Friday, December 19, 2008

No really, WOW.

I don't have a single complaint.

Sure things are a little crazy right now, but I don't have a single complaint.

Even yesterday, I think my one major complaint was that I was not clean. I guess you don't realize how important that is to you until you find yourself without water to clean yourself. Even brushing your teeth is not as good if you don't have any way to rinse and spit.

Today, I'm finally clean and I have water. I'm thankful for water.

My car isn't fixed yet, but it will be. The mechanic said one half shaft on my car was bad. And the other one (the one I said needed to be looked at), he said he didn't know how it was holding onto my wheel.

My car, didn't lose a wheel going down the road. I'm thankful for that.

Sometime around 4am Thursday the belt that connects with my alternator fell off. I had enough battery power to make it till about 10am. It could have just as easily stranded me, with no lights or power at all, at 5am. In the middle of the road with no lights to warn people that I was there. When it did die, I even had a battery in the trunk to put in so I was able to drive my car (very little) until it got to the mechanics shop.

My car had many bad times in which it could have run out of power. Instead, it ran out at the most perfect time I could imagine - and gave me enough time to make arrangements for it to be fixed the next day. I'm thankful for that.

And right now, in this horrible economy I've got 3 different jobs to pick and choose what I want to do, for how many hours, and for how much money. I'm not only thankful, but acknowledge that I am profoundly blessed.

It seems like there are a lot of problems, but in reality they are all just small things. Some of my most major problems required a 3 dollar part, and a 20 dollar part. But it's easy to focus on them.

I was watching the skit by Lifehouse today. I've posted it before, and watched it over and over again because I appreciate the reminder of how things get between us and God. But in the skit it talks about how the teen is struggling against things standing between her and God: men, alcohol, money, looks, until finally a despair and inability to cope comes on her and she considers suicide. I don't care if you've seen the video before, go watch it again. It's good.

Despite feeling a little tossed about in the waves of one thing after another, I thought about how in our lives little things can come between God and me too if I'm not careful. Maybe it's not alcohol, maybe it's a huge bill that needs to be paid. Maybe it's not money, but it's a neighbor that's harassing you. Maybe it's not men, but it is your busy schedule.

I focus in on details sometimes, I need to buy weatherstripping, I need to do laundry, I need to clean house better, I need to paint or fix a door, when's the last time I washed my car? when do the kids come? have I done enough, said enough, talked to the person that needed talking to, where will I, how will I, when will I, who will I, what will I? Until my thoughts are so consumed with daily life, that I've completely forgotten about a better one.

Life this week has just been tiring. But it was important to remember, that even though I was unhappy about not being clean - everything that was happening was just extra in a life that has been blessed. This week, my little hedge of protection meant that my car could go down, but it wasn't allowed to hurt me.

I cannot complain. I've nothing to complain about. God's been good.
And the best part is, I actually mean that.

2 comments:

Ed G. said...

Watched White Christmas on TV last night, and when Bing started to sing 'Count your Blessings' I was thinking the same thing. Amen!

"When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep. And I fall asleep counting my blessings" Praise the Lord!

Flyawaynet said...

Off topic - Last year I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" for the very first time. I'll have to work on White Christmas now.