November is well on now, yet it has been a very eventful month. And not in a good way I might add.

My cousin passed away suddenly on a Sunday morning. She had been dealing with cancer for a few years, but it’s like some lingering type of disease that doesn’t seem to be the kind of thing to take her so suddenly.

Being the Visitation Chaplain for our church has kept me busy. I visit with two of our elderly. I make that sound old, yet I turned sixty nine the 25th of last month. One is eighty two and the other is wheel chair bound. Then there is the young man who had gall bladder surgery, but it has turned bad due to infection. This has caused much concern with him, his wife and children. The most disconcerting thing is the family of the one that was in the hospital for a few weeks passed away last week. My wife and I went to the Memorial Service this past Saturday. He left his wife, two daughters and a son. oodles of grandchildren and great grand children. He was five years younger than me.

I made a post of my FB page that I felt selfish to say I’m blessed with all the sorrow that others are facing. Yet in it all it’s God who works to do as He sees fit and I go on.

I still look to see what others are posting, but I’ve no comments at the moment. It’s not to say I don’t care. I, in fact, do.

Driving a school bus for two schools each day tries my temperance with elementary and middle school students. I had stopped my Zoloft, but I found myself getting more angry than I should. So I’m back to my small dose. The advantage of taking it, I’ve found, is that I’ve learned to depend on my spirit to hear God and discern things more definitively. The reason is that it takes my emotions out of the equation and relies totally on my spiritual being to be in charge.

Last Thursday evening I did something I’ve not done very much in many years. In our small home group setting I prayed for a couple in tongues briefly, but then words of prophesy came to them as the interpretation. I know some folks think that’s. . . well, whatever, but I firmly believe in this form of contact with God. Later in the meeting the subject came up with a teen in the room who had spoken with what I consider authority beyond her years. I asked her had she been baptized in the Holy Ghost and she said no. I explained it to her and asked was she willing to allow this event in her life and she replied with a yes. I laid hands on her and she immediately began speaking in other tongues, but the actuality caught her and she stopped and began to cry. Not a bad cry. I think it kind of scared her. So all in attendance encouraged her to get alone at home and talk to God about it. Sunday morning she went to my wife and said it fully happened to her since that night.

For a while now I’ve felt like an unloaded gun, but since last Thursday evening I think God put some bullets in my chambers. I can feel the presence of God all through my being even at this moment. It’s a really precious thing to know. I feel connected more than I have in a while.

So that’s some of my ramblings for this evening. It’s not much, but just something to let anyone who reads my attempts to convey some thoughts that might help others, here it is.

If you’ve felt alone, empty or otherwise, don’t despise those times. God is nearer than you think.