Have a Mary Christmas - the Making of a Christmas Poem (scroll down)

It's been a busy fall for me. I asked God to bless my lifecoaching business - and was reminded again that we have to be careful what we ask for!!!! I sure got it this year! He's blessed me to the point of breathlessness! I've totally been amazed at what God has done in both the clients I volunteer with at Love, Inc. as well as my personal clients. Having the opportunity to walk alongside people's lives and getting the privilege of hearing their story is such an honor and blessing. I get to see God working everyday miracles in many more lives than just those in my inner circle.

I've finally put my finger on what is so exciting to me about all this. It's transformation. It's the miracle of lives that change for the better instead of staying stuck in the same old ruts. It's lives that have been so transformed from the ordinary responses of the world that you can't help but see God's work. It's the young woman with cerebral palsy who has become paralyzed and legally blind with a 3 year old and an 11 month old to care for. Even though as a nurse, she was the major bread winner and is now on disability, the amazing faith and determination she exudes is surely nothing other than other-worldly. It's the single mom who has lost her business due to health reasons, but is starting back up and not giving up. It's the young mom living in the government housing who got a sudden burst of goal-setting, taking on 2 jobs to get out of her surroundings, but as the going got tough, recognized her goals don't have to be given up. She's now tweaked the timetable of reaching those goals now that she has seen that her kids need her at home in the evenings. It's also the woman who thought she had finally found love, who has battled through the dark tunnel of rejection and shattered dreams to realize God is her first bridegroom and who gives her all she really needs (even though she still would like a man with skin on here on earth.) And, it's the girl who hasn't been to church since she was a child, but is finding solace only there after losing a young friend unexpectantly is a tragic accident.

And that's why this Christmas, Mary's response is what stood out to me like the star in the east. "Be it unto me as You have said." What a response to the realization she was to suffer disgrace and shame and heartbreak. "Be it unto me as You have said." What a response to model after. To be able to submit in quiet grace to whatever is put in our path. Mary couldn't have understood all of what carrying that baby was to mean. But because she did, she allowed us all to be saved from utter damnation.

"Be it unto me as You have said." How hard it is for me to have that attitude even when faced with much less discomfort. Instead, the response is usually, "Why me?" , "How long will this last?", "Take this from me, Lord."

A Mary Christmas. I wonder what that would really be? For now, I just pray that I can begin to understand what facing this life like Mary would look like. I begin with gratefulness for all the comforts that I have been blessed with; and a relinquishment of worrying about all that is not right ; resting in peace that He has it all under control. Even when the situation looks really bleak. That's a Mary Christmas spirit. That's peace on earth. May you have a Mary Christmas.


Have a Mary Christmas


The angel came to see her,
and Mary bowed her head.
In humble submission she whispered,
“Be it unto me as You have said.”

This part of the Christmas story
is not the part we sing of most.
We love to hear of the baby
and the singing of the heavenly host.

But Mary shows us the position
we should assume to celebrate
the birth of this Savior
who came to secure our fate.

Not one of just thankfulness,
boasting of the blessings that we’ve been given,
but one of ubmitting to the pruning
we may receive this side of heaven…

To accept that all is not well
here on planet earth,
even though we sing of peace
as we celebrate this birth.

For the peace we have, like Mary
does not depend on gifts under the tree,
or the absence of pain,
or perfect tranquility.

The peace we have is a sword
that cuts through the trappings of earth,
so that even in suffering
we can rest in its amazing worth.

Like Mary we can face
what we can’t always understand,
knowing whatever comes is bestowed
from a sovereign hand.

She walked in quiet trust
though being shamed and misunderstood.
And then the hardest path of all -
seeing her Son sacrificed for our good.

And so as I reflect upon the mother
who bore much to bear this Son,
I feel thanks toward her and the Father
for giving us the One

That is our whole salvation,
that came to wipe our every tear.
And so a Mary Christmas is what
I wish for you this year.

