I'll see your Polska and raise you a Kielbasa
I crack me up.
The things that go through this squash of mine sometimes. In case you haven't figured out, I had some Polska Kielbasa for dinner, with some cheesy rice. The rice was left over from last night's dinner of pork chops and rice and gravy. And there was salad, too, with yogurt blue cheese dressing, but not homemade this time. The stuff I bought was better than what I made.
Spring must be close around here, because I've been getting the joint cleaned up. Today's foray was sweeping and mopping, deep cleaning style. It's nice to have a fresh house. Just because it's old, doesn't mean it can't be clean, so that's keeping me busy these days. I'm not a dirty person, but I forget to dust and stuff sometimes, which makes me a dusty person for a minute.
Life is still interesting. I'm still on my Facebook fast, which may extend until Easter. I'm getting back the time I used to spend on it and finding better things to do with that time. I'm finding too, that I'm turning off the TV earlier. I'm just really needing that quiet time with God. Part of giving up Facebook was an honest effort to test the waters, if you will about being led in a certain direction. If I thought Facebook was contributing to the weirdness in my life for a minute, I was wrong about that. It's still there, but maybe it's not so weird after all.
Here are some things to consider:
I had dinner with someone on Thursday. It was quite unexpected, but well in line with where I think God is leading me. This person has a close tie to Coos Bay, Oregon. I know this and so does she, because it's one of the things we discussed over our dinner. I took the freeway home and got of at 31st Street and drove up Wall Avenue. There is a U-Haul joint on about 34th and Wall Avenue. I saw the trailer parked there out of the corner of my eye and couldn't believe it. I did a u-turn to be sure. I also went back the next morning to snap a photo.
Here's what I saw:
Yes, that trailer really does say Coos Bay on it, with a picture of a whale. The one behind it says Portland on the side. Somebody at the U-haul has an Oregon thing going on.
And then, I'd like you to consider this: I wrote about the drive in movie trifecta the other day, and while I'd rather not get into the details of one of the dreams, it left me wanting to pray for people held in bondage in our world today. It was an awful dream. But I've been kinda praying off and on ever since about those people who are held against their will and forced to labor (or worse). No human being should be allowed to own another human being.
I need to tell you this, to tell you another thing. I'm in a reading plan that's on the Our Daily Bread app; it's called "This Far By Faith", and it's based on experiences of the authors in Historically Black Churches. It's an interesting read. I learned this morning that there's a Black National Anthem. I learned this at a worship service of a predominately black congregation at a church in Ogden at which my good friend was invited to preach; and he brought the mail, by the way. It was a tremendously rewarding experience to worship with these folks and I hope to do so again. The music was awesome, I love how this congregation worships God, and it was just a great experience. But on the downside, this is 2018 and Historically Black Churches are still a thing. I'm not sure how to feel about that, but the experience this morning gives me a frame of reference for the reading plan I didn't have before this morning.
And the topic of the sermon was about Justice for the oppressed. Things just kind of tie together these days in ways that lead me to believe God is very much at work in my life and very much interested in me experiencing our relationship in ways that maybe wouldn't work for other believers. I still think my friend James was right when he said that if people weren't believers, they'd think I was nuts.
He said crazy. I said nuts. Nuts sounds less harmless, and as long as I can still have some distinction between the terms, it helps me believe I'm not going crazy, or nuts, or whichever euphemism you'd like to use for someone who's losing his grip on reality.
That's the thing, though. These things that happen to me, well they really happen. I can't make this stuff up. I'm not that smart.
And just to add the cherry to the top of today's Sunday sundae, someone else I know, I spoke to on the phone tonight and that person gave me some things to try about my situation. I'd been doing each thing suggested, each thing led by God that I needed to do long before this person suggested it to me. Sometimes, confirmation comes from the strangest places.
I want to leave you with this thought, shared with me by my mentor and friend, who saw it and thought I needed to see it too:
"Waiting in prayer is a disciplined refusal to act before God acts."
Eugene Peterson
So that's where you find me tonight. Waiting in prayer. Not militantly refusing to go. Not heading out of town like Jonah. But saying respectfully to God, in full surrender, that I'm going to just see what He's doing before I do anything else.
