Thursday, April 7, 2011
Safe and secure
John 10:27-29 (NIV) 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. If you know me, this probably won’t come as a shock but I lose things. I blame too many to-do’s and not enough time. The fact is that my morning rush includes critical minutes spent in the garage, searching pockets to be sure I have my keys, my debit card, and my cell phone. I used to be one of those people who said importantly, “But I have no desire to always be connected. Who would?” And now my beloved iPhone is like an extension of my arm. I am one of those people who carries it. In my hand. A lot. It’s the world at my fingertips: I don’t have to be alone or lost or bored or stuck for the name of that one movie who starred that one guy and Kevin Bacon. I can totally Google it and let it go. The thought of losing it makes me anxious. I value it. And I know it’s just a thing. It’s only one thing that fills in the blank: I would be lost without (insert whatever your thing is here). And believe me, I know how much more valuable people are to things. I’ve lost some of my people and still reel from the hurt five or ten years later if I think on it too much. The point to this? I value my iPhone. I miss it and I search for it when it’s not secure in my hand. How much more valued are you and I to the one sent to save us at the cost of his own life? How much more careful of us is He than I am with my phone? I’m not sure that my phone feels the love as much as I do. It spends a lot of time in a pocket and has been known to bounce on concrete. Jesus cares for me, so much so that no one and nothing can separate me from him. He sought me and paid a huge price to hold me close. Today is one of those days when I thank God for that love, that high value he place on my life, and for that eternal security. No one can take me from His hand.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Appointed Times
Lamentations 3:22-24 (NIV)
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
Over Chick-fil-a cuisine at a recent Marketplace Connection planning meeting, Merry and I talked about the "tyranny of the urgent." I believe I had just mentioned to her that I wanted to do everything, all at once, and right now. I can be like that. Out of necessity, I'm an excellent multi-tasker and can wield a mean list. On some days, this means I'm productive, efficient, and driven, if by driven you mean you can tell by looking at my face not to get in my way because I'm accomplishing things. The honest truth is that I have to really focus to stay in this moment. Focusing too much on the next thing and the thing after that means I can miss what's happening right now. It's hard to see God at work when you can't take your eyes off the to-do list.
You could probably already tell this about me but I'm a really bad waiter. Even more than a planner, I am a doer. My brain tends to turn a problem over and over until I do something about it. Finding the "off" switch is really difficult. For this reason, my plans tend to revolve around immediate action. One of those hard to face truths that's becoming clearer and clearer to me over time is that God's plans often don't. Sometimes immediate action is exactly the wrong thing. Sometimes God's plan requires a wait.
Why do you think that is? Over waffle fries, Merry and I were discussing ways to improve our blog and other social media for Marketplace Connection. Everything we discussed is a good thing, a helpful thing, something that can make a difference in the lives of people around us. Of course, we want to do it all and right now. And we could try to accomplish our own goals right this minute. If I leap into action and try to do this on my own power, the result would be imperfect, stressful, and difficult. God hasn't called us to accomplish the difficult and stressful imperfectly under our own power so instead, we wait. Occasionally (maybe daily), I need the reminder that it's not all about what I can accomplish. Just like everything we do, we want to do it well so that we will be successful in serving and in glorifying God. The busyness and the action plan seem urgent, because they are things we could execute right now, but we can't lose sight of what's really important: God's plan. He has all the pieces we need. We wait for all the pieces to fall into place. It's only a matter of time because we know God is at work. So we wait. We take steps in faith, we wait with expectation, and we prepare.
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."
Over Chick-fil-a cuisine at a recent Marketplace Connection planning meeting, Merry and I talked about the "tyranny of the urgent." I believe I had just mentioned to her that I wanted to do everything, all at once, and right now. I can be like that. Out of necessity, I'm an excellent multi-tasker and can wield a mean list. On some days, this means I'm productive, efficient, and driven, if by driven you mean you can tell by looking at my face not to get in my way because I'm accomplishing things. The honest truth is that I have to really focus to stay in this moment. Focusing too much on the next thing and the thing after that means I can miss what's happening right now. It's hard to see God at work when you can't take your eyes off the to-do list.
