In today’s devotional time, I read that we were redeemed to become sons of God. One of the prayer suggestions was to pray that I realize more fully what it means to be an heir of God and live that way, as I would live a life of privilege.
Wow! I am a princess, a daughter of the king! Great thought!
But on this particular day, as on many days, I don’t feel like royalty. For one thing, I have a big “handicap” that doesn’t go away- being paraplegic. It impacts me every day. Some days it takes me 2 hours to get ready for the day. Then its stuff like cats getting in the house, the dog getting out, having to put my wheelchair together to get in and out of the car, and this just to get out of my driveway! All the while, I am griping, “Lord, how am I supposed to do normal stuff everyone else does, let alone great things for You with this burden You have allowed me to have, that it appears, will never go away in this life.”
I get to my destination, the YMCA, and realize I better straighten up and not glare at everyone I see. This gets increasingly unlikely as I lose my special card. You see, I have to use a special entrance to the Y, go through two doors, and then use the card to get into the pool. It is a pain, especially since the card is one more thing for me to lose. On, did I mention that everyone else can just go through the doors and get to the pool from the dressing room?
I tell myself to stop feeling sorry for myself, get in the pool, and swim. Be thankful for the Y, the pool lift, the guard who helps me, having the time to come here and exercise. Other people have problems, too.
It’s so easy to say, “God, I would do such great things for You- if only! If only I wasn’t handicapped, if only I wasn’t sick, if only I wasn’t pregnant right now, I didn’t have so many kids, I wasn’t so old, I wasn’t too young. If only I had more time, a neater house, more money, more talent. If only, if only.
You hear a lot of people quote Esther and say, “For such a time as this” in reference to when momentous events occur like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. But sometimes “for such a time as this” refers to the everyday grind. I wasn’t created to a great witness only in times of crisis. I was created to live in victory every day. Every routine, uneventful, busy, little things going wrong day of my life. And even though I have had catastrophic things happen to me and those I love, even in the midst of all the suffering around me, I still have to be reminded of this. Not “if only”, for such a time as this- be a princess. Be royal- through God’s mercy and grace.

By Cindy Tucker

“The War of the Worlds” and Katrina: How We React in a Crisis- Fantasy vs. Reality

In addition to his many gifts, Steven Spielberg has the gift of prophecy. As my family viewed the tragic plight of New Orleans residents and tourists making the relentless trek down Hwy 10 in hopes of getting out of danger, it looked eerily familiar. It was scenes from “The War of the Worlds” reenacted, yet this was no act. This was really happening.
In the movie, based on the book by H.G. Wells, aliens attack the earth without warning, immediately killing and destroying everything in their path. Their pursuit is relentless. Every time the viewer thinks the main characters might be safe (at least momentarily), the aliens are back.
Although we had been warned of Katrina and where she might hit, she came quicker and more powerful than any one could imagine. And for New Orleans, after the initial hit, the worst scenario played out. Levees broke. People who had banked their lives on the worst not happening, or those who could not flee, were trapped. Just as in the movie, droves of people kept climbing higher, or walking to get away from a danger which keeps growing and growing. Just as in the movie, we have seen people loot in desperation and others steal to make a profit off the misery of others.
In a fantastic movie that Spielberg made very realistic by focusing on the human element and family relationships, he left out a very important component that plays a central role in the lives of those affected by and in the midst of disaster. That is the role of God.
The only time we hear the name of God invoked in the movie is to curse his name. The world is falling apart, people dying worldwide, yet there is no seeking the help of a higher power. What a fantasy! In real life, when it seems the world is falling apart, we do seek God. Most of us realize there is Someone beyond ourselves and that only He can fix things. We saw this in 9/11 and we see it in Katrina. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineoux Blanco declared Aug. 31 a day of prayer, and rightly so. We have heard dozens of testimonies of lives saved and people who have lost everything thankful to be alive. We have heard those missing loved ones asking for prayer. We are seeing people of faith trusting God to get them through this catastrophe and thousand of others doing what they can to help.
We don’t know why this happened or what caused this. We can fault global warning or poorly built levees or bad planning. We can judge those who didn’t get out and didn’t heed warnings to evacuate. We can refuse to help many because the actions of a few thugs sicken us. We can blame the president, Haley Barbour, or environmental wackos. All of this pointless and counterproductive.
Let us as a nation come together, pitch in and help, whether it be through your place of faith or civic organization. Let us trust that somehow an Almighty God can bring some good out of this. And, brothers and sisters, let us pray.

