Go ahead...Have a talk with God

I have a lifelong obsession with Stevie Wonder's Spirit-filled magnum opus Songs in the Key of Life. I have owned this record on vinyl, 8-track, cassette and several copies of the CD (the ones who "borrowed" it...you know who you are. Yes I'm talking to you Sulai). Not a season in my life  in my life goes by when I don't listen to this record and let it chart the way out of wherever I'm at. It's the ultimate road trip album. The perfect accompaniment to a late night bbq. It has songs for romance, for heartbreak, for dancing, for encounter.

It started when I was 18 and became utterly fixated on "Have a Talk With God"  during a break-up with my abusive and controlling high school boyfriend. I'd play the hell out of that song over and over up in my loft bedroom in River Heights and sing along with the lyrics, especially the refrain: When you feel your life's too hard // Just go have a talk with God. I actually had no clue how to communicate with Father God, and this was the closest I got until many years later. I now know this was my first experience with personal worship. Until this point, the closest I got was singing songs at St. Ignatius, the Catholic church I attended as a teen.

Truth be told I was so besotted with "Have a Talk With God", track number two on the first side of the double vinyl release that I barely listened to the other record. It wasn't until many years later that I discovered classic songs like "As" and "Joy Inside My Tears". 

Songs in the Key of Life is often designated by music critics as one the best records ever made. Prince, Elton John, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston all count it as their favorite album, and Stevie himself says it's the record he's most satisfied with. But for one River Heights teenager, its second song provided a crucial connection with the Most High that has managed to last decades.

There are people who have let the problems of today

Lead them to conclude that for them life is not the way

But every problem has an answer and if yours you cannot find

You should talk it over to Him // He'll give you peace of mind

When you feel your life's too hard // Just go have a talk with God 

Many of us feel we walk alone without a friend

Never communicating with the One who lives within

Forgetting all about the One who never ever lets you down

And you can talk to him anytime He's always around

When you feel your life's too hard // Just go have a talk with God 

Well He's the only free psychiatrist that's known throughout the world

For solving problems of all men, women, little boys and girls

When you feel your life's too hard // Just go have a talk with God 

When your load's too much to bear // Just go talk to God He cares 
I know He does

#MonthfulOfMusic #HoodMom

A monthful of music

Music. So much has been written about it. There's just so much to say. Albums, songs and their artists have led me through good times and heartbreak, marriage, singleness, pointed the way to the divine, taken me to soul exploding worship and helped to do so much work in my heart.

These days I'm in a reflective mode. My father passed away this past spring and my mother is ailing. What do I turn to? My Saviour of course, but I'm also drawn to the music of my childhood, the music I've listened to in the past and the music that is speaking to me now. 

I want to share a month full of music – savoury and delicious songs – that have moved me in one way or another, rocked my world and touched me in my deep innermost places. Just because. 

I grew up around my parent's eclectic collection of LPs, 8-tracks and cassettes. When I think of them, strangely it's Henry Mancini that immediately springs to mind. But I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash is unquestionably the most inspirational song of my childhood that has managed to chase me all through my life.

When I'm confused, down or just feeling meh, more times that I can count I will hear Johnny Nash's voice sing to me in my car, a coffee shop, a mall or a lounge. And I just know that I know in my knower that it's Abba reminding me that everything is gonna work out okay. And you know what? It always does. 

I think I can make it now the pain is gone

All of the bad feelings have disappeared

Here is the rainbow I’ve been prayin for

It’s gonna be a bright bright sunshiny day

Look all around, there’s nothin but blue skies

Look straight ahead, nothing but blue skies

I can see clearly now the rain is gone

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

It’s gonna be a bright bright sunshiny day

#MonthfulOfMusic #HoodMom

Many thanks for your generosity

Just a few of the gifts under the tree:
Cineplex gifts cards, a work parka
and tickets to the Nutcracker

I want to extend a great big thank you to my wonderful friends who generously donated cash and gift cards this Christmas. This  enabled me to provide some deserving folks with swell presents for themselves and/or their families including:

• Tickets to the RWB Nutcracker for the single mom/nursing student and her niece. It was their first experience at the ballet and both were thrilled. 
• Cineplex gift cards for the single mother who was robbed to take her four daughters to a movie over the holidays. Unbeknownst to me, this turned out to be a longtime family tradition.
• A brand new heavy duty work parka for the young Sudanese man on bail who works outdoors for a temp agency. 
• A gift card from Shoppers Drug Mart for a struggling Nigerian international student.
• The leftover cash will be used towards the purchase of a laptop for me.

The entire experience greatly encouraged my heart and brightened my Christmas in many ways. Again....

All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. (Galatians 2:10) 

With a little help from my friends this Christmas

If you're feeling charitable this Christmas and would like to help out some dear ones in my hood mom sphere, following are some ideas on how to make their season special.

• A single mom/nursing student on a limited income who loves dance, but has never been to see the ballet. Perfect gift: a pair of tickets to any RWB production in the next year.
  
• A young Sudanese man on bail who is living with me and working doing temp work, often outdoors. Needed: a good new or used winter work jacket or down parka size large and a pair of gloves. 
  

• A single mom of four young adult daughters who was defrauded in early December. With help from friends and her church, she is playing catch-up on rent and bills but she has no extra money to buy Christmas presents. Needed: A gift card from Shoppers Drug Mart (or any store within walking distance) where she can buy some small gifts for her daughters.                            

