No need to
scale the mountainside in search of a wise
old sage to discover those needed
inspirations to move us in faith. God’s
truth is staring us in the face and waving
outside the window. 49 Nuggets, Volume 1
is God’s word brought to life in its
simplest form; in common day experiences.
Noelle’s
Nugget
began as a response to a friend’s request to
receive an email message of inspiration to
move them through the day. These Nuggets
were “forwarded” and passed on to others;
becoming so popular, that the international
distribution list grew to hundreds of people
in less than two years. These Nuggets
appeal to the young and the not so young and
have the unique effect of speaking to both
the veteran Christian as well as those still
searching.
About the Author
Noelle wrote
her first poem at the age of 8 and preached
her first sermons (albeit to her teddy
bear collection) at the age of 10. Her
passion to communicate God’s great love was
with her as a child and has been her
undertaking ever since.
Working
professionally in ministry for twenty years;
Noelle has counseled, mentored and
encouraged people through faith challenges.
Using humor, stories and an honest approach;
she pulls God’s word into real life for you.
Her comprehensible and challenging style
motivates you to be stretched in faith and
leaves you wanting more.
Noelle’s
passion engages the attention of the
teenager and her message edifies the mature;
she will captivate you as well. She has
presented for organizations like M.A.D.D.,
Bethel and Luther Seminary’s Youth
Leadership, Young Life, and the
national organization Youth Specialties,
Inc.
Since the year
2000 Noelle has written a daily Nugget,
sent to hundreds of people of all ages and
from places all over the world. Through the
encouragement of her readers, she founded
the ministry Abundant Cup in 2005.
Free Preview
POWER LINES
AND PROTECTION
Jim and Jeff
spent two weeks with me, installing new
siding and windows to my house. Jim the
siding guy had a seminary class to attend,
so we postponed our work till that
afternoon. Jeff the window guy was outside
putting in one of the last windows. I took
advantage of the free morning to write the
daily nugget, so sitting at my computer I
proudly pounded out what felt like an
inspired word for nugget readers. As I was
finishing and getting ready to send out to
the electronic mail list, without warning my
computer screen went black. Arrgh! There is
nothing worse than wasted work and before
dismay could make me scream, I heard Jeff
(the window guy) yelling to me, “Call the
power company now!” Confused I began
digging in my bill box in search of a phone
number, then I heard Jeff run down into my
basement and his yelling turned more
frantic, “Call the fire department!” I
grabbed my phone and went to see what was
going on. Rounding the corner to my
basement I was assaulted by billowing black
smoke as it poured up the stairs and out my
side door. Coughing and gagging, Jeff was
still yelling “Call the fire department
RIGHT NOW!” Panic set in and I dialed #911,
it was the first time in my life I ever
punched those numbers into my phone.
“Yes, we need
the fire department.” The woman on the
other end was calm, “What seems to be the
problem?” I stammered as I probed for what
I should tell her, “Well, there is smoke
pouring out of my basement and…” Just then
I looked in my back yard to see my power
line doing a snake fire dance, “And my power
line is down and whipping around in my yard,
shooting fire everywhere.” Within minutes I
had three large fire trucks in front of my
house and several good looking firemen
walking through my house.
Here is what
happened. A week earlier we had removed the
old siding from the house, leaving the main
boards that the power line was attached to.
We didn’t notice that there had been rotting
occurring on the underside of these boards,
making them unstable. For a week the pipe
that encased the power line had held itself
in place. And that morning it finally fell
away from the house, the power line snapped
in half causing a major hot fire to run
through my entire ground wire up along the
gas line and into my water main. The fire
men were quick to point out to me, “You
shouldn’t be alive. Do you see the char
marks running along the ground wire and
overlapping the gas line? We’ve seen houses
blow up because of this. And if you had been
touching water, you would have been
electrocuted.” What the fire men didn’t
know is that if my siding guy would have
been there, our work station in the yard had
been right underneath the path of the snake
shooting fire power line.
Now let’s
process how many different ways my life was
spared that morning. If Jim hadn’t been in
school we would have been right in the path
of the fire line that would have killed us
in an instant. If I had been doing my
morning dishes or taking a shower, I would
have been electrocuted. And for no
reasonable explanation, my gas line endured
the fire and didn’t explode. My brother was
across the alley at the Dentist office.
When came out to the parking lot he noticed
the three red fire trucks in front of my
house. He is a contractor and when seeing
the evidence, he looked at me with utter
disbelief and said, “Only you Noelle. You
are the only person I know who could walk
away from something like this.”
