Life’s been challenging lately. A bulging schedule was looming when I became one of the caretakers for my dad as he recovers from some life-threatening infections and a whopping case of pneumonia. While every minute with him was spent right where I wanted to be, there have been a couple of times when I have definitely not been the qualified caretaker.

Like the night I just could not get awake enough to help him out of bed and to the bathroom. I had cautioned him “Do NOT get up without my help,” so he called me. Then, just as sure as the world, I, in my sleeping stupor, took him a TV tray instead of his walker and set it down in front of him. The sweet patient just looked up at me, still with trusting eyes and said, “Now, what am I supposed to do with this?” Another time, during the same night, I took him a chair and we repeated the episode. With caretakers like me, who needs an infection to threaten his life?

Then there was the morning last week when I was diligently helping Dad with word puzzles. His speech therapist was all about word searches and math problems. ( I didn’t know this, but really a speech therapist is a mind-sharpening wizard.) At any rate, I thought I was pretty much on top of it, giving Dad hints about searching for the most obscure letter in the word first or spotting any double letters. I was sure that this therapist was right about this mental sharpness being important to his safety and his ability to go back to normal healthy living.

Then I ran home to get a quick shower while Dad was in physical therapy. The mental sharpness coach (me) had come to Jacksonville this time without any deodorant. I had spent every last second I had at home accomplishing things at Dad’s house, so, realizing I now needed to stop at the dollar store and get deodorant, I rushed out with all my belongings, threw them in the back of my SUV, did a few final things like throwing clothes in the dryer and replacing some items I had used and drove like a maniac back toward town. I pulled with Dale Earnhart speed and agility back into the sixty-five miles-per-hour traffic on the four-lane highway. Hearing something falling over and crashing in the back of the SUV is pretty much a daily occurrence when you’re living in three places and carrying cleaning equipment and ladies’ day visuals and walkers and a bookstore in the vehicle. I didn’t think much about it till I had traveled a block, felt a rush of cold air passing through the Pilot and glanced in the rearview mirror to see its entire rear-end contents all over the highway. God was surely with the mental sharpness/safety coach (who obviously had not latched the hatch) and everybody endangered by her carelessness, though I was a sight dashing out into that traffic to recover the debris. (No human harm or casualties, but, if I had your phone number in that multiple-crunched new phone I had, note that I do not have it any more.)

Jesus used a term in talking to the Pharisees that would aptly describe my lessons with Dad that morning before my highway catastrophe. In Matthew 15, just after they (the Pharisees, the self-appointed Jewish do-as-we-say leaders) had criticized Jesus’ disciples for eating with unwashed hands, Jesus observed that they were only honoring God with their lips, while their hearts were far from Him. He observed that the all-important (in their minds) washing of hands was not even a command. It was their own tradition that they were attempting to enforce as law. What happens next is pretty funny.

Jesus turned around to explain to his followers the exchange that had just occurred between himself and the Pharisees. He was explaining the relative spiritual unimportance of what goes into a person’s mouth when compared with what comes out of his mouth. At this point the disciples asked Jesus, the omniscient One, if he was aware that He had offended the Pharisees. (It’s funny that the disciples thought they had been more perceptive about the feelings of the Pharisees than had the Messiah.)

It was then that Jesus used the humorous analogy that seemed to fit my situation so aptly last week. He said in verse 14:

Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.

My mom used that phrase a lot when I was growing up: when I tried to help my younger sister with her math homework, when my dad would try to give someone driving directions or when one of us asked her about the best way to lose weight. She would say, “that would be the blind leading the blind.” I’m sure she would have used the phrase had she seen me with the TV tray or the word-find book last week.

But the humorous analogy becomes less funny when it’s about spiritual things. The Bible is the Book of books. It is the only written Word we have that did not originate from this planet or from the mouths and pens of men. It’s the Word that contains the secrets to eternal life. How cautious we should be when we presume to be teachers of that Book. James said in chapter three, verse one:

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Every time I read that verse, I think about the blog and the ladies’ days and the classes and the books and the email questions and I almost tremble. I think about my teaching to women and my husband’s preaching and writing to men and women as we have opportunities to do small things in the kingdom. Will Glenn and I be judged with greater strictness? Is it inevitable that we will make mistakes in teaching? Are the criticisms that are sometimes leveled at our teachings (that we are judgmental or harsh in condemning sin) valid? Further, can we, at this point, stop being teachers and rely on others? Now, please don’t write and tell us that we need to keep teaching. I’m not soliciting encouragement or praise. Besides, I think the answer to the question about whether we can stop teaching is that we just can’t. Simple as that. Stopping would mean thinking about souls that we might possibly influence toward heaven who may not otherwise hear. Stopping would mean saying no to mission trips and questions and invitations and thinking, “But if we went, would we be able to help a church push forward?” or, “if we answered, could a marriage be strengthened?”

