Not A Matter of Talk

A good name (especially with God) is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold!  Proverbs 22:1

My name was given to me in June of 1960.  My parents took me up from that moment of birth and they named me after my maternal grandmother, Amy Lee Carter Smith.  As I grew up and became a young woman, my own name began to emerge…I liked to act in plays at school.  I liked to run the mile and even managed to letter in that event one year in high school.  I liked to sing; and my gift, as trained and developed by my talented, singing mother, became a pathway for college.  Voice scholarships sent me to Cumberland College, in Lebanon, Tennessee for two years.

College was the best of times…and the worst of times in my young life.  My father died – suddenly and unexpectedly on my first day of exams – my first semester of college.  When he died, my anchor for academic achievement became dislodged.  I lost sight of the end goal and I ceased to care.

Through those aimless years of partying and self-seeking, God stayed faithful to me.  I cannot say the same thing about myself.  I left my home town and moved to Atlanta, Georgia.  There God opened the door for me to go to work for American Software, Inc. (ASI).  I began to experience God’s favor through some amazing people at ASI.  The Director of Recruiting, a wonderful business woman and highly respected for her keen recruiting abilities favored me.  She became a life mentor.

ASI Purchasing and Materials Management leadership began to recognize some of my dormant talents…people skills, administration gifts, eagerness to get the job done quickly and with excellence.  With their guidance, I was released into the new Customer Support group; I was trained to manage customer accounts, to help answer the never ending questions on how the many software packages worked, to go onsite and help guide the software planning process.  Eventually I was promoted into a Quality Assurance team position and my traveling days commenced.

Many wonderful consultants at ASI helped fine-tune my talents.  To name them all would take a lot of space.  As I traveled, I began to develop a new world view.  My limited, small town, East Tennessee concepts of life began to fall away.  God gave me new friends who have stayed with me through all of my years since my first days with ASI.  Numerous key accounts sent me to Holland, to England, to Canada and cities all across the USA.   I still have professional friendships with many of my former ASI customers.  I think that fact is amazing.

My times in London, England; in Leiden, Holland; in Chicago, IL; Mahwah, NJ  and in Milford, MA remain firmly etched as incredible, blessed times.   In 1987, the opportunity came to work on site with PTT in Holland.  At that same time I began to have some troubling dreams.  Seeking some solace from the night visions, I picked up my dusty Bible which was in a stack of old books on the floor in my closet.  For some unknown reason, I decided not to leave for Holland without it. I was still far away from God but those dreams at night began calling me back to my spiritual, godly heritage.

My time of re-dedication and renewal took place in 1988 when I moved to London to work on the Elizabeth Arden implementation team.  While touring St Paul’s Cathedral, I felt the Presence of God once again.  Then, a friend invited me to attend a small Anglican worship service at a small old church in Ealing Broadway, where I encountered people whole-heartedly worshiping God.  People stood in their rows, with their arms uplifted.  Some had tears in their eyes; others danced.  I had never seen any church service like it before; nor had I felt the tangible Presence of God in such a way.

I made up my mind, that upon my return to the States,  I would find a church and give my life back to Christ.  The music of Mylon LeFevre and Broken Heart played a significant role in preparing my heart to receive Jesus as Lord.  In September of 1989 I went to Mt. Paran Church of God, in Atlanta, GA because of the reference on the back of Mylon and Broken Heart’s many recordings.

A former Methodist minister named Mark Rutland was on staff at Mt. Paran.  He was studying for his doctorate at Emory University.  His testimony and teaching regarding his own amazing encounters with Holy Spirit dismantled my remaining analytical resistance to the tangible power of Grace.   At that point, my head knowledge began to shift to heart knowledge and I was radically transformed by the power of Jesus’ love for me and the direct outpouring of the Holy Spirit in my life.

Professional seasons must also change, and at that time I came back to Atlanta to rest and help on a Research and Development project.  It was during that season that I met my husband.  We were both volunteering for a homeless ministry through Metro Bible Study.  Charles Ellis and his family had spearheaded Metro over 20 years before I ever encountered the gathering in 1990.  Louie Giglio and Andy Stanley were two young preachers that stepped up to the Metro Bible Study teaching podium during my days at the Tuesday evening gatherings.

After my marriage, my husband and I realized that having a family and raising children with a stay-at-home mother was crucial to our goals.  Leaving ASI was one of the hardest moments of my life.  Over the next seven years, I gave myself to the overwhelming task of birthing and caring for my young children.   My three kids remain the most important project anyone ever assigned me to manage.  It was during those sleepless nights tending to crying babies that my desire to write began to re-emerge.  I had written numerous professional documents; some of them quite lengthy; I had not done any real personal writing since college.

Late at night I began to sit down and write.  Children’s stories and novels were  my primary focus during those early days.   In 2004 I took up topical subject writing as Biblical understanding stirred me to take note of what Holy Spirit was teaching me.   The faithfulness of God under-girded every negative, self-destructive situation of my own past doings.   Who I am in Christ remains one of the greatest on-going lessons Holy Spirit patiently reveals through my personal study time and prayer time.  In Christ, all the fullness of the Godhead resides…and to know that I’ve been given that fullness gives me complete hope that my times are safely in His hands and my identity is not in my past accomplishments or wrong-doings…I am a new creation.