Being the good and protection oriented citizens that we are, Robert and I have smoke detectors strategically placed in our house, AND we also change the batteries in them twice a year as recommended.  However, they will occasionally not make it to the next “official” change time, and they ALWAYS stop working in the middle of the night.  Never in the daytime, when people are prepared to fix them, but always at midnight.  And the beep….beep….beep….beep will awaken even the soundest sleepers!  This happened to us the other night, and it was the usual exciting time of “your turn to check” and then the fumbling around to follow the ungodly noise and jerking the battery out until morning, when you can actually remember where they stay.

Robert got up half asleep and found the offending detector, removed the battery, and came back to bed.  We rolled over, and immediately heard another beep.  Then another.  I gently nudged him (he will say punched) and told him to repeat the battery removal with smoke detector number two.  My extremely intelligent husband said at that point “that’s the same detector (not wanting to get up again) and of course, when it beeped again, I informed him that it was not.  He said, as it beeped yet again, “I’m telling you it is, they have a capacitor, and there is stored up energy in it still.  The beeps are getting further apart and they will stop.”  Really??  At midnight he comes up with capacitor and stored energy??  So I actually fell for it for a couple of minutes, and found myself TIMING the distance between the beeps, as ashamed as I am to admit it!  When I realized they were still happening at regular intervals, I insisted he get up and “check the other stupid detector!”  So he did, and took that battery out, and finally there was peace and quiet in our house.

When I woke up the next morning, I was laughing and still shaking my head at the creativity of his attempts to explain away the continued beeps, all in an effort to not get back up and deal with the second detector. He stood by his theory, and downplayed it all by saying he couldn’t tell that the noise was coming from a different place.  And so it was, until God began to speak to me about the spiritual lesson involved.  Especially today, in our daily walks with Him, there are many dangers (the smoke/fire potential) around us…violence, sin, temptation….and all true believers in Jesus as Savior and Lord have a built-in detector (the Holy Spirit) to keep us alert to those dangers and protect us.

Our spiritual batteries also need recharging/replacing, and WAY more often than twice a year!  We’re talking daily and/or hourly, always.  But unfortunately, there are many things that can distract us, and keep us from recharging – almost always our own fault.  And after a time, the beeps begin…the Holy Spirit keeps His promise, as does the Lord, to alert us to the fact that we have strayed.  The beeps begin loud and frequent, and should grab our attention.  Unlike the other detectors, though, they can be ignored..and just as in my hubby’s thoughts, they can get softer and further apart, eventually being completely unnoticed.  At this point, the dangers of the world become a reality, and our hearts and lives become vulnerable and usually attacked  by them.

So what’s the answer?  The answer is being diligent about our walk and relationship with the Lord.  Studying His word, prayer, and complete dependence on Him will keep that detector primed and ready to work…and save us from SO much heartache. And just as we have physical devices in place to keep our homes from being destroyed, how much more so should we have the spiritual ones in fine shape too?  May it be our goal to check our batteries, and keep our lives in His will!

Many of you know some if this story, but not all, and I want to share what God has taught me from it.  Two weeks ago yesterday, Robert came in from being on the lawnmower, said his mouth felt like cotton was in it, and asked for something to drink even while he was washing his hands.  I fixed the drink, and he turned around, and I saw it…the left corner of his mouth was slightly turned down, and when he spoke again he was slurring his words!  We immediately (Mom and I) made him sit down and when it didn’t improve in a few minutes, I called 911.  After 2 1/2 days in the hospital, they determined it was a mini-stroke (TIA) and that he would be fine, he just needs to be more cautious from now on.

But that Monday is NOT when his stroke began!  Five years ago this past March, Robert had his mitral valve replaced in his heart.  It had been faulty all his life, and the doctors had been watching it for the 12 previous years.  Finally, however, it had to go.  His arteries were and still are whistle clean, but the valve had been destroyed.  In the surgery, the surgeon replaced that valve with a steel one because Robert was young enough to have more years left and the “pig valves” only last 5 years.  Unfortunately, however, the mechanical valve is attacked by the body, and the drug Coumadin (blood thinner) became part of his life forever.  We were warned that the level in his body had to be maintained at all times at a therapeutic level to avoid any clots forming around that steel valve.  And so we have been rocking along, checking that level once a month, getting good reports, and thinking all the time that Coumadin was the cure all and we’d never have to worry about clots.

