Tag Archive | right thing at the wrong time

When A Shower Cleanses More Than Normal

Oct23

I do some of my best thinking in the shower.  I don’t know if it’s because that’s one of the places in our house where you are truly by yourself or what but a good shower usually helps me think better.  Normally, I shower in the morning.  I don’t think that’s even pertinent to my story, but in case anyone ever asks you– I typically shower in the morning.  Last night, I’d had a really long day and I guess thought a good, hot shower would wash it all away.  I’m not sure, but I do know that as the hot water fell over my tense body– everything began to feel okay. 

I’m also known to sing in the shower.  Put that on your list of “Useless Things to Know About Stephanie” too.  You know, right under the one that says I normally shower in the morning.  This one’s slightly more pertinent though, because it was in my seemingly random singing that God calmed my spirit and steered my heart a little.  And wouldn’t you know it was another Laura Story song…

Blessings

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

I think God met me halfway on my prayer for a burning bush, because it was definitely hot in there but His move was quiet.  I’m really thankful, in the midst of what feels like utter and complete chaos in my world, that God continues to invade my space and remind me that He’s still bigger.  I’ve known that.  I have.  For years now even.  But in the midst of my Crisis of Belief, I needed Him to say it again.  And He did.  In a way that I heard Him…

While I’m Waiting

Jun6

I don’t tend to wait very well.  If there’s a group of us going somewhere, I tend to be the one that’s annoyed by the time everyone else is ready to go.  While it doesn’t always work out– I prefer to be a little early to where I’m going, not late or even right on time.  If I’m waiting in traffic, I tend to start asking the car in front of me what they’re waiting on to go.  I can be found playing on my phone when I’m waiting on someone to meet me or even just standing in line for something.  Unfortunately, that tends to spill over in other areas of my life too.

For example, I tend to want to hurry up the learning process.  Sometimes I just want to take people, pick them up from where they are and put them where I think they should be.  On occasion, it’s that I want to pick them up from something bad that they’re involved in and just set them down in a much better place.  You know, because I actually know what’s best for them.  (Please note the sarcasm here.  I clearly have no idea what’s best for someone else.)  Other times, I literally just want to speed up what they’re going through.  I can tell they’re headed in the right direction; I just want them to hurry up and get there.  Particularly if it involves me.  Okay, especially if it involves me.

Don’t worry—my impatience is equal opportunity– I have that same notion for myself.  I would rather just know the lesson, and totally bypass learning it.  If only I was Mary Poppins– I could just snap my fingers and be done with it; whatever “it” is.  Sometimes, God makes something so clear to me and then I let the opinions of others cloud the way.  I wish I could just snap my fingers and all of the pieces would fall into place.

I’m learning that, the right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.  I’m also seeing all the ways that the Lord can do more in my waiting than I can do in my doing.  I need to be more patient with others, more patient with myself, and more patient with the Lord in what He’s doing.  I’m not clearly there yet.  I want to be.  I hope I get there soon, ha!