(If poetry speaks to you, be sure and check out Cream for Your Coffee. They also make great stocking stuffers! Just email me at sschlimp@hotmail.com

Let My Life Be a Prayer

Thanks for taking time to read my writing. It's just what I have to do when my heart overflows! For those of you that like the short version, you can scroll down to the poem that summarizes these latest thoughts that I just need to capture from my quiet times. I offer these words in the hope that they might touch your heart as they have mine...,


I remember the day God became my friend.

I was raised a good little Catholic girl with a basic understanding of who God was. Yet I always sensed there was more beyond going to church and following the rules. I wondered what was happening in the churches where children sang Jesus Loves Me and carried their Bibles to church - a book that just sat on shelf in my home.

And so it was one evening in high school when I was invited to a Young Life meeting when I got my first glimpse of God outside of church. I saw Him alive in the hearts of the young believers around me that worshipped in rowdy praise songs and met to open His Word to hear what He spoke into their lives. This was my first glimpse of what it meant to not just believe in God, but to walk daily with a Savior who cared about every step and breath I took. I found myself, at that very first meeting, overwhelmed with the beauty of young lives devoted to Him - not just focused on the struggle to navigate the world of popularity and fitting in and the importance of wearing Weejuns. (Remember those? - the shoes I only had a knock-off version of in my effort to make my place in the world.) All those insecurities and struggles of my teenage world fell away as I heard my peers pray - not from a book, but from their hearts. And I heard myself praying my first out-loud, communal prayer: "Lord, thank you for bringing me here tonight. I want you in my life. Let my life be a prayer."

Little did I know that I was starting on a journey of a lifetime that would begin that night - a journey where each high and low taught me one more thing about the mystery of God's sovereignty and His ways that are so much higher than our understanding.

Since that night I have never stopped learning more about Him through His Word and His Church. I've also learned much from my constant hunger for reading from Christian authors who have studied His Word and help me reveal its depths. But nowhere do I get a clearer lesson on the application beyond the information in the Word than from His people who have walked before me down the path of praying with their lives.

I collect those stories with a similar intensity to which I study His Word because in them I see His Word offered back in the response of their lives. I see the message of 2 Corinthians 4:16 (Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day) proclaimed in the life of my friend who is battling with grace and faith a rare form of Parkinson's in her mid-life years that were supposed to be her prime. Her battle that combines humor and anecdotes of the many instances God has taught her along this hard and long road are a book of strength that all her know her read in each visit. Despite her suffering, each encounter with her speaks loudly of something much stronger than her frail body.

I've also read the Word in the example of others who have battled betrayal and divorce with forgiveness and an amazing lack of bitterness, living out the understanding of what it means to follow our Lord's response of "Forgive them for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)

I've watched another friend demonstrate sacrificial love, quitting her career as a counselor at a high school to care for her aging parents at the expense of her own financial stability. I see her dependence on the Word that she has hidden in her heart and comes pouring out as an example of how faith really does provide sustenance in the hardest of times.

I've witnessed others bury their children, something no mother and father should ever have to do. Yet I've watched them rejoice in the midst of their sadness that though this world was not an easy place for their off-spring, they radiate a real confidence and peace assured that those they love are in a better place.

Then there is my doctor friend and his wife who had it all, so it seemed... until he had to give up his flourishing practice well before retirement age due to a mysterious and debilitating neurological disorder. What meaning his wife gave to the words, "What profit a man if he gain the whole world and loses his soul?" (Mark 8:36) when she paraphrased with a sermon in her own words spoken eloquently in the foyer of the beautiful house they built in their heydey - a house that has not become the prison that this awful disease might have transformed it into. In an amazing spirit of peace, she was able to tell us that although there are no good days physically - the pain never ceases - it has all been worth it for the gain there has been spiritually. She offered a word picture of being like a stone in a current, with the rough edges becoming smooth and beautiful because of what has come against them. I saw that metamorphasis in their personal transformation, being able to rise above the feelings of grief and bitterness that naturally come against our human nature in suffering to a place of surrender and gain in their significant loss.

