Sometimes, you just gotta
My plans get changed frequently. I've learned to live with that, and sometimes things happen when they get changed that let me know that there might be reasons for them being changed that I might never understand.
I'm going with that tonight. Where I wanted to be just isn't where I was supposed to be. Where I'm supposed to be is right where I am right now:
Home.
I just go with things, and I try to understand if there's something behind just having things change. Sometimes, I don't always understand the reasoning. I was going to fill in for my pastor friend a few weeks ago. It snowed and his congregation cancelled church for the day. I understand that. The roads in Salt Lake were a mess that day.
I was asked to prepare some remarks for a thing at the Rescue Mission a few weeks ago. I prepared them, but it was a fight to find the time to do it. I finally got it done, only to be greeted when I showed up by someone else speaking that day. I just go with stuff, but remember asking God during that week why I was so busy and having to fight to find time to prepare that short message. I got my answer that Sunday morning.
It wasn't necessary.
My plans got changed not only on my end but on the other end, too. What I was going to do tonight (the what doesn't really matter) got changed on the other end, too. Even if the kid wasn't here, or didn't have the car, the plans would have been changed at the last minute anyway.
Things happen.
Sometimes you just gotta roll with it.
Shortly before Christmas, I read a devotional somewhere about a couple who had set up a Christmas tree in honor of a child they wanted to adopt. They were so sure God was going to honor that prayer request, that they decorated a very special Christmas tree in honor of the event. Then on Christmas day, the child that was hoped for was still not a part of their family, but the following April, well, that was God's timing.
And then, I read some comments from someone who God uses in my life to point me in the right direction who told a very similar story. They were sure God would answer that prayer by Christmas. And Christmas came and went. But then February happened. And the child waited for was placed with them.
When God says stuff twice, I pay attention.
So, how can God use circumstances and stuff to illustrate that point? To, if you will, hammer it home with an object lesson for yours truly? Well, I'm glad you asked. Please remember, it's an object lesson using an object to teach the lesson:
Last November, right before Thanksgiving, I bought some new flatware. I bought two boxes of flatware. It didn't match what I had, which I'd have preferred, but I didn't notice at the store that it didn't match each other. The salesgirl had an unusual name: Her name was Annakarenina. I thought it odd, and I found it even more odd that I saw that movie the next day or shortly after on TCM . Anyway she had to go in the back and look for said second box of flatware. The box was the same color, but the patterns didn't match. I didn't notice. Until I got home.
I kept them for a few days and decided to take them back. I'm not a stuff guy, but I can get psychotic about stuff. I like to make a big deal out of Thanksgiving because I think thanking God for what we have is a big deal. We're well blessed here at Lark Circle. I know that. And when I share that meal with others at my home, If you're like me, a meal at the table is a rarity. So I enjoy putting out the best for my guests to enjoy.
At expecting fifty, the decision to switch to paper plates was an easy one. And a hard one that I struggled with. But then again, on Thanksgiving Day, I spent most of the time in the kitchen either making food or hot chocolate for little people. That was so funny. One kid saw another with a hot chocolate and it was like a chain reaction. But I digress.
I have a set of flatware. Four of the place settings were lost due to circumstances beyond my control. I replaced most of the missing pieces. I didn't replace the salad forks, because I had twenty-four. I only have twenty, but twenty seems to be enough. I did replace missing steak knives, forks and teaspoons. In a weird event, I found one of the missing steak knives in a very random place. I am still short a teaspoon.
I remember thinking to myself back in the fall, if I was supposed to have them, I'd find a matching set, complete with box. Well, in my search for a teaspoon on Saturday, I found exactly that. BTW, they quit making my flatware pattern a decade ago. I found a New, in the box, set of flatware that exactly is what I already have.
This set is unusual in the fact that it comes with 24 salad forks, round soup spoons, and steak knives. I offered the seller $25 less than the asking price and they sold them to me.
I talked to the ex before I bought it. She knows how I used to be about stuff and we talked about Thanksgiving. She knows how I wound up with tons of dinner plates and tons of Christmas dinner plates. She told me if it would make me happy, to buy the flatware. I told her that people make me happy and she reminded me that I would use those things to make people happy, which would make me happy.
I'd forgotten the adoption story from Christmastime, but there, in a box of flatware, was a reminder of the lesson: God's time. I wanted the right thing, I think: To set a nice table for my guests to enjoy. What it wasn't, well, was quite frankly, time.
I didn't need what I bought so I took it back.
I had to wait for what I wanted, and when it was available, it was better than hoped for at a price I could afford to pay.
And the thing is: I could set a table for 48. I'd have to use salad forks, soup spoons, and steak knives, but 48 people could sit down with somewhat matching flatware.
The object lesson is just about God's timing. I've wanted the same thing for a very long time. I got a taste of having that want come true at Christmas, but not in the way I'd preferred. Some things went wrong there, too, that day, but I just go with it.
