Date Night

I fully intended to pick up those index cards and attempt to 'make plain the vision'...but soon I was carried away with the details of daily living.  I had registered for a Worship/Songwriting retreat in Amarillo, Texas the third week in July, but life just seemed too overwhelming to insert ONE MORE THING!  I called Rita Springer, the organizer and host of the retreat:

     "Rita, there is just so much going on in our lives right now.  I just don't think I can manage one more thing!  I can't come.  I am so sorry!"
     "What's your phone number???" she demanded.

A few minutes later the phone rang...
     "I don't know you that well, Anne, but it seems as if you have poured out and poured out.  It's time for you to receive..." She urged me to reconsider.

I promised her I would talk with Henry and get back to her.  I called him, sharing what Rita had said and we both agreed I should go.

Less than an hour later the phone rang again.  It was Henry.  He was in the car, on the way back from Restaurant Depot...the weekly shopping ritual for the Oasis.

"I just had the most incredible time with the Lord.  I want to take you out to dinner tonight and share it with you."

In twenty-three years of marriage he had NEVER called to tell me of a particular prayer time.  I could not imagine what could be SO important that he wouldn't discuss it over the phone!
                                                                        ******

Later that evening, notes in hand, he began to share.  Early that morning he had read
2 Peter Chapter 1:

"...We did not follow cleverly invented stories...but we were eyewitnesses to His majesty...and we have the Word of the prophets made more certain,  AND YOU WILL DO WELL TO PAY ATTENTION TO IT, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the Morning Star rises in your hearts..."

Having read, he prayed,
            "Lord, if you have a word of prophecy for me today, DON'T LET ME MISS IT!"

He explained to me that Rita's words had jarred him: 
                           "You have poured out and poured out.  It's time to receive."
He knew immediately this was the word of prophecy God had for us. 
His mind raced and he began to pray:

"How can we receive in a country where we don't even speak the language (Chile)???"

"Where have you recently been fed?"  the Lord impressed the question.  "Didn't I start by moving your heart toward Scotland?"

"But that's in the European Union!"  Henry argued.

"Have I not taken care of you and provided for you? 
Never once have I left you or forsaken you."  The Lord continued...
"You cannot get assurance or safety aside from me or my will."
"I created you to be a LEADER!  Now, lead decisively! 
Stay focused. Come out of her. 
NO MORE DIVERSIONS!"

It all seemed so clear in his mind.  I could tell by Henry's countenance that His encounter with the Lord earlier that day had left him resolute.  Somewhere deep down I knew this was right, yet I was disturbed that the Lord had not been speaking to ME about this...