You could probably already tell this about me but I'm a really bad waiter. Even more than a planner, I am a doer. My brain tends to turn a problem over and over until I do something about it. Finding the "off" switch is really difficult. For this reason, my plans tend to revolve around immediate action. One of those hard to face truths that's becoming clearer and clearer to me over time is that God's plans often don't. Sometimes immediate action is exactly the wrong thing. Sometimes God's plan requires a wait.
Why do you think that is? Over waffle fries, Merry and I were discussing ways to improve our blog and other social media for Marketplace Connection. Everything we discussed is a good thing, a helpful thing, something that can make a difference in the lives of people around us. Of course, we want to do it all and right now. And we could try to accomplish our own goals right this minute. If I leap into action and try to do this on my own power, the result would be imperfect, stressful, and difficult. God hasn't called us to accomplish the difficult and stressful imperfectly under our own power so instead, we wait. Occasionally (maybe daily), I need the reminder that it's not all about what I can accomplish. Just like everything we do, we want to do it well so that we will be successful in serving and in glorifying God. The busyness and the action plan seem urgent, because they are things we could execute right now, but we can't lose sight of what's really important: God's plan. He has all the pieces we need. We wait for all the pieces to fall into place. It's only a matter of time because we know God is at work. So we wait. We take steps in faith, we wait with expectation, and we prepare.
Monday, March 7, 2011
After Hours
Dealing with Difficults and Divas Without Becoming One Yourself
It's true! One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. Whether it's your boss, a co-worker or even a family member, dealing with difficult people is just plain difficult. Come to the next downtown connection to find out how to deal with the divas and the difficults in your world without becoming one yourself.
Thursday, April 28
5:30 to 6:30 p.m.( Arrive early for a time of connection and networking)
Bank of America Building
220 West Capital, 4th floor
(Parking garage attached to Bank of America on 4th Street)
Cost: $10.00
A light meal will be served, Please RSVP marketplaceconnection@comcast.net
Our speaker this month is Patty Crabbe. Patty comes to Marketplace Connection with a workplace history rich in difficult folks. A former radio and television news reporter, Patty also spent a decade in the electric utility industry and several years juggling a career between Oklahoma and Washington, D.C. as the head of marketing for a nationwide education initiative. Patty is currently a part time employee with Little Rock Based Curtis Stout.
It's true! One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. Whether it's your boss, a co-worker or even a family member, dealing with difficult people is just plain difficult. Come to the next downtown connection to find out how to deal with the divas and the difficults in your world without becoming one yourself.
Thursday, April 28
5:30 to 6:30 p.m.( Arrive early for a time of connection and networking)
Bank of America Building
220 West Capital, 4th floor
(Parking garage attached to Bank of America on 4th Street)
Cost: $10.00
A light meal will be served, Please RSVP marketplaceconnection@comcast.net
Our speaker this month is Patty Crabbe. Patty comes to Marketplace Connection with a workplace history rich in difficult folks. A former radio and television news reporter, Patty also spent a decade in the electric utility industry and several years juggling a career between Oklahoma and Washington, D.C. as the head of marketing for a nationwide education initiative. Patty is currently a part time employee with Little Rock Based Curtis Stout.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Social Networking
Romans 10:14-16 (NLT)
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, "How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!"
I celebrated a birthday last month and I was lucky enough to have plenty of help celebrating. I got two emails, two blog comments, multiple posts on my Facebook wall, three phone calls, several actual folded-in-the-middle birthday cards, and the rarest of the rare, a card in the mail with a STAMP and everything. And that wasn't even from my insurance agent! I also had at least three birthday cakes. Thank goodness those have no calories.
Thanks to all our social networking opportunities, our friends are no longer limited by time or distance. Marketplace Connection's goal is to support and encourage women in the workplace and to help them build relationships, make connections, and reach people for Christ. To do that, we have events, small group Bible studies, mentoring, a blog, a Facebook page...all to serve women in central Arkansas. We focus on the workplace because it's a mission field for each of us, a place where we spend a lot of time. But your mission field isn't limited to your 9 to 5. Now, thanks to the wonders of technology, we can reach old friends, new friends, neighbors, family members, and coworkers past and present.
