Speak English....

I have never been one of those people who can quote lines from movies off the top of my head. Maybe I shut that part of my brain off when my brother, who is mentally ill, started quoting lines from Star Wars back to me when he was seventeen exposing the on set of schizophrenia. I just find it strange that people can remember random stuff like that. I love my brother very much but this isn’t about mental illness or my brother. It is about the way the Lord speaks to me or maybe more fitting the way I want Him to speak to me.

Now, I am not sure which movie it was but it is with Whoppie Goldberg, Sister Act maybe. The only line I can remember is when she says; “speak English Mick", meaning Mick Jaggar. I often call the Lord Mick in my conversations telling him I wish He would just speak English to me. More often than not I end up feeling like my brother thinking I need to adjust my medication so I can hear God better.

The point that I am trying to make is when people visit Haiti they almost always want to know how long we plan on staying. Since I am not a Rolling Stones fan, I can say without a doubt that this answer is as clear as the words Mick sings in a Rolling Stones song. Being a Christian and hearing God can be like listening to Mick sing. You know how it goes, you have heard a song a hundred times and all of a sudden you hear it and find out you have been singing the wrong words for years. For some of us we have no clue, so we say crazy sounding things like, we are just living day by day waiting to hear from God. It sounds good I guess but truthfully, it is just as odd saying it and living it, but that is exactly what we are doing. At times what you really want to say goes something like this, well, if the Lord would speak English I could give you a straight answer but it just so happens he is using Mick Jagger to talk to me and I have no earthly idea what He is saying to me. I won’t go as far as saying I can’t get no satisfaction, because that isn’t true either.

Today I finally figured something out when I was reading our mission statement and thinking about a dream I had. In my dream I saw a time line that really looked like an EKG with all kinds of spikes in it. The spikes indicated times when we would be traveling in different countries and the flat lines where when we would be in the States. I understood what we are called to do is very much like a heart beat. As Christians we need to know the signs and the times and what God is saying to us with the beat of His heart. As God’s Plumbline Ministries are called to lay down a template in different nations. But what made it all click for me was thinking about Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey has written a book or a template for people to follow in order to find financial freedom. That is what we are doing with sewing school. We are putting in place a template for others to follow so that women around the world can find the tools to be empowered, rebuilding their lives and restoring hope.

All these years I have been busting on the Lord about sounding like Mick Jagger and here He was Dave Ramsey.