Reality Check with Ann Downing...

This past weekend, I had the privilege of having a long time good friend in one of my services...and then enjoyed lunch with her and her family.  She's dealt with brain cancer for the past two years....it's been tough, even with her usual "positive spin" on the days and nights since getting the news and prognosis, I knew these had been some of her hardest times ever.  I wonder why her emails to me don't leave me depressed and feeling hopeless in thinking about my future?  Why didn't I "feel sorry for her" as we reminisced over lunch on Sunday?  I did want to cry in seeing that there are limitations as to what she can do and not do yet, and her gorgeous long hair isn't there as it once was, though she had made what she had to be the cutest "do".  I know, I think, why I love to hear from her, why I run to her Facebook page to hear what she's doing with this day, knowing some of what she's dealing with.  She refuses to allow...

Wow...do the questions ever stop?  Are there ever enough answers? Having just received some painful news late last night about someone I love very much, I'm having question after question to creep through my brain today.  I woke up several times last night with the awful reality hitting my heart again and again that there aren't nearly as many answers as there are questions. But, that's for now.  I will have answers....maybe He won't answer the way I've asked Him to...even pleaded for Him to.  But my answer can come in committing myself, my heart, my will, my today, my tomorrow one more time to HIM...trusting!!!  "He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is set on Thee".

Can't believe it's been over 2 months since I blogged...where in the world does time go?  I do have a transformed website, and thanks to Karissa, I'm able to be "here" again.....it took some "doing", but when has anything to do with technology been easy????  I do get mystified, reeeeaaaaal often, with things that I can't figure out....seems to be a little unsettling for me when I can't see how all the pieces are gonna fit into the puzzle.  As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I even always know what the puzzle is supposed to turn out to be.  Wellllll, to be honest, it's difficult for me to take that one more step when I'm not sure what the second step is supposed to be.  Not sure if anybody else has this challenge or not, but I would much rather know the steps ordained for me by Him....even the hard ones....than just taking a step by faith not knowing.  But what kind of faith is that???  Doesn't faith "define" as beli...

I have chosen, the past few years, to cut out a lot of the things around my Christmas that do little more than bring a momentary thrill with no eternal value.  Decided to rest a little more and give a little more....certainly worship a whole lot more.  And how easy is that?  The decision to do it was the hardest part...living in more simplicity is the easy part.  We're not "made" for stress, pressure, hyperactivity that brings chaos to everybody around us.  We're "made" to listen to our bodies, minds and hearts and just KNOW when it's time to STOP.....and LISTEN...then enjoy the moments of praise to a Heavenly Father Who's sent us the best...His Son Jesus...a baby to become a Redeemer.  And He has come..and we are at peace!!!

I’d been asked over and over and over if I wrote…I’d say, “oh no, I just enjoy interpreting what someone else has already written”.   Not a bad answer, but it wore thin, and God finally got my attention. When Paul passed away and I made the decision to go back out on this singing/speaking ministry, I found myself having to do everything.   I did all the booking, packing, setting up, tearing down, travel plans, correspondence and all office duties…along with trying to have a minute here and there to spend with friends in an attempt to build a new life as a single woman.   I would give myself the excuse, concerning songwriting, that I just didn’t have time.   I even said to God several times with confidence that if I had some part-time help, I could possibly have time to concentrate on writing.   Well, one day THAT part-time help came along…what was I gonna say now??? Then one morning I was sitting at my kitchen table involved in my morning devotions’...

I was blessed, and ADM was blessed, last week to have been given a booth space at NQC...in a big booth that was called "Memory Lane". Guess it's obvious that this was for some of us who've been around a while, can't stay at the convention all week, but when there, need a place to "hang out". Many thanks to Ralph Moore, former driver for the LeFevres and a promoter of gospel concerts for a long time from Alabama, for putting this together...and thanks to Les Beasley for providing this spot. It was an opportunity for me to be reunited with some folks I hadn't seen in many years...other gospel singers, in many cases going back to the 60's. I'm just grateful that there are unselfish people who are still willing to provide for some of us who are in a different place than we were when NQC began, but still have a "presence". 

Recently I attended the ceremony inducting some folks into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.  I went at the invitation of a friend, Sheri and her daughter, Averi, who drove up from North Georgia and invited Karissa and me to join them.  I'd not been to one of these induction ceremonies in many years, maybe once since my induction in 1998.  To be honest, I'm not usually sure of what to expect when I walk into these kinds of events...times like this is when I really do miss another side of Paul, he was completely at ease walking into a room without any preconceptions as what to expect.  I'd just "hang onto his coattail" and walk right in with him greeting everybody, most of the time making them feel much better than they did before he came into the room.  I don't do as well as Paul, so last night I wasn't having tooooo great a time until I started seeing some faces that I hadn't seen in ages...hollering with glee at some of those faces...hugging, laughi...