tears

The Worldliness of Pizza Cheese

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My mind kept returning to the taste I had developed for the pizza that was on its way to my house and mouth… mmmmm…. my kid had asked if I could order for pick up, way home from work, favorite pizza place… I called it in..  I always steal a slice, and yet leftovers are also now amazing heated up in the new air fryer… the cheese melts so good… use one of the paper trays for no clean up… mmmmm… I digress… and digest…

There was no pizza yet, but a phone call, everything OK but not. On the way to the pizza place, new driver kid was pulled over for not changing lanes away from emergency vehicles in the shoulder… it’s an old law but newly enforced, and rats not known to this new driver.. 2 cops with lights on the side, one left to pull my kid over, ugh, the fear of not even knowing why you are being pulled over, a citation comes in the mail later, up to 500 dollars for 1st offenders… and I said, and the pizza guy said, in consolation, to take the incident to court to fight the points and maybe fight the fine…

We will see… I just now read about how these things can turn to good – like a multimillionaire had a car accident once that made him get a job to pay off his brothers car and that lead him to be a media mogul and built his career….  hmmmm – getting ahead of myself….

But the anticipation of the ticket, the harm of the scare, the second guessing of “if I only didn’t crave that pizza I would have been in the other lane…” It’s life..  we second guess… and we get overwhelmed in fear… and oh the tears – I’ve been there… but we need to remember those who have not “been there- done that” – walk in their shoes for a bit…

And as a mom, I’m grateful for being the phone call, the ear to chew, the consoling mom, the “we will do this together, it will be alright” voice… all the while my brain realized that I was back thinking of the pizza… how worldly we are as humans… crazy… me especially… if we’ve “been there done that” – we worry less and move on – we do and we forget others are still having this as a new experience – like I’ve been to potentially scary court scenes twice to beg down tickets – with what I thought was valid concerns – I was more fearful of the increase in insurance etc than the fear of walking into court. God gave me the strength not the bravado…

If we just stay calm and state our case – court – even the pizza guy said that – but for a new thing to happen to a young driver and young person, this is the fear expressed into tears and the lessons to learn….

We have to embrace: “well we will work through it” – rather than “you were wronged” or “they targeted you” – because they might have just put the good fear of God into his driving – this is a lesson for the rules of the road to “get over” – as well as slow down, which was what the officer said, you should have at least slowed down.

Thank you Lord for problems, that’s what the scriptures say. How will you work this “blessing” into something for good? He will – we just need faith to let it melt our fear… Well, depend upon God every day…

Here’s my poem:

Our worldliness of pizza clouded over our day, 

My mom-ness was told to be in play, My kid’s tears I couldn’t wipe away. 

The pizza couldn’t save the day.

The tears, they should be okay, 

Overflowing tears are an outlet in a Healing Way. 

Jesus-dependence wins the day.

Be THANKFUL for tough spots, because they make us DEPEND upon God either Way.

(And the pizza in the air fryer tomorrow will make my tomorrow day)…

Melt our fear and cheese in Your Way.

Amen 

It’s LIVING Tears Springing Forth

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It’s 2 months since Christmas today, that was like ancient history, dried up memories too. (Except I just realized my Christmas lights are still up, oops). Everyone is now looking towards SPRING. My recent lunch with friends was next to a beautiful garden center, teeming with life. What isn’t joyfully teaming and fresh with life is in the phase of gearing up waiting to bud. It was filled with hydrated living greens and pinks and yellows as well as carefully preserved dried mosses and grasses. The garden center embraced us in a sweet garden hug just like our friendship does with each other.

Yesterday I had a great church gathering, also with new and cherished old friends, we are God’s family even if we just met. So yesterday it was not lost on me that I had a few duplicated seeings of scriptures. Hmmm… I could say that’s so cute ‘by coincidence’, but I know better. God is a LIVING Moving God. God is speaking His Word, but not just for crafting a goosebumps response, but causing a listening in the moment of His motivating and His buffering Way. GOD’S GOT A POINT TO WHERE HE IS POINTING US. He both hugs us with life, like that garden store did, AND He leads us in ways unknown but steady and sure, like the water that flows through the plants. His Living Water flows through us. Where we bud is up to Him. Sometimes we even bud out in Living tears. Living Tears Springing Forth. The right moving Spirit moves us too. God’s Timing. God’s Hydration. If we prefer to stay silent, even the rocks will cry out. We shouldn’t stay silent. We should not be cold when God’s warming us. (We also shouldn’t put a light under a basket to hide it).

Both these duplicated scriptures from yesterday (replication for God to give me a theme day) speak volumes about WHOLENESS and LOVE, about seeing in part now but in whole later. Sometimes, like the garden shop needs water, our Living Water knows to soak us in Spirit, and give us excess for later: excess to spill out in tears if called upon. Even succulent plants know to store up their water, so we soak in these scriptures:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 1 John 4:12 NIV

Expression in part can be in tears – Jesus had them, why wouldn’t we? 

Now God’s Love is not always a path of cushy ease, there are tough times. There’s pruning in our lives, like the winter vinedresser of the Lord knowing best, to make us stronger and more fruitful come spring. Sometimes we feel the JOY, but also feel the uneasiness of doing what we feel is His calling over ours. God says: Stay being led. Stay in the moment. Stay on the path. Keep walking. LOOK UP, not at the world. Understand there’s a mission bigger than just for you, but through you. Go there… 

A song that a friend shared speaks volumes for this. From the band FFH “What it feels like” – the lyrics: “To find out that if I accept my brokenness, I get more of me, I get all of You”  – Amen to that!  – “This is what it feels like to be led.”

Yes! It’s not always, nor should it be for us to do God’s work for favor or affirmation by people. It is an embrace of fellowship yes, but a path of His calling not ours. And so we walk the path. Flow the Living Tears in Hydration. Accept that “in part” is all we get to see now, but someday we will see and know IN WHOLE. 

If Spring is anticipated just around the corner, imagine how AMAZING God’s Kingdom will come…  Let us keep blooming and budding forward!

Let us share our Living God Love with the world who is desperately parched and in need.

Amen

“What It Feels Like” – lyrics – FFH

So this is what it feels like to walk the wilderness

This is what it feels like to come undone

This is what it feels like to lose my confidence

Unsure of anything or anyone

–

So this is what it feels like to walk the desert sand

This is what it feels like to hear my name

To be scared to death ’cause I’m all alone

But feel love and peace just the same

–

This may not be the road I would choose for me

But it still feels right somehow

‘Cause I have never felt You as close to me as I do right now

So this is what it feels like to be led

–

So this is what it feels like to just fall apart

To be totally unglued

To find out that if I accept my brokenness

I get more of me, I get all of You

–

And this may not be the road I would choose for me

But it still feels right somehow

I have never felt You as close to me as I do right now

So this is what it feels like to be led

–

So this is what it feels like to just walk away

From everything I thought kept me safe

To depend just on You for every meal

And find that it’s better this way

Oh, it’s better this way

–

This may not be the road I would choose for me

But it still feels right somehow

‘Cause I have never felt You as close to me as I do right now Like I do right now

This may not be the road I would choose for me

But it still feels right somehow

And I have never felt You as close to me as I do right now

–

So this is what it feels like to be led

This is what it feels like to be led