We are each designed for a unique and divine purpose. Live yours!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Hello, it's Me God! Just Need to Vent!

Thankful Thursday, Faith-filled Friday, Word-Filled Wednesday, Testimony Tuesday, Monday Manna. I've heard of all of these memes and more. I've participated regularly in some of them. There are some very good reasons I choose to participate in memes. As Christians we are meant to be in community and joining in a meme allows and affords me the opportunity to join with other in a common activity. It's fun, it's educational, it's a wonderful way to reach out to others and to be ministered to by others whom we may never meet on the earth in this lifetime.

Sometimes my husband even reminds me that I don't "have to" participate in a meme every week, if it's going to stress me out! At those times, I'm particularly thankful he is my husband, my best friend, and in many ways my mentor on all things regarding faith! (On the day-to-day, common sense, keep the wheels of civilization turning things I excel. It's on the real nitty-gritty aspects of faith that he far surpasses my ability and capacity.)

I'm one of those literalists when it comes to faith - and my husband generally agrees with me: if Jesus said it, He meant it - very literally and without need for expansion or deliberation! Feed the hungry means just that! Shelter the homeless, offer comfort to the brokenhearted, extend hope to the downtrodden . . . and on and on. He meant it both literally in very physical terms as well as in spiritual terms. We do diverge somewhat on the love and acceptance part, but that's for another post!

Love your neighbor. Worship the One True God. Trust and Obey. That's it -- everything else really falls in to place, don't you think?! Yes, I know that's very simplistic! I could talk with you for hours about this very topic and perhaps agree to disagree on where exactly one should draw that proverbial line in the sand. The bottom line, though isn't whether it's drawn nearer to one extreme or the other, but I think rather, that we even discuss it at all!

The past several days have found me shaking my head and asking - more than once - "What is wrong with people? Really, what is wrong?! No big tragedy or major misfortune has befallen me or anyone I love (for that I am truly grateful). It's just that sometimes the world seems so NOT what Jesus preached and I am challenged to live in it.

Sometimes I do feel like a stranger, a sojourner in a world that is oddly out of kilter with what I envision, imagine, hope for and strive for! Don't worry, I'm not "losing it"! (At least not any more than usual:-) I'm not about to hang it all up, throw up my hands and attempt to escape reality! Sometimes I just need to vent! Sometimes I need to talk myself back to where I need and want to be: squarely at the foot of the Cross! I long for heaven, but for now I'll take the shadow of that Cross where my Savior won me passage to heaven at the end of time.

So for today, I beg your forbearance as I bemoan my own lack of control -- knowing full well I'm not the one in control at all. I'll bewail the fickle circumstances of life that take us places we never imagined we would go and bring us back again stronger, surer and more in love with Jesus than when the journey began.

Today--this day--I thank God for His forbearance of my own failings and shortcomings and I am eternally grateful for His grace, extended to me on the Cross.

Blessings as you travel on your own journey of life.


"In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling" (Exodus 13:21 NIV).

"he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake" (Psalm 23:3 NIV).


"guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long" (Psalm 25:5 NIV).

3 comments:

Catrina Bradley said...

Thank you for sharing your heart so openly. Last night, I remembered late that it was Word Filled Wednesday and I hadn't done anything yet! I had a verse in mind that stuck with me from the sermon that night, found a good pic, put the verse on, didn't like it, played with the font, realized you couldn't see the best part of the picutre anymore, looked at the clock and it was 1am!!! I decided (against my will) I just WOULDN'T post this week, and went to bed. I was proud of myself. ;) Funny, coincidentally, whatever, the verse was about Elijah being carried of by in a chariot of fire, and I had just re-studied my notes from the week before about Elijah being a sojourner, and was I a sojourner in this strange land that is not my home. And here you are talking about being a sojourner.
:)
love
Cat

Andrea said...

AMEN...couldnt have said it better myself!! I am right there with ya!!

LOVE YA, andrea

Tami said...

I could take a little more venting, Mary. Just when I was getting a peek of you, it was over!

Have a good weekend, friend.