favor

The Deep Dish into Life. Our Kings Favor over Raging Lion Roars

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Too excited not to write it in gratitude… Oh, the crumbs of my leftover pizza are like the crumbs of my thoughts dropping everywhere… (PS I highly recommend an air fryer for re-crisping pizza!) I am happy to write about how GOD IS GOOD and we savor His Blessings…

Between last week and this week, I had wildly different experiences at concerts, both FABULOUS. Last Friday night 80’s music, I knew every song, and oh fun night of dancing singing along with my friends, plus 1000 others, everyone could record it, no one stopped them. A free-flowing fun… Then tonight was an elegant singer of Broadway fame. Oh fabulous and you could hear a pin drop as we waited on every note… no photos or recordings mind you, no standing nor dancing, a much fancier-dressed crowd. Elegant… ELEGANT!!!

Both concerts fantastic, both in the same venue, and remarkably I had the same seat, pretty much. Both were the cheap seats, but the riches of experience for me IS in this deep dish of experience of life that was and is palpable and palatable. 

And speaking of DEEP DISH, I just finished my airfryer reheated lunch leftovers of a detroit-style deep dish pizza, made excellently and scrumptious. And like the concerts last week and this week, wildly different, it was 2 types of wildly different deep dish pizza at lunch, in contrasting savory flavors. The first pizza like eighties pop with spicy sauce, mini pepperoni and a big eighties’ hair-sized piped-dollop of smooth ricotta cheese. Glad I ate that one first. Then the second deep dish pizza was smooth cheese, mushrooms and arugula with balsamic drizzle, it was ELEGANT pizza… MMMM… So yes from a POP concert then to an ELEGANT concert,  I bracketed that inside my fun perky pizza to elegant taste in pizzas. Yes, it was a life palooza of pizza and performance. 

For friends it was a good girls night out to dance 80’s, and leapt at the really in expensive tickets months ago before it sold out, but contrast, for this Mandy Patinkin concert I thought to go alone right after work, not even knowing if I would go. But nothing impeded me, nothing popped up in interference, so after extra time at the office, traffic zipped there on my way home, and I got a cheap seat (there are no bad seats in that theatre) from the way way back, in my own row practically, just enough solitude to absorb my own pin drop thoughts as I sat there and soaked in the sounds of meticulous life music…   After a fun lunch with the girls from work, and more work work, this was the ELEGANCE of alone time which is never alone, of thanking the Lord for the time, means, venues, the deep dish of life…

The best “LION scripture for March” (and it was LION March weather last night with the crisp cold) – that I can relate our “deep-dish life” experiences to is a Proverb 19:12: “A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass...” and I have to say that God’s favor in our ability to love life and live life is that dew on the grass – gentle and generous... Any favor – any rest – and sweetness of laughter of friends, and blessed aloneness of thought, is that dew on the grass – that deep generous dollop of life – that favor…  AND aren’t we all living in favor for the generosity of our Lord and King? Not material items or trips or pizza – but living IN His mercy and grace – that is our dew blessing on our lives and even on our graves when we step into glory – there is no King’s rage anymore in that sense – there is only dew of LIFE and favor of LOVE. We should savor this all knowing God is in control. “The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.”

Another proverb: “The one who gets wisdom loves life; the one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper.” – it is with understanding of the blessings of the Lord that we can sit in a deep dish of life and savor dew on the grass of His Blessings…

May you have deep-dish plans to prevail today – may you soak in the dew of the blessings of the King.

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Amen

Grace Gifts – We are only human after all

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I bummed myself out last weekend oh how STUPID I felt when I went through the automatic car wash with my winter decorations (plastic blue snowflakes) still zip-tied to my roof and they all half broke. Bummer… bleh… STUPID… I’ll get past it… snow melts, right?! yes it does…

I often get embarrassed because of my humanness. (and that feels worse than losing the snowflakes). I sometimes get embarrassed because of my lack of remembering. And yet I never want to feel embarrassed to ask questions and learn more – I would rather look uninformed than remain uninformed….

So, no, I didn’t get in trouble from the carwash place. And really importantly they DID break off easily and no damage incurred to the car either, nor to my wallet (cheap things), only to my pride. Pride however is a sin in itself, if we can’t forgive ourselves or if we ignore too freely without remorse, it’s prideful. Like I did this – or I didn’t. Pride can be sin brushed aside.

While vacuuming the car with the free vacuums, which is actually why I went to get a wash anyway, I thought to myself about my own vanity getting myself into this, but you know, it’s normal to wash a car. It was dirty. I like to support this shop. So all in my sorry-ness, Lord, for vanity and pride too, I can justify my actions even my forgetfulness… HUMAN!!! 

Now, I could certainly hide my mistake (or not write about it to process) OR rebuild 2 flakes out of one to seem like nothing happened OR whine forever on something so unimportant (which I know I shouldn’t). So I thought of how trivial this was and me making a big deal out of it was pridefully trivial too. It’s not right for me to whine because infinitely worse things are occurring in the world, like war, disease, hunger, etc. 

But anyway, while cleaning I found the scripture card that means a lot,  “For by GRACE you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast.” EPHESIANS 2:8-9

YES! 

Although I can’t fully wrap my head around “Saved by Grace” – as I haven’t made it up to Heaven yet, I am starting to appreciate that it is forever that has started NOW because Jesus already Saved me. WOW – saved. and wow, I can appreciate “Forgiveness, by Grace” – and “your oops is no big deal, by Grace” – and “cut yourself some slack, by Grace”. (Because yeah grave stuff is also forgiven by a forgiving Father when we repent)… Grace by the blood of Jesus.

I also found a few lost things while cleaning, like money that fell out of my pocket, and I did achieve a cleaner car inside and out. There are some things that are necessary even if trivial. And I decompressed some more by reattaching a couple of snowflakes back up – in pairs this time to mask the lost sticks, and it looks fine, it will make due to use these last bit of their usefulness, which is to make people smile. I achieved a compromise of my guilt and frustration. And I smile too. God however IS the One Whom achieved that “the show must go on” feeling in me.

“I achieved” is not a term we use for Grace, however, that IS a gift. Grace is a gift by God’s grace for God’s grace. And if we can’t achieve it, then no one else can lay down rules for it. God can, yes, and His forgiveness through Jesus satisfied all His Law. So we must hold onto Jesus. God waits and wants our love. We love that He loved us first. Great God.

Jesus – because we are only human after all.

Grace. “For by GRACE you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast.” EPHESIANS 2:8-9

Thank You Lord for Your Grace and for Your gifting…

We do need it (I do) because we are only human after all…

Amen

Amen