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sanctuary
As the week drew to a close and my self-imposed deadline loomed nearer, my stress level continually rose. Friday arrived and I greeted it with tears. I had one day left to finish everything on a still very long list of to-dos. How was I ever going to get it done so that I could enjoy the holidays? I dropped the children off at daycare and went quickly home. Everything ground to a halt. I felt like a giant ball of panic. What happened next was so simple, but I will never forget it. I cried out to the Lord, and He helped me.
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the sweet release of gratitude
I almost didn’t stop today. At the end of a long school day, the only thing I feel like doing is trading my work clothes for something cozy and collapsing in a heap on my couch. Sure, a walk in the crisp autumn sunshine would be good for me, but I was feeling grouchy and stubborn, and I just wanted to go home. But when traffic clogged at the entrance to my apartment complex, I gave in to the inner urging and turned right instead of left ... in spite of my initial reluctance, I knew I would relish this sunny afternoon outdoors.
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into the ground
I’ve never planted garlic before. It feels like a great act of faith on my part to plant a seemingly inanimate kitchen ingredient into the ground just as the warmth of summer is ending and the deadness of winter nears. It seems impossible that a cold, dark, uncomfortable period of time is just what is needed to produce something vibrant, beneficial, and abundant.
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vibrant
An earlier post I shared — the first about my struggle to live the single life well — received more comments and feedback than anything else I’ve written in recent memory. That told me something I had already suspected: that I’d touched a nerve, connected with an unmet need. In writer-speak, I may just have landed on my “platform.” There is a weight on this message, an urgency to speak it forth, yet I feel a bit as if I am stumbling around in the dark, stubbing my toes as I grope for the light that was just right there a moment ago. What is it, Lord, that You would…
