Doing a Great Work

*Pictured here are Lillie, Sophia, Caroline, and Callie; June 2018 

It was a busy spring and summer of 2018, and weekends had been filled from what seemed like from March to June with no reprieve. It was so busy we had to schedule Sophia’s 18^th birthday party during lunch time on a Saturday. Between spring chorus concerts, ABAC’s end of the semester activities, I had not had any “down” time at the house with the only two children left – Matthew and Sophia. While Matthew was at ABAC with me, and he stilled lived at home, I rarely saw him. I mainly got to see him when he would swing by the office for a kiss, which in college lingo really means candy or money!

The last full weekend of June was free with no activities and my former husband was invited to go with the guys deep sea fishing, while I was invited to go with the ladies to the beach. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I just didn’t think I needed to go. I went on a work trip the week prior, and even though Sophia went with me, I felt I needed to stay home and have some quality time with her and Matthew.

Maybe it was the fact Matthew was about to leave for Georgia Tech in the fall or that Sophia was entering her senior year at high school, but there was something inside of me that told me time was fleeting. I knew she’d attend ABAC for one year after high school, but then her plans were to go to Georgia Highlands College in Rome, where they have a four-year dental hygiene program.

So, I decided to stay home. It was just me, Matthew and Sophia with no agenda for the weekend. And then my best friend from high school Cathy called and invited us to their family reunion in Valdosta. We’d been several years in the past and had a great time with the Sirmans’ clan. Sophia had spent a lot of time with Cathy’s nieces in the past, and Sophia was ecstatic to spend more time with Callie, Lillie and Caroline.

We headed south on I-75 singing to the soundtrack of The Greatest Showman. And when we sing, it’s not just with our voices. Our hands are raised, our bodies are dancing as best they can while being restrained by the seatbelt, and we are turning heads from other travelers as we journeyed to spend time at the lake.

All the girls and Matthew had a blast together jumping off the dock and catching up on what was happening in each other’s lives. I was proud of myself as I, at the age of 48, did back flips off the deck also! Cathy and I caught up on our lives, and I shared with her my marriage was struggling. Always a prayer warrior and non-judgmental person, I knew she would hold my confidence and give me Godly advice.

The kids and I traveled home going through the musical soundtrack again as we sang with wet hair and tired bodies.

The next day, the three of us went to church; Sophia sat in the middle, Matthew to her right and I sat to her left. Memories are fresh in my mind of how she reached out to both of us and placed her arms around us during the last song. I still have the bulletin from that day in my Bible.

Why would I remember such details to this seemingly irrelevant weekend? 

It was less than one week later that tragedy struck on the road while Sophia and I were safely biking. When a loved one is taken from you in front of your eyes, you replay the “last” of everything you did with that person - the last conversation, the last time we went somewhere, the last weekend, the last Sunday worship. 

In the Bible, Nehemiah 6:3 talks about when Nehemiah was finishing up the wall around Jerusalem, and his enemies were doing all they could to distract him and to get him off task. They said, “Come, let us meet together.” But Nehemiah said, “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down for you?”

The word work in this verse stressed skilled labor. For Nehemiah, the skilled labor he was doing was carpentry and management as he oversaw this great rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. He had a task to do and had done it continually for months. He was told to build the wall, and he remained steadfast in his mission for the Lord. Nehemiah also discerned the insincerity of his enemies and refused to be distracted by matters that would divert his energy from rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall.

What is your great work? And are you actively doing it?

For me, my main job for 25 years was raising four children, and I did my best not to be distracted by the world.

I could have gone to the beach that weekend before my accident. I could have spent a weekend with the girls, and there is nothing wrong with a weekend away occasionally. But as we go about our main task, we have to be sensitive to the call of God and His gentle nudging. I knew I should not go that weekend, and there have been countless confirmations of that since then.

