God showing up again

So I was talking with a client for some time this afternoon and the topic shifted to how his belief in God is giving him the strength to forgive his wife for her infidelity, and helping him cope with his addiction issues. Well, that was all I need to hear. We went 40 minutes over our allotted time. Luckily my next client was running late.

One of the things he said was that his mother always told him that if he'd only stop running from his problems, they would go away. I thought about the truth in that as he spoke, and remembered hearing that Native Americans often told their children after waking from a nightmare to go back to sleep, face the enemy, and he would never appear again.

So as I laid down to bed tonight, I opened up the Message Bible that I recently ordered. I flipped to Lamentations. There's has been a lot of pain and violence in the world lately, and I wanted to read a bit about suffering in the bible. New Zealand has just been hit by a devastating earthquake, there are protests and riots across the middle east, etc. One of the great things about the message, is that some of the more archaic reads in the old testament are made a little more palatable.

The first page I turned to had this verse:

When life is heavy and hard to take,
go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions:
Wait for hope to appear.
Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face.
The "worst" is never the worst.

There you go, I thought. Another example of God showing up in His word, correlating straight to my daily experience. This was the first page I opened. I wasn't searching for an hour to find some sort of connection to my day. I want to do my best to record these experiences, (they really do happen a lot), because they're so easy to forget or to chalk up as coincidence. And then one asks, Where are you God? I know God is with me everyday, and the more I engage Him in discussion, the more He shows up this way. It's a good life.

Much Love

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Java Divine

Prayer of the Pharisee

After I went to bed last night it dawned on me that my blog on drinking made me sound very much like the pharisee in the bible that thanked God he wasn't as bad as other people:

Luke 18:9

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

I don't think I'm any better than anyone else who's struggling with issues that I've chosen to avoid. I simply wanted to express how it was made clear to me last night why I choose to abstain from alcohol. It reinforced the fact that I have no business going near the stuff. There's no good in it. But my post also made it clear how easy it is to fall into the trap of becoming judgmental. I always need to remind myself that there is no good that comes from my efforts alone. Any success I've had keeping away from the booze, or bettering myself in anyway has to be credited to the grace of God. I need mercy, for I am as big a sinner as any. 

Whew! I feel lighter now. It feels good to give it away. Much Love.

Looking Outward

I'm glad I don't drink anymore. For me, it was fine when I was single and had no family. Drinking made me look inward and focus solely on myself and my own desires. 

When my son was close to being born, I knew that ultimately I'd have to give it up. Parenting is hard enough as it is. Trying to find the energy to function after working 50 - 60 hours a week is hard enough as it is. The last thing I need to do is throw a nice hangover into the mix. 

I heard a sermon that described sinning as being completely in tune with your own needs. Being completely hunched over so that the only thing you could see is your own feet. Through being healed you are straightened so that you can finally see the world around you. Finding a new life in Christ helped me straighten up and focus on the needs of my family. It was something I wouldn't have been able to do without the power of the Holy Spirit.

I was in the company of people that enjoyed drinking to excess tonight. It reminded me of the sermon. Everyone was detailing things about themselves, recounting stories about their own lives, totally in tune with themselves. When someone else wanted to talk, they would just talk louder on top of each other. It became a shouting match, but no one noticed, because everyone was focused only on what they were trying to convey. No one was really listening. Everyone was hunched over staring at their own feet so to speak. It was sad.

I'm glad I don't drink anymore.