Whether it's through a brown bag Lunch and Learn with helpful information on business topics or an opportunity to take advantage of your lunch hour with a Bible study, Marketplace Connection wants to help you make a connection. We want to help you grow so that you can reach out and encourage the women around you. Of course, the success of that connection as well as each event we plan depends on your willingness to take the first step: invite a friend.
It isn't always easy to make that invitation but it's important. If you're like me, a lack of time and too many demands can really narrow my focus. I think I'm too busy or my friends are too busy or, for some reason, now's just not the right time and the next time will be better. The truth is that the next time will look a lot like this one. It really doesn't take a lot to discourage me from stepping out like that but I can't ignore the reason I'm here.
The leadership team of Marketplace Connection met last month to make plans for 2011. We're going to make a few changes without sacrificing what works. Our goal is to serve God in all that we do and we have some great things planned. I'm going to start now praying for that name, the one that God has identified for me to reach, so that I'm ready for the next opportunity. Will you join me?
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, "How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!"
I celebrated a birthday last month and I was lucky enough to have plenty of help celebrating. I got two emails, two blog comments, multiple posts on my Facebook wall, three phone calls, several actual folded-in-the-middle birthday cards, and the rarest of the rare, a card in the mail with a STAMP and everything. And that wasn't even from my insurance agent! I also had at least three birthday cakes. Thank goodness those have no calories.
Thanks to all our social networking opportunities, our friends are no longer limited by time or distance. Marketplace Connection's goal is to support and encourage women in the workplace and to help them build relationships, make connections, and reach people for Christ. To do that, we have events, small group Bible studies, mentoring, a blog, a Facebook page...all to serve women in central Arkansas. We focus on the workplace because it's a mission field for each of us, a place where we spend a lot of time. But your mission field isn't limited to your 9 to 5. Now, thanks to the wonders of technology, we can reach old friends, new friends, neighbors, family members, and coworkers past and present.
Whether it's through a brown bag Lunch and Learn with helpful information on business topics or an opportunity to take advantage of your lunch hour with a Bible study, Marketplace Connection wants to help you make a connection. We want to help you grow so that you can reach out and encourage the women around you. Of course, the success of that connection as well as each event we plan depends on your willingness to take the first step: invite a friend.
It isn't always easy to make that invitation but it's important. If you're like me, a lack of time and too many demands can really narrow my focus. I think I'm too busy or my friends are too busy or, for some reason, now's just not the right time and the next time will be better. The truth is that the next time will look a lot like this one. It really doesn't take a lot to discourage me from stepping out like that but I can't ignore the reason I'm here.
The leadership team of Marketplace Connection met last month to make plans for 2011. We're going to make a few changes without sacrificing what works. Our goal is to serve God in all that we do and we have some great things planned. I'm going to start now praying for that name, the one that God has identified for me to reach, so that I'm ready for the next opportunity. Will you join me?
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Essential Thing
Luke 10:38-42
As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. "Master, don't you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand."
The Master said, "Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it's the main course, and won't be taken from her."
I can really identify with Martha in this story. I will freely admit that I am no cook, no gracious hostess, and have no real affinity for that other Martha, the design guru Martha Stewart, but once a year, for the most important holiday, I put on my chef’s hat, bring my house up to scratch, and lay out cloth napkins. It’s Christmas, it’s tradition, and it’s important to me.
And it makes me crazy every year. I love gift giving, every piece of it. I heartily dislike preparing the Christmas meal, nearly every piece of it, but I hold on to it because tradition is so important to me. I want my family around a table, and even though it hurts to see who’s missing, I want to have my grandmother’s candy and my mother’s fruit salad. One aunt brings dressing made from her mother’s recipe and the other brings sweet potato casserole. Some important pieces of my family are missing but we remember them at that table.
