Lately God’s been showing me the deep need for love those around me have. Many are hurting, but often their pain is hidden by smiles and chirpy Facebook posts. And it’s easy for the rest of us to take things at face value and walk away. But God wants us to dig deeper, to take time to truly see others so we can pour out His love.

Today’s post, by Ann Lee Miller, reminded me of the good that can come from something as simple as an email. It also reminded me of the pain that arises when that email or card or phone call doesn’t come.

Right now, as you read this post, someone is hurting, asking, “Does anyone care?” And right now, you have an opportunity to show them, “Yes. I do and so does God.” As you read Ann’s story, prayerfully consider who might be needing “an email/hug/phone call from God” today, then commit to letting Him show His love through you.

Ann is giving away a free e-copy to EVERYONE who leaves a comment with their email (so she can contact you). She is also a July Reach Out to Live Out Donor. 

Email From God by Ann Lee Miller, author of Kicking Eternity

God spoke to me through an e-mail that showed up in my in-box last November, during a year I strained to wring out the deeper novel my literary agent was convinced I had in me. I needed to scrape out my emotions and smear them on the page. But I only knew how to shove them inside.

When I was six my Chatty Cathy doll tumbled over the stucco banister worn shiny from my family’s hands and those who had lived in the Miami apartment before us. Salty tears tickled my face. I scooped her up in chubby, little girl arms and pulled her string. But she who won me countless friends on a year-long Volkswagen van trip across Mexico would never talk again. “Quit your crying, or I’ll give you something to cry about,” my daddy said.

When I was thirteen, Mama drove me and my six-year-old brother away from Biscayne Bay and Daddy. We left the sailboat Daddy built in the back yard—where we and our belongings had been crammed into thirty-six feet that smelled of mildew and last night’s fish. Our blue Rambler braked at a house, peering owlishly through black-framed windows. Mama looked back at us, Jack-in-the-Box smile stitched in place. “Isn’t this a wonderful adventure?”

Our footsteps echoed off cold terrazzo, as barren as I felt inside. I needed to be strong for Mama. But it wasn’t so hard. I didn’t remember how to cry.

At nineteen I hurled myself at Jesus, Someone who didn’t think my emotions were too loud and bothersome, Someone who listened to my heart.

For three decades I locked my childhood and my emotions behind Get Smart steel grates. If I wasn’t such an Eeyore, if I had an ounce of gratitude, I would have said my childhood was okay. A lot of people suffered worse.

A flash of blond hair out a firehouse window unearthed a firefighter’s memory of a fifth-grade girl walking home from St. Hugh’s Catholic School in Miami. He was a sixth-grader who could never understand why his carpool whisked past me day after day as I plodded through a ramshackle neighborhood in the sticky heat headed for the marina.

Though we never spoke, the man googled me and e-mailed, “I always thought how sad and lonely you looked.”

I felt as though Jesus pressed three fingers into my right shoulder and said, “Yes, your childhood was sad.” The doors to my past and emotions burst open.

As a child I shut off my voice because it wouldn’t be heard or believed.  Now I’m starting to come all-out with my husband, children, and friends. They listen and believe me. They embrace me. I am showing them the core of who I am. Color and intensity of feeling are shooting through my deadness. I am learning to pen pain and joy.

Ironically, in my writing people have told me for years that my unique voice is my strength. Could there be people desperate for my message, could my words be valuable?

God went out of His way to love a girl nobody listened to, to restore her voice and emotions. How can I not speak?

Kicking Eternity:

1^st Place Long Contemporary 2009 RWA Faith, Hope, & Love Contest

Stuck in sleepy New Smyrna Beach one last summer, Raine socks away her camp pay checks, worries about her druggy brother, and ignores trouble: Cal Koomer. She’s a plane ticket away from teaching orphans in Africa, and not even Cal’s surfer six-pack and the chinks she spies in his rebel armor will derail her.

The artist in Cal begs to paint Raine’s ivory skin, high cheek bones, and internal sparklers behind her eyes, but falling for her would caterwaul him into his parents’ life. No thanks. The girl was self-righteous waiting to happen. Mom served sanctimony like vegetables, three servings a day, and he had a gut full.

Rec Director Drew taunts her with “Rainey” and calls her an enabler. He is so infernally there like a horsefly—till he buzzes back to his ex.

Raine’s brother tweaks. Her dream of Africa dies small deaths. Will she figure out what to fight for and what to free before it’s too late?

Ann Lee Miller earned a BA in creative writing from Ashland (OH) University and writes full-time in Phoenix, but left her heart in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where she grew up. She loves speaking to young adults and guest lectures on writing at several Arizona colleges. When she isn’t writing or muddling through some crisis—real or imagined—you’ll find her hiking in the Superstition Mountains with her husband or meddling in her kids’ lives.

Connect with Ann on Twitter at @AnnLeeMiller

and on Facebook at Ann-Lee-Miller

Ann is giving away a free e-copy to EVERYONE who leaves a comment with their email (so she can contact you). She is also a July Reach Out to Live Out Donor. 

QUESTION: Was there a time when you were hurting and God used someone to minister to you? Share it here. Was there a time when you felt God nudging you to reach out to someone and you later found this person was in deep need? Tell us about it!

I’ll start. This morning I received a loving email from someone very special to me. The words in the email touched me, but what touched me even more was knowing this person was thinking of me.

Your turn. 🙂