Touch

Sometimes Elizabeth is struck with this uncontrollable urge to touch someone's hair.  It's really bad when she walks up to a stranger and starts running her finger's through this person's hair.

I had an "Elizabeth Moment" the other day.  Sarah was sitting beside me in class with a stack of blank paper in her notebook.  During the entire 50-minute class I had this barely controllable urge to run my hand along her beautiful paper.  I'm a writer; I can't help it.  Don't judge; it's the little things in life.  As soon as the professor dismissed the class, my left hand shot across the aisle and onto Sarah's notebook.  It happened at the exact moment that she was closing her notebook, sandwiching my hand between the new and the used paper.  She gave me a weird look, I explained, and the weird look continued.  But she let me touch her paper.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what if had the same urge to touch lives in His name?

Christian told me this story about his first trip to Guatemala.  They were serving food outside the garbage dump in Guatemala City.  As the dump inhabitants came for food, Christian and some of the other members of his team sanitized their hands.

"The biggest thing we could do for them was to touch them.  These people were considered untouchable and when we touched them to sanitize their hands we accepted them," he explained.

Jesus did the same thing in touching the man with leprosy in Matthew 8. He could have said, "You are healed," and it would have been done. He's God. He has the power to do that. But He didn't. He made a point to touch someone that society had seemed untouchable.

Now, I'm not saying run up to everybody and touch them.  There are ways to touch people without ever making physical contact.

Jennifer and Amy just sent letters to their Compassion children in the Philippines and Ecuador. Lives touched. The executive chef served some weakling from the self-serve ice cream cooler. Life touched. We packed seven Operation Christmas Child boxes last week. Lives touched. A grad student spent her birthday doing homework and grading papers, alone, until some friends invited her over to hang out. Life touched.

It doesn't always take much. A small act can have a huge impact.

May the Lord give us all uncontrollable urges to touch the lives of His children and those who do not yet know Him. Let's do it all in His name.

<>< Katie

PS: I was inspired to write this during church this morning. As I was revising tonight, I was thinking about how it was similar to this post I wrote for Kaitlyn's birthday. I just found out an hour ago that after two and a half years of medical treatment 800 miles from home, Kaitlyn finally will be able to go home this December! What a wonderful Christmas present!

Irony

Nikki came up to me the other day and genuinely said, "Katie, I just want you to know that I love you.  I know I pick on you a lot, sometimes too much, but I love you." 

I told her I loved her, too, and went to give her a hug.  As I got close, she burst out laughing.  She backed away from me and kept laughing.

"What?"

She didn't say anything.  She didn't have to.  It was then that I remembered I have blue lines running across my face.  I was in an event on campus where I let the freshmen paint blue lines horizonally across my face.

Well, I came home and wiped them off with paper towel and water then a make-up remover wipe and saw a huge difference, but I still had blue lines across my face. They kind of looked like veins. So I hopped in the shower, used some soap, some eye make-up remover...

Now my face is so dry it's ready to fall off, but the blue lines ain't goin' anywhere.  And Nikki's laughing at me immediately after apologizing for picking on me incessantly.

<>< Katie

3:42am

Let's admit it: we all face writer's block.  I've heard arguments that it deoes not exist, but reality is that sometimes the words just don't come.  Some days it's because you can't find the time and other days the blank piece of paper (or blank "Document 1") is just too overwhelming to produce anything, much less anything worth while.

A few weeks ago Nikki and I were emailing about the hectic schedules we face this summer and the lack of free writing time.  I suggested she take five minutes and just write.  Pen to paper... three, two, one GO!

But what to write?
1. Peanut Butter Bagel
"I had peanut butter on my bagel today instead of cream cheese, and I feel the need to write about it."

2. A funny or sad or embarassing or random story
It could be from fifteen years ago of fifteen seconds ago, no one really cares.  You don't have to justify why you thought about it right now.  Just write it.  Embellish if you feel like it.

3. "I don't know what to write but Katie told me to write so I am doing it."
MercyMe actually has an entire song about this (ok, without me). It's entitled "3:42am" and it's my prayer for life.

"3:42 am (Writer's Block)" by MercyMe

3:41am make that 3:42

time just keeps rolling on while I'm here stuck like glue

so many things cross my mind but nothing stays awhile... so frustrating

I just want to say something worthwhile... speak through me.

Say, say what You wanna say... and say it loudly

Say, say what You wannna say.

6:45am, man, that just can't be right

3 hours have gone by and this is all I've got

My common sense tells me I should get out of the way.... so You can speak

O, Lord, show up or I'll be here all day... speak through me.

Say, say what You wanna say... and say it loudly.

Say, say what You wanna say... speak through me.

If the idea's mine it's nothing but a waste of time.

So won't You say, say what You wanna say.

Say, say what You wanna say.

Say, say what You wanna say.

Say, say what You wanna say (say it loudly)

Say, say what You wanna say.

Say, say what You wanna say.

and say it louldy

Say, say what You wanna say... speak through me

If the idea's mine it's nothing but a waste of time

So won't You say, say what you wanna say.

Don't wait until you have time to write or you'll never write.  Make time.  And let Him use you.  Let the Writer write; you be the pen.

<>< Katie