So I identify with Martha. There’s a lot to do when you’re hosting an important dinner. I’d think anything where Jesus attends would fall into that category. And there is no way for Martha or for me to attempt something like that without a list. We are planners. We are doers. We accomplish things, big things, because we have to. And we stress ourselves out over the details. We have to. Martha went to Jesus and asked for help. I muttered under my breath about people who have to stand around in my tiny kitchen while I’m trying to get the food magically ready at eleven o’clock on the dot.
I always fight the urge to mutter at Christmas. I feel like what I’m doing is important but maybe unappreciated. After all, weeks of work is destroyed in about two hours total. This year, to combat that, I started thinking about all the memories I made in the process: cooking a beautiful turkey all by myself for the first time, watching my nephew exclaim over his gift from me of two two-liter bottles of Coke (and an iTunes card, but apparently teenage boys like a lot of junk food), catching up with an old family friend who dropped in. It would have been easy to miss all this in the detailed demands of hospitality.
I think the world requires Marthas, but I don’t think any Martha can be happy or successful without grasping the important truth Jesus teaches here. There is a time for lists and details, but there is a time to let all that go and grasp what is important, what is fleeting, what is memorable, what really matters.
I think I’ve decided not to make any resolutions this year. It’s difficult because I like a good list. After all, the journey of a thousand miles should begin with a very thorough itinerary in my opinion. What I want to do instead is do my best to remember Mary and Martha. I will always be Martha, but I don’t want to let what is essential slip through my fingers or be pushed out of my cluttered, to-do-list driven mind. I can’t call it a resolution. That almost dooms me to failure, but I like this time of year when everything seems possible and new beginnings are expected. Instead, I’m just going to make a decision to fuss less and keep my mind on what is essential. That could really be the most difficult resolution to keep of them all.
Maybe I’ll just jot down “Remember Mary” at the top of every list I make…
As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. "Master, don't you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand."
The Master said, "Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it's the main course, and won't be taken from her."
I can really identify with Martha in this story. I will freely admit that I am no cook, no gracious hostess, and have no real affinity for that other Martha, the design guru Martha Stewart, but once a year, for the most important holiday, I put on my chef’s hat, bring my house up to scratch, and lay out cloth napkins. It’s Christmas, it’s tradition, and it’s important to me.
And it makes me crazy every year. I love gift giving, every piece of it. I heartily dislike preparing the Christmas meal, nearly every piece of it, but I hold on to it because tradition is so important to me. I want my family around a table, and even though it hurts to see who’s missing, I want to have my grandmother’s candy and my mother’s fruit salad. One aunt brings dressing made from her mother’s recipe and the other brings sweet potato casserole. Some important pieces of my family are missing but we remember them at that table.
So I identify with Martha. There’s a lot to do when you’re hosting an important dinner. I’d think anything where Jesus attends would fall into that category. And there is no way for Martha or for me to attempt something like that without a list. We are planners. We are doers. We accomplish things, big things, because we have to. And we stress ourselves out over the details. We have to. Martha went to Jesus and asked for help. I muttered under my breath about people who have to stand around in my tiny kitchen while I’m trying to get the food magically ready at eleven o’clock on the dot.
I always fight the urge to mutter at Christmas. I feel like what I’m doing is important but maybe unappreciated. After all, weeks of work is destroyed in about two hours total. This year, to combat that, I started thinking about all the memories I made in the process: cooking a beautiful turkey all by myself for the first time, watching my nephew exclaim over his gift from me of two two-liter bottles of Coke (and an iTunes card, but apparently teenage boys like a lot of junk food), catching up with an old family friend who dropped in. It would have been easy to miss all this in the detailed demands of hospitality.
I think the world requires Marthas, but I don’t think any Martha can be happy or successful without grasping the important truth Jesus teaches here. There is a time for lists and details, but there is a time to let all that go and grasp what is important, what is fleeting, what is memorable, what really matters.
