CAN I GET AN AMEN!!

Last Friday, because a friend of mind was unable to use tickets she had to see a show, she passed them on to me.  With that small "coincidence" happening, I picked up my Mom and took her to see Joel Osteen at the Izod Center in New Jersey.  Being a Christian, and knowing how much my mom enjoys hearing a good preacher, I knew it would be a thing that she would enjoy.  So often I bring my mom to events that I would like, but today was about her...or was it?

I knew who Joel Osteen was. I'd seen him on television during his telecasts and I'd seen him on the View and on Oprah.  I'd even read one of his very good books, but I'd never seen him in person.  So, I was looking forward to it, but again, I kept thinking 'this would be good for mom.  Getting to our seats proved to be a small challenge, and I felt so bad for mom.  She is still doing her best to recover from her hip surgery, and she now walks with a cane.  The smallest things we don't think of and take for granted:  walking up or down a small staircase; stepping off a car;getting into and out of a car....those now are big hills for my mom to climb.  So, I am so proud of her determination to get into her seat.

So the choir comes out - the lights, the music...WOW!  As a singer, it is hard not to listen to a singer without trying to analyze it.  Joel Osteen stepped out...what a guy!  LOL.  He has a goodness, a gentleness about him...and I appreciate that I have so far never heard him judge others.  It seems as if his purpose in life is just to remind people that God loves us, forgives us and that we are not condemned.  It's that simple for him.  His message was a good one. I genuinely heard him.  "Don't carry yesterday's baggage into today...We will never be greater than we can imagine ourselves to be first."  Wow, I thought.  Although I'd read many books about that same principle, I hadn't heard it that way.  He stepped away for a few minutes, and this woman begins to sing. Never quite heard a voice like that in my life...and the analyzing disappeared and I just let go.

I cried myself a good cry.  I didn't hold it in; I didn't talk back to it. I just allowed it to happen.  It wasn't a sad cry.  It was a relief cry.  The kind of cry that I can admit was refreshing. It was as if the negative and the worry and the anxiety was let go.  It was a good release, and I needed it.  After listening to the rest of Joel's message, I soon learned that I was not there just for mom. I was there because I needed to be.  Because I needed to be reminded that all will be well; that we have to not listen to the negative chatter in our brains.  I haven't told anyone, but I've been wanting something really bad recently.  I've wanted it so bad, I've not been able to sleep.  And because of "political" things I cannot make it public, not yet anyway, lol.  But this desire is so strong, I pray for it to come to manifest every night...but I forgot in the end, what  will be will be, and I truly have to put it in God's hands.  I stood up and prayed, recommitted myself to God, and let it all go.  As I tell people:  When you feel most powerless, it is time to reach out to the most powerful.

So go ahead and have yourself a good cry.  Look in the mirror and realize you should be smiling...wipe the tears away and come to terms that we cannot control what happens to us, we can only control how we respond to it.  We are meant to do great things...we are victors, not victims!  Can I get an Amen?  LOL...