MOTIVATION FOR REVELATION

A couple days ago, I watched a movie called " Lorenzo's Oil". It was made in 1992 I believe, it was a pretty well known movie. Nominated for several awards. But somehow I never got a chance to see it until now. It was about a little boy whose parents discovered that he had a rare, aggressive illness, to which there was no cure, called ALD.

Failing to find a doctor capable of treating their young son Lorenzo's rare disease, Augusto and Michaela Odone seek their own cure. They set out on a mission to find a treatment and save their child. In their quest for a treatment the Odones clash with doctors, scientists, and support groups, who are skeptical that anything could be done about ALD, much less by laypeople. But they persist, setting up camp in medical libraries, reviewing animal experiments, badgering researchers, questioning top doctors all over the world, and even organizing an international symposium about the disease. Despite dead ends of research, the horror of watching their son's health decline, and being surrounded by skeptics (including the coordinators of the support group they attend), they persist until they finally hit upon a therapy involving adding a certain kind of oil (actually olive oil with two specific long chain fatty acids removed) to their son's diet. They contact over 100 firms around the world until they find an elderly British chemist working for Croda International who is willing to take on the challenge of distilling the proper formula. It proves successful in normalizing the accumulation of the very long chain fatty acids in the brain that have been causing their son's steady decline, thereby halting the progression of the disease. There is still a great deal of neurological damage remaining which cannot be reversed until new treatments are found to regenerate the myelin sheath (a lipid insulator) around the nerves.

The film ends with Lorenzo at the age of 14 showing definite improvement (he can swallow for himself and answer yes or no questions by blinking) but indicating more medical research is still needed. The end credits of the film say that Lorenzo also regained his sight and was learning to use a computer. Many healthy children are shown who, having followed a course of treatment with Lorenzo's oil, have remained symptom-free. Lorenzo can communicate again via a modified sign language, and that Augusto Odone later received an honorary M.D. for his pioneering work in researching and discovering a significant treatment for ALD.

As I watched this movie I thought, why? Why did God allow this child, this family to endure such pain and suffering? And I don't mean why as in...Oh God why them, they were so good, why not someone else? I didn't mean it in that way at all. I meant, there must be a reason God chose them. Just the way he allowed Job to endure the trials satan chose to inflict on him. I believe that God is so good and wise, He made each of us, He knows what circumstances will motivate us to be our best and to live our purpose, even when we don't. I thought wow, God is so remarkable that He knew even before this kid (Lorenzo Odone) was born, how his parents would fight for his life. In fact I believe that He paired these parents together because of their own unique and remarkable traits. His father for his scientific background and his mother for her unrelenting passion and persistence. I believe that God allowed this to happen to them for the greater good of all the other boys in the world with this awful disease. For the boys whose parents didn't have the education, resources, will or patience to help find a cure. Today because of their determination and faith, thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of children and their families are spared from this debilitating disease.

So when I think about all of the ordeals that I have suffered in my life, oddly enough, I praise God for His wisdom and His Omniscience. He knows exactly what circumstances to allow in our lives to spur us on to be the best that we can be. He knows how to nudge us onto the path to our purpose. While I'm going through bad times I'm not necessarily skipping and jumping for j0y, but I try to remind myself to count it all joy, because the God that I Love, and trust, the God whose only intention is for good in my life, is pushing me to reach my full potential. He is refining us like silver. Challenging us to turn our Grief into Greatness. But only He knows exactly what will motivate and inspire each one of us to our own individual revelations to change our lives and the lives of those around us.

HERE I GO AGAIN

Well guys here I go again, blogging that is. Somehow this all seems so pointless to me. I always feel like this is such a waste of time, I mean who actually ever reads this stuff anyway. I can't imagine who even has the time these days. But I guess if no one read these things blogging wouldn't be so popular. And right about now if there is anyone reading this thing you must be thinking, "If your so skeptical about this whole blog thing what the hell are you doing writing a blog?" That is a very sensible, logical question. But as you can see from the name of my blog, it is a "Christian" type of blog, designed to target a more "Spiritual" type of a reader. And we all know that walking the path of a Spirit led Christian is not always logical. Sometimes, especially in the "natural" world, it's not even sensible. We know that as Christians we are supposed to be walking by faith and not by sight.

So here's the deal, I love to write, I always have. Writing for me has always been like having my own personal Shrink. I write down whatever is going on in my head and suddenly it makes sense. Somehow I don't feel alone or crazy anymore, it just makes everything in the world okay for me. I also see it as a beautiful opportunity to share some of my funniest, weirdest, most creative, even sick, twisted thoughts with the rest of the world. It's a friend that's always there for me. So as you can see it's not like I don't like to write. I absolutely love it. I even love the whole idea of this Blogging thing. I mean, it's so cool that the whole world can log on and read each other's crap and then actually even talk to one another about it. It's an opportunity for those of us who may have thought that they would never have a word published, to actually kind of be published. To cool.

But the thing is, even though I like to write, I never thought that I was any spectacular writer and that anyone would actually read my stuff. So a few years ago, after praying for many years for God to reveal to me His purpose for my life. He starts by telling me that I am supposed to be writing about my spiritual experiences and life lessons and stuff. The first thing I say is "Okay God, I'll write this stuff down, but how is anyone gonna ever get to read it, with my schedule, and cash flow issues, it'll take me a life time just to get published." I thought, "This is great, I'll be obedient by writing, but getting published, well that's a whole other thing. God knows, that I don't have the time or the money for that." And almost as soon as I finished saying those words to myself, I hear about this new inexpensive way to get your work to the public. This internet thing where you can publish your stuff for free on your on website, that you don't even have to host, called a Blog. Well there goes my excuse. So about three years ago I started blogging. I would do it off and on. I believe I have started and stopped three or four sites in the past few years. I guess the problem was that not only did I not believe that anyone was ever gonna read it, but who the heck was I gonna help? I mean it's not like I'm some spiritual guru or something. I'm just a regular ole Joe or (Josephine) struggling to stay on the straight and narrow path of Christianity. Not hardly worthy to give, especially write advice to others. As I said, I'm no "Hemingway", I'm an average writer at best.

But somehow, no matter which way I turn, God keeps bringing me back to this place. Why I don't quite know. As much as I try to reason with Him and rationalize with God, and try to get Him to let me off the hook about this thing, He just won't let it go. So what's a "Christian" girl to do? It's been said that it's better to obey than to sacrifice. Now see, that is a quote from scripture, but don't ask me exactly what chapter, or verse, I'm not that good yet. :)

Anyway, I know that I know that I know, that God is preparing me for something. Some assignment, some purpose that He has designed for me, still yet to come. Even though I can't quite see it clearly from this place I stand at today. And even though I have absolutely no faith in myself as a writer, I do have absolute faith in my faith in God, to lead me down the right path, the one that He's designed me for all along. And when you think about it, isn't that what life is all about? Having faith in what you believe in, and acting on that faith, maybe without ever really knowing the result of your actions. I think that in the "natural" world, they call that "Blind Faith" don't they?