Delay is Not Denial

Photographer: Darlene Washington
"Delay is not denial," my agent said as she assured me that she had not forgotten my manuscript or me. It had been three LONG months since the work was finished, and I ached for publication details. Almost seven months later, her words were more than a haunting hope. They reminded that in God's time, not mine, more will be revealed.

The delay taught me to walk by faith and not by natural sight. Therefore, with the eyes of my faith, I saw the book. I felt the raised letters of the title spanned across the glossy cover. I smelled the fresh-inked pages. I saw myself at the podium of a packed auditorium as I read from sections book marked with neon-pink Post-its peeping over the pages. I experienced the "not yet" as if it already "was." Perhaps spiritual vision is sharpened in the delay.

After we have done our part, we turn all else over to God and stand on His promises while we wait for the results that He alone can orchestrate. His Word reminds us, "... though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely
come."

In this moment, perhaps God is saying to us: "Don't run ahead of me. I AM the Author and the Finisher of your faith. I AM in your past, present and future. My timing is always perfect. In the meantime, trust me and go on to the next thing of your life. When you least expect, I will reveal my perfect will that is immeasurably more than you could ever ask, think or imagine--Creator-made--just for you. Don't curse the delay! I reside in the delay."

Prayer: Father God, we acknowledge that you are still on the Throne. It is you who go before, with and ahead-working together all things for the good of us who love you and are called according to your purpose. Today, we cast our feeble efforts and looming anxieties at the foot of your Throne. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. So be it!

© 2004 Stanice Anderson, www.stanice.com

Pass THE WORD: real, BibleZine™

I was sending this info to a friend and I was like hold up...let me share it with my Soul Shout fam and friends too. So from me to you--with much love.

real which is a Biblezine containing the complete New Testament and articles, prayers, etc., in urban/hip hop language. I reviewed it for my son’s magazine, YARDstyle. I'm using it now in my studies for a fresh perspective on THE WORD I've grown to love.

Here is my review:

real, BibleZine™ seeks to connect a diverse hip hop urban culture with timeless truths. Using a full-color glossy mag format, it contains the complete New Testament along with articles within Departments like, Bible 411; Music Reviews; How Ya Travelin’?; HHB Stories – Bible stories retold in the language of the street; Connecting – Biblical truths about relationships; God Unit – Testimonies, "Dope Christian Rhymes; Overwhelming – targeting issues such as: AIDS, Poverty, Drugs, and Violence; and Jail Ain't No Joke – written by ex-convicts. My favorite Department was “Heart Cry” – Dilemmas, prayers and answers. One prayer begins “Lord, help me out! I’m struggling with sex…” And ends with “I want sex to be all you meant it to be, not just a way to spend time. Thanks for being there, God.”

The presentation? Awesome. The content? Life-changing. REAL also includes a free music CD and is 400 packed pages of practical daily-living tools that will help folk get real and keep it real.

real is published by Thomas Nelson and available in whereever books are sold including Amazon.com.

Pass THE WORD... real love, Stanice Anderson www.stanice.com

OnceWritten.com Meet the Author--Stanice Anderson, author of I Say a Prayer for Me

OnceWritten.com Meet the Author--Stanice Anderson, author of I Say a Prayer for Me

Forgiven

I remember when...

I remember when I went to my first 12-Step meeting at the Trust Clinic in Washington, DC. The first person I saw that I knew was Frankie, my hit doctor.

For months, I looked for Frankie but He was missing-in-action. As my hit-doctor, I normally paid Frankie $5.00 or a portion of my heroin to find a vein in my neck willing to receive the contents of my hypodermic syringe. Nobody could “hit” me like Frankie. He was gifted--and missing no more.

On a side row of chairs with the sunlight streaming through the open blinds, there appeared to be a halo framing Frankie's tall, lean body. He smiled and seemed to take no thought of his missing front teeth as he chatted with the young woman beside him. His legs were crossed as he confidently sported feet clad in opened-stringed, dull-but-shined black combat boots.

“Frankie! Hey Frankie, where you been? I’ve been looking for you!”

“Hey girl, I been right here. Coming to these meetings. I’m clean now.”

“What? Clean! Frankie, you not shooting dope no more?”

“No, Stacey. I been clean for 9 months.”

“9 months, Frankie! 9 whole months!!!!”

