Prayer of Listening

Lord, sometimes You really want to tell me something don’t You? You gave me the same message loud and clear in two distinct places this week.

And what was that message? It was about being worried, hurried, maxed out, spread too thin, driven -- busy, busy, busy.

As I read the parable of the sower, I saw myself amid the thorns. I have heard Your message, and I have studied Your word. But, despite my good intentions, sometimes everything gets choked out by the cares and worries of my world. I run around town, racing from place to place, and crossing things off of my endless list. I stop only long enough to swallow a couple Motrin and a few Tums, and then jump back on the hamster wheel. The phone rings off the hook, I pencil in a handful of new commitments on an already saturated calendar, and then one of the kids calls to say he just threw up at school. Bruce is out of town. Before I know it, it’s way past my bedtime and I haven’t read my Bible or spent more than two minutes praying -- and that was at a red light. Where would I be if I wasn’t teaching Bible Study and didn’t feel like I had to do my reading, had to pray for my friends and their concerns? How many days would go by before I penciled You in on my calendar? What is wrong with my priorities, Lord?

And then I read the story of Mary and Martha. You might as well have been talking to me when you said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.” That’s me all right. Worried and distracted by everything from cobwebs and cellulite to colleges and cancer. In that story, Mary chose the right thing, the only thing. She simplified her life that night by making a basic meal, and then she sat at Your feet and listened. She spent time with You.

Lord, help me to put my roots down in the rich soil of Your Word and Your grace, away from the thorns of my humanness. Help me to cast aside petty worries and worldly distractions. Instill in me a longing to sit at Your feet and listen.

In Your Name, I Pray, Amen 

by Sue Busler

Meet Woman of Faith Author Rhonda Tibbs

RUBY:  Describe what your faith means to you. 

Tibbs:  I was baptized by my own choice when I was ten years old in a little creek by a Baptist country preacher, and the moment I was raised from submersion the world appeared brighter, as if I had stepped into a clearer, more colorful dimension. I am a child of God, and I am loved.

RUBY:  Tell a favorite Bible verse, and why it is your favorite.
Tibbs:  Isaiah 40:31: 

“- but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” At the darkest time in my life, when I was physically and emotionally exhausted, this passage gave me the hope I needed. I was reminded I didn’t have to struggle alone and took my troubles to God who lifted me and gave me the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other and change my life. (As a writer, I particularly love the phrase: “They will soar on wings like eagles.”)

RUBY:  Which woman in the Bible do you most admire, and why? 

Tibbs:   Luke 10:39 Mary who decided to sit among the men and listen to Jesus teach, rather than work in the kitchen with her sister Martha. For a woman of that day to go against tradition and join a group of men in order to sit at the feet of Jesus so she might listen to his teachings inspires me. Given the customs of that time, she was undoubtedly welcomed by few of those men (if any) except Jesus.

RUBY:  Tell the title of a hymn or Christian song which means the most to you, and why. 

Tibbs:  “How Great Thou Art” As the goose bumps raise on my skin, the passion of the lyrics and swelling music make me feel like bowing my head, lifting my hands to heaven, crying and laughing all at once.

RUBY:  Does your spirituality play a part in your writing? 

Tibbs:  Yes. 

RUBY:  How so? 

Tibbs:  When I sat down to write my first two novels, I believed I was creating a spiritual journey for the main characters, in that they were processing the burdens laid on them by circumstances beyond their control when they were just children. Only in looking back at my writing did I understand I was chronicling my own emotional journey, my passage from broken to healing and then whole. Once I realized what I had done, I added a scene to my first novel, Angel’s Blues, where a secondary character points out the role that others had played in God’s plan. In my second book, Song of the Snowman, I struggled for weeks with different endings that never felt right. Finally, one day I sat down and started over again, and the ending flowed so easily I believe it was a gift.

RUBY:  What would you like your readers to take with them from your writing?

Tibbs:   I would wish for the reader to close the book feeling satisfied that they just read a good story.

RUBY:  Tell us about your novels.
Tibbs:  My first two novels, Angel’s Blues and Song of the Snowman are connected. Angel’s Blues chronicles the struggle of Michael O’Mara to overcome a childhood of serious abuse. Song of the Snowman is about Michael’s son Brian, whose history is not so different from his father’s. Both of these books are highly emotional, but ultimately healing journeys of boys growing into men learning to embrace their own strengths and allow God to fully heal them.  My third novel, Purdie Magee, is more lighthearted, but still a journey of self-discovery as Purdie sheds the dysfunction of her birth family, falls in love, and begins a brand new life.     

RUBY:  How may we contact you in order to make a further connection?  

Tibbs:
roo2020@att.net

Facebook: Rhonda D. Tibbs

Twitter: @RTibbs