Wendy and I spent many hours together discussing whatever the Lord was saying to us that day. We discussed green trees and black trees by Caroline Leaf;  we discussed the latest teachings we heard each morning by Andrew Wommack, Joseph Prince, Joel Osteen and many others. We started meeting on a daily basis to detox our thinking. Based on Caroline Leaf’s studies of the brain and how toxic our thinking can become over the years, we had our own style of detoxing and it involved meeting daily to discuss spiritual things and get those “green trees going”. Our discussions were super deep and the Holy Spirit was speaking so fast we often talked over each other in excitement, writing our “downloads” on paper and listening to each other. We tried to make sure discussion stayed positive and full of spiritual insight. We both were focused on healing and how to keep our minds growing in faith. Wendy was a faithful part of our Bible study in our kitchen every Wednesday.

Of all the discussions and revelations and subjects we chatted about, one of her most profound revelations which I agreed with wholeheartedly was the subject of grieving, and how it’s not a good practice.  She had experienced a death of her dog that was actually a beautiful thing, full of God’s presence holding her as her friend departed. I agreed that I felt grieving was not only unnecessary, it is crippling. We agreed that grieving is not helpful, therapeutic or healing as psychologist might insist but rather it is a “black tree” kind of thinking. Grieving is not like laughter which is good medicine; it’s not lovely,  of good report, virtuous or worthy of praise. We should not allow demonic thoughts of regret, sorrow, unrest or sadness to enter our minds any more after a dear departed loved one passes than we do any other time. We agreed that grieving was a part of TOXIC thinking.  And we should refuse it and resist the urge to focus on sad thoughts. She said she wanted people to celebrate her life and laugh whenever thinking of her, even if she did leave before her scheduled 120 years.

Wendy was all about that grace and viewing the Bible through Grace Glasses. So as we discussed, I blogged. I blogged about The Grace Version of verses that we previously viewed legalistically.  Paul’s Thorn is the most popular.  Wendy had what I called “Scary Faith” because she was willing to talk about believing beyond natural thinking and take risks in faith that see results. We believed that those teachings against the Grace message were unscriptural and called them “Hyper-Sovereign” teaching. This therefore decidedly meant we must be the “Hyper-Grace” crowd, of course! Healing is a part of grace and we discussed healing. She defied doctor’s diagnoses for years, refusing the reports that she was sick and she experienced supernatural vitality long past natural understanding. Health sustained as long as we focused on Jesus and kept on laughing.

She had conquered so many things. (See Wendy’s Testimony on Youtube)   I don’t believe cancer ever got her. Distractions in life do happen and a domino effect of events brought her health to a sudden downward spiral. I still don’t know what it was that caused a sudden losing battle rendering her unable to communicate as we visited and ministered daily to a battle that ended with unanswered questions. Still the end was appropriate for me to be able to resume meeting with her again daily to share the Word and get those “green trees going.” I was truly blessed each day and felt excited that I was doing something effective through singing and listening to healing verses with my friend. My time was well spent and the Lord’s presence was in the room.

Still unexpected to me, Wendy passed away May 13, 2016 to the Other Side of glory and in honor of her stance on the subject, I choose not to grieve. Her personality was bubbly, cheerful, fun and silly every day. I’m sure she’s even more so now. I will rejoice and be glad for her, miss her dearly and laugh with her upon our precious memories. Her creativity was supernatural and she was a privilege to know. We are not ashamed of the gospel of grace and we do not apologize for being full of joy by choice, always. Love you Wendy, see you in Glory.