“Yeah, girl! Glad to see you here, have a seat. You’re gonna be alright. ”

Bewildered, I sought further explanation. “Wait a minute, Frankie, you ain’t using nothing? No reefer? No liquor? No beer? Nothing, Frankie?”

“Nothing, Stacey. For real! Welcome to the program. We've been waiting for you.”

“We?”

I was interrupted by a heavy-set woman in the chair in the front of the room, “Hello Family, My name is Della and I'm an addict. Welcome to the noon meeting of…”

I glanced back at Frankie. He smiled and in a low voice said, “Just keep coming back, Stacey. It does get better.”

I scanned the room filled with of people of various races and ages. I settled into my end chair about 3 rows from the back of the room. As I looked across the room at the serene-version of Frankie, my ex-hit doctor, a peace flooded my soul. I sensed that my steps were indeed ordered by the Lord and that if He could change Frankie’s life, surely He could change mine.”

So began my journey in the 12-step program. My one-day clean has become 20 years of one-day-at-a-times and counting. For me and for Frankie.

Father God: When I'm experiencing doubts of any and every kind. Doubts about the plans and purposes that you have for my life and I wonder how can I get there from here--wherever the here is at the time I'm there. When I feel like I'm not as far up the road of my life and in my relationship with You as I think I should be, help me remember when... And upon remembering, may I fall to my knees and say, "Thank you, Father. Thank you for what you given, thank you for what you've taken away, thank you for the struggle for it has been in the struggle that I found my One true love. The lover of my soul--YOU!" Amen. So be it.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson, www.stanice.com

Photos May 1986: Friends help me celebrate my first year clean and free! L-R: Tina, Dorine, me, Francesca, Barbara. Dorine & Francesca are in stories in my book, I Say A Prayer For Me: One Woman's Life of Faith and Triumph.

Upon Becoming 55

Already it’s Thursday.
Days melt together
as quickly as
chocolate squares
in a warmed copper pot.
Tomorrow never came so fast.
And Yesterday never
started at 10 p.m. today.

The future is here.
And the past seems
a hundred years
to the left of then.

Where does that leave me?
Standing on the corner of now,
Feeling the days drip between my fingers
like a handful of water
scooped from a murky pond on a clear day
and still
I’m grateful.

© 2005 Stanice Anderson

"Love" read by Stanice

Author Donates Poem, Tell Me, to People Affected by Katrina

I sent the following communiqué to the Red Cross and news media today. I wanted to share it with you and ask that you distribute as you are led. I believe that God will use the poem to comfort and empower thousands upon thousands. If you want me to send you an electronic version of the poem which I have formatted three on a single sheet for economic printing, easy cutting and distribution, please email me at stanice@stanice.com or print linked file* below.

Author Donates Poem, Tell Me, To People Affected by Katrina

My name is Stanice Anderson and I am the author of I Say A Prayer for Me: One Woman's Life of Faith and Triumph published by Walk Worthy Press/Warner Books.

While I have given money and offered up prayer, I feel a deep desire to give something that is truly unique to me. Something from my soul and heart to the souls and hearts of women, children, and men who are suffering physically, emotional, and spiritually in this time of crisis in our great nation. When I look at the photos, video clips, and listen to the stories, I see and hear the right-now heart-cry of my poem, Tell Me.

Thus, I donate my poem, Tell Me. Please copy, with my complete permission and distribute in donation bags, toiletry kits, tables in shelters, etc. It's about listening to their stories and sharing our true stories of faith with them.

Tell Me

Tell Me
A Story that I have not heard
Lead me to prayer
Give me an encouraging Word
Tell Me
A Story that will teach me how to see
That God loves and cherishes even me
Tell Me
A Story of God’s Goodness and Power
So I won’t give up in this next hour
Tell Me
A Story of what He’s done for you
Then maybe I’ll believe that
He can do the same for me too
Sometimes I get weary
I get weak, I feel worn
Tell Me
A Story so I’ll know it is not by mistake
That I was born
Tell Me
A Story of how God leads the way
Tell Me
A Story so that I can get through one more day
Tell Me
A Story so I won’t feel alone
Tell Me
A Story of how faith is grown
Does God really work in mysterious ways?
Does God care how I spend the hours of my days?
Does He love me? Does He Care?
Will He always be there?
Tell Me
A Story because sometimes life just ain’t fair
Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a lion’s lair
Tell Me
A Story and please make it true
I need to know God loves me
As much as He loves you.
Please Tell Me.

