Lifeboat

I know many of us have heard the following story or a variation of it:


Once, there was a woman who was living in a small city that was suffering from heavy storms. The flooding and rain had become very bad, but she resisted leaving her house. Eventually the conditions were so bad that she was unable to leave her house. She had to wait to be rescued. However, she had great faith in God, and believed that God would come rescue her. As the floodwaters kept rising, she was forced to move to the second floor of her house. Outside the second bedroom window, she saw a canoe float past, and some of the folks from her town were in it. They yelled for her to come with them.

She responded, "No, you go ahead. I know I'll be rescued." So the canoe paddled away in the torrential downpour. The waters rose even more, and soon she had to move to the attic. Not long after she moved, she heard a powerboat outside the window, and the president of her congregation encouraged her to get in.

She responded, "That's OK, really. I believe God has a plan for me." So the president shrugged his shoulders and motored away in the stormy night.

Not long after that, a helicopter arrived and hovered over her house. The pilot yelled over a microphone that they were going to drop a rope, so she could take hold of it to be pulled to safety.

However, she waved them off shouting: "Help someone else. My faith is strong and God will rescue me."

Well, that was the last vehicle to come by, and sadly, not long after that, the woman drowned. When she got to heaven, she had a chance to meet God, and challenging God, she said, "What's the big idea? You told me you were going to rescue me, save me. Why did you fail and let me die?"

And God replied: "Fail you? Fail you!! First I sent a canoe, then a boat. I even sent the helicopter. But no, you refused. Fail you? What did you expect, a miracle?"

I had a friend recently have me look at this a little differently and wanted to share it with you.  Most people look at this as a way to hear God calling you.  Sometimes we do not recognize the signs that He is with us and trying to send us help.  We keep waiting for some miraculous sign when it often comes in simple - every day forms.  This woman kept waiting for God himself to reach down to her I believe.  

However, my friend was sharing with me that she wonders how often we are in the life boat judging the other people that are waving their hands in the air trying to get help.  The other people who might be driving a less than beautiful boat.  The ones who we think are different than we are.  It just made me pause and think about the life boat we might be in.  Are we busy thanking God for a way or busy looking at other boats and other people?

I will be posting quite a bit  from here on out in the midst of absolute chaos.  It will slowly unfold but I hope to show God's grace and humor in the midst of it all.  It will make sense as you follow.  Have a blessed evening!

Suicidal Frogs and other animals...

For those of you that know me, I spend a lot of time in the car. I am often driving the children to and fro. With all the rain recently, I was struck by how many frogs decide to cross the road in the rain. I don't normally see them during the sunshine or when it is dry. I mean - did their pond overflow and they are seeking another? And why do they suddenly decide to cross a road to get to where they want to go? Can they not see giant objects barreling down the road? Do their little frog friends sit on the side of the road daring them to do it? Regardless, I have no idea how many I have hit over the years. I feel moderately guilty about it - but not much I can do. I think the same thing about squirrels. Why do squirrels choose to cross the road right before a car comes? It doesn't make sense. The squirrels even have this goofy thing they do where they squish their butt and tail as they race across the road anticipating getting hit. (I did look up the frog thing and there is apparently some thought that when it rains - they are hopping to go find a mate - I could make all kinds of cynical jokes here but I won't!)

I was thinking about how often we are running towards something. We do not always know where we are going and it is often into traffic. Why? All to find something better. The grass is greener syndrome. Sometimes there is something better but often it is the same old green grass. There is nothing wrong with striving to do better but seeking something different isn't always the best. I've watched this again and again with teens in my youth group. They start dating and then when things start to fizzle or get difficult - they either cheat or cut the cord and move onto the next best thing. I affectionately refer to this as the cornflakes scenario. You get tired of the box of cornflakes you always buy - so you go to the store and look at all the shiny boxes. You notice the new improved awesome prize included cereal and you are so excited to bring it home. Then you open the box and it is still the same box of cornflakes. Bottom line - you often get the same thing and how much pain did you go through to get the exact same thing? Part of why I bring this up is that sometimes we need to be content with where God has us at a given moment. That isn't to say we shouldn't strive for better or to be the best that we can be. It is to say that sometimes God has us move through moments of challenge and difficulty to walk through it with us. We shouldn't be hopping and running to the other side of the road to get away - but to stay in the moment and gain as much knowledge so we truly can be the best we can be. It truly is to refine us and shape us into a better person. Sometimes it comes with pain and sometimes it comes with incredible joy. Either way, we do not need to be suicidal and jump in front of a moving car to seek the best in life. God truly has our best interest at heart and it is up to us what we do with what we have in the moment that we have it.

“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4 NIV

Extreme Couponing...

Okay - I am back people.... I don't know if you have been watching the Extreme Couponing show. It is quite comical. I have recently been couponing and I have saved quite a bit of money. However, I refuse to buy items my family doesn't need even if it is free. Ok, so if you haven't seen the show, I must describe it to you. Basically, they follow a typical shopping trip for an extreme couponer. They show their stockpile of years worth of groceries and everyone oooh's and aaah's. The person usually has 10 grocery carts full and has shopped for hours before getting to the cashier where they are there for another few hours. It is really quite fascinating to see them get a $1000k bill down to like 20 dollars. I sat there for the longest time trying to figure out how some of these less than competent people could do this coupon thing and I can't. I am a pretty smart woman. I surely could do better than they could. Then I started doing research and finding out how they do this crazy couponing. Then I started really watching the show. If you have seen the show, have you seen what they buy?! I don't need 126 pkgs of tic tacs. I don't need 56 three musketeers bars. One lady bought 42 containers of yogurt. I am all for being regular but even I have my limit as to how much yogurt I can eat before it would go bad in the fridge. Do we need 53 bottles of spray glade? The more I sat and watched the show, the more I realized how crazy this whole thing was. The women would justify that they were just providing for their families and not hoarding. I swore if I ever had an over abundance of something that I would donate it to the food pantry. There are so many people in need. It is such a control thing. These people were freaking out if they were down to only 3 months of a supply of toilet paper. They spend 30 hours a week between collecting coupons (sometimes in dumpsters), cutting coupons, and planning out shopping trips - not to mention the actual shopping trips. They would spend 8-10 hours at a store. Can you imagine how effective we would be if we worked that hard trying to share our hearts with other people? Can you imagine the impact we would have if we got our heads out of our computers and spent that 30-40 hours focusing on people around us? If we would only take that same time and spend it in the Word - imagine the answers we would get from God. Wow... I think this scripture speaks for itself: Luke 12:20-21 "Just then God showed up and said, 'Fool!' Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods- who gets it?' "That's what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not God"