Devotion November 2, 2016
03/11/16 20:58
Greetings!
Every morning (well, almost every morning cause there are often those mornings when I wake up and I just can’t get myself motivated to get out of bed or to get moving once I’m out of bed or I just plain ole’ don’t wake up early enough…..) I get up, shuffle down the hall, drink a cup of coffee, eat my container of yogurt, drink my glass of juice, shuffle back up the hall, get dressed, come back to the bench by the front door and begin to put on my tennis shoes. (I don’t think they are called tennis shoes anymore but I’m too old to change my terminology…) It is at this point that my old dog has figured out that yes, his master has mastered the motivation coefficient and we actually are going to go on our walk.
The mornings I don’t muster sufficient motivation he realizes quickly that his walk is not going to happen because I don’t go over and sit on the bench to put on my shoes cause everything else that happens in the morning is pretty much the same. These mornings he meanders out to his porch and lays down on his blanket and gives me the "Poor me" look and I feel pretty guilty....
The mornings all goes as planned, after the shoes are on I put on his leash, grab a bag of recycling (there is some part of my mind that thinks that if I take a grocery bag of recycling every day that somehow I am going to get caught up taking recycling - I often live in a fantasy world), and the dog and I race out to the car - racing only because the dog is in a hurry and I am on the other end of the leash - I think he thinks that if he doesn’t get me to the car somewhere along the way I am going to get sidetracked and he won’t get his walk!
Well, we made it to the car which is a real difficulty for my poor old dog but he is so determined to take his walk that he puts every ounce of determination he has into jumping up into the back seat - and you can see an ounce of pride in him as he knows what an accomplishment that is! (Although he is a little upset with me because I have my granddaughters car seat in the car and it is in ‘his’ spot and he has to sit on the other side of the car).
This particular morning it was early - but it was bright and sunny. Even though it was fall the sun shown down and I was able to go on my walk in just a t shirt and jeans. I had thrown a jacket into the car but I knew it was warm enough that I wasn’t going to need it.
But while I enjoyed the warmth of the sun, the sun was about to become a big problem…..
In the car I climbed with my dog, whose eyes I could feel boring into me because he could not sit in his normal place, and off we went to our walking location which was about 5 miles away.
The journey to the walking place requires a stint on the local interstate which requires one of those on ramps where you are getting on the interstate at the same place that other people are getting off the interstate and most of the time this is not an issue because the road isn’t that crowded. However at 8am in the morning when everyone is going to work, this interstate getting on can be a little harrowing. But this one particular morning, as I was getting onto the interstate in the midst of a large amount of going to work traffic who wanted off where I wanted on, I was headed west and as you know, the sun comes up in the east. This means that as I was going west, the sun was coming up in the east, and reflecting off the large silver trucks speeding past the entrance ramp and reflecting off my side mirror and reflecting off my rear view mirror and essentially I didn’t have a clue where I was - I was truly blinded by the light (a reference to a Bruce Springsteen song of the ’70’s).
Fortunately my car has those side beepers whose job it is to beep if there is a car on either side of me. Theoretically if there is no beep, then I can merge into the lane into my left with the assurance that there is not already a car occupying that space. And on this particular day all I could do if I was going to go anywhere at all was to trust my side mirror beeper. And hearing no beep, I in my sun coming up light blindness, in full faith that the technology was working, merged into the lane into which I needed to be. And, lo and behold, there was no large crashing of metal or horns blowing so I know that I had successfully accomplished my goal - because I drove out in trust.
Well, you probably know where this is going but it is true. How many times in our lives do we not have a clue as to what we are to be doing or what God wants of us and we just feel blindsided by decisions that need to be made? It is such a terrible feeling of conflict and confusion and feeling like being blinded by sunlight on an interstate - that disorientation of knowing you need to see but can’t.
We know in our hearts that if we just sit still and wait for a minute, God will lead us - we know that. That is who we are as people of God - people of the promise of God’s love and grace and care and guidance. Just like side mirror beepers, we have God to open the way for us and we just have to trust… we just have to have faith in the promise we are given - promises from our God.
