RIDE OUT WITH ME

I was in a dark mood this past weekend.   As I described in Friday’s blog, I was feeling sad and discouraged, and although the Lord spoke to me about hope during Elsa and Sallie’s program, I could not entirely shake the blues.    Sunday morning before church I ranted and raved at my girls about the condition of our house.   It wasn’t completely undeserved, but not exactly prayerful preparation for church, either!   By the time we got home from church, my head hurt and I just wanted to make like an ostrich and find some sand to stick it into.  

Lord of the Rings is a “spiritual warfare story” for me.   I’ve watched the movies numerous times, and read the books through a couple of times as well.   It’s one of those tales which never fails to speak to my heart and spirit, sometimes through one character or event, and sometimes through another.   I selected the middle part, The Two Towers, and asked God to help me back into the Light.

This time the battle scene at Helm’s Deep was the part which the Lord used.    King Theoden had taken his people to this “impenetrable” fortress, despite counsel to engage the enemy in open warfare.  The fortress was penetrated, and as the King and the not-yet-king, Aragorn, waited for the enemy’s final devastating onslaught, Aragorn said, “Ride out with me.”   “To death and glory?” asks Theoden.  “For Rohan,” declares Aragorn.   i.e.,  Ride out with me into the teeth of the enemy for the sake of the people, so that they will have hope, and so that the enemy will see that we have not given up.   Ride out with me, taking the offensive, instead of waiting here for our inevitable doom.   Ride out with me, with courageous joy, seeking the victory which appears impossible.  

I sensed the Lord saying, “Ride out with Me!   Stop sitting around worrying, waiting for more bad news.  Ride out with Me into the teeth of the Enemy for the sake of My people!”

But how?   Where?   I asked.    This morning I received the answer:   Jasmine and Linda.    Jasmine was going to be the first young girl in our new safehouse.   She was doing great in detox when I left for the States, but a few weeks later she ran back to the streets.   Linda was a baby whom we cared for in our own home.   As the time grew near to go to the States, we took her to the children’s home.   Social Services came and picked her up, claiming that we had not cared for her properly.      In both cases, I had felt angry, then sad, and then had allowed myself the “we can’t help everybody” point of resignation.    But this morning the Holy Spirit said, “Ride out with Me into enemy territory.   Let’s  get Jasmine.”      As I walked around the smelly, trashy, sleazy red light district Jasmine was known to frequent, I asked the Lord to lead me to her.  I saw two young women who looked as if they might know her.   It is painful to ask prostitutes and drug addicts the whereabouts of someone you love, but when I mentioned Jasmine’s name, one of the girls jumped up excitedly:  “You’re the gringa!  Jasmine’s godmother!   She told us about you!  Can you give me money for coffee?   I’ll show you where she is!   A little something for coffee?”   She led me around a corner and towards a very dark opening.  “Jasmine!!  Jasmine!!  The gringa!   Can I have money for coffee?   Jasmine!!  Hurry!   Just a few lemps for coffee?”   Jasmine came flying out of the opening, which looked very much like the mouth of the Dark One, and grabbed me around the waist.    She smelled like liquor and many days without soap.    I gave the other young woman “a few lemps for coffee,” grabbed Jasmine around the shoulders and started walking.      We stopped a couple of blocks away to buy some clothes that fit and that covered her a little better, and then hopped a bus into a better part of the city where I had left my car.    Jasmine’s story will no doubt be continued in future blogs.

As for Linda,  I hope to get to Social Services tomorrow.   I’m going to tell them that I have felt moved by the Holy Spirit to give them an opportunity to apologize.   J    And maybe even give Linda back.    Would you, in your prayers, “ride out with Jesus and me?”