Ok, I know. I’m late with the post. It’s Thursday night at 8:27. It’s been a very busy week. But then August usually is. My kids are gone so it’s not school, which has started in our district. August means canning and freezing. In July is sweet corn which I blanch, cut off the cob and freeze. It’s a messy chore but worth it. The corn tastes so good in the winter. When my niece was young she would come and visit her grandparents each summer. So did her brother but he was out on the farm with the guys. My niece loved to come over to help when I did the corn. We had a great time cutting that corn and developed a very good friendship. The men would pick it in the morning, shuck it and I’d have the pot boiling. There’s not much better than having your husband say he’s going to pick the corn for supper and you put the water on so it’s boiling when he gets home. Yumm.
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Many of you know, or maybe not, that I live in rural Illinois. Farming is the family occupation. My husband, his brother and a son of both farm corn and soy beans. We are blessed with a large extended family which, praises to the Most High, get along very well. #1
I have trouble with balance. Not the physical kind. I can walk and chew gum most of the time without any trouble. I do, however, have trouble with balance in my life of service for God.
I know that I am saved by grace through, and only through, the sacrifice made by Jesus on the cross. I know that my faith is evidenced by what I do for Him. I know I show my gratitude for His sacrifice for me by what I do, for Him, for others. “Ah!”, as Shakespeare says, “that is the rub.” WHAT I do. What I do. What I DO. I get trapped in the that sentence. The “what” the “I” the “do”. I get so caught up within that sentence that I will continue doing until I am all done up. I will give and give and give of myself past the point when I have anything else to give. Sometimes I feel I am a rain barrel that people keep dipping in to get the water. Even when the barrel is empty they keep trying to get more out. Scraping the bottom trying to get what isn’t there. I have given of myself way past the point of reason or common sense. I will end up in tears in my pastor’s office physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. I go home. I try to back off the doing. I feel guilty because I am not doing enough for God. I keep doing. I crash again. Now throw in some crisis that happens in life somewhere in the cycle. I don’t care where. It happens. That’s life. Am I ready for it? Can I make it through? With God’s help, yes. Have I been as effective? Have I handled it in the best way for God? Probably not. Why? I have run myself ragged “for God”. Always doing. Always feeling guilty that I am not doing enough. Feeling guilty if I take an afternoon to just read or just do nothing. He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life; He leads me along the right paths for His name's sake. Ps 23:2-3 HCSB HE lets me lie down. He LETS me lie down. He lets ME lie down. He lets me LIE DOWN. He wants me to rest. He wants me to be refreshed. He wants me to be renewed so that I can walk the paths of life ready to honor His name. I have come to realize and enjoy the times of rest He gives me. They are times of reflection, of renewal, of rest so I can serve Him to the glory of His name. They are the times to balance the stressful trials. They are times to be grateful for. We don’t serve God only by doing. Sometimes we serve God by resting. I will let Him let me lie down. I recently attended my… uh hum… 40th class reunion. I had a great time. I hadn’t seen most of the people for… uh hum …40 years. My class had 442 graduate so it was impossible to have known all of them. Even so, those whom I only had a vague notion of when I was in high school were fun to re-meet and chat with to find out where they were and what family they had. Considering how terrifying going to a reunion can be I thought about it before hand and came up with several ideas before I went on how to have fun. Others in the list came to mind as I was there. So here goes: |
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April 2018
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