The sinful women

Luke 7:36-50 Jesus Anointed by a sinful women. These short 15 verses mean so much to me.


How hard it is, when we look at our lives and decide this is not how I thought it would all turn out. Guilt ,shame and despair set up shop in our hearts. We believe that we are no better than what we have become. What we have turned into. A shell of the person we know in our hearts we could have been. If only things had been different. If our home lives would have been better, if our husbands really showed us the affection we are longing. If only.

How did I get here? More importantly how do I make it stop? God, how do I make it all stop?

I can only imagine the way this sinful women felt when she was at the feet of Jesus. She treated Jesus like he was the only person in the room. It was just her, her sin, and Jesus. She must have been so fed up with her life that she didn't care who said what about her, or to her, she just knew she had to be in his presence. She stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair,kissed them and poured perfume on them.

She was behind him weeping. How often do we stand behind Christ weeping at his feet because we are too ashamed to show our face? We are afraid that he won't accept us in the condition we have allowed oursleves to be in. We let that fear keep us from being in his presence. Christ will never turn away from us. It is we who turn away from him. Her tears must have been hundreds of gut wrenching tears. Not one time did Christ tell her to stop. He never told her what she was doing wasn't necessary. It is SO necessary. We must come to the father in complete surrender just the way we are at that exact moment. We must humble ourselves before him. He is the only one that can make the pain stop. It doesn't matter how long the pain has been there, or if you believe it's just to big, no one will understand. He understands and he wants to love you in spite of your sins. He just wants to be your father and show you how much love he has for you.

Jesus said to her, "your sins are forgiven, your faith has saved you, go in peace." How she must have felt after hearing those words. Only her father could forgive her and wash away her sins. She is now a new creature in Christ Jesus. She will still stumble, but she will not be shaken ,for she is in the presence of the great healer now and forever more.

Black Friday

This was the first year in fifteen years I didn't attend black Friday. I got to sleep in and watch it unfold before me remotely from my bed. To say the least it was different. I just love to get up at 3 am, throw my clothes on, get some hot cocoa, and go wait in line for hours in the cold. The bonding experience in line with other people that are willing to beat the crap out of you if you are in line for the same item, is like no other experience. I was doing black Friday before it was cool to do it. Back in the day, there were no police to guard the doors or break up any fights. We were all on our own.

I remember one year we were at KB toys. It was a very small store in Charleston SC. It probably should have had a 50 person cap. There were over 100 people standing in line to get in. They gave the 10 second count down, 3 2 1. Then the gate slide open and people crammed in the store like sardines. There were so many people side by side that the items on the top shelf were swaying back and forth. The next thing you know the lady standing next to me got hit on the head with a My Size Barbie box. She hit the floor and then people just started walking over her because she was no longer in the way. She had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. The next year they only let a certain amount of people in the store. Good idea!

I believe Black Friday has now become a sport. There is always a choice. Shop and take the risk of being trampled on, or watch safely and remotely from your bed.

What are you thankful for?

As we come upon Thanksgiving I am always in awe of why we don't drink at our family functions. Seriously, Jesus always had wine when he was in groups of people. When all he had was water, he turned it into wine. Need I say more. Don't get upset by my Jesus humor. I am a friend of God he calls me friend. Just like the song. I'm sure he's laughing right now.

I am Thankful for my family. I remember the holidays I spent all alone with no one around. I hate the thought of anyone being alone on a holiday. It's the best day for the devil to really creep into your thoughts. People believe that if they have no where to go on a holiday no one loves or cares for them. This is propaganda brought to you by satan himself.

As I reflect on this last year(what a doozy it's been) I'm thankful for what God has done in the past, what he is doing right now in the present, and what he promises us he will do in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving!

God has a sense of humor

I don't believe it's a secret that I don't like my job. I've been doing the same job for about 12 years. I am praying for change and being patient until God opens the door to something else. Just this morning before I even opened my eyes I was having a conversation with God. It went something like this: "Lord, please don't make me go to my wretched wretched job today. I just can't even get up out of bed today to do that. I don't want to go please don't make me." About 20 minutes later I got up. I went through the motions of my morning ritual of getting ready to go to work, got in car, and drove to my wretched job. I sent Jen an email explaining my discontent. She said "Your going to have a great day and God is going to bless you". Great,maybe he will bless me with a new job.I say another prayer before I swipe my key fob to get in the building. It went something like this: "Lord you already know that I don't want to be here. I pray that your light really shines through me today and that people see you and definitely not me."

I enter the building....

I log into my computer and begin to work. The same thing I've been doing for forever. I probably could do it with my eyes closed. It gets to be about 10:00 and i see an email in my in box. The email reads as follows: "We would like to congratulate Desiree McElroy as she is our employee of the month." Wait let me go back and read the email again. Really? ME? Employee of the month? WOW! You may need to take this time to go back to the beginning and read again. It doesn't change. I don't like my job.

What a fantastic testament to what the Holy Spirit can do in a person. I didn't get employee of the month based on my willingness to be there, I can tell you that. It was because I am helpful when people need assistance. I put others needs ahead of my own. Even though I don't like my job, my boss is always the same. I work for the Lord.

I always look so hard to see if I am being obedient and if there is more that I can do. I try to live my life as a servant every day. It gets hard to see through the repetition day in and day out. I believe God shows himself in all kinds of ways. I believe he was telling me today,"I know you don't like it here, you would rather be doing something else for me, but I appreciate your obedience." His encouragement means more to me than Employee of the month. It means I am a child of God and I am his humble servant. That's the best job ever!