I heard the message again this past weekend - this time with a life's prayer being delivered through a more formal delivery. Nancy Guthrie, Christian author and speaker told us the story of her journey at a women's retreat at a Presbyterian church in St. Louis. She spoke confidently of the first hand experience of how God can draw us closer through pain - in her case through the heartbreaking delivery of two babies born within a few years of each other each with a fatal condition. Instead of only her grief, she shared how she considered it a privilege to mother them each for only 6 months. She shared her study of how Jesus and Paul responded when God said no to their prayers, recognizing in His no that He gives a greater yes. Like them, she was able to share how Jesus is enough to get us through the pain of any answer of no to our desires here on earth and use it to a greater good. Her life's messages shouted the truth of 2 Cor. 12:9 which tells us, "My grace is sufficient for you, made perfect in weakness." And as I looked up during a praise song and saw this woman worshipping with pure, unadulterated joy, I saw God's greater yes to the strength of His presence shouting across the sanctuary to me despite the heartbreaking no this woman had suffered.

God has spoken to me loudly through His people. He often speaks through lives surrendered to pain with an unearthly peace. That's when all the confusion of this life slips away when I witness again the greatest Answer to all of life's questions. I have seen again and again the peace that passes understanding lived out. And because of this I believe without a doubt that in our gift of Jesus who walks beside us, we CAN grasp His hands and surrender our lives in a constant prayers.

Though I'm still learning what that means, I'm still praying...let my life be a prayer...

Let My Life Be a Prayer

Let my life be a prayer, Lord,

An offering to You,

A fragrant, pleasing offering

In all I say and do.

Let my joy be in You,

Seeing You in blessings that you bring.

Let my gratitude abound

In each and every tiny thing

That give us a glimpse of heaven -

A sunrise, a baby's smile -

That speak Your invitation...

"Come to Me and stay awhile.

Know that I am with you.

Even though the storm may come.

My light may be behind the cloud,

But every battle I've already won."

Let my response to life

In the good days or the bad

Reflect the grace you've given me

In peace - though glad or sad.

For You are sovereign, Lord.

Help me surrender all each day.

Let my life be a prayer

Offered in all I do or say.

After the Rain

After the rain...comes the rainbow. Looking over my last post in March I see that waiting to get over winter, I had no visions of the storms that come with the springtime. While driving on a recent warm, but stormy afternoon, I was blessed with the appearance of 3 different rainbows in the fields passing by the interstate. It wasn't but a few days prior that I had seen a picture of another rainbow while scrolling through the pictures of the devestation from the tornado that leveled Joplin, Missouri. That one made me pause: a perfect double rainbow over the aftermath of the twister. Another caught my eye also: a sillouette against stormy skies of a cross still standing over the ruins of a church.

After the rain...comes the rainbow. I don't know where that well-known phrase originated, but it definitely is biblical in nature. For Jesus told us in John 16:33: In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. The world...full of heartaches, anxieties, worries and hassles. And yet, we get glimpses of heaven - in the sunny day after the storm, the spring after the winter cold, the new love after being widowed, the precious baby after the pain of childbirth.

He has overcome the world. Many times we get to experience that promise in the blessings that remind us to have hope, though sometimes it is only the hope of heaven that sustains us. For He has overcome even the final suffering of death. I always wonder how those who don't believe can face the sufferings we all face eventually without that hope.

But the question remains - how to negotiate the storms while we wait for the rainbows? We can learn from the Israelites who built altars along the way when they had an encounter with the Lord. Psalms 84: 5-7 tells us: "Blessed are those whose strength is in You, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage...They go from strength to strength."

Therefore, we see that when we are being buffeted by the winds of life, feeling weak against the elements, we need to remember our blessings and trust they will come again. We need to savor them and build an altar of praise in our heart, recognizing that we've been assured, "I will be with you always."

