Dragged Kicking and Screaming…

Confession time here!

There are times when I just want to dig a mote and build a huge wall around my house. I want to just shut myself off from the world. The evening news, the things and people you come in contact with on a daily basis, well most of it just hurts my heart.

I want one of those “Hide” buttons like I have on Facebook. There are some things I just don’t want to see, and LOTS of things out there that are just not supposed to be seen. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a real life hide button. Just think of the possibilities…

However living in the real world I know that there is a HUGE difference between the things I should not see and the things I don’t want to see. There are times when I am just like Paul, the very thing I know I should not do is the very things I end up doing. Then the things I know I should do, or the things I know Jesus would do are the very thing I don’t do. Life is so very hard sometimes.

Doing the right thing, or the Jesus things is almost always going to go against what is popular.

So here is my Friday morning story…

At this particular phase of my life there are time when sleep is at times difficult. I had had one of these tossing and turning nights. Normally I am an early riser, most mornings my internal alarm clock will wake me around 6:00 AM. I am OK with that as I get to have my quiet time and ease into my morning. However when I am struggling with sleeping there are times when my body just takes what it needs. Yesterday, I awoke to cabinets banging and coffee pots clanking. I open a sleep encrusted eye to see that it is 8:15. I know the Hub’s is already gone so I know that the offending ruckus is HER! That’s what happens when the last thought you have before finally drifting off to sleep is the vision of the alarm clock glowing 3:45. In any event I hauled my old bones out of bed and follow the smell of coffee. There is the Girlchild dressed and ready to head out the door….at 8:15 in the morning. Imagine my surprise when said Girlchild rarely makes an appearance before 10:30 AM. Reality dawns as she gently in her oh so subtle and slightly sarcastic way remind me that she is going to Six Flags with her youth group.

Now remember I have had less than the required amount of sleep and no coffee so my mental functions were like molasses in January. A small miracle happens and it dawns on me that the Girlchild intentions are to hop in the car thereby leaving me stranded at home all day long. At this moment I am cursing the injustices' of life as well as the reality that we do not have a third vehicle.

In a moment of clarity spurred on by a sip of coffee I quickly change into my crappy studio cloths and rake a brush through my hair and hop in the car, I did make the Girlchild drive though. I nursed my coffee as she drove to the church all the while wishing that a third vehicle would drop from the sky and land in our driveway….it could happen!

We arrive at church and she hops out of the car and barely gives me a second look, yes I did give birth to her and I do love her, but sometime…….did I mention I am sleep deprived….anyway I digress. There really is a positive conclusion to all this so just bare with me.

I sat in my car drinking my coffee watching the kids load on to the busses, it hits me I’m hungry. In the rush to get out the door there had been no time for breakfast. I was also all the way into town so being the good steward that I try to be, and with gas being $3.55 a gallon the idea off driving all the way back home for breakfast and then driving all the way back to the studio, since I was almost there any way….well I just pointed my car in the direction of the nearest Chick-Fil-A.

I ordered myself a chicken biscuit and pulled out a $5.00 bill and drove up to the window. When I got there I automatically just handed the money over to the young woman.

She announced to me “The car in front of you paid for your order!”

God is soooooo gooooood Y’all!

I have struggled for years, yearned to seize the moment, to do exactly what I know in my heart is the right thing to do at the exact right moment. Most times I fail, however at that precise moment with my small little five dollar bill already in my hand I just handed it to the young woman and said “Well, you can apply this to the car behind me.”

She took my money and handed me my breakfast.

Now I know that that is a very small thing.

But my morning had been transformed from being dragged kicking and screaming, that would be mentally kicking and screaming out the door well before I was ready, into being blessed by an random stranger, then also being able to seize the moment and continue to pay it forward and bless someone else.

I pulled my car into a parking spot and enjoyed my chicken biscuit. It was really good y’all. Was it good because chicken biscuits are just delicious, or was it extra specially good because God’s Grace, His unmerited favor had touched my morning. Confession time, my internal thought life going on at that moment, being roused out of bed, having to haul my ungrateful teenager to church, and being hungry on top of it all was NOT a blessing y’all!!!! 

Yet even with all my stinking thinking going on, I received!

My faith in the world, well in the notion that there are others in the world who understand the concept of who Jesus is and how He lived his life was restored. It needed restoring, it needs restoring every day! How else am I going to remember to pay it forward.

I finished my breakfast and then drove over to the pottery studio. My ill mood had disappeared. I had a good day with the clay. It was good y’all.

God is good.

Do I still want one of those Facebook “Hide” buttons? Yup, I think it would come in real handy.

The reality, Jesus is better than any ‘’Hide” button, can I get an AMEN!

So…that’s it!

Happy Saturday Y’all!

 

Blessings

R