When you talk to God and He answers!
I'm tired. I've been through a lot, and still things aren't where I'd like them to be, but God has a way of showing up and helping me to remember that He's still driving the bus.
I speak to God frequently. I pray a ton but it's unconventional prayer. Sometimes they're SOS prayers, like HELP!. Sometimes they're just conversations about life and whatnot. Today, I kind of noticed that I've been getting a bit complacent. I'm not lazy by any stretch of the imagination, but what I have noticed is that I haven't been giving things as much effort as they probably need. And not just chores. I've been slipping in writing in my prayer journal. There are some chores that fit into that category too. They're done but not to the level that I tend to pay attention to them.
I mentioned to God today that I kind of needed to get back in the game. He agreed.
There's a woman that I see videos of on the interwebs. Her name is Autumn Miles and ever since I had that crazy dream, the words she shares online sometimes have an uncanny way of speaking into where I'm at in life. Today's word she shared was right on!
It was about the prophet Elijah and the story of how he split town after he called down fire from heaven to wipe out the false prophets of pagan gods in Israel and the queen threatened his life the next day.
"What are you doing here?" God asked Elijah.
And then the finger pointed to Dale. "What are you doing here, Dale?"
Me, being me, started reminding I AM, the Ancient Of Days, the God of Heaven and Earth, of exactly how I got here.
God, there were the bed bugs. Then the whole thing with the Who and her kid. And let's not forget the family of five that inhabit the basement. It was somewhere in there that I realized that God didn't ask me HOW I got here. He asked me what I was doing here.
He's not been letting me be isolated, but sometimes He uses circumstances to change my plans. He's giving me what I need, day by day, in this season of reset, and I can't help but wonder if that season is coming to an end soon. Clearly, I'm not staying in the 'funk' that I've been in. Ain't nobody got no time for that. God's things need done, and I have some things He wants me to do.
Sitting around and just going through the motions aren't on His agenda.
It doesn't help matters that my back really hurts, either. I get my last bit of furniture tomorrow and after that, the inside projects come to a halt. I have a garage door that needs paint. There's a lot of yard work that I put off for cooler weather that can start being done. I'm sacrificing some free time for some OT to help defray the costs of replacing everything. Those are things that need done and sitting around and going through the motions aren't getting it done.
I'm blessed to have the opportunity to share a message once a month at the Rescue Mission. It's a new thing for me, and although I've never really felt a calling to full-time ministry, I'm not ruling anything out. God's using this as training ground for something. What, I don't know. But I need to start learning more about God's word and how to share it with people.
I'm thinking that here, (being not a physical place but more of a state of mind) well, it's not a place to be. So we're moving on. I did ask for just a night's rest, which is tonight. I'm just worn out. Emotionally from everything, and physically because my back really is killing me.
I noticed too, that temptations are starting to show up. I've had to alter some things in my life to avoid them as of late. I think there's still a plan for me and I'm trying to see it from God's perspective. That's another story for another time, though.
I'm thankful today for God's reminder that where I'm at is a place I can't stay. So we're moving out in the morning, so to speak. Tonight, though, is just a time for rest.
But just tonight.
The other odd thing I wanted to share with all y'all is this: Sometimes God is working behind the scenes. Among the things I cannot understand in my life is why everything happened the way it did, when it did. I tried to do a good deed, and got invaded by bedbugs and had to get rid of everything. But the everything that got invaded was only my everything. In the ensuing spray for the bed bugs, the exterminator only found one among the belongings of the people that live downstairs. They had just moved from upstairs two days before I found the creepy crawlers. None of their stuff was bothered. I think I mentioned that before, but I'm not having a pity party about it. I'm reporting on it more like a third party newspaper reporter. I don't know how or why it happened that way; only that it did.
In June, I noticed that my refrigerator wasn't as cold as it ought to be. I pulled it out from the wall and cleaned the coils. I also unplugged it and waited the standard 15 seconds to reset the electrons. For some reason 15 seconds seems to be the magic number for electrons. It started working, but I kind of thought it a wise idea to replace it while I had the chance. I had to wait until the end of July to get the replacement delivered, and when I got my July power bill, which was before the refrigerator was replaced, my power bill was $100 more than it was in June.
I thought it was because the folks downstairs were running fans and stuff non-stop. I figured my power bill would be about $300 this month with the addition of the two central air units, which at this moment are running. I looked at the bill today, and I was surprised. It was $30 more than last month. The only thing I did was replace the refrigerator.
