LOVING THE WORLD

by Danna Shirley

During a sermon one Sunday morning my pastor spoke the phrase “Loving the World.” I immediately saw a stark contrast of how some might love the world:

#1 Loving the world because of what IT has to offer YOU . . .

a.        Fame

b.        Success

c.         Education

d.        Money

e.         Material possessions

f.          Addictions

g.        Pride

h.        STDs

i.          Envy

j.          Greed

k.        Jealousy

l.          Hate / Unforgiveness

m.     Sex

n.        Abortion

o.        Racism

p.       Crime

q.        Evil / Sin

r.         Lost and undone

#2 Loving the world because of what YOU have to offer IT . . .

a.           Love

b.           Joy

c.            Peace

d.           Patience

e.            Kindness

f.             Goodness

g.           Faithfulness

h.           Gentleness

i.             Self-control

j.             Grace

k.           Mercy

l.             Forgiveness

m.        Abstinence

n.           Life is sacred

o.           Hope

p.          Faith

q.           Ministry / Missions

r.            Salvation

“For

GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD

that He gave His one and only Son

that whoever believes in Him

shall not perish

but have eternal life.”

(John 3:16)

ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION

Danna Shirley

        I had taken most of the required courses in high school to work in the secretarial field; typing, shorthand, business English, and business machines. I was very good at typing and semi-good at shorthand. Toward the end of my senior year (1966), my teacher had obtained employment applications for government positions and part of the class assignment was to complete the form and mail it to some of the local agencies on her list. Two that stood out to me were the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Berkeley and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in San Francisco as either a typing or steno clerk, with the steno clerk receiving a higher salary. As an 18-year-old, I hadn't thought my future through to any great conclusion, although going to junior college in the fall was somewhat expected.  

        I was called for an interview by the FBI first. Even though I had been born and raised in the Bay Area, I didn't venture into San Francisco much and never by myself. I asked my best friend, Cathy, to go with me to help find the address. I was as scared of traveling in San Francisco as I was of the interview. I thought it went well but didn't want the job anyway just because of the commute.

        Next I was called by the AEC, which was just a block from the University of California, Berkeley campus. At least this job would keep me on the east bank and I would not have to cross the Bay Bridge every day. Cathy also accompanied me to this job interview and waited in the lobby.

        I remember being impressed with the security throughout the building beginning with the visitor’s pass that I had to wear and being escorted to my first interview; and the next, and the next, and the next. I was interviewed four times that day. Cathy being Cathy (she never met a stranger), grilled the security guard in the lobby and learned that the longer I moved through the interview process, the better it was for me. In other words, I must have made an impression on someone!

I finally received the phone call asking me if I would like to work as a steno clerk in Personnel with the AEC. It would require a background investigation because I would need a Top Secret clearance to work in the building. I had lived in the same house since I was five, so it didn't take long to interview the neighbors and conduct a background check. I was clean as a whistle!   

I began my first job in July, 1966. It was just a few miles from my father’s employment with Dymo Industries in Emeryville so he graciously took me to work every morning and picked me up every afternoon. This was no small task considering the congestion on University Avenue during commute time. In fact, my father found my first car, a 1957 two-door, hardtop, Bel Air Chevrolet which cost $600, $400 of which he loaned to me. I wonder if there was an ulterior motive in that deal? J Anyway, with a few paychecks under my belt and a new car under my seat, junior college went right out the window.

I only stayed in Personnel for a few months before a position in Security opened. I again went through the interview process by the Security Director, Assistant Director, and Visitation Director; I was to be a Visitor Clerk and the best part was it didn't require shorthand. In those days we were using teletype communication and carbon paper for typing.

Every person employed by the AEC and its contractors had a Secret or Top Secret clearance. My job was to clear all attendees to any seminars, conferences, or symposiums letting the host agency know our people who would be attending and their security clearance.

It was quite ironic to me that this young 18, 19, 20-year-old high school graduate had such control over these learned men because they could not get in the door without my say-so! Usually, the ones that were full of themselves didn't bother to go through the Visitor clearance process that would allow them entry. They just couldn't be bothered. They were kept cooling their heels at the front door, however, until I could be notified by phone to give the okay.  All others who knew the process would submit their travel and security clearance requests in a timely manner and their names would be on the list when they arrived. Of course, there was always the one who would not know until the last minute that he would be attending a certain conference and then everything had to be speedily processed. I had my security contacts at almost every facility in the nation: Lawrence Radiation Lab (LRL), Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), Washington, D.C. etc, etc. 

