Time Out!

Do you remember playing games with siblings or classmates or neighborhood kids and having that amazing power at any time to put your two hands together in the shape of a "T" and shout, "Time out!" to stop the game?

As long as you didn't overuse or abuse it, the "Time out!" was all it took to bring the game to a grinding halt.  Then, nothing else bad could happen - you couldn't be "tagged" or "out" or "it".  (But nothing else good could happen either: if you made a move towards winning the game after you called the time out, then you were a cheater - scorned by all the other players.  And what you accomplished didn't count anyway, so just stop cheating!)

But a properly used time out gave you time to catch your breath. Or tie your shoe so you wouldn't trip over it.  Or run inside to the bathroom. 

Of course the most gallant use of the "Time out" was when you called one on behalf of a teammate who had fallen.  The game itself lost all importance while you gathered around the injured friend.  If it was bad enough, nobody even suggested restarting the game.  Somebody had to go get an Adult. 

I have to tell you, right now I just want to call a big old, indefinite "Time out" on life.  And it's not because I'm losing the game.  There's so much good at the moment, but things are moving so fast I can hardly absorb the full impact of God's blessings.  I am having trouble keeping up on writing Thank You notes! 

So I've been wanting to call "Time out" to catch my breath for a few weeks, and now all of a sudden a teammate has fallen.  And it's not a scratch and it's not a "shake it off" moment.  It's bad.  And in my head I've spent the week desperately screaming "Time out!"

Sorry to be so cryptic, but circumstances and my own scrambled emotions prevent me from being more forthcoming.  Suffice it to say I've got a friend who is down and needs the Lord's help and I humbly ask for your prayers for him and his family.  

There's need of a miracle.  Actually ... several miracles.  That's what I'm praying for.


"Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up."  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10