Later that
night, I was re-telling the story of my
eventful day and I was jolted with a
realization. I got up and walked over to my
desk where my Bible had been open to the
passage I had been writing my nugget
around. And here is what I had been working
on the very moment my house almost exploded,
“God had made an everlasting covenant
with me; His agreement is eternal, final,
sealed. He will constantly look after my
safety and success.” (2 Samuel 23:5)
My friends
joke with me, “Man, you will do anything to
get a good story” and others have teased,
“You must really be thick headed if God has
to go through all that to get your
attention.” They might be right, but this
is what I know, the expert (and did I say
very good looking?) firemen said I should
have been dead. Jim the siding guy should
have been there and we should have been
under the power line. If I had been more
concerned about my hygiene that morning, I
would have been in the shower. And
typically hot fire makes gas lines explode.
All of these things could or should have
happened, but they didn’t. Why? Because
for some reason unknown to me, God made good
on His protective promise to constantly look
after my safety and success.
I have a
sneaking suspicion that there are many more
events in my life that God protected me with
His almighty hand that I am not even aware
of. Through no merit of my own, my God has
chosen to covenant with me. And this
eternal, final and sealed covenant is a
promise He chooses to extend to you His
precious children. A parent loves their
child and will put themselves in harms way
to protect their own. You are His and He
loves you, He will protect you!
“Through no merit of my own, my God
has chosen to covenant with me.”
LIGHTEN UP AND
MAKE A SNOW ANGEL
One cold
Minnesota night I bundled up and went for a
run. It was so cold that I needed to break
out my ragged pair of wind pants to serve as
my third layer of clothing. The periwinkle
blue pants totally clashed with my royal
blue wind jacket but when in Minnesota do as
Minnesotans do, dress warm and forget
fashion. I needed to stop by the grocery
store to buy the food to make Christmas
dinner for my family. Sporting my clashing
blues outfit, dripping in sweat and hair
plastered to my head; I dashed into the
grocery store praying I wouldn’t run into
anyone I knew.
Of course I
ran into three people I knew and the man
standing in line in front of me was very
good looking. Hoping the man wouldn’t
notice me, I decided to focus on balancing
my checkbook to see if I had enough money to
pay for what was in my cart. Just as my
stress level rose, over lack of bank funds,
two mentally disabled men came and stood in
line next to me. One of the men was
prepared for the cold, wearing a complete
body snowsuit. It was the kind of navy blue
snowmobile suit from my childhood. The
snowsuit man approached the cute guy in
front of me and got within one foot of him
and asked (very loudly) “So, do you like
winter?” The cute guy looked around to the
people around him and discomfort spread
across his face. Shrugging, he softly
replied, “Yes, I do” and quickly picked up a
magazine from the rack. So the man came too
far into my space, one foot from my face and
asked, “Do you like winter?”
Before I could
formulate my response, I thought of God’s
words to Moses, “Who makes man deaf, dumb
(mute) or the blind? Is it not I the Lord?”
(Exodus 4:10) I could see everyone
watching me, was hoping cute guy didn’t
notice my sweaty head and clashing blues and
thought about and got frustrated that people
were uncomfortable. Then as if to teach
everyone else a lesson, I turned to the
snowsuit man and boldly responded, “No, I do
not like winter when it is this cold. But
it looks like it doesn’t bother you. You
have quite the snowsuit on.” With this he
skipped in line in front of me and our
lengthy conversation began. He told me how
he loved making snow angels and liked to
help out his Dad by shoveling his sidewalk.
For the next five minutes we entered our own
little exciting world. I didn’t care that I
looked a mess and he didn’t care that people
were staring. He showed me his wallet and
proudly presented the three dollars he
earned from shoveling. He purchased his bag
of chips and then stood by the register
waiting for me to finish paying my bill. He
walked me to my car and said, “See I’m not
cold. I’m not cold at all.” He helped me
load my groceries into my car and as I was
closing the trunk he said, “Now you have a
real good Christmas!”
As I sat in my
car waiting for the heat to kick in, I
watched snowsuit man trudge through the snow
on his way home. I felt the sting of being
slapped in the face. Here I was worried
about wearing clashing blues, having messed
up hair and hoping the cute guy wouldn’t
notice I looked so scary. I stressed about
spending money of having MY FAMILY over for
CHRISTMAS Dinner. And I almost missed the
blessing of the snowsuit man when my mind
was consumed with teaching everybody
else a lesson. And it was Christmastime for
goodness sake.
Folks,
sometimes we just need to lighten up and
stop taking ourselves so seriously. Does
anybody really care if your hair is matted
down with sweat or if you are wearing a
clashing outfit? Will my family really care
if I don’t have extravagances like cranberry
sauce and fudge when we are sitting together
on Christmas day? And can I be more
willing to accept and enjoy the blessing of
man who loves making snow angels and not
worry about whether or not the person next
to me is learning any lessons? Each day is
a blessing. Each moment of our life
presents the opportunity to bless and be
blessed. Can we let go of those other
concerns for long enough to embrace the day
that God has given us? Let’s just lighten
up.
“Sometimes we just need to lighten up
and stop taking ourselves so seriously.”
