Have you ever experienced a time that was so painful and dark you thought you would never get through it or would there ever be an end?
Or perhaps as I have, you became so weary of it all that your strength was at ground zero, and added to the already dismal and confusing set of circumstances making you doubt yourself, and question your ability to even hear God?
And perhaps you were told by well meaning friends that this was just a season of time but the season turned into years?
You then my friend , are not reading this by chance.
It was Saturday, October 5, 2020.
I had such an increasing hunger to really know God more, and have Him speak to me through His word in the BIBLE. I read the scripture I had pondered the previous day, and then starkly asked “Lord, I really want something from you today that is straight from your heart to me. Speak to me Lord.”
I opened my bible and read a portion of verses I had not read in a long time.
“Therefore, behold I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the Valley of Achor for a door of hope;”
I sat pondering the following verses down through verse 20 as the bottom thing is “and thou shall know the Lord.”
I had an event to play for that afternoon, I read and reread the verses. Thoughts came to me about the previous months…being in the wilderness, or being in guarantee? But the Lord in His faithfulness would speak tenderly, gently, lovingly there and cause such a time of chaos and trouble to become a Door of Hope, His Door of Hope. How beautiful and comforting that is.
Back in January 2020, we had returned from a Jazz cruise to the Caribbean where my husband had the opportunity to play with a Dixieland band for five hours a day. It was such a great time of meeting so many people from Europe and all over the world for that matter.
However, the second to the last day we had gone snorkeling and I returned to the cabin and laid there on the bed instead of showering and putting on dry clothes.
The next day I woke up with a fever and felt horrible. There were people at our dinner table who had a cough for several days and I had told them to chew on ginger root, which I had also done. It really helped them, but I was getting worse.
After departing from the ship, we had a seven hour layover at the Fort Lauder dale Airport which I just laid on a group of seats, unable to move.
At the final breakfast before we left the ship that morning, there were so many people coughing. It could hardly be overlooked.
Our final plane fight that night was filled with terrible barky coughs just like mine. What in the world was going on?
After a week in bed and so sick I could do nothing, I finally called a friend and ask her to take me to urgent care, which she did. My husband had to quit driving, so there was no other way.
I was not running a temperature and the Dr told me I was lucky. He also commented on how I could look so good and be so sick? So I was put on antibiotics and sent home.
I was so sick for three months. I have not been that sick for about thirty years as I said. I kept wondering if I was going to make it. I drank a lot of bone broth but prayed a lot more and kept choosing life. Finally, the Naturpath gave me some supplements for pneumonia that helped.
She said something was really going on as I was the twelfth client that had this respiratory thing.
I can look back and am so grateful for health, my husband, life.
Is the Lord using this time of trouble to open a door of hope, no matter what the circumstances?
That afternoon in October, I prayed to be able to touch peoples hearts and that the music would bring a path of life from trouble and turmoil to lead His church through a door of hope. It was amazing to me to hear the Holy Spirit play melodies in my heart for me to play that had connecting themes. His presence was incredible. He is INCREDIBLE!
As we seek Him and minister to Him, may it bring a new freshness to our worship, composing and improvisation. May He use us in this time as another “platform to open that door of hope to touch hearts and lives with His love.