WRONG!  Even Coumadin is not foolproof!  Teeny tiny bits of clot material can still accumulate against that valve..and can eventually make a small clot…which we did not know.  Also, Coumadin is VERY unforgiving..dropping below the therapeutic level for only a few days can cause the floodgates to open to ALL clot material and cause major damage.  Apparently for whatever reason, a small clot had formed and it got thrown off the valve, which led to the TIA.

Soooooo..guess what??  Spiritually it works the same way.  Sin is present in every person..none of us is perfect.  Sin is the clot forming material of our hearts and souls, and if left unchecked it can also cause damage.  In our human efforts to clean up and live right, we are no more effective than the Coumadin!  We can do really well for a while, but little bits of sin are still getting through.  And if we are not viligilant, again in our own efforts, then a spiritual clot is thrown from our hearts, into our souls and our minds, and a mini stroke (or worse!) will happen, causing damage.  It can be mild, like Robert’s, or it can be major…causing permanent damage, paralyzing us, and eventually leading to death and eternity in Hell.

The good news is that unlike our physical hearts, our spiritual hearts can be treated with something 5,000 times stronger than Coumadin!  And unlike the artificial heart valve that will one dat fail, this fix…the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross…totally creates a new heart, AND lasts forever!  That’s the kind of transformation that our scientists and researchers will continue to pursue, but never find!  And that’s the transformation each one of us needs, and needs to share with our lost and dying world!

So how’s your stroke risk?  Have you accepted the permanent cure of Jesus?  And if you have, are you helping others find it too?  It’s never too late to start!

I had the most amazing conversation today with a customer that God used in such a great way!  My customer pulled up and we did all the usual stuff, and as I handed him his money, I immediately noticed his very elaborate tattoo on his right arm…and I do mean elaborate!  Lots of customers have them, of course, but a lot are small, or there are so many on their bodies that none stand out.  This customer, however, only had the one, and it took up 2/3 of his arm.

After being told that his food was not quite ready yet, I felt compelled to ask about the tattoo. I don’t always do that, because some people are still rather defensive about those questions, but he was very nice and open.  And what a story he had to tell me!  The tattoo was of Jekyll and Hyde..literally.  Picture of Jekyll, a dividing line, and picture of Hyde.

When he showed it and I was able to look closer, it was indeed more exquisite and weird than I thought.  So of course, being me, I asked him was prompted him to get that, and his answer astounded me.  He said, and I quote, “that represents the two sides of me, and everyone else.  Not the good and evil thing, but just the different “selves” we portray to the world”.  He then explained for him it was like his professional self at work, and the mask he wears there, and the way he is different away from work in his real life.  He also said that he knows the conduct expected in society, and how that us not how most of us necessarily live in private.

Well my little nudge to ask him about it had just bloomed into a wonderful evangelism moment!  I exolained that to ME, it was a representation of my life before Christ and after, and of the fact that daily I (and every other true believer) struggle with my old nature and old desires!  He looked intrigued and said “really?” so I was able to further explain that Jesus gives us a new nature, but our old habits and patterns are still there, but we fight to let the new nature win.  Awesome!  And of course….I then had to quit.

Now, I am absolutely not writing this to boast about anything I did or said.  I am writing, however, to say this:  in these dark, dark days, with shootings and violence, lying, and other sin running rampant, there is still hope!  And WE are the agents of that hope.  There are so many days now when it seems we have no power to do anything to change our world, and it is so tempting to quit and give up.  ABD YET!!  God showed me again today that HE is still working, and that He is still saving anyone who will come!  AND that He can use an ordinary item..a tattoo..to plant a seed into an open heart..if His people will just continue to be alert to His nudging!  I am so grateful I was used today, and I am already praying to be used again tomorrow!  And may we all remember, that until that trumpet sounds, there is still hope for a lost and dying world!!