I remained with the AEC, now called the Department of Energy, until I was twenty-one. I made some very good friends there, one of which, Valerie Sullivan, went from being a Security secretary to becoming a Security agent—gun, badge, handcuffs, and all!

When Ron and I had been married a year, he received orders to Bermuda (1970) that required me to resign. Although I had to leave my first job and my parents for the first time in my life, I never had regrets and I've never looked back.

“…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward  to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 3:13-14)

KLUTZY ~ Part I and Part II

by Danna Shirley

As the youngest of three sisters, I have always been a bit intimidated by my older siblings. I am six years younger than Nan and two years younger than Paula but we are all seniors on Medicare now so you would think that this slight trepidation would have been resolved long ago. When I am in my own surroundings, with my own family and friends, I am quite comfortable and secure. I don’t know why being with Nan and Paula sends me into “klutzy” mode but I have been a complete success at klutzy since I arrived in California March 20, 2013.

            Caregiving is for my brother-in-law Jerry who is in a hospital bed in the living room amid all the downstairs activity and noise. I have stumbled over chairs and boxes, stubbed my toe on furniture, and let a door bang shut while he was sleeping. I’m dropping things incessantly and of course I talk too loudly so I’m “lovingly” shushed all the time. Paula takes care of Jerry and all his needs. This is a huge task as you can imagine.

Nan’s duties are cooking and laundry and anything else she sees that needs to be done around the house. She’s very observant and versatile in this way.

I, on the other hand, have tunnel vision and only do what I’m told. I run errands to the grocery and pharmacy, go for medical supplies, go to Home Depot and WalMart, the bank, for fast food, etc., as well as take care of my mother’s needs. While doing the shopping, I call back to the central command post quite often to make sure I have the right item because I definitely don’t want to make two trips on the same day anywhere!

Yesterday I made a run to Piner’s Medical Supply for ‘no rinse shampoo’ and ‘no rinse body wash.’ I didn’t know they made such a thing but I guess if you’re in a hospital bed, that’s good to know. On the way back I stopped at the mailbox which is 0.2 miles from their gated house. I left the car running with my purse inside (including my cell phone) and hopped out to get the newspaper. When the door shut, it locked automatically . . . klutzy!

Now with no phone to call the house, I ran about 1/3 of the way up the driveway and panted the rest of the way to the gate. At the gate I buzzed Paula and through my huffing and puffing exclaimed, “Send Nan down with another set of keys for the van.” I’m so glad she didn’t ask why.

I put in the gate code and started walking to meet her. As she reached me with the keys, the gate closed. Now I’m inside the gate with no opener and the car is still sitting at the mailbox locked with the motor running. Nan had to walk back to the house and use the gate opener from there so I could even get out. Then back down the driveway I ran and unlocked the car. Whew! All of this took place in sight of two workmen putting a roof on one of the houses I passed. I hate looking klutzy in front of strangers. I hate it worse in front of Nan and Paula.

Today Paula sent me to Home Depot for six 25 pound bags of rock salt for their water softener. “That’s rock salt ONLY,” she said, “not rock crystals, not rock pellets, not rock cubes.” So what happens when I get there? Nothing says “rock” and everything is in 50 lb bags. I called central command. Our cell phones raise havoc until we finally get it straight that I should buy the ones in the blue bag. Okay, that’s done . . . yeah!

On the way home I stopped to get the mail and newspaper. I put the car in park, turned off the motor, and took the keys with me. Success! I made it home without incident. Hallelujah!

Tomorrow is another day . . .

KLUTZY ~ Part II

            Now it is a year later (May, 2014) and I have returned to Tennessee for some R & R from my caregiving duties. I thought I left klutzy in California but evidently I brought it with me.

            I’m still dropping everything I touch. I feel my mind is not cooperating with my actions.

            So how do I know this?

I pulled into a station to get $5 worth of gas. I pushed some buttons and voila, I had purchased gas and mistakenly a $5 car wash. How did that happen?

            I went inside and told the clerk, “Hey, I didn’t want a car wash.”

            “Sorry,” she said. “You bought it at the pump. I can’t do anything about it from in here.”

Okay! Okay! So I’ll go through the car wash.

I pulled up to the entrance, rolled down the window to punch in the code, and pulled forward. YIKES! Soap and water blew in and hit me in the face and went all the way across to the inside passenger window. I put up my hand like that would stop anything and reached for the “up” window button. As soap and water surrounded me, I searched the glove box for some napkins. One little fluffy tissue was hidden under all the papers. It quickly fell apart as I wiped my face and hair. 

