Day 17

Today my leader was going to absent from our prayer meeting. Over the weekend he asked me to stand in for him and lead the group. The days leading up to today I had nothing to give or say and today I got a bad bout of allergies (that I almost sneezed my nose off). Today posts will be about the blessing that happened around these realities.

1. Had a great message from God through my morning prayers. The gospel spoke about the Pharisees questioning Jesus for basically working on the Sabbath. Jesus told them off by telling them that there is no time NOT to do good. It was a good message from God especially for me who is getting bigger responsibilities in our community, at work, or in the family. Sometimes I fall into the trap of going overboard with rules that I forget the 2 greatest commandments: To love God and to love my neighbor. Simple as that. This message was for everyone in my prayer group since we're all leaders in the community already. It was also the theme of our meeting tonight.

2. Recovered from my allergies just in time. I was so weak today. I could not stop sneezing and my nose was runny for most of the day. The medicine wouldn't kick in and work was piling. I was blessed not to be driving today and the extra bucks spent on cab fare was more than worth it. I was also blessed to have gotten nice cab drivers who didn't have the AM radio blaring, who didn't drive herky-jerky, and who made nice conversation even if I was dozing off in the back. Even as I got the the house of our host, I was still woozy but after a few minutes with them and some dinner I was well enough to lead the group. We had a really meaningful prayer and discussion about real things, honest things, real inspiring stories. I felt even more blessed having to just rely on God in my state of physical weakness and seeing Him come through for me.

3. Heard about a miracle happening to a friend of mine. For some reason I called my old team mate at my old office. She then told me about this miracle that happened to her family. She had a nephew and a neice who were taken and hid by their mom (my friend's sister in law) 11 years ago. They never saw or heard from these kids after that and my friend's whole family has been looking for them since then. This week from out of the blue, someone saw a one of their MySpace accounts and contacted them. It was so moving because these kids have also been looking for the family they were taken away from for the same 11 years. Now they found each other halfway across the world by some random stumbling over the one of the thousands and thousands of MySpace accounts on the web. The reunion over the phone led to so many tears of joy and the family acknowledged that miracle and the goodness of God through it. Now they're planning to meet up even when some are halfway across the continent and some on the other end of the planet.

Sometimes God really uses our struggles and pains to as the stage to show us how great He is and how much He loves us. I can't wait to hear what happens next.