Lookin’ to the Hills

Psalms 121

1.  I lift up my eyes up to the hills – where does my help come from?

2.  My help comes from the Lord.

The kids were attending church with me on a regular basis.  More and more kids became part of my life.  We had sleepovers, watched football games, pick-up street games, etc.  The youth group had officially started at Commonwealth…with Sunday night gatherings, retreats and lock-ins.  Neighbors were starting to call the house “Miss Marti’s House”….and it has stuck.

A women’s small group from my church was meeting at my house several times a month.  I was still regularly meeting with the Lord through reading and studying the Word and prayer….or at least I started off that way.

Not all was great.  I was accepted…by most, but not all.  In some cases, it was clear that I was not welcomed, as a professional white single woman.  The adults didn’t trust me.  Many didn’t understand why I moved in and why I was letting the kids run in and out of the house.  Some didn’t understand WHY in the world would the kids WANT to hang out.  It wasn’t me…it was the “God in Me”… the LOVE and PEACE they felt when they were in my home.  In the presence of the Lord.

Side note:  When I was younger, I used to DREAM of having a houseful of kids….and that we would have the “cool house” where all the kids would want to hang out.  What little did I know…that God would bring that dream true!  What I didn’t expect was that the kids wouldn’t be mine nor…would they be black!

My success at work and my sphere of influence had increased.  I often wondered why God called me to work among some of the wealthiest, and live among what some would call the ‘least of these’.  There was diversity in skin color, but also in education and socioeconomic status.  My two worlds were as divergent as you could get.  I began to wonder what God was up to.  At what point would these 2 paths cross?

Challenges were not just in the community, but they also came at work, where I faced an employee relations situation alleging that I created a hostile work environment based on race…because I talked about my kids.  It was unfounded.

As I reflect on this situation, I realize that Satan will go ALL out, when you ‘sell out’ totally to the Lord.  Satan will only mess with those who he sees as a threat…..because they are in the will of God.  This was simply a distraction.

I also have come to realize….in retrospect…that I must not have been reading and praying like I had done previously.  Let’s just say that my journals are a bit light.  But…I finally figured it out…

I knew where to go.  I went to the Lord.  My help….my strength….it cometh from the Lord.