I think I’ve decided not to make any resolutions this year. It’s difficult because I like a good list. After all, the journey of a thousand miles should begin with a very thorough itinerary in my opinion. What I want to do instead is do my best to remember Mary and Martha. I will always be Martha, but I don’t want to let what is essential slip through my fingers or be pushed out of my cluttered, to-do-list driven mind. I can’t call it a resolution. That almost dooms me to failure, but I like this time of year when everything seems possible and new beginnings are expected. Instead, I’m just going to make a decision to fuss less and keep my mind on what is essential. That could really be the most difficult resolution to keep of them all.
Maybe I’ll just jot down “Remember Mary” at the top of every list I make…
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Fourth Watch
Matthew 14:22-31
Immediately after
this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the
other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. After sending them home,
he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there
alone.
Meanwhile, the disciples were in
trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting
heavy waves. About three o'clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking
on the water. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were
terrified. In their fear, they cried out, "It's a ghost!"
But Jesus spoke to them at once. "Don't be
afraid," he said. "Take courage. I am here!"
Then Peter called to him,
"Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water."
Yes, come," Jesus said.
So
Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But
when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink.
"Save me, Lord!" he shouted.
Jesus
immediately reached out and grabbed him. "You have so little faith," Jesus said.
"Why did you doubt me?"
I don't like three a.m. During a long string of nights recently, I came to understand that the only reason I ever see that hour of the night is because I am caught in a storm. When things are as "normal" as they ever are in this life, I observe that hour properly with peaceful sleep. I can say wholeheartedly that I am a fan of peaceful sleep.
I've always loved this story about Peter, my favorite. I have felt that desperate longing to get out of the boat, to take that step of crazy faith that will lead me to do things that look impossible, and I have surely seen the wind and waves and sunk like a stone.
Three a.m. can lead to a lot of sinking. I feel like I've experienced it enough to know very well the feeling of desperation that leads you to cry out "save me" because it is nearly impossible to avoid a hard look at the facts of the situation, the limitations of your own power, and the impossible odds in the quiet of the night when all other noise that we use as distraction has been stripped away. At that time of night, there are no friends to call on, television is a wasteland, my mind is usually too disordered for the escape of books so there is only the problem. And my complete inability to fix it.
I really hope you have no idea what I'm talking about. That you've never sat beside the bed of a loved one who is battling for life or faced the thoughts of what an unfavorable diagnosis means to the rest of your own life. Sometimes the storm is just the aftermath, it arrives in the middle of the night after you've lost someone you can't imagine living without or you face the demands of paying the bills when the job you've given your time and talents to for so long is gone.
Have I mentioned my disordered mind? I really should not be up at that hour of the night. My thoughts bounce. I am a Christian, I am a Peter fan, and I know this story pretty well. So first, I cry out. I claim the promises I remember from the Bible, usually in broken fragments, doing my best to be anxious for nothing but to pray and ask for peace and wisdom and healing and direction and sometimes just to rest.
And in the storm, I hear answers: be still, know that I am God, a promise to give me a hope and a future, another promise to work things to my good because I love Christ. That's the mature me. That's the faithful me. Unfortunately, at three a.m. the other me is hard to contain.
The sinking me throws out some angry "why" questions, maybe a "how can you" to avoid repetition and several "I just don't understand" comments. I really should sleep. The lack turns me into a fussy child. Loneliness, fear, disappointment, and confusion don't help.
I thank God that the constant in every storm is His love for me. He sees my distress from far away, he hears my cries, the mature ones and the ones that come from the heart, and He comes for me. He calms the storms. The storms will come. I believe that if we're doing this properly, our faith increases. I will never celebrate three a.m. but I do rejoice to know that Christ is already there. He is always there.
Turbulence
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,And lean not on your own understanding;In all your ways acknowledge Him,And He shall direct your paths.
As the lightning lit up the sky and the plane bounced and rattled last week, I played my spider solitaire and mouthed silently the songs playing in my ears. I really wasn't worried. There was not a single, solitary thing within my power at that point. That plane was going to go where it was going to go and there was someone, a very experienced, smart, well-trained pilot, with everything under control. He sees the big picture, flies around the storms. I concentrate on keeping my shoulder out of the aisle. Once I'm on the plane, I can relax (as much as you can with your knees under your chin and the man next to you leaning on the armrest).
