It All Depends On Your Outlook

Last week I promised to share with you various responses I had to my "The Good Life" TV interview that aired the week of January 4-12 (and beyond in re-runs according to continued feedback I am getting.)

Let me begin with Teresa. She called to say she really enjoyed the program and wanted to know about my "Soar Unafraid Ministries" because she wanted to assist me in any way she can. To say I was blessed is an understatement--because Teresa is only 33 years old and she has lived in the current nursing care facility for two years and another for four years before that due to the multiple sclerosis she battles. It touched me to tears to know her situation. But Teresa wasn't griping, just stating the facts. She told me how she had just learned to transfer from her bed to wheelchair on her own that very day as she is working to become stronger and live alone again.

Teresa didn't call to bring me down with her situation. Teresa called to tell me she wanted to minister with me. PAUSE. THINK DEEPLY.

Teresa had not one hint of "poor me" in her voice. She was excited to know she could minister with me through prayer. She was excited to be able to take that big step of transferring on her own.

I vowed then and there to help Teresa in any way I could. I called Steve from CTN who had taxied me here and there because he had told me he is a pastor. Come to find out their church is in the same town as Teresa's! Next time Teresa and I spoke she was going to their church if she found a ride. Please pray with me this all works out for her. Pray she is strengthened every day.

Moving on, I received several emails and calls from others who wanted to tell their stories and they wanted a word of encouragement, which I tried to give as best I could for their individual situations that were heart-breaking. But what I heard in return was something akin to bitterness creeping into their words about wanting to be close to God. I know how very hard it is not to go there when we're hurting. My journey to keep myself from doing so is shared in my memoir Soar Unafraid: Learning to Trust No Matter What.

I heard from others like Esther who has a sad story but she came right around to her life based in her belief that God Lives, and he will lead her on as she, too, works to improve her life and situation. She, too, asked what she could do for me!

When I told Teresa during our latest conversation that I was telling people about her precious attitude and outlook she responded, "It's only Christ in me. On my own I'd be very sad." How true that is for any of us! I know it is for me in all struggles that come my way. MS is hardly the only thing I deal with. When I asked an audience before whom I spoke last Friday, "How many of you have had something unexpected happen to you in this past year?" everyone raised a hand!

I hope these differing attitudes give you some interesting things to think about. A woman who recently signed up for my newsletter wrote after receiving the Freebies that come with it: "Your list is amazing and fun......causes one to 'recalculate.'" If you'd like to recalculate your life, go to my website and sign up--it's free!

Have a great week! (I'll be speaking Monday-Thursday next week so my post will be late again...)

Jo

Hi, this is Jo Franz finally writing again!

It's been awhile since I've written--way too long! Let me explain...

Have you ever planned something so exciting, so worthwhile, so overly-time consuming you could hardly wait?

Well, that's what Ray and I were doing. Planning. Preparing. Scheduling. Then came getting a house sitter (and of course, since we have a cat who is totally a lover--I know, I know, you dog-lovers can't imagine a cat like Jaz, but he is a lover of being loved--the house sitter is also our Jaz-sitter.) Letting the neighbors know about it all. You know--all those details you have numbered on your "to-do" list.

Then comes the huge crashing disappointment of confusion as it all falls apart.

Our trip in the works since late November to Lagos, Nigeria, was cancelled the day we were to depart. All our packed bags had to be unpacked. All the calls made had to be remade, now with cancellations. All the conferees for the two conferences we were to speak at had to be notified that "due to logistics" it wasn't going to occur.

Needless to say, I cried out to God like Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:8 that he was "perplexed, but not in despair." I was certainly confused, but I trusted God to ultimately know what was going on and be able to work it "all together for good" as written by Paul in Romans 8:28. We thanked God "in all things" as Paul also wrote in Thessalonians 5:18 and "for all things" in Ephesians 5:20.

But we still felt sad. Again, like Paul, who was "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" (2Corinthians 6:10). We took the page off my website about going to Nigeria. We sent emails to our host, wondering how she was doing.

Guess what? God was doing a work in our lives, our host's life, her husband's (who paid for it all and was the one who cancelled it due to the agent who had taken their money while paying for our tickets with stolen US credit cards, which we were notified had been cancelled by the airline themselves!)

And within a few hours of emails back and forth we had replanned the entire event for August 2008 with a new vigor, a new excitement, and a new agenda--planned by God!
Nothing has been wasted. We have learned about how to make the flights now, and we're all so excited.

Maybe I'll be able to post more often like I had planned all along! I took last week off to make sure the stress of the prior week wouldn't deplete me too much. I even read a novel that absorbed and blessed me--I haven't taken time to do that in--well, I can't remember how long!

With multiple sclerosis a constant in our lives, we knew this trip to Africa would be a challenge anyway. But what is life without challenges? I want to live adventurously no matter what! I can hardly wait all over again!

Have a great week!