In Which the Lord Spoke To Me Through Joel Osteen - January 2009

So. I was flipping through the channels this morning before church.


Which is NOT why I missed my 8:30 a.m. worship team practice call this morning, by the way. I was just running behind. Honest. The cold weather makes my car drive slowly!

Anyhow, flipping through the channels, and the Lakewood Whatchamacallit Church was on, and Mr. Joel Osteen was talking, and usually I have a hard time listening to him because his smile gets to me for some reason. It's too... something... Nothing against the man, just not my cup of latte, so much...

But, as I accidentally started listening, I realized
that what he was talking about (relationships, and how they're meant for a specific time in your life, and when God's purpose is finished for a person being in your life on a day-to-day basis, and they are trying to remove themselves from your life, just to let them go and not fight and manipulate to keep them in your life, because you'll only be beating a dead horse and making yourself miserable also, and preventing God from taking you into a new direction- because the lie of the enemy, and sometimes the other people in your life, is "you can't do this without me..." which is not true... God can use the absence of someone in your life to develop talents that would otherwise remain dormant and unused and unknown...)
anyway, this message was speaking directly to a very specific thing in my life, almost prophetically, in the sense that it was answering some very specific issues I've been dealing with....

Go figure! I've always categorized Joel as a well-meaning, nice guy who does love Jesus but who has a big following mostly because he never speaks strongly enough on anything to possibly offend anyone or get all up in their comfort zone... which may still be true, but it was pretty hilarious and cool how God used Mr. Osteen to speak at me. That's all.

The point is, I just need to relax. It hurts like heck (or like hell, for those who are less easily offended) () when people one cares about choose to leave one's vicinity, but I choose to trust that the Lord has a purpose or will have a purpose through their removal from my life, and will use their absence to develop skills in myself that I need...

That's all, folks.

I still want broken relationships that have ended wrongly to be restored to right-ness, so that I can still enjoy having friends in my life in whatever capacity they are supposed to be, and not have any hard feelings or unresolved or unforgiven junk going on.... but am more at peace than I was..
the end. :-)