Yesterday, it was like one of my life gaskets blew. After work, I wearied myself to stop by a little shop that rests beside our office, a yarn shop. As I stepped inside, a cool breeze greeted me and I greeted the owner. Spinning wheels and looms were strategically placed in stations along the length of the building, while scanes, scanes, and more scanes hung from walls, spewed out of wicker baskets and spun upward onto backs of wooden work chairs. My fingers found cotton infancies stretched out by their spinning wheels in dozens of shades, ready to be made into something useful. I began to talk to the shop owner and pretty soon, she gave me a tour of her little fabric Eden. To me, it was a breath of fresh air amidst the stress I had just undergone at work. By the end of the tour, we began talking about things of life...life changes. I shared with her where I was at that very point and what I was learning, only to find that she, a Sister in Christ, shared the same mind and understood. By the end of our conversation, I was almost at the point of tears again, and quickly excused myself by telling her I would stop in more often. If I would have been blunt, the words "I am lonely" would have been blurted out, but thankfully, God helped me to pull my heart down out of my mouth and put it back in my chest.
Until...
the drive home.
I bawled.
The radio crooned songs that I needed to hear.
That was just like God to do.
To comfort His daughter.
That evening, I called my dad and between rain showers, stepped onto my back porch and sat in a dry spot. "Mary, this is only temporary. It won't last forever. Draw near to God. Read the psalms" -- and as he continued to coach, encourage and just love on me, my eyes were suddenly drawn to a mosquito that landed on my flip flop-- AN INSECT WHICH I COMPLETELY LOATH. Drawing my foot out slightly, I took my other flip flop and right before it's death sentence was to be carried out, I had the FUNNIEST thought. "Now you're not alone! See, I know your needs" -- which must have been God's Humor coming out in me. I almost burst out laughing while my dad was leading our serious discussion.
It died anyway.
Hehe.
Just as God used Isaiah 61 to restore and call me to His great things, I've realized again this morning that these verses were what Jesus was to do. He is clothing me with a garment of praise, just as He said He would. Praise God for His Humor! No more heaviness! Shake it off! Praise Him and Be glad! I share this same calling with My God.
“ To console those who mourn in Zion, to give
them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise
for [instead of a] the spirit of heaviness;
that they may be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD , that He may be glorified.”
Isaiah 61:3
I am the planting of the Lord. May He produce His Praise within me and the fruits of His Spirit!
2 comments:
Now that I have a long commute to and from work, I listen to the radio a lot more than I used to, and on the way home I listen to Dr. Randy Carlson with Intentional Living...and for two whole days he talked about singleness and with people that were struggling or had really learned to be intentional and what they did to help with struggles such a what you are going through. And over and over the message was to be intentional with time and to really invest in various ministries...because singleness is such a gift - there is SO MUCH ministry that can be done when someone does not have a spouse, kids, etc to occupy their time...not that those are bad things...but singleness allows so many opportunites for a person to really pour themselves out and have an amazing outreach to so many. The program talked over and over about how it was important to be intentional on focusing on becoming the person God wants you to be, specifically becoming a person that is ready to be married, if that's what they feel God has for their life. It was a really good program...and a challenge for me, even though I am married!! Anyway, that was a whole lot of rambing...but thanks for sharing your heart, and as you go through this transition, I pray that God gives you the strength and grace to rely on Him and trust Him and become an even more amazing woman of God...
Michelle
Thanks for your encouragement, Michelle. I will definitely be thinking and praying about what you said. The time thing really rings a bell; that's the thing that has come back more and more as important. I know God has things for me to do, but what? Please pray that God would show me.
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