You know what causes me endless anxiety? The thought of making a mistake gets me. The idea that I would miss my flight and be stranded somewhere worries me. It's not being suspended improbably in the air by science and engineering that I have no hope of understanding that gives me a sleepless night before I fly. I can't control that at all. It's everything else, all those details that I must control. You may not understand how I can feel so calm about the whole "fiery crash" thing. I get that. What I don't understand is the lady in front of me who is stunned because she can't carry on her water bottle. Her lack of preparation and investigation of the rules is nearly impossible for me to understand. I know them by heart. Forgetting one might cause me to have trouble in security, be late to the gate (somehow, although I religiously arrive at least two hours before the boarding time), and miss my flight. Forgetting one would let me make a mistake. I feel a little bit like my faith is like flying. When it gets to the big picture, the hard to believe idea that salvation is mine if I just trust in Jesus Christ, I have no worries at all.
When it comes to knowing that my life is headed somewhere and that it means something, I feel comfortable sitting down and strapping myself in. But the details...they get me! And it all boils down to the same slightly obsessive and compulsive checking that I do in the security line at the airport. It all comes down to this: I don't want to make a mistake. And the day to day details are all about me, because I can't give up control.This is a recurring theme with me: control. I can't give it up. I lay it down for a moment and take a sigh of relief, secure in the knowledge that someone smarter, more experienced, and with a better view of the big picture will keep me safe.
And then I hit the ground again, pick up all that worry and the weight of every decision.I learned this verse in junior high school. And someone mentioned it to me this week. And I'm reminded over and over and over that this worry is not part of what God has for me. He wants me to feel the security of knowing an experienced pilot is in control. Psalm 139 explains just how well He knows me. I can put my trust in Him.
Cheryl
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,And lean not on your own understanding;In all your ways acknowledge Him,And He shall direct your paths.
As the lightning lit up the sky and the plane bounced and rattled last week, I played my spider solitaire and mouthed silently the songs playing in my ears. I really wasn't worried. There was not a single, solitary thing within my power at that point. That plane was going to go where it was going to go and there was someone, a very experienced, smart, well-trained pilot, with everything under control. He sees the big picture, flies around the storms. I concentrate on keeping my shoulder out of the aisle. Once I'm on the plane, I can relax (as much as you can with your knees under your chin and the man next to you leaning on the armrest).
You know what causes me endless anxiety? The thought of making a mistake gets me. The idea that I would miss my flight and be stranded somewhere worries me. It's not being suspended improbably in the air by science and engineering that I have no hope of understanding that gives me a sleepless night before I fly. I can't control that at all. It's everything else, all those details that I must control. You may not understand how I can feel so calm about the whole "fiery crash" thing. I get that. What I don't understand is the lady in front of me who is stunned because she can't carry on her water bottle. Her lack of preparation and investigation of the rules is nearly impossible for me to understand. I know them by heart. Forgetting one might cause me to have trouble in security, be late to the gate (somehow, although I religiously arrive at least two hours before the boarding time), and miss my flight. Forgetting one would let me make a mistake. I feel a little bit like my faith is like flying. When it gets to the big picture, the hard to believe idea that salvation is mine if I just trust in Jesus Christ, I have no worries at all.
When it comes to knowing that my life is headed somewhere and that it means something, I feel comfortable sitting down and strapping myself in. But the details...they get me! And it all boils down to the same slightly obsessive and compulsive checking that I do in the security line at the airport. It all comes down to this: I don't want to make a mistake. And the day to day details are all about me, because I can't give up control.This is a recurring theme with me: control. I can't give it up. I lay it down for a moment and take a sigh of relief, secure in the knowledge that someone smarter, more experienced, and with a better view of the big picture will keep me safe.
And then I hit the ground again, pick up all that worry and the weight of every decision.I learned this verse in junior high school. And someone mentioned it to me this week. And I'm reminded over and over and over that this worry is not part of what God has for me. He wants me to feel the security of knowing an experienced pilot is in control. Psalm 139 explains just how well He knows me. I can put my trust in Him.
Cheryl
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