I had to laugh. I was still KLUTZY in Tennessee! How do I get into these situations? I feel like I’m losing it and I’m only 65. What will I be like at 95…my mother’s age?

All I can hope for is that my family and friends will take care of me and make sure I don’t do mindless things . . . like this J.

ROWING MY BOAT . . . GOD’S WAY (Vision)

Danna Shirley

Fountain of Praise

  Gautier, MS

I worked in the office at Vancleave United Methodist Church during the week but my heart and loyalty was at Fountain of Praise Church, where I was being spiritually fed. So why did I wake up one Sunday morning totally confused as to where I would attend church? It was like I had been rowing my boat toward Fountain of Praise for so long and now I was sitting dead in the water. All of a sudden I had a vision of my boat changing course and I started rowing toward Vancleave Methodist. Fountain of Praise was growing faint in the distance. What was God doing?

Vancleave United Methodist

    Vancleave, MS

Now I was in a Methodist Church, a denomination I hadn’t attended since childhood. The people were great and the sermons were scriptural but there was no “fire of the Spirit” that I was used to. I only attended for a short time when my husband was assigned to a position in Japan and we were to leave in a few months. I wondered why God would move me out of a church that I loved, with good preaching and wonderful people, just to move me again a few months later. Why didn’t He just leave me where I was?

Hario Chapel 

   Japan

            I thought I would be lost in Japan but we had access to the military base so I made Navy friends and attended the Hario Chapel just fifteen minutes from our home in Kawatana. I learned quickly that God is not limited by geography or denomination.

            I soon met a visiting evangelist, LaVonne Hira, who gave me insight as to why God moved me from one church to another back in MS. She explained that it was really His mercy that came into play because He knew how difficult it would be to leave Fountain of Praise to go to Japan but it wasn’t difficult at all to leave Vancleave Methodist to go to Japan.

            We stayed there five years and then I rowed my boat across the Pacific and back to MS.

Vancleave Assembly of God

   Vancleave, MS

Even though I had gotten saved in an Assembly of God, I did not immediately gravitate to the local A/G church. For several weeks I visited in Ocean Springs and Gautier. Strangely enough, it was a sermon in a Gautier church that sent me back to Vancleave A/G. When I walked in the middle of the pastor’s sermon, his message confirmed that I was home. My boat had docked.

Bartlett First Assembly of God

     Bartlett, TN

            The death of my husband in 2003 capsized my boat and I found myself in a huge tidal wave of confusion and uncertainty. I decided no move was the best move and so I stayed in still waters for eighteen months. Then God uprighted my life and moved me closer to my daughter and family in Bartlett, TN. I climbed back into the boat and my rowing commenced. I put into port a few different places until I docked at Bartlett First A/G. I was home and with a church family again.

            I don’t know how long I will be here for God makes waves and directs our course but for right now I’m . . . steady as she goes.

Napa Valley Baptist Church

     Napa, CA

            Steady as she goes lasted nine whole years before it took me to Napa, CA in 2013. I moved temporarily to help as caregiver to my mother, sister, and brother-in-law. I found a nice church just down from my mother’s house and was warmly welcomed into the fold. I don’t know how long I will remain in Napa because home is still Memphis and I will return there eventually. For now I’m happy to just cruise around the wine country.

  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS (Vision)

Danna Shirley

I was a semi-new Christian in 1988, just helping out in the church office and wherever I was needed. I couldn’t sing or play an instrument or pray lofty prayers but as a worker bee, I typed the bulletin and organized. So when an announcement was made to plan our Christmas activities that year, I attended the meeting.

Fountain of Praise had been newly renovated from a former automotive repair shop so it was a long, narrow building. The fellowship hall was also long and narrow and was petitioned off from the sanctuary. As we all sat around the tables facing each another, throwing out ideas for programs, I looked at the end of the fellowship hall and saw it open up into a huge living room with comfortable couches and chairs, a large area rug, coffee tables and lamps, a warm fireplace with a lovely decorated Christmas tree beside it filled with festively wrapped packages underneath.

When I explained my vision, everyone agreed that was what we would do . . . decorate the sanctuary like a living room at Christmastime and invite everyone to come to our “Christmas Party.” The church offices had plenty of furniture and what we didn’t have, people brought from their own homes. The invitation read “Bring Gifts for Baby Jesus” which would go into our nursery.