© 2002, Stanice Anderson,
Poem from I Say A Prayer For Me:
One Woman’s Life of Faith and Triumph
Walk Worthy Press/Warner Books
www.stanice.com

Click to hear Stanice reading her poem, Tell Me.

*Print copies from .pdf file -- Tell Me

contact info: Temple Hills, Md., USA, telephone 202.491.6968

In the Midst of the Storm

Photo: Pray It Say It e-cards

I feel an urgency to get this offering of “In The Midst of the Storm” out especially to those of you within the path of the hurricane. And to those of you with loved ones in these areas, pass this on. I wrote the following story after God brought me through Hurricane Fran.

Light in the Dark

On Friday, September 6, 1996, at 3:00 A.M., I got a wake-up call that I will never forget! The ferocious winds accompanying Hurricane Fran sledgehammered my sweet dream. I awoke to a world void of light and no silvery moon. I was in the basement of a wood-framed house surrounded and held captive by flag-pole-tall bending and breaking pine trees—disoriented, scared, and alone. It was like living inside the color black.

Fear choked me as I crawled through the house in what I hoped was the direction of the bathroom. Death knocked at the windows and doors begging for entry. But I wasn’t answering. I bumped into every wall, felt each sharp corner of furniture, and shouted in an attempt to drown death’s call. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4, New King James Version). I shouted the same verses repeatedly with ouch’s mixed in like choruses. I knew that if I could get to the bathroom, which was in the center of the house, I would be safe.

As I crawled and listened to the hurricane that raged all around me, I realized that it could very well be my last night on earth. I felt the coolness of the ceramic tile under my hands and knees as I made it to the safety of the windowless bathroom. I felt the toilet seat, propped myself up, and grabbed the Bible and mini-battery-powered clip-on book light out of my magazine rack. I turned to Psalm 119 and read, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

In the background, I heard the crackling and thump of snapping trees. Thunderously loud wind, crashing glass, and tree branches slashed all around the wood-frame house. Through my tears, I recited out loud, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Yet, still—I thought of death.

I wanted one moiré chance to tell my mother, father, and especially my son, Michael, “I love you.” No excuses. No long talks. I wanted them to know that I genuinely loved them—since forever—and until forever is no more. And then something happened.

Peace washed over me like the warm waters of a baptismal pool. It was like God wrapped His loving arms around me like a loving father comforts his child awakened by a nightmare. The wind seemed muffled. Time stopped. Whether I lived or died did not seem to matter. An incomparable light flooded my spirit. The tiny book light shone like a beacon illuminating the vast night sky that surrounds it, beckoning the troubled ships to shore.

I whispered a prayer, “Even if I did, I know that you are with me. If I live, you are still with me. Whether I live or die—all is well with my soul and for that truth I am grateful.” I stretched out on the bathroom floor and fell asleep.

A loud tapping sound woke me. I opened my eyes to the light of dawn filtering through the slit at the bottom of the bathroom door…**

© 2002 Stanice Anderson, excerpt from I Say A Prayer For Me: One Woman’s Life of Faith and Triumph, Walk Worthy Press/Warner Books

While "Light In The Dark" is a true story from my book, I believe that God wanted it to be for times such as these…freely God gave to me…and freely I give to you. And now, I feel compelled to pray.

Dear Heavenly Father,

I pray a special prayer today for those of us who Hurricane Katrina threatens. Thank you God that you are greater still than any hurricane…than any one thing and any combination of things. You alone are God Almighty and you promise never to leave us nor forsake us. Father keep us safe, keep our loved ones safe, keep even strangers to us who are no strangers to you SAFE. Station your infinite number of guardian angels around us to protect us, minister to us especially in the darkest hours. Lord for those of us that don’t know you as their personal Lord and Savior even during the storm let them experience first-hand and personally Your grace and mercy. Let them know that you are just a prayer away and that You are The Light that dispels ANY AND ALL Darkness. Grant us peace that surpasses all human understanding. In Jesus’ Name, I pray. Amen. So be it.

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You Are A Miracle

Click here: You Are A Miracle Flash Movie by Terri McPherson