For many, many years Abraham yearned for a son. He had many servants and slaves, but no sons. The closest kin he had was his nephew, Lot. After Abraham’s brother and father died, Abraham took on the responsibility of providing for Lot. How he must have loved and nurtured Lot! Lot must have been like a son to him. Abraham shares out of his great wealth, for Lot soon has his own flocks and herds and tents.(Gen.13:5)
The day comes when the land can not support both Abraham and Lot’s holdings. Their herdsmen quarrel over land and water. Abraham didn’t want disunity and strife between himself and his beloved nephew. What sadness he must have felt as he suggested to Lot that they part ways. In humility and trust in God, he gives Lot first choice of the land and watches Lot go his own way.
Lot’s choice turns out to be unwise. He becomes a victim of the war between Kedorlaomer and his allies vs. the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their allies. Because he lived in the losing territory, Lot and his possessions are carried off as a spoil of war.
When Abraham learns of this, he gathers 318 of his trained men, routs the enemy, and rescues the people and goods of Sodom and Gomorrah. All this effort to rescue a wayward nephew!
As the victor, Abraham has the right to take the spoils of war. The king of Sodom offers him the goods of the vanquished. But Abraham tells him, “I have raised my hand to the Lord, the most high…and have taken an oath, that I will accept nothing belonging to you,… so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich…”

Abraham turns down worldly treasures so that he is not beholden to any one but God.
He has every right to it, but he chooses another reward.

Women of the church are much like Abraham. We willingly give up our rights as we submit to the leadership of church authority and our husbands. We give up the worldly desire to be self –indulgent as we meet the needs of our family, church, and community. We put our career desires on hold as we raise our children and serve as helpmates to our husbands. There are days when we can’t see beyond the stacks of dirty dishes, mounds of laundry, and endless dirty diapers. There are the 1 year old’s crying, 3 year old’s tantrum, 6 year old’s smart mouth,9 year old’s know-it –all attitude, 13 year old’s tantrum, the distant 16 year old, and the trials and tribulations of grown children. There are aging parents to care for. There are preoccupied husbands who don’t notice the sudden appearance of clean socks or underwear in their drawer. There is the lack of hours in the day for women who try to juggle career, family, and home. These women are on the front line of representing Christ in sometimes hostile work environments. We stand up for what is right and attempt to live by God’s standards, even if that makes us unpopular. Our choice to follow God’s call may lower our income or keep us from being invited to the “best” parties. We might not ever be famous or important in the eyes of the world. We might not see tangible or immediate rewards for our labors.

We, like Abraham, give up the immediate reward for something much better. What was the reward that Abraham chose, that we choose as we serve family, church, and community?

God appeared to Abraham and said, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. (Gen.15:1) God is our reward, the very Creator of Heaven and earth. Not just what He gives us, but God Himself, His very Presence, is our reward.

There is a fairly new expression- at least new to me. (In my mid-forties, I find myself more hopelessly old-fashioned and out of touch with pop culture each day.) I first heard a much younger friend, who is decidedly “hip” (Hey, that phrase even outdates me!), make a mistake and say, “My bad.” She is a rather creative individual, so I assumed that she had coined a new phrase and left it at that. A few days later, my daughter says it. I tell my husband about this new phrase my daughter must have picked up from our friend. Now, my husband, an expert on the cutting edge of what’s cool ( there I go again) told me authoritatively that “everyone’s saying it. By the way, he’s a middle school principal.
Next thing I know, Halle Berry is saying it in “Catwoman.” No, I did not waste time watching it, I just saw the promos.
Anyhow, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the theological significance of this phrase. My bad, indeed. I had to see and recognize my bad before I realized a need for God. I had to see that I could never fix my bad, no matter how hard I tried. I was always going to make another mistake, fail again, disappoint again. How would I ever rid myself of my bad?
Thank God Christ never had to say, “My bad.” Fully man and fully God, He lived a perfect life. And when He died, they nailed my bad on the cross with Him. And the my bads of all who call upon His name. His blood covers my bad. And now when God looks at me, He doesn’t see my bad. He sees His good.