• Me. I've had a catastrophic turn of events with both my work and home laptops, making it difficult to continue to write my book. Needed: I'm looking for a good used laptop, one that is portable and has decent battery life.

With much love, humility and gratitude,

Gaylene

Any questions, don't hesitate to contact me

204.786.2191

Email or iMessage: gaylenedempsey@yahoo.ca 

TextMe: 204.813.8616

PS: What can I give you? Well I recommend watching The House Without a Christmas Tree, a tv movie from the 70s I just discovered which is lovely and touching.

Though You slay me

I come, God I come,
I return to the Lord
The one who’s broken, the one who’s torn me apart
You struck down to bind me up
You say you do it all in love
That I might know you in your suffering

Though you slay me
Yet I will praise you
Though you take from me
I will bless your name
Though you ruin me
Still I will worship
Sing a song to the one who’s all I need 

My heart and flesh may fail
The earth below give way
But with my eyes, with my eyes, I’ll see the Lord
Lifted high on that day
Behold the Lamb that was slain
And I’ll know every tear was worth it all

Though tonight I’m crying out, “Let this cup pass from me.”
You’re still more than I need, you’re enough
Whether healing in my frame, or if not, it’s just the same
As long as I bring glory to your name

Click for Lauren Chandler - Though You slay me

The Love Covenant

(Excerpt from Come Away My Beloved by Frances J. Roberts)

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant.  Psalm 25:10

My children, there is no good thing that I would withold from you. I have not left you to fend for yourselves nor to make your way by your own devices. I am the Lord your God. I am your provider and your defender. I care for you with a deep and tender love. I am all-wise and all-powerful and will be your defense against every onslaught of the enemy.

Anticipate My help. I will not fail you. Look down at the path before you. You will see the print of My feet. ” ‘I will go before you and make the crooked places straight’ ” (Isaiah 45:2). I will make the path ready for you as you follow.

It is a joy to My heart when My children rely on Me. I delight in working things out for you, but I delight even more in you yourself than in anything I do to help you. Even so, I want you to delight in Me just for Myself, rather than in anything you do for Me.

Service is a salvage of love. It is like the twelve baskets of bread that were left over. The bread that was eaten was like fellowship mutually given; and the excess and overflow was a symbol of service. I do not expect you to give to others until you have first eaten. I will provide you with plentiful supply to give if you first come to receive for your own needs.

This is not selfishness. It is the Law of Life. Can the stalk of corn produce the ear unless first it receives its own life from the parent seed? No more can you produce fruit in your ministry unless you are impregnated with divine life from its source in God Himself. It was from the hands of the Messiah that the multitudes received bread. From His hands you must also receive your nurture, the Bread of Life to sustain your health and your life.

This is His love covenant with you. It is the message of John 15:4: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” This abiding is a love relationship, and this is why service is the salvage of love.

Service will be futile and burdensome unless it springs from an overflowing heart. Overflowing not with good intentions and condescending self-righteousness, but overflowing with the love of God. This you do not have of yourself, nor can you give, however much you might desire to do so. You will possess this love only as you wait upon Me and take time to absorb it from Me, like a quiet flower takes life from the warm rays of the sun.

Your heart will be cold otherwise. For your ready ardor and natural sympathy, and commom kindness will soon be cooled by the chill winds of ingratitude and others’ unlovely reactions. Do you think the love of Jesus was always well received? Would He not have brought His ministry to an abrupt end on many an occasion if He had needed the appreciation of people to motivate His loving service?

Have you read the reaction of the religious people to the recital of His miracle-working power in Luke 4? The exhibition of God’s love draws forth emotions in the unregenerate heart that are nothing short of murderous at times. In other cases, God’s love is met by callous indifference and criminal ingratitude, as with the nine lepers who never returned to express so much as a word of thanks for their deliverance from a walking death (see Luke 17:12-19)

In the face of divine love being poured forth on Calvary – the holy, sinless God Himself dying for the sinful, depraved, undeserving humanity – what is the reaction? Gratitude? Love? Contrition? No! Hate lashes out in jeers and mocking. Violence and cruelty flow forth like a river and mingle with the very blood that was spilt for their redemption!

No. Human kindness will never be enough. It will never fill the twelve baskets with fragments. There will never be any crumbs left over for others unless you first eat from your own personal love feast with the Savior.

Let Him fully satisfy your soul-hunger, and then you will go forth with a full basket on your arm. Twelve baskets there were (see Matthew 14:20). One for each disciple. There will always be the multitudes to be fed, but the few called to minister. This is by My own arrangment. As the Scripture says: “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment” (James 3:1)

Many are called. Few are chosen.

No flowers, but a crown

I said: “Let me walk in the field”;
God said: ‘Nay, walk in the town”;
I said: “There are no flowers there”;
He said: “No flowers, but a crown.”

I said: “But the sky is black,
There is nothing but noise and din”;
But He wept as He sent me back,
“There is more,” He said, “there is sin

I said: “But the air is thick,
And fogs are veiling the sun”;
He answered: “Yet souls are sick,
And souls in the dark undone.”

I said: “I shall miss the light,
And friends will miss me, they say”;
He answered me, “Choose tonight,
If I am to miss you, or they.”

I pleaded for time to be given;
He said: “Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem hard in Heaven
To have, followed the steps of your Guide.”

I cast one look at the fields,
Then set my face to the town;
He said: “My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for the crown?”

Then into His hand went mine,
And into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light Divine,
The path I had feared to see.
–George MacDonald