Day Sixty Six

OK so I am on my work this morning at 6:15 when I go through the McDonalds drive through to get coffee. As I leave I push the button up to roll my car window back up and it starts, stops, starts, stops, starts, and then stops about three-quarters of the way up. Stuck. I push the button up . . nothing. I push the button down and it goes down. Up . . nothing. I push it down again and it goes. Up . . ..that's right, nothing. So now I am driving with my window down three quarters of the way! I am thinking about all sorts of things, mainly that it will be sitting in the parking lot open, what about rain, what about theft, how much will this deplete my already skinny bank account, etc. At stop lights, I keep trying the up button while pushing up on the window with my hand. . . NOTHING! Ok, now I need a plan to call the car guy, who is reasonable, and see if they work on this kind of thing. Driving, planning, pushing, thinking . . .hmmmm when it suddenly occurs to me the one thing I haven't done! PRAYER! I place my hand on the window and say "Lord, please fix my window". I reach down, lift up on the button and LOW AND BEHOLD the window rolls up!!! I am laughing and crying that I am still so amazed every time God does that. Not so much that he fixed my window but that the One who created the heavens and the earth and everything on it cared enough to fix my window. Only because he loves me so much and knew at that moment that's what I needed. It wasn't a glorious miracle but just a small thing. God DOES care about everything we care about . . .even broken windows! Father, if you care enough to fix my broken window then of course you will fix everything today that is broken in my life! Thank you for your love and faithfulness.

Day Forty-Eight

Amazing stuff today. 1000 backpacks to hand out to needy families. Families who had been lined up outside of the Gaynor center since 4:30 am. I am there as a volunteer and as I walk up to enter the building it is a sea of faces in a line that stretches around the building, down the side,and into the parking lot. Will there be enough backpacks? Child after child steps up to receive theirs. I am line monitor, crowd control, and after an hour of seeing them being passed out someone recommends that we should cut the line off before we run out, afraid of angry people who had waited in line for hours only to be told that there were none left. When this was suggested to Pastor Jay he kindly replied "loaves and fishes people, loaves and fishes, God will provide". OK. The next thirty minutes continued the same, wave of person after person stepping up to receive the backpack, until . . . I noticed a lull in the line. It was slowly subsiding. There were still a few trickling in but not the non-stop bodies stepping forward. I looked around and a there were still a few backpacks and . . . a only a handful to recieve them! How good is our God who provides just what is needed when it is needed, every time. Oh yeah, and the crazy rain storm held off during the entire event only to began 30 minutes after. I love God's world.

Day 44

Wow, it's been a long time since I have had Internet service to log in, well that's one excuse! OK Saturday, Walter the cable guy comes to hook up Internet. I have to make a point to make conversation with him because it is out of my comfort zone. Walter is a guy probably in his late 50's early 60's, VERY rough around the edges, smells of smoke, and makes a couple of jokes that are borderline creepy. I just keep thinking "I must invite him to church, I must invite him to church". I'm getting myself all worked up and stressed out about how to ask him so, I pray. Then the calm comes, more conversation, and finally out comes the words "Walter I want to invite you to church. It's right next door". Oh my, that was easy. Prayer works. First time I have ever invited a complete stranger to church . . . how sad, but also a new beginning. Oh yeah, he turned me down, said he goes with his grandchildren but that's OK. It never hurts to ask! I'll ask someone else, who knows maybe our paths will cross and I will get to ask him again.

Day Twenty 32

I haven't been logging daily. I have gotten sucked into the "busyness" of the day. So much hurting so little time. I am a selfish human being. Traveling, working and now moving has consumed my every thought. I don't like being away from Christ's work. I miss the joy I had and the blessing from God's hand when I was making an effort to make connections.

Day twenty six

Airplanes were always a place for me to put the headphones on and get into a good book. I didn't want to have a conversation with the people sitting next to me. Piece and quiet. I knew this flight I wouldn't be able to do that. Yesterday, I got out of my comfort zone and carried on a conversation with the girl next to me. As I got off the flight I was thinking nothing monumental happened but I made the connection. she does live in my area. If only I had invited her to church. Well, there's always tomorrow. . . . Or is there?

Internet service in the country comes and goes. Couldn't get on at all last night. Hopefully, I'll have it tonight.

Day Twenty Four

No there are no postings for Day Twenty Two and Twenty Three. I didn't feel I had anything to say. My first thought was "I've hit a dry spell, I've lost the fire", but no. I realized I am resting in the Lord. Sometimes I am so busy doing that I forget just being. Being still, being quiet, being with Him. So for now I am just being . . . until further instructions. Father I am so grateful that you will sit and "BE" with me. I enjoy our time together.

Day Twenty-One

A meeting that I attend reminds everyone in the group to rely on "the God of their understanding". The God of my understanding is of course the father of Jesus Christ. But that's not the way it is for everyone. Listening to the radio tonight on the way home the guy was talking about how his dad was the kind of dad that would say "straighten up and fly right". Not the kind of Dad that would say "shape up or ship out".

It's interesting how for some the God of their understanding is the "shape up or ship out" kind of father. Very sad! I am so grateful to have a God who is loving, nurturing, disciplining, and forgiving. A father who says to me "straighten up and fly right" and gives me the tools to do it, and doesn't say "shape up or ship out!"