We need to cling to that hope and abide. We need to take a deep breath and ride out the storm, drawing strength that the rescure is coming, which gives us the ability to hold on. As the old ballad tells us, "Hold on through the wind. Hold on through the rain, though your dreams be tossed and torn. Hold on. Hold on, with hope in your heart, for YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE."

And remember - after the worst storm of all that flooded the entire earth, Noah was given a rainbow.


After the Rain

The rain is so cold.
The wind is so strong.
I'm hanging on Lord,
but I wonder, for how long?

You say you won't give us
more than we can bear,
That You're with us always,
That we can rest in your care.

But this storm disorients.
I feel no strength to withstand.
My fingertips seems to be slipping
from the hold on Your hand.

I don't know what to do,
what to think, where to turn.
Yet somehow, deep within
I know this is where I learn...

To depend, to surrender,
to know it's not in my hand.
That it's only here in the storm
where I'll begin to understand...

That You're sovereign. You know
the end of this path I can't see.
Please show me the next step.
Please reveal it to me.

For I've been here before.
And You saw me through then.
Give me faith to trust now,
to upon You depend.

Help me to weather this storm
with quiet dignity,
Knowing all is up to Your
all powerful divinity.

Though there be rain now,
help me to know.
You have overcome this world.
There WILL BE a rainbow.

After the Rain

After the rain

March Snow - Time to Cling and Cope!

Good grief, will this winter never end? While I can't believe that I haven't posted a blog since January, I can believe less that there are at least 4 inches of snow on my deck on March 14! Yet as the little wildflowers grow up in the mountains despite all odds, I also believe spring will push through! However, I probably won't get to enjoy my hyancinths that were already pushing through last week when the first hint of spring appeared with temperatures in the 60's! There are some calamities that we just have to deal with!

How do I know spring will come? Well, it always does! The ebb and flow of the seasons promise it, even though there is not one bit of evidence of it today!

Similary, in my bible study where I listen to all sorts of sometimes heartbreaking prayer requests, with the people I work with at Love, Inc. who have come there because they are destitute or have just been released from jail, and even just reading the newspaper, I can see where many see no evidence of things being okay. There is little to base the belief that "all things work together for good to those who love the Lord" (Rom. 8:28) when faced with their calamities. Tell that to the little lady I just met who has two children and not one stick of furniture in their house - their clothes are in piles on the living room floor. They've been living off of child support and a settlement from a car accident while she waits to see if her disability will kick in since her arthritis is keeping her from working as a home health nurse. Tell that to my friend who has just been served divorced papers. Tell that to the mother in a nearby town that left her 18 month old for just a minute sitting in the bathtub and came back to a lifeless drowned little body. And my friend who is battling the deterioration of Parkinson's. Tell that to those in the aftermath of the devastation after the earthquake in Japan.

And yet, for those of us who believe, we do have evidence that all will somehow work to the good. It's not as easy to feel as the temperature that is supposed to get to 70 even this week that will indeed let us know that surely this was the last snow. But it is in the peace that passes understanding that Phil. 4 tells us about. And I DO see that in many of those people I just mentioned. Unbelievably, amazingly so!!!

I've been studying As Silver Refined by Kay Arthur in my Ladies Bible study which tackles the hard question of God allowing suffering. She reminds us that Habakkuk offers us an example. We learn that he too questions God: "Why art Thou silent?" (Hab. 1:13). But then we see that he listens for an answer. "I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me. (Hab. 2:1) And then I am drawn again to that lovely verse of belief that says, "Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines...yet I will exalt in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength." (Hab. 3:17-19). And then he concludes that "He has made my feet like hinds' feet, and makes me walk on my high places." (Hab.3:19)

We may not understand it, but we can believe it - even though we don't get the answers we want on earth - and our winters of suffering seem to last so long - even until the next life! BUT, like Habakkuk, we can believe even if the fig trees of our desires should not blossom, we have our salvation and our spring WILL come! And in the meantime - He'll teach us to walk, developing the kind of feet that can find the wildflowers even admist the snow, that kind of walking that takes us to our high places that we can cling to even in the worst times of waiting.

