FEBRUARY 2022 NEWSLETTER
FEBRUARY 2022 NEWSLETTER
Robert
Lindenberger
3325 3rd
Ave.
Mims, FL 32754.
321-368-7184
HEART CHECK
H . . . Am I Hurting?
E . . . Am I
Exhausted?
A . . . Am I angry?
R . . . Do I resent?
T . . . Am I Tense
February is a good month for me. I was
born on the third day, the first time but born again on 12/5/55 – 20 years
later. Both birthdays are special to me; the first put me in the category of Over-the-Hill
gang. The second was a new beginning, and old things pass away; all things
become new. Oh, how I wish this was a fairytale, and I could say, “and he lived
happily ever after!” No! Through it all,
my life has been up and down, down and up, with many trials and tests along the
way.
In 2021 another test came my way. It was
a surprise and shock to me because it was an answer to prayer. To make a long
story short, I will just say it hurt. But looking back, I can see God’s hand
was on me, leading, guiding, and directing through it all. God is Good? I lost
all my earthly possessions once again. God brought me to the place where I had
to say, “WHAT NOW? The Holy Spirit gave me one word W A I T, but he gave me an
insatiable appetite to be a helper to those in a hurting situation. Here is a
post I did for my window/widower grief group:
I feel your hurt. I’ve lived through
that. May I share how I got through it all? First, I prayed, “God, I’m hurting.
I lost Marian, the better half of my life. And Danny, my only Son. Please
minister to me?
God: “You are my child, and I am hurting
with you. I have no words for you at this time except I LOVE YOU. I want to hug
you, and I want you to feel my presence.” Now, when the tears stopped, I
felt his love. I heard him say, “you are precious in my arms, and I want you never
to say
there are so many things in life that cause grief and pain. When we lose
someone, we love and cherish, and there is a void and loss that cannot be
replaced. When we face divorce or separation from the one, we have chosen to
spend the rest of our lives sharing the good times and the bad times, we feel a
loss and rejection that creates a void.
We tend to turn inward in all these circumstances,
which often creates doubt and insecurity in our ability to cope with life
circumstances. For example, suppose you or someone you know is faced with grief
or pain. In that case, it is often difficult to find the consolation needed to
experience God’s rest and peace, whether struggling with prolonged illness (my
wife had a broken back), loss (My wife and Son), divorce (went through that
too), or doubt (came after each loss and bothers me to this day).
We tell Jesus we hurt and NEED Him and receive His
loving care, and life becomes full and overflowing. For example, when my son
was suffering from ALS (Lou Gerig’s disease), in the last stages, I was
traveling from Florida to PA. God and I had a conversation: I said, “God, it’s
really hard to see my son Die.” God said to me, “I know how you feel. I had to
watch my Son suffer and die, and Bob, it’s OK to cry.”
And here is a letter from my dear wife of
29 years. I had to write this letter for the grief share group, “but I think
she said it all:
Dear Boppie,
I want to write just a few words to
admonish you to cheer you up and help you keep on keeping on till we meet
again. Before I start, I want to say that the room Jesus prepared for me is so
wonderful I cannot put it into words – – like you used to say, WONDERFUL GOOD!
Do you remember me praying? I stopped and asked this question, “God, who are
you.” And God replied, “I am.”
“But I don’t understand,” I said. “Who is I am?”
And God replied, “I am love, I am peace, I am joy. I am forgiveness, I am compassionate, and I am patient. I am hope, and I am benevolent. I am omnipotent, I am omniscient, and I am the Almighty. I am strength, and I am safe. I am the creator. I am the Alpha and Omega. I am the beginning and the end. I am the most high. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the answer.
I listened with tears in my eyes; I looked toward the heavens and said, “now I understand who you are, God, but who am I?”
And God tenderly wiped away my tears and whispered, “You are mine.”
Boppie, stop bawling!
Do you remember our verses? Proverbs 3: 5 – 6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Oh, Boppie, I must tell you this, Father God told me all about where you are and how you tell everyone you are 87 and ready for Heaven. He told me you had just another grand encounter with Him and how it happened.
Father God told me how you were reliving our loss of all our earthly possessions and starting a new one in sunny Florida, how you took care of me, and how you were when I came up to live in this room He prepared for me. You were happy to know I’m with Jesus and sad to be alone. He said you had your ups and downs and poured yourself into writing a book, but a writer in the Baptist Church rejected it. You started over and couldn’t get it published and felt the loss of a family member because that was your life. Then, our Father told me about you losing all your earthly possessions, and you went into shock. You thought you were losing your mind and blamed it on cancer radiation frying your mind. He said that you prayed, LORD, I can’t do anything right – just take me home. And He said that He told you to write everything that ever hurt you down in your journal. Then write over everything in red pencil ALL UNDER THE BLOOD of JESUS. And then you asked for a NEW BEGINNING.
Boppie, God was so happy. He winked at me and said, “I told him, if your not dead, you’re not done.” And that made you happy (blessed) and feel alive and ready to go again.
JESUS
loves you, and so do I
MARION
– with an O-- your One and Only
I
said, “OK, Lord, ‘I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, O’er mountain, or
sea; I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord, I’ll be what you want me to
be.’”
God said, “When you prayed to be a writer, I answered. So, don’t worry about the publishing; we got the book to a lot of people, and it’s like My Book; it is in their hands but never read. So, now, you keep in on keeping on writing, and you will help a lot of hurting people. I love those hurting people, and I love you.
If you read this, I want you to know, “Jesus loves you, and so do I. And Keep on keeping on loving Him.”
Comments
Post a Comment