Gigi's Blog

Night Hawk

visioncgbc | June 30, 2008 08:59

While we were on our mission trip Chloe jumped yet another hurdle in her level of maturity.  She rode the “big rides” at Carowinds.  My mom and Aunt Pat took Chloe, Miles, Madison, Rachel and Rebekah, and the older ones encouraged her to ride the big stuff, and she did.  Well, the only one she didn’t ride was Night Hawk. I’m not sure if my mom wouldn’t let her, or Chloe was just too scared. Either way, when Chloe called us in Nashville to tell us everything she did ride, we couldn’t believe it

   Since we’ve been back she has talked non-stop about showing us she could ride the big rides, and wanted us all to go and ride them.  My mom had bought me and Mark a season pass for mother’s day and father’s day, so Saturday we went.  We did the water park first. How weird is this, while I was sitting at the edge of the wave pool watching Mark and Chloe, God prompted me to strike up this conversation with a lady?  We started talking about stuff, and I had to literally tear myself away after about 20 minutes because we were leaving to go into the park.  It was no coincidence, that’s for sure. 

   We rode what used to be Top Gun; it’s called something else now.  But the point is it’s an upside down rollercoaster that Chloe rode with her hands up the entire time.  It was starting to cloud up. They’d called for pop-up storms.  I told Chloe she needed to make a decision about what ride was most important to her, because it looked like we were running out of time.  She said she wanted to ride Night Hawk. I think I was more scared for me to ride it than her!  The 3 of us got in the line.  It seemed incredibly slow.  We realized that for whatever reason only 1 car was running.  We soldiered on.  We’d been in line about an hour when tiny drops of rain started coming down.  Then it happened.  Boom-Flash.  Thunder-Lightening. We knew what was next.  “At this time because of the weather, Carowinds will be closing the rides down.”  Chloe is mad. I told her that if we didn’t end up getting to ride it’d be ok ‘cause we had a season’s pass.  We decided we’d wait it out and see what happened.  The person operating the ride led us in “If you’re happy and you know it” and cracked jokes. She said “Guess what guys, I have some news.  Would you like to know?”  Well, I didn’t fall for it. I knew she was going to say “I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance.”  But by this time Chloe had to go to the restroom, she was starving and nothing was happening, except that we were being rained on.  We’d decided we’d wait 5 more minutes, and it was well beyond that.  I said “Let’s wait 5 more minutes.”  About 4 minutes into the 5 the lady said “Everyone I have an announcement.  After 5 test runs, the ride will re-open.”  We all screamed, and about 20 minutes later what Chloe had waited and almost had given up on, happened.  She rode Night Hawk.  We got off and she yelled “That was awesome!!!  That was so awesome!!!”  She and Mark were doing high 5s, and I was fighting the urge to physically kiss the ground I was so happy to have my feet on.

 

   Last night at church Holly Blanton gave a concert during the evening service.  It was such a blessing for me, and everyone who was there.  I have to laugh about crying.  Holly had told me that some songs might be sort of tough for her emotionally, and I said “Now don’t you cry, ‘cause you know if you cry I’ll cry.”  Well forget that. When my tears start I’ve realized there’s no holding back. So one of the songs was really emotional, and afterwards, I looked over at Ashley Black, and was going to say “Boy that’ll make ya cry.”  When I looked at her, she was sobbing, and we both grinned. She said “Gina, it’s allergies, OK!”  Ya, right.  I’ve become closer with Holly over this past year, really even six months.  Holly has been through a lot in this past year.  We talked a while back and she said that through all this, her toughest year has been one of her best, because she’s grown closer to God.  I get it.  I so get it.  She’s also been at church more.  When I say at church, I mean at her local church Chapel Grove. That’s been really a blessing to me, because I sit by her in choir and the notes I don’t get (most of them) I can listen to her!

    So I think anyone who knows Holly’s heart, who heard her singing to us last night “You’ll make it.  God isn’t gonna leave you.” truly was comforted by her song because it’s from sincerity, from a person we could sense is right there with us.  I think Holly was so comfortable last night. She even talked a little, and I know that was hard for her.  I think people assume that someone with that powerhouse voice must be very bold and confident in every area of their life.  Well, Holly is a very shy person. Most people don’t even know all that she’s been through and is going through, but when the Holy Spirit wants the evidence of His love and power to come through an individual, it does.  What I’m trying to say is last night most people weren’t looking at Holly and saying “Poor Holly, she’s been through so much, God is still using her” because they aren’t even aware. Instead they were blessed by her and the Holy Spirit was evident because He wanted to be.  You’ve heard the saying “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”  We don’t have to know every detail about everything in a person’s life for us to be blessed even by a struggle we don’t know the details of. 

   You know we waited in that line at Carowinds for almost two hours.  It looked like it wasn’t gonna happen and we almost walked away.  Holly has had major adversity against her gifting which is obviously from God.  Might have been tempting to say, “It’s over.  I’m gonna walk away.”  I can’t make any guarantees about anything.  In fact I’m talking to myself more than I’m talking to you right now.  There’s a fine line between giving “it” to God and giving up.  I don’t know exactly where line is.  Maybe you don’t either.  My prayer for us today is “just 5 more minutes God. Help us to hold on to what we should hold on to, and let go of what we should let go of.”

Psalm 56:16-17 Going through the motions doesn't please you,
      a flawless performance is nothing to you.
   I learned God-worship
      when my pride was shattered.
   Heart-shattered lives ready for love
      don't for a moment escape God's notice.

 

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