Dear Storm,

Take that!

Sandwiches are Beautiful....

When I get up in the morning, the first thing I do is make a cup of coffee, in my one cup coffee maker.  As I walked through my coffee ritual this particular Saturday morning, I found the stove top covered with the remnants of making a quick lunch.   My eldest has to work today.   He has to bring enough food to eat for an entire day and leaving the farm to fetch a burger isn’t an option.   At times I give the maternal prod to make lunch the night before, but one must recognize the fine line when one has said this often enough for it to take hold.  And so one holds one’s tongue.  

The Nutella jar sat on the middle of the stove top, the knife lay beside it (Nutella side down), and the crumbs were scattered all around; a typical vignette of adolescence. 

 

In the fridge is a container of freshly opened packages of cold cuts.  Their sole purpose is to be combined with various condiments and toppings into lovely sub sandwiches: Support materials to facilitate the maternal prod.  He could have had a great lunch (that he would have enjoyed immensely) if he had given himself a little time and recognized the resources nearby. Instead, he reached for the only thing he could think of while he was pressed for time on his way out the door. Typical teenager. It’s food and he’s not fussy. 

Isn’t life just like that sometimes?

Many times we are on our way somewhere, or have to do something important, and we just do it quickly with what we know we have at hand.   We also do the tasks that we sense God nudging us toward.  We carry out the job with what we know; not always stopping to realize that God has so many more resources at the ready if we only ask and give it time.  His time. His Way.   When He gives the prod…He also stands ready with the resources to facilitate it!  He equips the called.

Imagine yourself being filmed for a day…as a reality show contestant…24/7  The camera pans in on all the creative things that you unknowingly walk past because you’re heading to the cupboard to grab the usual, the trusted.  It will get the job done.  I wonder what we must miss out on once in a while: what we’d see if we could have a look at the whole picture.   How much more it could be…and conversely, how much more fulfilling it can be when we do His work with the resources He has in mind.

Today I let my mind wander while my hands were busy with Saturday morning household chores, made fun because we do them together…well…at the same time anyway.  I thought about the project I am working on and how easily I could do it all by myself and enjoy every minute of it. I would enjoy it, but be exhausted.   Then I thought about asking some people who are really gifted in various areas, and how much enriching their contributions would be….hmmm.  They would add their bits and we would enjoy it, even more…together.   That might be exactly what God has in mind.

I wonder what will be in this boy's lunch tomorrow….    If he were to read this, I think he'd suggest I add my bits and we’d enjoy the enriched experience together….

The Plan

Sometimes God's plan for one's life can appear to have logical flow to it.    The future looks like it is laid out so neatly. It's easy to "go with the flow".  You can see the role you are supposed to play: the steps that should be taken.    And then....the proverbial apple cart is upset.   You witness it in slow motion and see all the apples in mid air slowly arcing upward in every direction.   And you hear the screech of the needle being pushed across vinyl.

Is this an interruption of God's plan?  Was there a misstep and is this the correction? Or, in His infinite wisdom, did God design His plan to look like this, airborne apples and all?

I read a devotion yesterday from "Today is Your Best Day"by Roy Lessin, the one about recognizing God's plan and how God's plan may not take you in the direction you were expecting.  It may even contradict what God promised you. "Abraham had a promise from God that his son, Isaac, would be heir to God's covenant promise, but Abraham never thought that God would test his faith by asking him to offer Isaac on an altar. ....Peter heard Jesus' promise to make him a fisher of men, but Peter, a devout Jew, had no idea that God would use him to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles..."

So what do you do when the route unexpectedly changes.  Do you run around and try to catch all the apples before they hit the ground, or do you let the apples drop where they may?   Did I trust the plan more than the Planner?    I have to remember that He is the Guide and I am the follower.    Jer 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." On days like this I don't understand the plan and lose my bearings, it doesn't make sense.  God's wisdom can seem foolish to us. But I know I can trust His promises.   I know they never fail and that my trust is never misplaced. I can trust His plan even when I don't understand it.  Even when I can't see the next step, I know He is with me. 

So do not fear, for I am with you;

   do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
   I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. 

Isaiah 41:10

I know...easy for me to say, but the alternative is that I have to figure this out on my own.   And we all know that there is no way I can juggle all those apples.....

One Little Word

One of my favourite blogs is written by Ali Edwards {AE}  She posts everyday and so I check everyday.  She takes lots of photographs and tells such fun stories about her family and things that happen everyday.   Ordinary things are the stuff of life.   She has a personal blog and a project blog. One project she undertakes every year is called "One Little Word".It involves choosing a word and making it a theme that you take note of throughout the year. It can be linked to something you want to be deliberate about like “change” or “renew”. It can be something you want to focus on like “trust” or “family”. A theme that weaves its way into the fabric of your everyday life. You can do as much or as little with it as you like.

Our pastor, in one of his sermons, talked about one little word too. He explained how each of the four gospels could be characterized by one little word, a keyword, like a theme that runs throughout; Each gospel focusing on different aspects of Jesus and His ministry. The gospel of John could be “summed up” by the keyword “light”. Each author, while Divinely inspired to pen their eye witness accounts, was still a unique individual with interesting and unique points of view, occupations, etc.

To the world, each of us is a "gospel", an open book, a testimony to God’s work in our lives. We exhibit God’s thumbprint on us in different ways, according to the unique way He created us. Each of our “gospels” is evidence and gives witness to God’s presence in our lives.  Some days my story doesn’t sound very beautiful. There are days I hope that no one is reading or that they will skip this particular chapter. Just knowing that I am an open book that people read makes me much more aware of how, as one of God’s people, I should carry myself. The beauty of it is that God carries me.

I didn’t plan on choosing a word. Like many of the 1300 people who left comments on Ali’s blog about their word, the word chose me. I didn’t plan to be deliberate about it either….but it keeps popping up. My one little word is SONG. Last month I wrote about the sound of music. I’m interested to see how this theme weaves its way throughout my story this year. How do you share something as personal as your relationship with God and make it relevant to an average reader (except you of course…you are above average!)? Is it even interesting to someone who prefers tractor pulls, canoeing, cross word puzzles, bird watching, or gardening? I’m thinking that it’s going to have a whole lot more to do with God than with me.

The other day the word “sing” popped up. Psalm 63:6&7 “On my bed I remember You, I think of You through the watches of the night. Because You are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings”. When I have a big project coming up, I wake up at odd hours. It’s a natural inclination for me to obsess and worry. I try not to go there! I try instead to focus on what I know is true. That God is there with me every step of the way, and that He invites me to be a part of these awesome adventures and would never abandon me. I recognize my smallness and His greatness. His love for me, the quiet SONG that my heart hears, and when I hear that song... I want to sing along.

One little word….

If you had to pick one little word...what would it be?