Which today, seems like a really wise idea, and praise God for it!
I speak to God frequently. I pray a ton but it's unconventional prayer. Sometimes they're SOS prayers, like HELP!. Sometimes they're just conversations about life and whatnot. Today, I kind of noticed that I've been getting a bit complacent. I'm not lazy by any stretch of the imagination, but what I have noticed is that I haven't been giving things as much effort as they probably need. And not just chores. I've been slipping in writing in my prayer journal. There are some chores that fit into that category too. They're done but not to the level that I tend to pay attention to them.
I mentioned to God today that I kind of needed to get back in the game. He agreed.
There's a woman that I see videos of on the interwebs. Her name is Autumn Miles and ever since I had that crazy dream, the words she shares online sometimes have an uncanny way of speaking into where I'm at in life. Today's word she shared was right on!
It was about the prophet Elijah and the story of how he split town after he called down fire from heaven to wipe out the false prophets of pagan gods in Israel and the queen threatened his life the next day.
"What are you doing here?" God asked Elijah.
And then the finger pointed to Dale. "What are you doing here, Dale?"
Me, being me, started reminding I AM, the Ancient Of Days, the God of Heaven and Earth, of exactly how I got here.
God, there were the bed bugs. Then the whole thing with the Who and her kid. And let's not forget the family of five that inhabit the basement. It was somewhere in there that I realized that God didn't ask me HOW I got here. He asked me what I was doing here.
He's not been letting me be isolated, but sometimes He uses circumstances to change my plans. He's giving me what I need, day by day, in this season of reset, and I can't help but wonder if that season is coming to an end soon. Clearly, I'm not staying in the 'funk' that I've been in. Ain't nobody got no time for that. God's things need done, and I have some things He wants me to do.
Sitting around and just going through the motions aren't on His agenda.
It doesn't help matters that my back really hurts, either. I get my last bit of furniture tomorrow and after that, the inside projects come to a halt. I have a garage door that needs paint. There's a lot of yard work that I put off for cooler weather that can start being done. I'm sacrificing some free time for some OT to help defray the costs of replacing everything. Those are things that need done and sitting around and going through the motions aren't getting it done.
I'm blessed to have the opportunity to share a message once a month at the Rescue Mission. It's a new thing for me, and although I've never really felt a calling to full-time ministry, I'm not ruling anything out. God's using this as training ground for something. What, I don't know. But I need to start learning more about God's word and how to share it with people.
I'm thinking that here, (being not a physical place but more of a state of mind) well, it's not a place to be. So we're moving on. I did ask for just a night's rest, which is tonight. I'm just worn out. Emotionally from everything, and physically because my back really is killing me.
I noticed too, that temptations are starting to show up. I've had to alter some things in my life to avoid them as of late. I think there's still a plan for me and I'm trying to see it from God's perspective. That's another story for another time, though.
I'm thankful today for God's reminder that where I'm at is a place I can't stay. So we're moving out in the morning, so to speak. Tonight, though, is just a time for rest.
But just tonight.
The other odd thing I wanted to share with all y'all is this: Sometimes God is working behind the scenes. Among the things I cannot understand in my life is why everything happened the way it did, when it did. I tried to do a good deed, and got invaded by bedbugs and had to get rid of everything. But the everything that got invaded was only my everything. In the ensuing spray for the bed bugs, the exterminator only found one among the belongings of the people that live downstairs. They had just moved from upstairs two days before I found the creepy crawlers. None of their stuff was bothered. I think I mentioned that before, but I'm not having a pity party about it. I'm reporting on it more like a third party newspaper reporter. I don't know how or why it happened that way; only that it did.
In June, I noticed that my refrigerator wasn't as cold as it ought to be. I pulled it out from the wall and cleaned the coils. I also unplugged it and waited the standard 15 seconds to reset the electrons. For some reason 15 seconds seems to be the magic number for electrons. It started working, but I kind of thought it a wise idea to replace it while I had the chance. I had to wait until the end of July to get the replacement delivered, and when I got my July power bill, which was before the refrigerator was replaced, my power bill was $100 more than it was in June.
I thought it was because the folks downstairs were running fans and stuff non-stop. I figured my power bill would be about $300 this month with the addition of the two central air units, which at this moment are running. I looked at the bill today, and I was surprised. It was $30 more than last month. The only thing I did was replace the refrigerator.
Which today, seems like a really wise idea, and praise God for it!
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