A little over 8 years ago now I was at Disney World with Jay and Carleen and their daughter and her family. It was near the end of his life, and it was the end of my 30 year marriage. My husband was home moving out while I was gone. Our divorce went thru a couple of weeks after I got back. Needless to say, I was devastated. It was an extraordinary 10 days at Disney World. Completely off the scale. Such a huge contrast internally within me… joy and sorrow simultaneously. One thing that struck me that has stayed with me these 8+ years is something that Jay did and the meaning behind it. We were on a ride, getting strapped in, and he turned to me and started singing, “The Best is Yet to Come”. Tears streamed down my face as I let this wash over me, wanting to believe, and doubting it was true.
Time since Jay’s passing and my husband leaving, I’ve come to lean more and more on the Lord. I hear in my spirit the words that Jay spoke/sang, and have come to belief. God wants to bless me in every area of my life, and I’m opening to what He has in store. My sense is that it is better than I can imagine because I’ve never seen it before. Just like God. :-)
I’ve had difficulty coming back to this blog. There has been a series of events over the last few months that have distracted me, but I felt in my spirit that there was more to it than that. Lately I’ve been sensing that it’s time to move on. I believe even Jay would agree. I don’t believe that that means I’m moving on from participating in relationships from God or the love of God – topics that are near and dear to my heart. But that the answers aren’t written in the pages of Jay’s and my book. Because God is doing a new thing. Something to do with new wine in old wineskins…
So I’m here to tell you that I’m going with that leading and will not be continuing in the book. What I would like to say to any of you who are interested is that I hope the book blesses you where you are today. If God has spoken to your heart in any way through those words, I am grateful.
If you have any questions or would like to talk about anything in depth, please feel free to contact Pamela, the moderator of this blog, and she will pass on to me to talk with you. I’ll also be continuing to work with Pamela on posting different blogs that Jay wrote from time to time and participating in the conversations they generate.
May God bless you, and may you believe that the best is yet to come!
Love,
Lisa
Loving Like God 
Dear Lisa,
I’m glad that I don’t have to say, “It’s hard to see you go,” as we have a relationship in Christ outside this blog, that I am blessed to have with you. It does seem fitting that your decision to not keep going through your book, should come at the end of the old year, and that you should remember that beautiful moment when Jay sang to you, “The Best is Yet to Come.”
On that note, I look forward to seeing you experience all of “God’s Best” that tomorrow’s new year will bring! As I continue to occasionally post articles by Jay here at the blog, and work with you on that, I am confident that we will continue to remember what he meant to both of us, and grow stronger together in Christ.
In addition to email, as we do, we can always “meet” more often in these comments, too. :-)
Love!
Pamela
I’m glad you’re listening to God. I think God has wonderful things in store for you in 2020!
An old friend shared some wisdom about Stephen’s discourse in Acts which ends with him telling the Jewish religious leaders that they’re stubborn, stiff-necked and they stone him. One of the highlights being Acts 7:48 where he points out that God does NOT live/abide in temples that men have made. Yet that seems to be the habit of everyone, the Jews included, to build a temple, monument, altar or whatever, at the place they encountered God. And then, they set up camp around it. But God moves – He leads – we’re expected to follow, watch and listen – because He’s teaching and growing us. Stephen was rightly pointing out that the Jews were remaining where God was, for a season, but had moved on – tearing the temple curtain top to bottom so they could look inside the Holy of Holies and SEE with their own eyes that God’s presence was no longer there. He’d moved on again. Some moved with him and became followers of the Son (the Way) others stayed put and remained Jewish followers of the law. Perhaps there’s a point in that? Staying put leads to the law, bondage, becoming root bound, etc. Indeed I’ve never been in a man-made temple that didn’t have it’s traditions and orders and which could not move with the Spirit if ever it did blow through their building – if only for a moment.
Pam and I were talking off line about the things we’ve written in the past – how reading them even years later can be a jaw-dropping reminder of how He moved us and revealed Himself in the process. There have been times I’ve exclaimed “I wrote that?” – which is all the more impactful because I’m smart enough to realize I’m NOT smart enough, nor spiritual enough to have written such a thing – except that for a few hours, the Father poured out His wisdom and revelation through me via the Holy Spirit.
I’ve abandoned a few sites because it was time to move on. It’s always bittersweet – because it was an act of creativity that made the site – and “creator” is the first verb in scripture – we made our sites with Him and they’re glorious things because they were a cooperative creation. But I don’t think He intends for us to remain there to care take forever nor as curators of what amounts to a museum of history.
He has more to create – He leads us on a path of creation. If he’s doing a new thing while we cling to the old thing, it’s possible to miss out. I remember a prayer when I was first aware He was doing a work with me – “tie my leg to your leg, so that when you move, I move and don’t miss what you’re doing and where you’re going”. The kind of involuntary spontaneous prayer that left me dumbstruck as in “why did I say that?” It may have been one of the most important prayers I ever made.
I imagine Lisa you’ve pondered the manna? Fresh every morning? Leftovers at day’s end disposed of? Likewise our “daily bread”? Those take on meaning for me in that 20 years ago, He told me “do not read books” – a variety of reasons I’m sure not the least of which is men’s yeast, but also old manna/bread … I delight that He wants us to eat fresh. ;) Jack
Thank you all for your encouragement and words of wisdom! Beautiful! Love what you wrote, Jack. A fresh start to each day. With my memory, it’s kind of like that, anyway. :-) I do have an overriding perception that God is most concerned that we learn how to do relationship the way He does relationship – how that plays out day to day is really up to Him. But I don’t believe there is anything that will ever come that will be more important to learn than relationship… He continues to build on that foundation. I will always hold fast to what He has done in that area.
Love,
Lisa