Funny story. Last week, taking full advantage of my transitional unemployment, I decided to wash my car. And by wash my car, I mean excavate the mound of trash and junk that had buried my poor trunk, vaccuum every reachable space, scrub my seats, wipe down all parts of the interior including the ones that I haven't really paid attention to ever in my 29 years of life, and of course, give the outside a nice, thorough washing and drying. I even sort of cleaned my tire rims. This was serious business.
I finished the project with pride and a wonderful sense of accomplishment. A couple hours later, I heard a knock at my front door. My gardener, very apologetically, confessed that he had accidentally splashed mud all over my car as he was blowing away leaves. I thanked him for letting me know. Then I went outside and washed my car again.
So here is the moral of the story: don't wash your car on gardening day.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
Mess and Pressure
My bedroom looks like a tornado-swept Midwestern town. Or like a t-shirt turned inside out. My closet, drawers and bins have vomited their contents all over my floor, leaving me with a narrow and dangerous pathway from where i sit on my bed to the door.
I have a lot of work to do. I have to figure out what to get rid of, what to keep, what to do with what stays and what to do with what goes. I have to make the end result better than the starting point. If I don't, this mess and chaos will have been wasted.
I have to get it right. Just like I have to 'get it right' outside the walls of this room. Where the piles are made of pressures, not clothes and where there's a lot more at stake in walking the narrow path than just getting from my bed to the door.
Doing life God's way, not mine.
For most of my life, I've operated under a pass/fail mentality. I've approached life and God that way. If I succeed, He will like me. If I don't, He will leave. So the pressure builds. Doing life God's way because in my heart of hearts I desire to please Him...and because if I mess it up, I'll be on my own.
We all face the pressures of life every day in various shapes and sizes. Relational pressures. Financial pressures. Decision-making pressures. The list goes on. What I'm starting to realize is that my ideas about God and getting it right are simply not true. In fact, I found out that the Bible has some things to say about it:
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." II Cor. 9:8
"May the God of peace, who through the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may be work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Heb. 13:20-21
Doesn't sound like the abandoning type, does He? He sounds more like the God who wants more than anything to walk the narrow road with me. Navigating through the pressures of life within the safety of relationship.
Me and Him.
You and Him.
I have a lot of work to do. I have to figure out what to get rid of, what to keep, what to do with what stays and what to do with what goes. I have to make the end result better than the starting point. If I don't, this mess and chaos will have been wasted.
I have to get it right. Just like I have to 'get it right' outside the walls of this room. Where the piles are made of pressures, not clothes and where there's a lot more at stake in walking the narrow path than just getting from my bed to the door.
Doing life God's way, not mine.
For most of my life, I've operated under a pass/fail mentality. I've approached life and God that way. If I succeed, He will like me. If I don't, He will leave. So the pressure builds. Doing life God's way because in my heart of hearts I desire to please Him...and because if I mess it up, I'll be on my own.
We all face the pressures of life every day in various shapes and sizes. Relational pressures. Financial pressures. Decision-making pressures. The list goes on. What I'm starting to realize is that my ideas about God and getting it right are simply not true. In fact, I found out that the Bible has some things to say about it:
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." II Cor. 9:8
"May the God of peace, who through the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may be work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Heb. 13:20-21
Doesn't sound like the abandoning type, does He? He sounds more like the God who wants more than anything to walk the narrow road with me. Navigating through the pressures of life within the safety of relationship.
Me and Him.
You and Him.
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