Seems reasonable to me.
The things that go through this squash of mine sometimes. In case you haven't figured out, I had some Polska Kielbasa for dinner, with some cheesy rice. The rice was left over from last night's dinner of pork chops and rice and gravy. And there was salad, too, with yogurt blue cheese dressing, but not homemade this time. The stuff I bought was better than what I made.
Spring must be close around here, because I've been getting the joint cleaned up. Today's foray was sweeping and mopping, deep cleaning style. It's nice to have a fresh house. Just because it's old, doesn't mean it can't be clean, so that's keeping me busy these days. I'm not a dirty person, but I forget to dust and stuff sometimes, which makes me a dusty person for a minute.
Life is still interesting. I'm still on my Facebook fast, which may extend until Easter. I'm getting back the time I used to spend on it and finding better things to do with that time. I'm finding too, that I'm turning off the TV earlier. I'm just really needing that quiet time with God. Part of giving up Facebook was an honest effort to test the waters, if you will about being led in a certain direction. If I thought Facebook was contributing to the weirdness in my life for a minute, I was wrong about that. It's still there, but maybe it's not so weird after all.
Here are some things to consider:
I had dinner with someone on Thursday. It was quite unexpected, but well in line with where I think God is leading me. This person has a close tie to Coos Bay, Oregon. I know this and so does she, because it's one of the things we discussed over our dinner. I took the freeway home and got of at 31st Street and drove up Wall Avenue. There is a U-Haul joint on about 34th and Wall Avenue. I saw the trailer parked there out of the corner of my eye and couldn't believe it. I did a u-turn to be sure. I also went back the next morning to snap a photo.
Here's what I saw:
And then, I'd like you to consider this: I wrote about the drive in movie trifecta the other day, and while I'd rather not get into the details of one of the dreams, it left me wanting to pray for people held in bondage in our world today. It was an awful dream. But I've been kinda praying off and on ever since about those people who are held against their will and forced to labor (or worse). No human being should be allowed to own another human being.
I need to tell you this, to tell you another thing. I'm in a reading plan that's on the Our Daily Bread app; it's called "This Far By Faith", and it's based on experiences of the authors in Historically Black Churches. It's an interesting read. I learned this morning that there's a Black National Anthem. I learned this at a worship service of a predominately black congregation at a church in Ogden at which my good friend was invited to preach; and he brought the mail, by the way. It was a tremendously rewarding experience to worship with these folks and I hope to do so again. The music was awesome, I love how this congregation worships God, and it was just a great experience. But on the downside, this is 2018 and Historically Black Churches are still a thing. I'm not sure how to feel about that, but the experience this morning gives me a frame of reference for the reading plan I didn't have before this morning.
And the topic of the sermon was about Justice for the oppressed. Things just kind of tie together these days in ways that lead me to believe God is very much at work in my life and very much interested in me experiencing our relationship in ways that maybe wouldn't work for other believers. I still think my friend James was right when he said that if people weren't believers, they'd think I was nuts.
He said crazy. I said nuts. Nuts sounds less harmless, and as long as I can still have some distinction between the terms, it helps me believe I'm not going crazy, or nuts, or whichever euphemism you'd like to use for someone who's losing his grip on reality.
That's the thing, though. These things that happen to me, well they really happen. I can't make this stuff up. I'm not that smart.
And just to add the cherry to the top of today's Sunday sundae, someone else I know, I spoke to on the phone tonight and that person gave me some things to try about my situation. I'd been doing each thing suggested, each thing led by God that I needed to do long before this person suggested it to me. Sometimes, confirmation comes from the strangest places.
I want to leave you with this thought, shared with me by my mentor and friend, who saw it and thought I needed to see it too:
"Waiting in prayer is a disciplined refusal to act before God acts."
Eugene Peterson
So that's where you find me tonight. Waiting in prayer. Not militantly refusing to go. Not heading out of town like Jonah. But saying respectfully to God, in full surrender, that I'm going to just see what He's doing before I do anything else.
Seems reasonable to me.
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