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Churning for Him…

My opportunity to take a trip allowed me to see new sights, but what caught my eye the most were the flowers, the people, the opportunity to simply “be”… There are many moments too that I was trying to fill my own agenda, but prayed: Oh Lord, let me follow Yours.  It’s difficult to explain the level of pride we (I) experience living our lives… Really I am ranking myself as still having times of worst pride of my expectations of what I think I should know, of what I think I should be getting out of a situation, of what my take home message would be of myself, of what I should be able to see as my lemonade moments even if it wasn’t even given lemons or wasn’t given sugar.

Yes, often I do have a high expectation of the results that comes from MY direction of MY time, and that can get me in trouble feeling defeated without MY results, because I forgot my time is God’s time. It may not appear always that I struggle with my “pride stride”, or maybe it is super clear that I do, but either way, what I do know is that we all do. We don’t always visually experience or appreciate God’s purpose over ours but that’s nothing new, God knows people are people. (Imagine if we took His Stride, over ours, imagine the length of distance we would travel!!!!) Jesus wants to be our DIRECTOR – moment by moment in a sometimes slow churn – not with an instant quick result.

Really, here’s the question: how does ego/pride balance with humbleness and obeying? I don’t have a “pat” answer, but I know it is better to give God the Glory.  How often do we keep letting pride get in the way, like “SHOW me, Lord” – demanding: “Show ME!” of my purpose and my results – “Show ME” because I DESERVE to understand my purpose – well, NO… We need to let God be God. He knows. 

I saw some cool old butter churns, collected by my friend on her windowsill. How we often forget that it IS best to be part of a slow churn of God’s cream into His best butter – get into a deliberate churching and learning and being lead and often swirled by the paddles of His Churn. We (I especially) have to remember that sometimes God needs me (us) to slow down to a steady pace and let Him get His results out of our lives. Sometimes God whips our lives into fluffy whipped cream and sometimes into salty butter, whichever fits the moment. Yes, it is up to what God wants to serve at that moment. Remember God IS the bread of life, broken and shared with us.

God can let us see more of His purpose in each moment, or not. God “spreads us” in His Way. That’s my “pat” answer, be His butter on the bread of life, warm, salty, and sweet. 

Let’s be churning in life with Him.

Amen

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Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. Psalm 127:1

Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Psalm 128:1-2