Terri Schiavo is gone now, and from the evidence of her life, she is probably worshipping with the Lord and His saints face to face. Over the past two years I have prayed and wept for this woman. I even called Florida legislators, Judge Greer’s office, and Gov. Bush’s office. This last go round I kept thinking surely reason and right would prevail and Terri would be allowed to live. There was so much conflicting information surrounding her injury, subsequent care , rehab, and her hearsay statement that she wouldn’t want to be hooked up to a life-support machine. Not to mention the suspicious behavior of a husband that had moved on with his own life but seemed hell-bent on Terri’s demise even though she had a family willing to care for her and relieve him of all responsibility. There seems to be a question of where the money for Terri’s rehab and care went- it seems a great deal went for legal fees to get permission to starve and thirst her to death. I know dehydration is the proper term, but it just doesn’t quite paint the picture of the man in the desert panting for water that I think we need to understand when we contemplate removing “hydration” from someone.
I really have nothing new to say, but I believe I have a truly unique perspective. 18 years ago, I had a car accident. At the age of 28, I had injured my spinal cord. My husband was told I would never walk again, would spend the rest of my life “confined”(I hate that word; I’d be confined without the chair) to a wheelchair, and perhaps never have children or a normal life. I was bleeding to death and needed surgery. Since I was unconscious, my husband needed to sign for my surgery. Thank God he did.
You see, we had conversations about what would happen if one of us had been incapacitated. I had said if I was ever in a wheelchair I wouldn’t want to live like that and I certainly wouldn’t expect him to stick around and take care of me. I would want him to move on. (Our hearsay conversation.)
Thank God I married a man of conviction who took his wedding vows seriously. He stuck by me. During my 3 months of rehab, he brought me my school work (I was working on my Master’s) and visited me 3 times a week. God gave me the grace and determination to finish my schoolwork and go back to my job as a teacher, and to live all these years in a wheelchair.
O.K. I wasn’t brain-damaged. I can speak for myself. But, from my perspective, I can tell you we don’t know how Terri felt after her accident. She appeared to respond to her loved ones and find pleasure in their company. She appeared to try to communicate.
Maybe it was a reflex, but what if it wasn’t? And pain. I myself have an incomplete spinal cord injury so I have limited movement but I have nearly normal sensation. When I had to have a cut stitched last summer, I quickly told the doctor I had sensation so he would numb my calf before sewing me up. It still was uncomfortable! If I hadn’t told him, he would have made the assumption “she can’t feel below the waist.” So who are we to assume Terri couldn’t feel hunger pains and thirst over 14 days? In a recent World article, Lynn .Vincent tells the story of Kate Adamson. Kate suffered a double brain stem stroke and was unable to move at all, not even blink. She was however, fully cognitive. She heard the doctors tell her husband she was a “vegetable.” At one point they removed her feeding tube for eight days. She was in terror and great pain. She has now regained most of her abilities and is understandably an advocate for the disabled. Also, the same medical and legal minds that told us starvation and hydration is a euphoric experience allowed Terri to have morphine when they saw grimacing and twitching-I guess what we lay people would call signs of pain.

Why, as President Bush asked, if we err, don’t we err on the side of life? I thank Congress for trying to stop this innocent death, but I now urge them to pass a law requiring living will statements specifying the patient’s desire before nutrition and water is removed. We all need food and water to live; it is not a heroic measure. I am also very concerned about those who only have government insurance. Those who advocate national state insurance need to consider this case with great concern. It’s not too far-fetched to foresee a future where the state decides when a person’s life is too costly to maintain, when their value to society is not worth the upkeep, and the decision is made to withhold food and water. It could happen; it happened 60 years ago in Nazi Germany.
For the public record- I do not want to go by starvation or dehydration.

Isaiah 49:15b-16

"...Even these may forget you, yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands."

Was my name written on Your hands as You hung dying from the cross?
Did they drive the nail through my middle name?
Did Your precious blood flow over each letter to cleanse me of my sin?
Was my name written on Your hands?

Was my name written on Your hands as You broke the power of death?
Did Thomas see it as he looked at Your palms?
Did he gasp in praise as he saw all those rescued from their sin?
Was my name written on your hands?

Is my name wriiten in Your mind as you tenderly call my name?
Do you think of me as You approach Your Father's throne?
As I seek Your face in a mixed-up world and a whirlwind of events,
Is my name written in Your mind?

When I walk in dark valleys of temptation and doubt,
When evil rears it's ugly head,
When the Liar whispers "come to me"
You hold up Your hands, show him my name
Clench your fists and say
"nothing can snatch him out of My hands!"

Will my name be on Your heart as I enter heaven's gates?
As You take my hand and lead me to the Father's throne?
Will You tenderly call out my name and present me to the heavenly throng?
And show them my name written on Your hands.

Will my name be written in Your holy book of life?
Will you open it and say, "Well done, servant?"
And when You return to earth in full glory,
and every knee shall bow,
Will my name still be written on Your hands?

We Are The Red States
by Cindy Tucker
posted November 7, 2004

We are the red states.

We listen to talk shows and Fox News.
We tear up when we hear the national anthem.
We drive SUVS and fly business class.
We go through drive-thrus, have mortgages, and shop at Wal-Mart.
We attend BBQs, football games, fire hall meetings, and places of faith.
We believe life is precious and marriage is sacred.
We believe there are some things worth dying for.
We have the utmost respect for those who lay their life on the line defending our freedom and protecting our streets.
We believe religion is not a philosophy but a way of life.
We raise our children as best we can.
We’ll help anyone who really needs it, and not blame others for our own bad choices.
We read our Holy Books.
We pray because we know wisdom comes from God, not man.
We go about our lives quietly as we care for our families.
We might not have time to demonstrate, but we make time to vote.

We expect the values we teach our children to be respected in our schools.
We expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say.
We expect to work hard and earn the just rewards of that labor.
We expect to be able to watch a football game with our kids and not have to worry about the content of the half-time show.
We expect terrorists and those who harm the innocent to be punished.

We are farms, ranches, small businesses, and town squares.
We are BBQs, baseball games, fishing holes, and civic clubs.
We are little league games, piano recitals, Bible studies, and car pools.
We are grandfathers in Iwo Jima, fathers in Vietnam, and sons and daughters in Iraq.
We are fly-over country.
We are the red states.