Amen!
Every morning (well, almost every morning cause there are often those mornings when I wake up and I just can’t get myself motivated to get out of bed or to get moving once I’m out of bed or I just plain ole’ don’t wake up early enough…..) I get up, shuffle down the hall, drink a cup of coffee, eat my container of yogurt, drink my glass of juice, shuffle back up the hall, get dressed, come back to the bench by the front door and begin to put on my tennis shoes. (I don’t think they are called tennis shoes anymore but I’m too old to change my terminology…) It is at this point that my old dog has figured out that yes, his master has mastered the motivation coefficient and we actually are going to go on our walk.
The mornings I don’t muster sufficient motivation he realizes quickly that his walk is not going to happen because I don’t go over and sit on the bench to put on my shoes cause everything else that happens in the morning is pretty much the same. These mornings he meanders out to his porch and lays down on his blanket and gives me the "Poor me" look and I feel pretty guilty....
The mornings all goes as planned, after the shoes are on I put on his leash, grab a bag of recycling (there is some part of my mind that thinks that if I take a grocery bag of recycling every day that somehow I am going to get caught up taking recycling - I often live in a fantasy world), and the dog and I race out to the car - racing only because the dog is in a hurry and I am on the other end of the leash - I think he thinks that if he doesn’t get me to the car somewhere along the way I am going to get sidetracked and he won’t get his walk!
Well, we made it to the car which is a real difficulty for my poor old dog but he is so determined to take his walk that he puts every ounce of determination he has into jumping up into the back seat - and you can see an ounce of pride in him as he knows what an accomplishment that is! (Although he is a little upset with me because I have my granddaughters car seat in the car and it is in ‘his’ spot and he has to sit on the other side of the car).
This particular morning it was early - but it was bright and sunny. Even though it was fall the sun shown down and I was able to go on my walk in just a t shirt and jeans. I had thrown a jacket into the car but I knew it was warm enough that I wasn’t going to need it.
But while I enjoyed the warmth of the sun, the sun was about to become a big problem…..
In the car I climbed with my dog, whose eyes I could feel boring into me because he could not sit in his normal place, and off we went to our walking location which was about 5 miles away.
The journey to the walking place requires a stint on the local interstate which requires one of those on ramps where you are getting on the interstate at the same place that other people are getting off the interstate and most of the time this is not an issue because the road isn’t that crowded. However at 8am in the morning when everyone is going to work, this interstate getting on can be a little harrowing. But this one particular morning, as I was getting onto the interstate in the midst of a large amount of going to work traffic who wanted off where I wanted on, I was headed west and as you know, the sun comes up in the east. This means that as I was going west, the sun was coming up in the east, and reflecting off the large silver trucks speeding past the entrance ramp and reflecting off my side mirror and reflecting off my rear view mirror and essentially I didn’t have a clue where I was - I was truly blinded by the light (a reference to a Bruce Springsteen song of the ’70’s).
Fortunately my car has those side beepers whose job it is to beep if there is a car on either side of me. Theoretically if there is no beep, then I can merge into the lane into my left with the assurance that there is not already a car occupying that space. And on this particular day all I could do if I was going to go anywhere at all was to trust my side mirror beeper. And hearing no beep, I in my sun coming up light blindness, in full faith that the technology was working, merged into the lane into which I needed to be. And, lo and behold, there was no large crashing of metal or horns blowing so I know that I had successfully accomplished my goal - because I drove out in trust.
Well, you probably know where this is going but it is true. How many times in our lives do we not have a clue as to what we are to be doing or what God wants of us and we just feel blindsided by decisions that need to be made? It is such a terrible feeling of conflict and confusion and feeling like being blinded by sunlight on an interstate - that disorientation of knowing you need to see but can’t.
We know in our hearts that if we just sit still and wait for a minute, God will lead us - we know that. That is who we are as people of God - people of the promise of God’s love and grace and care and guidance. Just like side mirror beepers, we have God to open the way for us and we just have to trust… we just have to have faith in the promise we are given - promises from our God.
Amen!