Hit the Ground

Driven into the ground, you'll speak, you'll mumble words from the dirt--Your voice from the ground, like the muttering of a ghost. Your speech will whisper from the dust.(Isaiah 29:4, MSG)

Last week, I was going to share with you two friends, but I realized quickly that there were too many words, too many tears for one post. For some reason, I can't get the type to go black today, it's gray, which is fitting for me to tell you about Dr. Gail Hayes, a preacher, teacher, author and friend who knows how to live in black and white, how to read life between the lines.

I met her online, in the Fellowship of Christian Writers, I think. Someone had accidentally sent a post to the list about the lack of writers in color in Christian publishing and Dr. Gail responded with so much grace and honestly that I wrote her immediately. I read her book, Daughters of the King, and remembered who I'd been made to be, heard the music humming beneath my pulse.

We didn't email much after that because Dr. Gail started calling me on the phone. I didn't know what to make of that, since hiding behind the computer is what most people do these days, but when I heard her voice, it was like honey and fire all mixed together. She called that first time on a day when I was on my face in the dust. I'd waded through the water and gotten over the river, but now, contract in hand, there was a desert, a land of jagged dirt and the only way out was to go through.

Dr. Gail is going through friend.

Through rewrites and meltdowns, questions about being real when everything seemed fake and when there just seemed no place for me to fit, no room for me to breathe, the phone would ring.

"Just hit the ground running, baby. God put you here. Nobody can take that away. Nobody."

I nodded then. I'm nodding now. She and Mair put their arms around my neck and whispered sweet sistah stuff to me. They lifted their skirts and showed me their scars. I cried and laughed and showed them mine. That became the word that woke me in the night in 2004: Sistahfaith. That became friendship.

This week Dr. Gail is in Korea teaching women to walk into their destinies. Though they may not speak English, it won't take a translator to make them understand. Some things are clear. As clear as mud.

PS.

If you're interested in writing for children, check out Dr. Gail's conference for children's writers, Write 2 Ignite.

Today's Grace:

Father God,

Thank you for Dr. Gail. Hold up her hands as she lifts up those who are face down in the dirt, whispering to You. Bless her for speaking identity, purpose and destiny into so many ministries and congregations. May everything she has given come back to her one hundred fold, pressed down, shaken together and running over. Help us all to reach out to someone this week and help them dust themselves off and keep going.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today's Rhythm:Hit the Ground, Lizz Wright

Comments

[Nedra]

Thank you Marilynn.

[Marilynn]

You're welcome, Nedra. Always. :)

[Nedra]

Marilynn, I was too broken yesterday to tell you what I was thanking you for, but I knew I needed to thank you for this post and all the other wonderful ones that you share with us.

You have been a gracious teacher in the way that you share your lessons here and "Hit the Ground" is no exception.

I still have too much to thank you for to list it all. I'll just say I'm in some dirt right now, and that your words (and of course, the Word), are helping me get clean again. Thank you.
-Nedra

[PatriciaW]

Love Dr. Gail! Haven't talked to her in several years but I too had an encounter with her on the phone. When I most needed to hear from a sista-friend, right after having my second son. She encouraged me and was such a firestorm of joy that I will never forget her.

[LaShaunda]

God always sends you a kindred spirit when you need one. Gail has been one to me, so I'm not surprised she's been one to you and others.

Thank God for those kindred spirits in our lives.

[Marilynn]

Nedra,
You are the gracious one. I thank God that He's lifting you up out of the dust. Those days are something...

Patricia,
Dr. Gail is definitely unforgettable! Wait until you meet her in person. :)

LaShaunda,

Amen to that. You've been one for me many, many times.