Girls trip this summer began with a distinct announcement by my friend Katharyn. Her declaration was made at the front desk of the Residence Inn Kansas City where we were checking in. After confirming with Heather, the desk clerk, that we were to all have separate beds, Katharyn loudly pronounced: “We cannot sleep together because I don’t have any ovaries.” “You what?” Asked Heather as Lori and I reeled in disbelief. “I have no ovaries and I get hot, really hot.”

Everyone near the desk busted out in laughter. It was at that point that Heather, without missing a beat, invited Katharyn to the hotel happy hour! “You must come,” she pled, “you would be so much fun!”

Lori scooped our loose lipped, hormonal friend up and pointed her hot self toward the elevator. I yelled back to Heather “If this is our friend without alcohol, then there is no way she is allowed to drink!”

Well, that was the beginning of our trip. Things never really changed as we shopped for reading glasses, menopause pajamas, and Starbucks. We spent lots of time talking, collectively spent seventy one dollars on chocolate, and spent lots of calories on coffee! It was fabulous.

At bedtime and on the treadmill I listened to my favorite historical author, David McCullough's book about Harry Truman and it was fascinating. So, on the last day of our trip, I talked the girls into visiting the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. After a weekend of finishing each others sentences and forgetting what we were about to say, a little intellectual stimulation was in order! They dragged themselves along, complaining that there was no way a library could amuse them for the afternoon! They even told me that they didn’t understand why a blind woman wanted to go to a library in the first place. It finally dawned on me -- they think this to be a room full of books. "Girls, I said, this is like a museum". "Presidential libraries are simply a collection of that presidents history.”

“Does that mean we will see the white house china?” they excitedly asked. “Oh my gosh” was all I said. At least Katharyn didn’t announce her ovary deficit to the tourists in the Library, she was too busy yawning because she and Lori insisted that they didn’t need breakfast. Starbucks had worn off and my friends had worn out! Tired and hungry, the empty White House china dinner plates just made their stomachs growl!

We left the library, ate lunch and on the way home, we all confessed we needed a little more culture. So, our goal is to read the Scarlet Letter before next years adventure and then discuss it at every Starbucks on the trip! At least they have their reading glasses now!!

So give these four things a taste:

1. An outing with girlfriends - even if its just to Starbucks for an hour
2. Truman by David McCullough
3. The Truman Library
4. The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne
 

From a Bethany tomb , into Heaven - Lazarus was ushered into God’s presence. That wasn’t what his sisters prayed for though. For days, Mary and Martha nursed him, prayed to Jehovah, and even summoned Jesus to come help. After all, if Jesus were there, surely their brother wouldn’t die. But, Jesus didn't come in time and Lazarus died.

The mourners arrived, and finally, so did Jesus. So, while they wept at the tomb, imagine Lazarus! He, for days, had mingled with angels, talked to prophets and worshipped. He was healed, whole and home. And then, a Voice spoke before the tomb. Heaven rumbled. It was a voice the angels heard as an infant cry in Bethlehem decades before and the voice that would soon cry in agony “It Is Finished” from a Roman cross . It was the voice of the Word that spoke creation into existence.

And now, the voice called Lazarus. He must have known to Whom it belonged. He had listened to the voice weave stories about the kingdom of God during long lingering suppers. Though the voice sounded more authoritative, he knew it was Jesus for “His sheep hear His voice and recognize it.” Lazarus obeyed the voice that beckoned him, “come forth”. Bid back to his grave he returned. He left incorruptibility and was again clothed with the corruptible.

Certainly his sister’s prayers were answered. They beheld their brother with their eyes and held him in their arms. What they loved and lost was returned. But, what about Lazarus? He returned to earth just to someday encounter the same sorrowful fate. He would, again, feel the pangs of death as they wracked his deteriorating body. He would again leave his brokenness and enter into wholeness, be embraced by the angels with whom he once worshipped, and fall again before the throne.

I wonder what kinds of secret longings Lazarus harbored? To walk on dusty Palestinian roads after treading on streets of gold must have kept him homesick. To feel the pangs of hunger as he smelled Martha’s latest recipe, must have sparked a faint memory of feeding from the tree of life. So who really benefited from Lazarus return? The women were destined to cry again, Lazarus was destined to die again.

Thinking through this story made me wonder - for whose benefit do I pray? Do I pray thoroughly? I bet Mary and Martha prayed from the depths for Lazarus not to die, and then, I bet they prayed with the same fervency for him to return. Who wouldn’t?

When someone we love is sick or dies, we just want God to deliver us from our pain. But, for Mary and Martha to gain, Lazarus had to lose. For their pain to cease, His pain had to return. It just makes me rethink the way I pray. Instead of praying so that I gain, I want to pray more thoroughly - for the good and merciful will of God for all of us.

I get lots of emails that ask me to pray for precious people with terminal illness. I do pray with full faith and fervent compassion. I just don’t want to pray under the faulty assumption that earth is the best answer to my prayer. As hard as it is to say, mercy takes precious people to Heaven even when we plead for them to stay here on earth. And when that happens, we need to think of Lazarus and remember that its okay for us to lose in order for someone who we deeply love to ultimately gain.

And, that’s what’s been percolating in me lately.

Question: I would like to know how you personally know for sure that God is talking to you/ leading you; verses your own ideas? And do you ask God to confirm to you what you think He is saying?

Your new sole sister/faith walking friend,

Karen Ferguson

Answer: I hear God's voice through reading His Word. The Bible is His word to me - it's how He talks to me and leads me. Hopefully, the more I am in His Word, the more my ideas are His ideas! I find confirmation comes as I respond to and obey His Word. How do we really know for sure? If our sense of His leadership is confirmed by the truth of Scripture, then we know it’s His Voice.

And now, my friends, the "Beans" are officially spilled!

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