Brenda Rodgers

Author: Brenda Rodgers

  • Beauty – A Free Gift

    Join me today for 5 Minute Friday with The Gypsy Mama where we write for five minutes on a given topic. No editing. No criticism. No worry. Today’s topic is: Beauty

    Is it coincidence that I am at the beach watching the waves crashing into the sand, listening to the shrills of children with the sounds of the waves as the white noise, feeling the granules of sand between my toes, smelling the salt in each breeze that passes over me when today, this Friday, I’m writing about Beauty.
    How much more could I ask for?  Could I expect?  From a God who gave the earth all of this for me to enjoy, for me to be a part of, for me to experience His presence?
    I sit and look out to where there is only the line – the line dividing water and sky (Genesis 1:6-8)- and I imagine Him hovering over it all (Genesis 1:2)- right before He made it be.  Giving it all of its saltiness and counting every grain of sand.
    Beauty – Free Beauty – The gift from our Savior so that we know He’s always in our presence.
    “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command,
    so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
    Hebrews 11:3
    Share today what is beautiful in your life, and then thank God for it.

  • God as a Mighty Wave

    It’s been three years since I’ve experienced God as a mighty wave crashing into the shore and then dissipating into white foam and moving backwards into the expanse of the sea. 

    As I watch the water and sand come together, and I peer out to where the sky and ocean meet, I think about the thousands of years represented in the very place I stand.  A place once uninterrupted by human hands with only the mark of His hands. 

    The ocean water dominates the earth just like He is dominate over all of life.  Each wave, as its peak gets higher, and right before it falls, shows God’s eagerness to conquer our souls.  Then the crash comes, and He takes over.  He washes over us, our grit and grime of the sand.

    Then there’s the calm.  The calm of patience where His might subsides and the wave turns to nothing but a slow moving pool.  As the pool hesitates His patience takes part of us and forces us back into the expanse of ocean water with Him once again.  The draw towards Himself is subtle.
    Until the crash of the wave comes once again conquering our souls all over again, bringing us back to Him again.  

    For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”
    Romans 1:20

  • Content with Bare Walls

    China, linen napkins, holiday dinnerware, special candles, that perfect black dress, the earrings your grandmother gave you.

    Are there things in your life that you keep hidden, tucked away, only to be seen on the “special days” that are just a little more special than all the others?

    Recently as I was cleaning the house I noticed all around me pictures and decorations that I have not yet hung on the walls.  We have lived here three years.  I know very well why I had not hung them yet.

    I was waiting.  Waiting for that “special day” when my house would be perfect with colored walls in each room.  Then I could make it home.  After the paint settled.

    As I looked at these things that I love and that bring so much joy when I look at them, I realized how often I wait and wait and wait  for perfection and in the meantime miss out on the enjoyment of what I have today.

    The problem is that perfection will not come in this life.  And as I anticipate it showing up at any time, what is here now becomes waste.

    My walls are still bare with the same dull white color that they were when we moved in, but yesterday became a special day.  I stopped waiting, took out the beautiful things around me, and made those bare walls perfect with my blessings.

  • What are your three words?

    

    Photo Credit

     Last week I read a blog post by Lysa TerKeurst, and she asked us what three words describe the “script of our lives”.  You know, what three words do you want people to remember about you at the end of your life. 

    Lysa asked her readers not to look at the other responses before posting yours.  I really, really wanted to cheat and look because how can you narrow it down to just three?  Then I started thinking about what I’ve been praying about and asking Jesus to help me with over the past several weeks.

    These are my three words:

    1. Authentic (Matthew 13:24-30)

    Over the past few weeks, while meeting with some friends for a summer Bible study, I have realized how important it is for sisters in Christ to be “real” with each other. 

    It is so tempting to just keep all of our problems  hidden for fear of what others will think or even because of pride.  However, true growth occurs in two ways: 1. seeing how fellow Christians respond to their personal struggles and 2. hearing their wise counsel in response to our personal struggles.

    The prerequisite to this is, of course, a certain level of loving trust and commitment, but I think it is important that we work hard to get to that place.

    I want to be authentic so that others see God’s grace in my life, so that others do not think they are the only ones who struggle, and so that I can build a trusting relationship to open up a level of trust.

    2. Bold (2 Samuel 7:27-28; Philippians 1:20)

    Recently I listened to a sermon by Andy Stanley where he encouraged his listeners to pray bold prayers.  He said that there is nothing wrong with praying for our family to be safe and for people to be healed, but we should also pray to be used for God’s purposes – regardless of what that means for us.

    Many times when I pray for God to use me or change me I do it with this small voice in the back of my mind the doesn’t really want what I’m asking.  These prayers are the ones that cause me discomfort.  They require me to stretch and change and get out of my comfort zone.  These prayers don’t typically switch to “on” overnight, but instead, whatever is causing me to pray increases.  For instance, if I pray for more patience, then everything that requires me to be more patient increases.  I know that this is how God grows us, but in the meantime it makes me squirm.  I don’t like to squirm. 

    I want to be bold in order to be open to all God wants me to become so that He can fulfill His purposes for me.