In God's time, which is the object lesson for today.
I'm going with that tonight. Where I wanted to be just isn't where I was supposed to be. Where I'm supposed to be is right where I am right now:
Home.
I just go with things, and I try to understand if there's something behind just having things change. Sometimes, I don't always understand the reasoning. I was going to fill in for my pastor friend a few weeks ago. It snowed and his congregation cancelled church for the day. I understand that. The roads in Salt Lake were a mess that day.
I was asked to prepare some remarks for a thing at the Rescue Mission a few weeks ago. I prepared them, but it was a fight to find the time to do it. I finally got it done, only to be greeted when I showed up by someone else speaking that day. I just go with stuff, but remember asking God during that week why I was so busy and having to fight to find time to prepare that short message. I got my answer that Sunday morning.
It wasn't necessary.
My plans got changed not only on my end but on the other end, too. What I was going to do tonight (the what doesn't really matter) got changed on the other end, too. Even if the kid wasn't here, or didn't have the car, the plans would have been changed at the last minute anyway.
Things happen.
Sometimes you just gotta roll with it.
Shortly before Christmas, I read a devotional somewhere about a couple who had set up a Christmas tree in honor of a child they wanted to adopt. They were so sure God was going to honor that prayer request, that they decorated a very special Christmas tree in honor of the event. Then on Christmas day, the child that was hoped for was still not a part of their family, but the following April, well, that was God's timing.
And then, I read some comments from someone who God uses in my life to point me in the right direction who told a very similar story. They were sure God would answer that prayer by Christmas. And Christmas came and went. But then February happened. And the child waited for was placed with them.
When God says stuff twice, I pay attention.
So, how can God use circumstances and stuff to illustrate that point? To, if you will, hammer it home with an object lesson for yours truly? Well, I'm glad you asked. Please remember, it's an object lesson using an object to teach the lesson:
Last November, right before Thanksgiving, I bought some new flatware. I bought two boxes of flatware. It didn't match what I had, which I'd have preferred, but I didn't notice at the store that it didn't match each other. The salesgirl had an unusual name: Her name was Annakarenina. I thought it odd, and I found it even more odd that I saw that movie the next day or shortly after on TCM . Anyway she had to go in the back and look for said second box of flatware. The box was the same color, but the patterns didn't match. I didn't notice. Until I got home.
I kept them for a few days and decided to take them back. I'm not a stuff guy, but I can get psychotic about stuff. I like to make a big deal out of Thanksgiving because I think thanking God for what we have is a big deal. We're well blessed here at Lark Circle. I know that. And when I share that meal with others at my home, If you're like me, a meal at the table is a rarity. So I enjoy putting out the best for my guests to enjoy.
At expecting fifty, the decision to switch to paper plates was an easy one. And a hard one that I struggled with. But then again, on Thanksgiving Day, I spent most of the time in the kitchen either making food or hot chocolate for little people. That was so funny. One kid saw another with a hot chocolate and it was like a chain reaction. But I digress.
I have a set of flatware. Four of the place settings were lost due to circumstances beyond my control. I replaced most of the missing pieces. I didn't replace the salad forks, because I had twenty-four. I only have twenty, but twenty seems to be enough. I did replace missing steak knives, forks and teaspoons. In a weird event, I found one of the missing steak knives in a very random place. I am still short a teaspoon.
I remember thinking to myself back in the fall, if I was supposed to have them, I'd find a matching set, complete with box. Well, in my search for a teaspoon on Saturday, I found exactly that. BTW, they quit making my flatware pattern a decade ago. I found a New, in the box, set of flatware that exactly is what I already have.
This set is unusual in the fact that it comes with 24 salad forks, round soup spoons, and steak knives. I offered the seller $25 less than the asking price and they sold them to me.
I talked to the ex before I bought it. She knows how I used to be about stuff and we talked about Thanksgiving. She knows how I wound up with tons of dinner plates and tons of Christmas dinner plates. She told me if it would make me happy, to buy the flatware. I told her that people make me happy and she reminded me that I would use those things to make people happy, which would make me happy.
I'd forgotten the adoption story from Christmastime, but there, in a box of flatware, was a reminder of the lesson: God's time. I wanted the right thing, I think: To set a nice table for my guests to enjoy. What it wasn't, well, was quite frankly, time.
I didn't need what I bought so I took it back.
I had to wait for what I wanted, and when it was available, it was better than hoped for at a price I could afford to pay.
And the thing is: I could set a table for 48. I'd have to use salad forks, soup spoons, and steak knives, but 48 people could sit down with somewhat matching flatware.
The object lesson is just about God's timing. I've wanted the same thing for a very long time. I got a taste of having that want come true at Christmas, but not in the way I'd preferred. Some things went wrong there, too, that day, but I just go with it.
In God's time, which is the object lesson for today.
Comments
Post a Comment