Now, we have enough common sense to know that God’s work would get done without us and that we are tiny pieces in the tiny puzzles of the tiny part of the world in which God has placed us for this brief moment in time. But, isn’t that what all of God’s people are? Isn’t it each of our responsibilities to do now, in our small spheres, whatever eternity demands of us, for the sake of souls?

So it’s not about whether or not we should be leaders of the blind, really, is it? It’s about making sure that we have the twenty-twenty spiritual vision to lead them correctly. In this context, I find a great deal of comfort, as I teach, in II Peter chapter one. Notice the following verses. Notice that, if a person is giving diligence to the building of a life from this list of virtues, she is is not blind and she can see things that are far off clearly (verses 8, 9). Best of all, verse ten says that she can be sure (confident) about her calling and election if she has these characteristics. That’s a big load off my mind. If I give diligence to this short list for my own life, then I am not blind. If I develop my own character to be fruitful, as this passage assures me that I can, and then I still have time and energy left to help someone else give diligence to this list, then the Golden rule would demand that I help another to the exceeding precious promises of verse four.

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.

I can be a leader and be sure that I am not “the blind leading the blind.” I can avoid the pit, but I must be humbly “giving diligence” to my own spiritual vision.

Okay, I feel better, now. Let’s pray for each other as God’s women that we will be brave enough to lead other lives to Him and humble enough to have the spiritual vision that comes from “giving diligence” in our own lives.

Sleep deprivation will do a lot to cure Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I used to wonder if I would have time to make it to the hair salon before I made a speaking trip. Now I wonder if I will have time to comb my hair. Sleep deprivation makes you sleep like a baby when you are on a plane and you don’t even notice when they come by with the Delta cookies, much less think about missing out on what used to be your favorite treat in the air. You lose your inhibitions about falling asleep with your mouth open and your fear of falling over on a stranger’s shoulder while on the plane. You don’t put on make-up before you leave the rehab for Walmart to pick up the essential rehab supplies, and, if you can’t find your glasses, you skip them, too. You don’t even worry about whether or not you have the money to purchase the supplies as long as someone in the zombie party brought some along. (You’ll just work all that out later.) Meals are irregular, when existent, and routine-chuckle-one-liners are suddenly hilarious. Your verbal vocabulary just goes away (see… I’m sure there’s at least an eight-letter-word for “goes away”), particularly if you are conversing with the cardiologist. Every other day starts to be more like it for daily routines like showering and you fall asleep if you get a moment to pray.

The toughest part for me has been the weekend speaking trips. Last weekend I had six speeches and four Q and A sessions in Washington, DC. This weekend is somewhere near Jacksonville, FL. Between the two weekends I’ll get about 20 hours total at home and about 12 hours total in a bed. Now, I am not feeling sorry for myself. I am actually feeling awe at the blessings that have come my father’s way in the last few days. I enumerated some of those in a recent post. If “deprived” is a word you use with “sleep” (and you’re still typing) and not with “love” or “grace” or even “nutrition,” life is still going your way. Things are good.

But still, you lose things, stop mid-sentence without a clue of how to continue, cry when you drop something and start to think about crawling in the hospital bed while your dad is gone to therapy for 20 minutes. So I got off the plane after a long nap at Reagan in DC last Friday. I looked around. I could see the Washington monument and the luggage cart, but not the terminal. I was on a jet parking lot and not a jet bridge. It seemed like almost everyone was getting on a big bus. So I did, too. I had a big backpack and a heavy carry-on, so I made my way to the very back where there was a bit of extra room and sat down, hoping for a ride that was long enough to catch another cat nap. But when I got situated, I started thinking about how I missed the take-off, the cookies, and the gate connections announcements. I had not looked at the terminal map. Why, I practically missed the whole flight! What if I should be going the other direction with the few people who did NOT get on this bus. What if I have made the wrong choice? Now I am all the way in the back seat and it’s going to be really hard to get back on track. Not only that, but it is going to be really embarrassing if I have to start asking those people–who have already probably seen me sleeping with my mouth open–where this bus is headed.

Thankfully, I was on the right bus to the right terminal. But, as I sat there, I had to stop and think about how this is exactly what we do spiritually. Sometimes we’ve just spent a lot of time being oblivious to the directions. We haven’t examined the map and we haven’t listened to the divine Instructions (Romans 10:17). We’ve been spiritually asleep (Ephesians 5:13,14). Then when it’s time to make a big life choice, at the point of decision, we just follow the crowd (Exodus 23:2). Then we get comfortable on the wrong bus as we head toward the wrong eternal terminal (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25). Too comfortable for change and too embarrassed to ask the way, we continue along and the wrong destination approaches all too quickly (Luke 13:23-30).