    3.  Faithful (Matthew 25:23)

    Over the past year God has shown His faithfulness to me over and over again through my husband’s heart transplant and my mom’s sudden death.  During that time I had a choice to either deny God and become resentful and angry because I did not understand how He could allow these things to happen, or to have faith that His ways are always right and perfect.  I chose to stay close to God in faith, and as a result He blessed me with His overwhelming gift of peace.

    After going through all of that you would think that I could easily be faithful to God in the little things of everyday life.  However, for me, this is where I struggle.  I was able to lay down the lives of my husband and mom in faith that God was in control, but I am not able to lay down my everyday circumstances of struggling with finding fulfillment in my job or overcoming feelings of inadequacies or dealing with issues with the people around me. 

    I want to be faithful not just in the big circumstances in life but in the everyday things, too, because this is where my legacy is built.

    What about you?  What three words to you want to be your “life script“?  Share them with me below!

  • A Heart Transplant – One Year Later in Words and Pictures

    August 6, 2010.  I could not imagine September coming, much less a year later.

    I was sitting on this bench when I heard the news.  My husband laid down the hall, not far from where I was, and at the end of his bed was a big machine taking the job of his heart and lungs.  It was his life support.  We had been waiting for only two days since he was put on this machine – two months total – for a giving heart donor to be matched with him. 

    Every morning in those days I would wake up and think, “Would this be the day?  Would we get a heart this day?”, with the inner turmoil of even thinking such a thought. 

    I saw him in his stark white lab coat and serious composure coming towards me on August 6, 2010 as I sat on this bench.  It was mid morning, and I was sitting here in front of the elevators watching all of the people getting on and off.  As I looked at each one of them I wondered about their story.  How long have they been here?  Is there’s worse than mine?  Will they leave with their loved-one?  The sun was coming in the wall of glass behind me.  When I looked up I could see the helicopter.  I wondered if it was returning from bringing us his heart. 

    He approached me kind of quickly, and I sat up straight ready to hear what was new, with my husband, laying down the hall, on life support. 

    “I think we’ve got a heart”, he said. 

    All that was around me, the people getting on and off the elevators, the sun shining through the window, the helicopter on top of the building, disappeared.

    “I’m going to go down and look at it, and I will call you if it’s a go.  We’ll be in surgery around 8:00 tonight if we take it.”

    Joy and fear simultaneously overtook me.  My life as I wished it to be hung over the hospital in those next 24 hours. 

    And God delivered a miracle.

    Today we celebrate my husband’s one year anniversary from his heart transplant.


    His old heart failed him with Cardiomyopathy, and through God’s grace, mercy, and love He gave us what we did not earn or deserve.  He gave John the gift of more days of this earth. 

    Today my husband and I can do things together that were only in my dreams one year ago.  He is more active than he ever remembers being.  My heart in overfilled with humility and gratitude for this new life God gave us.

    Here are just a few of our blessings over the past year:

    Pre-Transplant Hospital Visit-  May 2010

    Easter 2011
    Waiting on a heart before life support – July 2010

    Spring 2011 with New Bike

    John’s Heart Party in Atlanta – Post-Transplant – October 2010

    First Time Outside in 31 Days – Post Transplant

    John Outside Today

    First “Real Meal” – Post Transplant August 2010

    Celebrating Our 3 Year Anniversary – June 2011

    Walking Around – Post Transplant September 2010

    Playing Golf Today

    War Wounds of a Hero – Post Transplant September 2010

      5 Months after Transplant Shoveling Snow

     The Hero Today

    We’re Going Home after 43 Days

     A Year Later

    My husband and I remember this day with overwhelming joy, but also with sincere gratitude and mourning.  Today as we celebrate God’s gift to us, there is a precious family whose faces we do not know that is grieving over the loss of their loved one. We thank them deeply for their selfless gift of organ donation to us, and we continue to pray for their healing.  Our hope is to one day meet their loved one in Heaven where we can thank him ourselves.

  • Wholeness on Bended Knees

    Join me today for 5 Minute Friday with The Gypsy Mama where we write for five minutes on a given topic.  No editing. No criticism.  No worry.  Today’s topic is: Wholeness

    There are so many places we go in our quest for wholeness.

    In our homes we look around and say, “No, not here.  Only if I had something bigger.  Grander.  Something that would turn heads and create awe.”

    So we leave that place that was supposed to be a safe-haven of peace and go on our journey to find wholeness elsewhere.

    We stop at the place that pays us money.  Money to get the things our house lacks.  But in the back of our minds we think to ourselves, “No, this can’t be it.  Does this really matter?  Is this really making a difference?  Will this last?”

    So on we go to the next thing along the road.  The road’s getting long now, and the hills are getting high.  Maybe this is where it is.  Maybe this object, substance, person, mindset is where my wholeness will be found.  Except that they are really idols.  And no, I know, only temporarily will I find wholeness here.

    So back I go to my original place and in that house that isn’t quite right I bend my knees until they touch the ground.  I cry out, cry out begging for something that will last, that will never change or go away.

    And there it is: Wholeness – wrapped around the words to my Savior.