ever easy?
------***------
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free to forward this issue in its entirety to friends and associates.
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