The above analogy probably just seems like a good one to me, as I am lying here on a cot in room 330 at the rehabilitation center. It’s likely the product of an overly analytical, yet feeble mind that’s templed in an extremely weary body. Or maybe I should just be getting some therapy on another ward. Whether it’s a great analogy or not, though, it is a great life lesson:

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Romans 13:11)

It really is a small world in the body of the Lord. I learned tonight that two young women have connected on the other side of the planet, in China. Although they live a great distance from one another, they have begun skyping nightly and plan to get together for the Chinese New Year in a few weeks. Their connection?…They both know Hannah Colley Giselbach and they both know the Lord. ( I’m happy for your connection, Season and Laura!)

Recently, when Hannah was on her honeymoon in Florida, she and Ben went to worship with God’s people on Sunday. Interestingly, they met a sweet sister in Christ who had previously lived in Henderson, Tennessee, the town in which Hannah and Ben had met and where Hannah had lived during college and after graduation while teaching in the local high school. They chatted a bit about Henderson and found that they had all attended Freed Hardeman University at some point in time. It was at Bible Study the following Wednesday, when Hannah was asking this girl some questions about area attractions in Florida, that they somehow began talking about Henderson again. Hannah asked her where she had lived in Henderson and she said she had lived on Steed Street.

“Do you know where that is?” she asked.

Hannah said, “Not only do I know where that is but my apartment was on that street!…Did you live in that complex where all those college apartments are?”

“Well, actually,” she said, “My apartment wasn’t in either of those complexes. Mine was one side of a duplex, but I can’t remember the number.”

Hannah was starting to wonder if possibly…”Really?! I lived in a duplex, also. Was it brick?”

“Yeah…and I lived on the left side if you are facing the apartment. I wish I could remember…”

“Did you have Chinese neighbors, by any chance?”

“Yes!”

“They are still there! I lived in the same exact apartment!”

“Did you like that white rug I left in the living room?…the one with the iron-shaped burn on the edge?”

“Yes!…Yes! Here I am in Florida and I am talking with the girl who rented my apartment just before I rented it! Out of all those student apartments in a college town, we lived in the same one!”

A big coincidence. Someone has postulated that we can access anyone in the world through six degrees; that is through accessing six or fewer people, we can reach any one targeted person on the planet. Some very interesting studies have been done on this subject and you can read about them in a Wikipedia article entitled “Six Degrees of Separation.” Obviously, the commonality we enjoy in Christ minimizes much further the access distance, thus making coincidences in Christ fairly common. Glenn and I rarely go to any congregation or even any theme park or large gathering at which we don’t run into someone who knows someone that we know; that is we meet someone from whom we’ve formerly been separated by only one degree.

It’s fun to think about the fact, too, that all Christians are separated by only one degree if you count the Lord. I know the Lord, and He knows you. He is the “degree” that binds us together. But we have to both know Him for this joint access to the same Savior to unite us. How do we know that we know him? I John 2:3:

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

If I’m keeping them and you are, too, we are separated by only one degree, at most, and He is the omnipotent Degree. He is the One who has the power to bring all who know Him together in one place and keep them there…together…forever. He is the ultimate access to eternal relationships where there will be no more parting; no degrees of separation at all.

For now, isn’t it great that we, as God’s women–as sisters– can soar over degrees of separation and connect like never before through the amazing internet? I am just very thankful for this new spot on the web, made possible by the amazing blessings of talent that God has given to my sister, Jennifer Benavides. I pray that the Colley house will help keep us connected in ideas and good works and in study for His ultimate and eternal glory. On nights like tonight, as I reflect on the blessings of encouragement that so many of you are in my life, I find it very hard to believe (and frankly, wondeful) that I get to write and reach and connect and grow along with so many of his faithful women. I think maybe Sarah would not have made the Hagar mistake if she had been connected to so many women of God who could have offered support and advice in her infertility. Maybe Rebekah would have encouraged integrity in Jacob rather than greed and maybe she could have gotten on the same page with her husband if she could have listened to some grandmothers who had already walked in her shoes. I just think God has blessed us with this amazing technology that, with prayer and wisdom, can explode our potential for strength as his women, as well as our potential for evangelism. Let’s stake our claim on the internet for His glory. Let’s think BIG. Each of us is only one, but when we think about the One in the middle of us all, we have an extremely powerful connection. I hope you will join me in praying for this new website. I know it’s a small thing and I know the Colleys are, at best, just filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). But He can use the smallest filthy rags for His glory.