I wouldn’t trade singing The Greatest Showman with Sophia and Matthew that hot June Saturday. I wouldn’t trade anything to have her place her arms around me and Matthew during the last song of church that Sunday. And while I certainly wish I could change the outcome of our last bike ride, I would not trade spending time with her and living an active lifestyle with all my children.

The word work in Nehemiah 6:3 also has the connotation of “benefits that come as a result.” While my boys are far from perfect, they have loved me in ways I never imagined at this point in my life. Each one has been by my side through surgeries, made sure my medicines were correct, and took care of the simple things to help make my life easier. I would have envisioned them taking care of me when I was maybe 75, but never did I imagine they would be pushing me in a wheelchair at the age of 48 or helping me weigh the options on whether to amputate my leg or not.

Parents, I encourage you this Christmas season not to be too busy to spend quality time with your family. Maybe you need a day where you stay in your pajamas and make cookies and wrap gifts with your children. Maybe you need to sit on the floor and play that board game your child loves, but you, much like the Grinch, loathe! (Chutes and Ladders was mine!)

Focus on your great work. Know that while the rewards may be delayed, they will come.

We all have a great work to do. What is your work? Will you be focused enough not to be distracted by those around you and do that task at hand? Your reward will be there, and it may just come earlier than you had imagined.

Instagram: lyndasfisher 

There is Life in the Blood

Donating blood is giving the gift of life. Not only is it healthy for the donor, but it is many times the lifesaving agent for someone else. No one has to attend medical school to know its importance and necessity for a body’s proper function. The blood is the transportation agent that delivers nutrients and oxygen from our brain to our toes, and everywhere in-between.

When Sophia was in the second grade, she got extremely sick because she was sepsis. The blood that once was aiding her growth and health got infected and instead of circulating life, it was transporting infection all over her body. Fortunately, we got treatment quickly and after many days in the hospital, her blood once again was doing its job of sustaining her life.

God was the first in the Bible to shed blood. After man first sinned, “the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” (Genesis 3: 21) He did not order them from Amazon; He was the first to kill an animal. Fast forward to the New Testament and the story of the prodigal son when the father said, “Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.” (Luke 15:23)

Our Heavenly Father continued to make sacrifices for us through the blood when he allowed His only Son to shed his perfect and innocent blood for our sins. “…Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Hebrews 9:22)

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

There is power and life in the blood, and when we accept that Jesus’ blood was shed for us, we can share in His inheritance, like the prodigal son did with his father’s wealth.

Yet apart from that blood, there is death, which leads me to my current medical situation.

For those who may not have followed my story from the beginning, it began with a terrible accident that fractured my talus bone, a well-hidden bone inside the foot that is hard to break. Once broken, it is also hard to heal.

The journey of the last 3½ years has been plagued with chronic pain, surgeries, crutches, getting better, and regressing. There was a fear at the accident that if surgery did not happen quickly, the blood would not properly supply the bone with much needed life. I was transported for trauma surgery 100 miles away in hopes of healing.

It appears even with the many efforts of the last several years, the talus bone has not received enough life-giving blood and has led to its death and collapse. For the last four months, I have not been able to walk unassisted. My scooter and crutches have aided in my transportation around the house, work and to doctors in three states trying diligently to find answers and options for recovery.

With a few – but no good – options on the table, the hard decision has been made for me to have an amputation. It has been a very difficult decision to make, but sometimes the right decisions to make are the hard ones. I could either continue to try and salvage my leg, or salvage my life, and I chose life! Next Wednesday, March 23, I will have a left below the knee amputation in another state.

I have treasured all the love and support so many of you have given me and my family over the past years. It has definitely been the worst season of my life, but even in the midst of it, I have never felt a larger outpouring of love.

My journey through this next trial will be hard and difficult. But honestly, I’ve already done the hardest thing in my life by burying my beautiful teenage daughter. I can do this. I WILL do this. And I will come out the other side physically stronger, able to walk, climb, and run again, and continue to give God the glory for the good in my story.

