We have made to the middle of March. There are remnants of snow banks here and there, leaving mud in their wake. I had to leave my car in dirt parking lot the other day and stepped out into a muddy puddle. There was no way to get back into the car without first stepping through the mud, thus bringing it into the car with me. That is sort of like life at times. You just have to go through the muck to get to where things are fresh and clean.
April bring seemingly endless showers, which they say bring our lovely May flowers. Once again we have to endure the rain that nourishes the plants before we see the spring blossoms brightening our horizons. Don’t you wish some days you could just skip the spring mucky melt and the showers and jump right into the sunshine and flowers? I do. Life dishes out nasty mires that soil our easy lives. Things seem to be going along well and all of a sudden you get stuck in a mud patch. Then that starts to dry up and you get moving again only to find the horizon is full of rain and gloom. How do you get through until those bright spring flowers begin to pop open? March and April seem endless when looking forward to the May season in our lives. I know because I have been there. I have found myself in situations not of my making, yet inescapable for a season. My outlook seemed as gray and dingy as the skies; there was no hint of relief on the horizon. I was beyond my own resources for solutions. I had done all I could do to stand in the midst of the mud and I was sinking quickly. I reached up to the Word of God. I was like Peter, the disciple of Jesus, who was called to walk on water, a seemingly impossible feat. He accomplished it until he took his eyes off his great Teacher and sank into the raging waters. I had not stayed as intimately close to Jesus as I needed to be and the dirt of life was swallowing me up. So what is the solution in the midst of a mess? I do not have the answers for individual problems but I do know what worked for me. I dug in deeply into the Word of God and saw who I was in those pages. I was a child of the King, joint heir with Jesus. I have been Redeemed from the curse and would no longer accept a defeated attitude when He said that in Him I was more than a conqueror. I saw myself differently and thus found the seasons changing. Mud turned to showers for a period of time. Yes, the gray continued for a season, but little by little I started to see green sprouts pushing through the ground of my barren life. Soon those sprouts turned to leaves and buds formed. Before I knew it bright flowers opened, petal by petal. It was a process. It started out by hanging onto the Truth of the Word and that changed my attitude about the junk around me. Piece by piece, my situation changed as well. Coincidence? I suspect not so much. I planted different seeds and saw them grow a different harvest of pretty flowers. I am realistic enough to realize that the seasons will continue to change. Those flowers will wilt and die if I do not tend to them. New flowers come and go with the seasons. Winter will come again, just as spring and summer and autumn do too. The challenge is to stay focused on the spring flowers in the midst of a winter’s storm, standing firm on the Word of God when it all looks bleak. That is what true Faith is all about.
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In the last five months I have embarked on a new adventure. Some would say it has been a distraction from my main goal as a writer, but I would disagree. It has grown me and stretched me in ways that I never imagined...and can only make me a better writer in the process. It has also had the concurrent benefit of making me so dependent on the Lord, I can hardly express how much.
So, what have I been doing? I took a course with the intention of getting some training to improve my skills in public speaking. What was the training? It was in modelling and acting. Never in a million years did I think I would ever do such a thing but it has been wonderful, fun and it put me so far out of my comfort zone I had to rely completely on the Lord to achieve my goals. This past weekend I completed a workshop that included work with an acting coach. I was performing a television commercial and a monologue (both of which I wrote), doing improv and cold scene readings…and much to my surprise, I loved it! You have to understand, I have been in a class with tweens, teens and twenty-somethings…and then there is me…let’s just say that I am considerably older than my fellow students. However, we all have something in common. We were all learning something new and most of us had to stretch beyond our usual horizons to achieve the instructor’s expectations. Most sessions I felt like I was leaping off the top of a cliff, trying to fly like super woman but realizing that there was nothing beneath me but air. If I did not get help I would land splat on the rocks below…not a good result. I had to ask the Lord for Help each and every week. I had to rely on His Ability added to my ability to do the things I was needing to learn. I had to forget that I hated having my photo taken and I was uncertain in my abilities to memorize a script. I had to say to the Lord that if He wanted me to finish this course, He was going to have to Give me something I did not think I possessed. Each week it was a different aspect that was missing in my usual makeup. Every time we set out on a new adventure we must rely on God. However, we must go a step further and realize that every time we step out of bed, we need to do the same thing. Why do we wait till we are totally beyond ourselves before we ask God to Help us? It ought to be our daily routine. Before we plant out feet on the floor, we all need to thank the Lord for another day to achieve His Plans for the world and our lives and request His Guidance to do it step by step, breath by breath. In the same way that I relied on Him to achieve the extraordinary, we need to lean on Him to do the seemingly mundane in life. In so doing, perhaps the mundane will become extraordinary. Just something to think about… We have snow once again in our area of Ontario. It has been a weird winter so far. Who would have thought of +17C on Christmas Eve? Now we a winter storm that has graced our countryside. I, for one. like the after effects of a storm; the renewed white on a canvas that was merely shades of grey and grunge. The day of the storm is another matter; that is, if you have any errands or appointments to accomplish. Hunkered down in my house the snow looks magical and refreshing on the landscape. In my car, I take my time knowing there will be another vehicle coming around a corner in a hurry and likely sliding like a dirt track racer. I like to keep my distance from those drivers, glad to keep my car intact with no dents.
Today, I had an appointment to have a pedicure, of all days. So, of course, coming out of the salon, you might know that I was wearing flip flops so I would not damage my newly painted toes. Not a good day for this bit of pampering. As I swept the snow from the car, you guessed it, where does the snow land but on my bare feet. Who said beauty was easy? It made me think of all those pictures of the refugees with no proper footwear in the advancing winter. We do have it very easy here, don’t we? I had a few seconds of freezing temperature on my unshod feet. Many people have little or nothing to protect themselves from the elements. Not only refugees in foreign lands suffer, but we also have homeless people who suffer from the elements in our own cities. How often do we consider their plight? It is amazing how a simple activity can bring the reality of living into perspective. Our own situation is not always similar to what others experience. We often go through our weeks, busy, preoccupied and unaware of the burdens that others bear. We get annoyed when people do not meet our expectations for service in a store or coffee shop, but how much do we know about their lives, their struggles. Do we even make eye contact or ask how they are really doing, not the obligatory greeting of “Hi, how are you?” and “Fine thanks.” Most of the time it is said without even thinking, not really caring what answer you get. Perhaps it is time as winter is advancing, the snow is arriving and the cold is setting in, that we make an effort to genuinely ask how our server is doing or make a comment to the store clerk which will brighten their day or ease their load. Can we make a concerted effort to make someone’s day easier or lift their self-esteem a notch for no other reason than you can. If there is a worthwhile New Year’s resolution, perhaps this would be a good one. Can we start a trend? Let me know what you have done to lift up someone you do not even know. I would be interested in your experiences. |
AuthorJudith Utman is the author of Voices in the Wilderness. Archives
April 2020
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