Devotion January 18, 2017
18/01/17 15:19
Greetings all!
Weather is such a strange thing. Weather is 70 degrees where I am today and a mere 50 miles away it is 35. It is sunny here today (it is a great day in other words!!) 50 miles away where it is 35 there are gray skies and snow flakes flying around in the air.
So when you go to the weather channel on your TV and they start talking about the weather across the country, you can virtually find almost every type of weather that there is. Pretty much you can find sunny places and rainy places and snowy places and cold places and warm places and places where there are experiencing one type of weather and have a ‘chance’ of another type of weather.
And you know what we do - we obsess on watching the weather forecasts so we will know what the weather is going to be and then we don’t trust what we watch because we figure it is all just a guess anyway! Right???
Packing for a trip is another strange thing. What do you pack? Especially when you are thinking about going to a totally different part of the country where you know that the weather is not going to be what you are experiencing in the place you are residing when you pack and in the back of your mind you don’t really trust those long range weather forecasts (granted we have experience with not trusting those long range weather forecasts since there have been numerous times in our lives when we have been told to prepare for the storm of the century and we wake up to sunny skies!).
This is where I am as I stand in front of my empty suitcase wondering what to pack. After all, I am going to be a thousand miles from home and certainly in a whole different weather pattern than I am experiencing where I live. I watch the weather forecast for the area to which I am going and there are a lot of words like ‘possible’ and ‘if the front moves this way’ and ‘chance of’…. Huh?
I think “How am I suppose to know what to do!!!” There are voices in my head at this point that said, “Oh, just wait til you get out there and buy clothes that match the weather…..” This is tempting. I do like clothes…..
But the responsible part of me says this is probably a bad idea…
So I am still standing over an empty suitcase worrying that when I get out there I will not have what I need….. And even knowing it will be colder than it is here, I wonder “How much colder?” Do I pack heavy sweaters or light sweaters and do I pack for the evenings when we have to go out to eat or do I pack for the temperature of the rooms where I will be sitting in meetings or I guess I should pack layers but I really don’t like to have to carry things when I have to start removing those layers because it becomes warm…
And then you are under the restrictions of your suitcase can only weigh so much or you have to pay exorbitant fees (and once I flew and my suitcase was overweight and they wouldn’t even let me pay the overweight fee I had to get rid of stuff or I couldn’t get my suitcase on the plane…. I had to go by a backpack, sit in the floor of the airline terminal, unpack heavy stuff and put it in the backpack before I could get my suitcase on the plane!!)
And yes, I am still standing here looking at the empty suitcase with the weather channel on….
Sometimes we think that God is just as confusing as the weather and trying to figure out what to pack. We stand before God like he is an empty suitcase and say, “I don’t have a clue as to what you want me to do.” We look for a TV channel that will give us a forecast of what God sees ahead of us and what will happen if we do (or don’t do) what he has in mind for us.
And we forget that the answers are right there in front of us. God gives us plenty of information - we just don’t use the tools he gives us….. We have his word in scripture; we have his word in worship; we have his word in Bible Study opportunities…… Its all there.
But it takes an open mind and a willingness to listen and have patience - and an attitude that realizes that God is not always going to tell us what we want to hear.
My suitcase still isn’t packed - but it will happen….. Just like God will be there for you if you will just open yourself up to him.
Amen!
Weather is such a strange thing. Weather is 70 degrees where I am today and a mere 50 miles away it is 35. It is sunny here today (it is a great day in other words!!) 50 miles away where it is 35 there are gray skies and snow flakes flying around in the air.
So when you go to the weather channel on your TV and they start talking about the weather across the country, you can virtually find almost every type of weather that there is. Pretty much you can find sunny places and rainy places and snowy places and cold places and warm places and places where there are experiencing one type of weather and have a ‘chance’ of another type of weather.
And you know what we do - we obsess on watching the weather forecasts so we will know what the weather is going to be and then we don’t trust what we watch because we figure it is all just a guess anyway! Right???
Packing for a trip is another strange thing. What do you pack? Especially when you are thinking about going to a totally different part of the country where you know that the weather is not going to be what you are experiencing in the place you are residing when you pack and in the back of your mind you don’t really trust those long range weather forecasts (granted we have experience with not trusting those long range weather forecasts since there have been numerous times in our lives when we have been told to prepare for the storm of the century and we wake up to sunny skies!).
This is where I am as I stand in front of my empty suitcase wondering what to pack. After all, I am going to be a thousand miles from home and certainly in a whole different weather pattern than I am experiencing where I live. I watch the weather forecast for the area to which I am going and there are a lot of words like ‘possible’ and ‘if the front moves this way’ and ‘chance of’…. Huh?
I think “How am I suppose to know what to do!!!” There are voices in my head at this point that said, “Oh, just wait til you get out there and buy clothes that match the weather…..” This is tempting. I do like clothes…..
But the responsible part of me says this is probably a bad idea…
So I am still standing over an empty suitcase worrying that when I get out there I will not have what I need….. And even knowing it will be colder than it is here, I wonder “How much colder?” Do I pack heavy sweaters or light sweaters and do I pack for the evenings when we have to go out to eat or do I pack for the temperature of the rooms where I will be sitting in meetings or I guess I should pack layers but I really don’t like to have to carry things when I have to start removing those layers because it becomes warm…
And then you are under the restrictions of your suitcase can only weigh so much or you have to pay exorbitant fees (and once I flew and my suitcase was overweight and they wouldn’t even let me pay the overweight fee I had to get rid of stuff or I couldn’t get my suitcase on the plane…. I had to go by a backpack, sit in the floor of the airline terminal, unpack heavy stuff and put it in the backpack before I could get my suitcase on the plane!!)
And yes, I am still standing here looking at the empty suitcase with the weather channel on….
Sometimes we think that God is just as confusing as the weather and trying to figure out what to pack. We stand before God like he is an empty suitcase and say, “I don’t have a clue as to what you want me to do.” We look for a TV channel that will give us a forecast of what God sees ahead of us and what will happen if we do (or don’t do) what he has in mind for us.
And we forget that the answers are right there in front of us. God gives us plenty of information - we just don’t use the tools he gives us….. We have his word in scripture; we have his word in worship; we have his word in Bible Study opportunities…… Its all there.
But it takes an open mind and a willingness to listen and have patience - and an attitude that realizes that God is not always going to tell us what we want to hear.
My suitcase still isn’t packed - but it will happen….. Just like God will be there for you if you will just open yourself up to him.
Amen!