That's why I go to Bible study every week. That's why I can offer the bible verses I bring to those destitute people at Love Inc. and to my friends who suffer. Because if they can put those verses in their heart then they too can believe their spring will come! It's the only thing that makes any sense, that can bring hope out of hopeless situations. This study on Habukkuk brought a poem to my heart...

Coping and Clinging

Though the fig tree should not blossom.

and there be no fruit on the vine, (Hab. 3:17)

like Habakkuk our model,

let me be inclined

to still praise You, Lord,

to recognize my salvation, (Hab. 3:18)

to realize no circumstance

can result in its cessation.

No heights or depths can rob me

of my reason to rejoice.

No matter what I suffer

I always have the choice

to turn to the God who is my strength, (Hab. 3:19)

who gives and takes away.

We don't understand it now

but we are promised that someday

all our tears will be over

if we trust Him now on earth.

In life or death or suffering,

He's promised a new birth.

Right now it's still a mystery

how our refining can work for good. Prov. 17:3, Rm. 8:28

So it's by faith we must live

until it's understood.

But if we grow quiet enough to listen,

we can hear Him in our pain

and believe down deep inside

somehow He'll use it for our gain.

For that peace that passes understanding, (Phil. 4)

He gives even as we wait.

If we submit and leave all to Him

we can anticipate...

That if I will keep watch, He will speak to me. (Hab. 2:1)

He'll lead me to high places. (Hab. 3:19)

Though my earthly walk is treacherous,

I can rest in His embraces.

For He's promised He has plans for me,

to give me a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11)

So whatever He's put in my path,

I can cling to Him and cope.

- by Sherrill Schlimpert, March 2011

Starting the New Year on the Right Path

JOY! Does this pic give you any indication of the purest joy we experienced getting to be a part of this precious grandbaby's first Christmas? Honestly, I was totally unprepared for the pure unadulterated joy of grandparenting - this child hurts my heart - it's the only way I can describe the emotion!

And yet - my aunt signed an email with the perfect description of what life is like - and of course it's not all joy...she signed off "Stressed though blessed - and happy to be alive".

Well, I must say we had some stresses over the holiday to balance out our blessings....first I left for my 91 year old mother's bedside in North Carolina hurriedly with Christmas preparations still undone (dear hubby had to wrap everything and drive up without me this year!) After a week of coaching my mother's breathing during panic attacks, we had to move her to the nursing home - and have the estate sale on Dec. 27 - (thank goodness I had family members to help me this time - the last move to assisted living I didn't). This all ensued in the midst of rushing to the scene of my brother's head on accident in which my sister-in-law broke 4 ribs - although her inability to catch a breath at the scene had us really worried... BLESSED - though stressed.

My mother is convinced she is paralyzed or has had a stroke although she has not and has absolutely no dementia - she is aware of every bit of misery. The docs can find no physical cause - and she can walk with help once she's coaxed to try. I hurt for her terrible depression.

And so, as I start the New Year and get ready for our retreat on Jan. 29: "Starting the New Year on the Right Path", I gear up to continue learning myself about what we'll be teaching on: resting, trusting, praying and loving as our Lord has modeled for us.

I can see already that the "Blessed though Stressed" concept (thank you Aunt Libby) is going to be a continuing theme in my coaching and life planning this year. Be sure and contact me if that idea of looking more deeply into your life with the Lord's help through coaching or life planning catches your attention as a possibility for deepening your walk into the New Year.

Regardless - may you have many blessings and recognize the Lord will help you through any stressings the New Year may (inevitably!) bring. Thanks for being with me on this journey.