The night of the party came and everyone who had ever attended our church received an invitation. It was a delightful setting. The room was lit with candles and lamps, rugs and throw pillows—nice and comfy cozy. Gifts arrived and were put under the tree. Everyone made themselves at home eating snacks and drinking punch. We sang Christmas carols and the children opened the gifts for baby Jesus.

Then we invited everyone to say how they had come to visit Fountain of Praise or how God had ministered to them through our pastors, Bob and Anne Tolar. It was a wonderful evening of sharing and good memories.

           

GOD CRIES TOO (Vision)

--Danna Shirley

The worship leader at my church was praying at the end of our song service when God flashed a vision into my spirit. I saw a friend crying over her husband who had recently passed away. Her tears and God's tears--like rain--were falling together at the same time. Two or three days earlier after a nice rain that was desperately needed, there appeared a rainbow over the vineyard behind my sister's house in Napa, California.

I came home from church and wrote the vision as best as could be described. I pray it brings comfort to you as a word from God that He also grieves with us. 

"When we lose a loved one, God’s tears mingle with ours and fall like rain to water the earth. When our season of grieving is over, He brings forth the rainbow as a sign of His mercy moving us gently into a new season of comfort and well-being. Wait patiently on Him."

WHAT ONCE WAS LOST...

by Danna Shirley

            Have you ever walked into a room and forgotten why you were there? Then you declare to no one but yourself, “What did I come in here for?”

Senior moments are contagious. My sister, Paula, asked me the other morning, “Have you seen my wedding rings? I came in last night and took them off. Now I can’t find them.”

            “I’m sure they’re here somewhere,” I replied, not too concerned. Paula has a large house with lots of travel paths throughout. She could have laid them down anywhere. I wrote a reminder note to ‘find rings’ (as if Paula would need one!) and we left for the day to run errands. We searched a few hours later that night with no results. I thought to myself, I need to pray and ask God to reveal where those rings are, then I got ready for bed and immediately forgot to pray.

            The next morning I woke to find Paula going through the recycle bag by her chair. I was prompted to pray with her but something distracted me and I forgot again. Later I found her in the bathroom quite panicked that her rings still hadn’t appeared. She was opening every drawer and cabinet, cleaning, and going through her laundry.

I went back in the kitchen and started pulling everything away from the counter’s edge. I said a quick prayer as I pulled out drawers, got a flashlight and looked under the toe kick, and then moved into the living room to look under the chairs, couch, and coffee table. Nothing! Now Paula and I were both in a panic. We had searched the laundry room, the car, the bathroom, the kitchen, the garbage cans, and the living room.

I thought again that I should pray, and again I didn’t stop to do it, I was too busy looking. Paula came in the kitchen and retorted that I should be more systematic in my search. She and I are quite different and usually approach things contrary to one another. I snapped back that I was doing it my way. It was as if God finally shouted at me—STOP! . . . PRAY! . . . NOW!

I pulled a chair up in front of Paula and grabbed her hands. “We’re not doing another thing until we pray.” I asked God’s forgiveness for disobeying His promptings to pray like I knew I should have from the beginning. Then I asked Him to open our eyes and show us that what was hidden would be revealed and to direct our footsteps to the exact location of those rings. Amen!

I left the kitchen and walked to the edge of the living room, then stopped and turned immediately to the entry hall where Paula has a display case of weeping gold glassware. The top of the case is filled with gold pieces and the second one I looked in held her wedding rings. Maybe all of thirty seconds had passed from praying that prayer to God answering it.

             I picked up the rings and went back to the kitchen. Paula was still rifling through papers when I said, “God is so good!” She looked up and I held out the rings. We both laughed and hugged and wept and thanked God. I showed her where they were and then she remembered having placed them there.

I hate to admit it but I haven’t been reading my Bible lately and prayer has been quick and slight. I’ve let myself follow distractions down a rabbit trail instead of pursuing the Lord with all my heart. I’ve always had good intentions but they don’t get the job done. The best blessing to me was not just finding the rings but realizing God had been prompting me over and over again to stop and pray—to fully seek Him. He knew where those rings were and was just waiting for me to obey Him . . . and I had not heeded the call. Why do we sometimes go to God last instead of first? He always shows Himself mighty on our behalf, especially when we are obedient and draw close to Him.

Paula and I prayed together again, this time a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. What a joyful noise we made rejoicing that what once was lost . . .

. . . HAD NOW BEEN FOUND!