It's me again

Many thanks to all of you that have posted comments, sent me emails and spoken words of encouragement to me since my last post. I am definitely on the upward swing. I still do not feel that I am back to my full spiritual charge yet, but I am getting there. I tend to be a very animated person, and being in the valley is torture for me. I want my life to be vibrant and full of life and laughter all the time. Realistically I know that cannot be, but I seem to take the valley pretty hard sometimes. Anyway--not to worry. I think we all go through crusty, rank times in our lives where we just want to sit in a mud puddle and cry about what's not right our lives.

I am both blessed and cursed with creativity. Blessed because my life generally stays pretty flavorful. Cursed because my creativity is coupled with a short attention span. Blessed because I am able to come up with new and different ways to minister to others. Cursed because my desire for freshness and exploration sometimes gets me sidetracked with my spiritual walk. Let's face it, sometimes our walks are boring. I don't do boring. So after a mile or two with no angelic chorus overhead, I tend to wander off down some side road looking for adventure. Inevitably, my side roads lead me to the valley. You would think I would have figured this out by now....

This particular trip has lead me to some interesting places. And Satan was the tour guide. Actually he knew what he was doing all along. It just took me a while to catch on. Little did I know that while I was wandering off down my little side road, Satan was cooking up a big ole' casserole of trouble in the life of a close friend. When the whole thing came to a head and casserole exploded all over the kitchen, I was just beginning to peak my head out of the valley. I wasn't as prepared as I could have been to help my friend.

I quickly decided that I had to do something. My friend was about to be eaten alive by sin. So the fight began. Not a fight between my friend and I, but between us and Satan. I refuse to hand any of my friends over to Satan without a fight. Tooth and nail. Somebody, somewhere is going down.

I came to realize that I need to be more careful about my wanderings. My walk with God is not just about me. I need to be in constant communion with God so I will be better prepared to fight for myself or anyone else when the time comes. Thankfully God knows we are weak, and He pairs us with people that can stand up for us when we can't stand for ourselves.

My friend and I are still in the heat of battle. I have thrown down some pretty fierce fighting words to her Tempter. Right now she is still recovering from the initial blast. It's like a scene from a war movie. She's thrown over my shoulder and I am standing here yelling at her attacker to 'bring it on.' I probably need to calm down. Again, I'm animated. At any rate, I've had to return from the valley rather quickly, patch up my own wounds and prepare to throw down.

Please keep us in your prayers. I know God is faithful. While we aren't out of the woods yet, I believe God will deliver us. In the meantime, a lot of people stand to get hurt if Satan doesn't release his grip. I guess that's usually the case when Satan uses people as pawns in his little games.