If you would like a closer look at my journey, I’ve started a personal Instagram page that will chronical my story. I’m not sure exactly what is in store for me or what this journey will look like, but I’m glad to share my story with you.

Instagram: lyndasfisher

Remain close to Jesus who, while He was without sin, shed his blood for you and me, so that we could have life! 

*Photo: Matthew and me at the beach to put my left toes in the sand one last time. 

Community Counts

There are factors and statistics that go into calculating whether a town is a good place to reside. Crime rates, home prices, and quality of schools affect the rankings, but one factor I’m not sure that can be quantified is “community” itself within a town. There is something very special about the love and coming together of a community when its members need it the most.

I’ve seen our community rally around many families during their darkest hours with love, food, t-shirts, and even yard signs! What a beautiful representation of the body of Christ when we take care of each other, not even asking questions, just knowing there is a need and then meeting that need.

Tifton has been a community of love and support toward me and my family over the last 3 1/2 years after the death of Sophia, and many continue to love and support me as I continue to need it with my physical health not recovering as planned.

A beautiful story in II Kings 4 tells of a widowed woman who met Elisha as she was preparing to have her last meal with her sons and getting ready to die. With her husband dead and women being viewed as property at that time, she was unable in her current situation to keep her children from being sold as slaves to pay her family debt.

But then her community stepped in.

The prophet asked the widow what she had in her house, and all she had was a jar of oil. The widow was not sure how that one jar of oil in her home could sustain her and her children.

Elisha told her, “Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors…do not get a few.” She went into the community to get the vessels. I can imagine her knocking on the neighbors’ doors down the street asking for their empty jars not explaining why. I doubt she even knew at that point! It says nothing about people refusing her or her having to beg; she simply had to ask. Their response and meeting her need were due to her relationship with others.

Her reputation and her family’s good standing in the community allowed her to gather enough vessels for her miracle to take place. Elisha told her to pour the oil from the one jar she had and fill up all the others. She poured the oil in all the borrowed vessels enabling her to have enough oil to sell in order to pay her debt and live on the rest. This widow is a beautiful picture of investing into the community and having the community step up and care for her in what she thought were her last days.

I spent over 16 years as a full-time mom whose focus was her family and children and volunteered as the coach of athletic teams, served on various boards, and lead children’s choir before and after my children were even in it!  Now my children are all grown, and it may seem the time spent was futile, since there are now days when loneliness sets in and the physical distance of my children here on earth is great and the emptiness of Sophia gone even greater.

At a recent work event, a beautiful young lady stood before me and said, “You don’t remember me.” I immediately apologized and said I couldn’t remember her name. She continued stating she had been to my house and was friends with Sophia. I don’t know the names of literally hundreds of teenagers who have passed through my doors as friends of my four children. I know my desire was to always have it as a place of refuge for my own family and others who may have needed one. My family and I have invested into others in the community and the community has been abundantly responsive and invested back into us.

There have been people who have poured into my life, and people I’ve tried to be a blessing to, but the two are not always the same group. In fact, I did not even know all the people who brought food to our house after our accident. I could not recognize many of the people who have given to Sophia’s scholarship. We invest in different people and other people invest into us.

This is a crazy time in which we live, and it is easy to remain isolated, not wanting to be involved in activities, much less involved in the lives of others. Community counts. It matters in making the lives around us better, and in turn our own lives are blessed.

Invest in your community before the tragedy happens, before the relationship ends, before you are hanging on the end of your rope - build community. Find that group of people that you can build relationships with and take care of each other during your hardest days. It may be your Sunday School Class, your work, your poker buddies, or your professional group. Not only do we need, but we were created for community.

I know I’ve found my community, and when my physical healing is complete, I’ll be back to investing in others.

*Top picture: My community - Mother Daughter Bunko at our house 2012. We've been together for over 20 years! 

*Bottom picture: Sophia and Ladies Choice Show Choir group at our house in May 2018.