Devotion for June 22, 2016
22/06/16 10:25
Greetings!!
I needed to go shopping for groceries. I normally don’t mind shopping unless I’m in a hurry, or there is a huge crowd at the store, or I’m not really sure what I need, or I need something specific that I know may be hard to find and I’ll need to traverse the entire store….. guess I mind shopping more than I thought.
But I really needed to go shopping. Off to the store I went. I parked - I always park by the cart corral so I have a chance of remembering where I parked…. Walked up to the store, through the sliding doors and proceed to accomplish the first task which was going to be to get a basket. Well, this time I had a decision to make. I didn’t need a huge number of things so do I get a hand basket to carry or a small buggy? I was really glad when they developed those small buggies; often makes the trip to the store so much easier except for the times when I get a small buggy and then realize I needed more things than I thought I did and you have to get creative to get everything you need in that small buggy,,,,
This trip I decided I needed a small buggy instead of the hand basket - what I intended to get would all fit in the hand basket but a couple of the items were a little heavier so I decided the small basket would be better.
Of course, this was one of those days when the store was rather crowded and when I went to get the small buggy, they, alas, were all gone. So there I was with the large buggy for my few items. I knew that since I had the large buggy I would end up buying more than I needed because, well, there was room in the basket……
I went to get my buggy and all the buggies were pushed together in their normal nesting position with one buggy pushed into the front of another. I pulled and I pushed and I rocked it back and forth and the buggy just wouldn’t release from its position and I admit I got a little violent trying to get my buggy so I could do my shopping….. and finally the buggy gave up and rocked loose and the buggy and I went into the store to shop.
After all that work of freeing that buggy from the other buggies, I ended up with a buggy that obviously had been well used or maybe well abused and perhaps even in an accident because the buggy had those wheels that have that grating sound as you push and to make matters even worse the wheels weren't quite aligned and so the buggy was quite hard to push and sometimes wouldn’t always automatically go the direction in which you needed to go.
But I was already too far into the store to return back to wrestle another buggy from the stack and I thought I wasn’t getting too much so I could do this. Off I went into the aisles of the store.
Did I mention the store was crowded? All of my strength went into keeping that buggy going straight own the aisles and not running into another person pushing their buggy (altho that little devil on my shoulder commented how easy it would be to take out someone so that I could get their small buggy) and also manhandling the buggy to avoid all those many displays that clog up the aisles. Ever notice that these displays are always comprised of items that are highly breakable should they be run into and knocked over they would certainly crash in a loud sound of breaking things?
It was quite the struggle as I careened around corners holding tightly to my buggy to keep it from ramming into a shelf - the people around me could quickly take evasive action however because the wheels were making such a loud grating noise.
Finally, after my shopping was complete and my buggy wrangling was over, I put my groceries into the car and put the buggy into the cart corral and I gave a sigh of relief that this particular experience was over.
Ever feel like your life is going along like a person trying to push a damaged shopping cart? Sometimes our lives are like we are trying to push with all our might to get the buggy to keep going; sometimes our life feels like a squeaky wheel as people notice as we limp along. We wonder how our lives ended up this way.
Just like a buggy you end up with at the store, we generally don’t get to choose what is going to happen to us or around us. Just like we somehow end up with that difficult buggy, life happens around us and we end up with what we get.
We can either spend our time lamenting that we ended up with the damaged buggy life, or we can choose to just keep going, struggling along as we push through our life.
The advantage we have is that we have God. God is like a can of oil that can help make those non turning wheels move a little big better or squeak a little bit less. The basket still has its issues as our life still has its issues - but with God the pushing gets a little bit easier and a whole lot smoother….
Amen
Joanne
These devotions began in 2006 as a way to give us a midweek boost as we live out our lives as the people of God! Feel free to share them if you wish.
I needed to go shopping for groceries. I normally don’t mind shopping unless I’m in a hurry, or there is a huge crowd at the store, or I’m not really sure what I need, or I need something specific that I know may be hard to find and I’ll need to traverse the entire store….. guess I mind shopping more than I thought.
But I really needed to go shopping. Off to the store I went. I parked - I always park by the cart corral so I have a chance of remembering where I parked…. Walked up to the store, through the sliding doors and proceed to accomplish the first task which was going to be to get a basket. Well, this time I had a decision to make. I didn’t need a huge number of things so do I get a hand basket to carry or a small buggy? I was really glad when they developed those small buggies; often makes the trip to the store so much easier except for the times when I get a small buggy and then realize I needed more things than I thought I did and you have to get creative to get everything you need in that small buggy,,,,
This trip I decided I needed a small buggy instead of the hand basket - what I intended to get would all fit in the hand basket but a couple of the items were a little heavier so I decided the small basket would be better.
Of course, this was one of those days when the store was rather crowded and when I went to get the small buggy, they, alas, were all gone. So there I was with the large buggy for my few items. I knew that since I had the large buggy I would end up buying more than I needed because, well, there was room in the basket……
I went to get my buggy and all the buggies were pushed together in their normal nesting position with one buggy pushed into the front of another. I pulled and I pushed and I rocked it back and forth and the buggy just wouldn’t release from its position and I admit I got a little violent trying to get my buggy so I could do my shopping….. and finally the buggy gave up and rocked loose and the buggy and I went into the store to shop.
After all that work of freeing that buggy from the other buggies, I ended up with a buggy that obviously had been well used or maybe well abused and perhaps even in an accident because the buggy had those wheels that have that grating sound as you push and to make matters even worse the wheels weren't quite aligned and so the buggy was quite hard to push and sometimes wouldn’t always automatically go the direction in which you needed to go.
But I was already too far into the store to return back to wrestle another buggy from the stack and I thought I wasn’t getting too much so I could do this. Off I went into the aisles of the store.
Did I mention the store was crowded? All of my strength went into keeping that buggy going straight own the aisles and not running into another person pushing their buggy (altho that little devil on my shoulder commented how easy it would be to take out someone so that I could get their small buggy) and also manhandling the buggy to avoid all those many displays that clog up the aisles. Ever notice that these displays are always comprised of items that are highly breakable should they be run into and knocked over they would certainly crash in a loud sound of breaking things?
It was quite the struggle as I careened around corners holding tightly to my buggy to keep it from ramming into a shelf - the people around me could quickly take evasive action however because the wheels were making such a loud grating noise.
Finally, after my shopping was complete and my buggy wrangling was over, I put my groceries into the car and put the buggy into the cart corral and I gave a sigh of relief that this particular experience was over.
Ever feel like your life is going along like a person trying to push a damaged shopping cart? Sometimes our lives are like we are trying to push with all our might to get the buggy to keep going; sometimes our life feels like a squeaky wheel as people notice as we limp along. We wonder how our lives ended up this way.
Just like a buggy you end up with at the store, we generally don’t get to choose what is going to happen to us or around us. Just like we somehow end up with that difficult buggy, life happens around us and we end up with what we get.
We can either spend our time lamenting that we ended up with the damaged buggy life, or we can choose to just keep going, struggling along as we push through our life.
The advantage we have is that we have God. God is like a can of oil that can help make those non turning wheels move a little big better or squeak a little bit less. The basket still has its issues as our life still has its issues - but with God the pushing gets a little bit easier and a whole lot smoother….
Amen
Joanne
These devotions began in 2006 as a way to give us a midweek boost as we live out our lives as the people of God! Feel free to share them if you wish.