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actually I have four pieces flying out of my head today – but this piece came out the fastest at lunch and is likely the result of me brainstorming (and almost finish writing) the other three pieces… getting those brainstorm thoughts down on paper to get them cleared from my brain and getting me out of the way… that’s how I could get this piece out.

Speaking of a Carpenter…, 15JAN
As I gush over my recent great home improvements, accomplished by a contractor friend, progress in leaps and bounds, repairs of an accumulated list of both big and small projects… it is impossible not to address the elephant in the room – another contractor – a carpenter – at work every day… Jesus was a carpenter trained to be a carpenter in human form… actually I have heard (from a tv program on the history of biblical people and places) that in Jesus’ day, the carpenters were actually stone cutters, stone masons… They were building Roman Coliseum-like stone buildings – either way they were workers – they worked with their hands … and that is a very good mental link to think of Jesus as our personal stone mason, laying down the bricks for a good foundation upon which to build a church, working on our own personal temple.  Sometime we need to contract out the work for speedy work that we can’t do ourselves – asking God/Jesus to help us in times of need – helping us restore some sanity – helping our “nesting” and building a safe and comfortable place to exist.

They always say things happen in God’s time, not in our requested timeliness… well I guess that means that God’s work could also be super fast not only super slow… could be calculated but accelerated. I often remind my Sunday School students to marvel about the fact that it was only three short years of teaching during which Jesus performed so many miracles and connected with so many people. He laid the foundation for a church growth, a spiritual movement, and one of the most profound statements I have ever heard: that Jesus knew He had to die and go to heaven in order that the Holy Spirit could come to the apostles…He had to physically “get out of the way”, to allow the extremely-needed Holy Spirit to take over and enable the forward-reaching mission of spreading the word of God Love. Over and over I hear – once you “get out of the way” and let things happen – that is truly giving it up to God and the result is amazing. If you are going to ask the contractor to do the work – then you have to let him do his work – you have to get out of the way…  If you are a child of God – then let His Carpenter do His Holy work on you.