Posted on 05/03/2011 6:26:36 AM PDT by MintyHippo1980
Just so you know, it has not escaped my notice that I haven't posted anything new in several days. Do you want to hear my list of excuses? I didn't think so. ;-)
The simple fact of the matter is that a lot of life happened in the last couple weeks. For starters, I have been doing physical therapy for my foot. Confession time: I didn't really think it was going to help me. Worse yet, the physical therapists wanted me to go in three times a week! Three! I haggled them down to twice a week, which still puts a major hitch in my scheduling get-along! And dang...it hurts!
It was finally determined (after the doctor was brought in to look at my swollen freak-foot and make sure I hadn't re-broken it!) that I had adhesions of my surgical scar tissue. I don't even want to talk about what's involved in that sort of messy break-up, but you know what happened as a result? I can finally do this...
And even this...
(Stock photo. Totally not me. I should wish this were me!)
And before you know it, I'll be back to...
THAT will be a happy day for me! We might have some tears. We might have to go out for Mexican food afterward to celebrate. That may seem a little counter-productive, but I'm not always the most rational person I know. Not that I know a whole lot of finalists in the rational olympics. So at least I'm on a pretty level playing-field!
Also...I have started facilitating a new Bible study: Anne Graham Lotz's The Magnificent Obsession...and it is wonderful! It's based on the life of Abraham, and it's a passionate (and all-too-convicting!) look at how we have to be willing to leave everything behind, let everything go, entrust everything completely, lift everything up, cast everything out, and lay everything down if we are to truly pursue God as Abraham did. Wow!
And I have the best group of women joining me for the study every Wednesday night, so it's awesome all around!
Of course, these things are very important...but they do take time. I mean...thanks to the time I've sacrificed to physical therapy, I am able to walk around my house and do little things like laundry and cooking! Pain-free! And I have been able to start exercising again! And while the old me would have embraced the sweat-hiatus, the new, improved me is delighted to be able to ride the exercise bike (well...sort of) and take short-but-gradually-increasing walks. Score!
And, without a doubt, leading the Bible study is a time expenditure that has the potential of bearing fruit for eternity! Talk about your smart investments!
However...can we speak freely? I suffer from a crippling case of list-itis. Call me type-A; call me an oldest child; call me pathologically freaky...but I feel my best when I have a nice, concrete, well-organized to-do list that I can check off as I get things accomplished.
I hope we can we still be friends in spite of my borderline personality disorder!
Now, I do want to make it clear that I'm not a complete nut. Truly, an ideal day for me--a day of absolute, unspeakable perfection--would involve sitting pool-side on a cruise ship or wandering around my favorite neighborhoods in Chicago or exploring quaint European villages (though, sadly, two-thirds of those are purely theoretical). I love days spent treasure-hunting at thrift shops or deciding to call a homeschool snow-day as a show of solidarity with our public-school friends.
But...in my general, day-to-day life, I almost always have a plan, and, I have to confess, I get kinda stressy and out-of-sorts when something throws off my groove! So, OK...in for a penny; in for a pound! Here is a working list of things I need to fit into my week on top of the usual homeschooling, extra-curricular activities, and miscellaneous other standing obligations:
I know. I know.
I'm not looking to make excuses for myself, but all this information, blended into a big Missy-smoothie, is why it drives me crazy when the phone rings during school time...or when a kid gets sick and obviously needs to go to the doctor on the one day in the week that I was going to get to stay home and catch up on stuff...or when one room starts falling apart (one room...HA!) because I have been focusing my attention of getting another room organized.
But you know what happened last week? Last week, the Lord had words with me about "interruptions."
Have you spent any time looking at Jesus' DayPlanner? Please. I'm humiliated that I even showed you a page from my pitiful to-do list. He relinquished the glory of Heaven to come deal with the misery of Earth so that we could be saved!
#1 item on His list: preach the Word and save the world!
But in the meantime, He was constantly, constantly stopped by people (some of them real whiners!) asking Him to heal this disease or cast out that demon. Even when He tried to get a little time to spend with His Father and re-group, He found Himself surrounded by the throngs of seekers who all wanted a little piece of Him.
And certainly His traveling companions were a big help--I mean, who doesn't appreciate the company of people who are perpetually jockeying for position and generally missing the clue bus!
And just when He got the chance to sit down and rest His weary feet beside a well, He ended up embroiled in a long conversation with a woman who was probably not all that thrilled at first to have her secret sins brought into the light.
But then I got it.
All those interruptions...all the things he had to stop and do as He was trying to get from point A to point B...all the questions He had to answer for people who still weren't going to understand...
That was His ministry.
Those speed bumps weren't slowing Him down or preventing Him from taking care of His Father's business; those things were His Father's business.
Now...I'm afraid that I know me well enough to know that I will always struggle with the unexpected detours in my days. But I have resolved to try to see those "interruptions" as God's real assignments for my life.
The phone calls I have received recently (always during school time!) from moms who are considering pulling their kids out of public school to homeschool them weren't accidents. God used His people to send those moms and all their concerns to me!
The days last week that I spent struggling in prayer and time-consuming labor over a loved one weren't an impediment to my other work--it was the work God had for me to do during those days.
The messy little people in my house...the people, big and little, who rack up my frequent-flyer miles to the doctor's office...the ten hungry, hungry mouths that live under my roof...they aren't preventing me from doing a great work for the Lord.
The ARE my great work for the Lord.
Today I choose to be grateful for every little thing that keeps me from my to-do list...because I want to know the joy of living off God's to-do list.
Blessings! Missy
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
Proverbs 19:21
If you'd like to read more about having an attitude of gratitude, toddle on over to one of my favorite blogs: Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
Cicero, ‘Pro Plancio,’ 54 B.C.
Roman author, orator, & politician (106 BC - 43 BC)
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