My Charlie Brown Moment

There is a moment in A Charlie Brown Christmas when our beloved blockhead visits Lucy at her psychiatrist's booth.  He tells her he guesses he just doesn't understand Christmas.  Lucy suggests that perhaps he is suffering from any number of phobias.  When she suggests that he has a fear of everything, Charlie Brown exclaims, "THAT'S IT!"

I was raised in a church in which, occasionally, all God's people would shout, "Amen."  Now that I'm presbyterian and reformed where we do everything decently and in order, I sometimes allow the silent murmur of an "amen" to glance across my lips.

This past Sunday, I wanted to shout like Charlie Brown.

After investing years in homeschooling my children, gleaning the best information I could gather from the conventions, devising years' worth of lessons plans, compiling spreadsheets that mapped out successful life strategies for them to accomplish great things for Christ and His kingdom, the most amazing thing happened.  I lost control.  My children started making their own decisions, some of which made me enormously proud and others which kept (and continue to keep) me awake at night.  Graduation looms large on my son's horizon, and still there is no plan.  I don't know what comes next.  I sit and pray with hands turned upward, releasing him to care of his loving Father.

Sunday's words about God's covenant promises, which depend entirely on the love and grace and faithfulness of my heavenly Father and on absolutely nothing I can do:

God loves you too much to allow you to control your life.

THAT'S IT!  And all God's people say...




195. Hearing that God loves me too much to allow me to control my life.

196. Getting an appointment on short notice.

197. Kind, understanding laughter from the receptionist.

198. The beloved Swede closing a chapter on the project out west. The outstanding work that was accomplished; the memories our family made over the years when we traveled with him.

199. After school track club.

200. Laughing with my son.

201. A pasture full of rocks and the opportunity for an afternoon of hard work.

202. The pathology report that was as good as we had all hoped and prayed for.

203. Storytelling and laughter from the patient and her husband.

204. Book recommendations.

205. Robins and red-winged blackbirds

206. The yellow haze on the forsythia.

207. That all the rain falling out of the sky during these dreary March days isn’t a spring blizzard that has to be shoveled.

208. The Jamaica mission’s team dinner and auction—outstanding jerk pork, curry, and salad with grilled pineapple and blue cheese.

209. Sunday evening popcorn with friends.

210. Blessed assurance.

211. Unearthing a treasure trove of memorabilia while searching for some medical records.

212. Memorabilia=Ebenezer. A reminder that hitherto has the Lord helped us.

213. Knowing that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 1 John 5:18. Thanks be to God, amen, and amen!