So, I found myself mindlessly thinking about lunch right after breakfast and my mid-afternoon sugar snack right after lunch, which, of course, I would NEVER do!
However, I know some of you struggled with this once or twice in your life, perhaps. And how to solve this challenging problem reminds me of a funny story about my dog. THIS is a picture I already showed you of my dog in his Superman costume.
With an uncharacteristic lack of self-knowledge, I suddenly realized I was still in pajamas, curlers in my straight hair, that day as I yelled at my homeschooled kids to get up, get dressed, and get to their work!
The only problem was that I hadn’t done any of those things yet, either.
So, I was on a long swim because I am so athletic and fit, and while I saw a few fish, I sensed God speaking to my heart.
“Who cares?” you ask.
Well, Holy Spirit was speaking about you.
I know you have been waiting in suspense, clicking “refresh screen” every few minutes since you read THIS POST, and I promised to share one of my fish stories with you, so let’s get down to business.
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
That day, as I swam, I came across a brownish green slimy patch of regular-looking water weeds that I swam over.
I sensed from God that the slimy patch of brownish green weeds was my writing.
“Wow!” I thought. I felt so encouraged by that! There were many, many, much more than usual, minnows1 swimming around in this little unremarkable patch of weeds, which encouraged my heart so much.
I have been astonished at how God has brought so many readers (people from 33 countries so far have read this writing online2), or how there are so many minnows around this brownish colored, slimy patch of weeds!
I kept swimming, because as you know, I swim VERY far, and after I turned around and began swimming back home, I suddenly stopped at the location of that little patch of weeds because THERE WERE SO MANY MINNOWS I couldn’t find a way to swim through them.
There is purpose, there is something God is doing, as He is drawing us together. I no longer feel like I am writing to the wind with the sole purpose of building up my shallow self-esteem, begging for “likes,” and trying to inflate my ego.3
So, would any of you be interested in attending a weekly prayer and connection gathering, starting in the fall? 5:00pm Pacific time Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday are potential times that work. Please let me know in the comments, by email, or through the contact forms, which day would be preferable.
The time would be to discuss together and pray together. No talking experience or prayer experience is necessary! It would be great to share prayer and tea regularly, friend.
Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!
1 Also, minnows are small fish, and small fish will, by definition, get bigger (I think?), and so I hope that you hang out with me in my little brown weed patch long enough so that I can get all the credit for your growth! (Editor’s note – Try to think of others, not just yourself. Lori’s note: Whatever!)
2 Yes, the stats of which country you are from are posted for free! Yes, the web is super weird. I’m sorry, but I didn’t even ask to know! “Not all visitors who visit your site will have their location enabled in their browsers. Some visitors might access your site through an incognito browser or a Virtual Private Network (VPN).” So, get an incognito browser or a VPN! The web is weird! You’re welcome! Good luck!
I was mindlessly living my life, as we all do, being blown by the wind of the general opinions and attitudes of others, as the hidden currents of our culture pull us. (And by the way, if you think you are immune to the pushes and pulls of your current culture, that is the very air you breathe, then HAHAHAHAHAH! We laugh at you!) The only thing more ridiculous than being blown by the wind of the general opinions and attitudes of the culture you live in is NOT KNOWING you are being blown by the wind and of your culture!
THE POINT is that we are all shaped by the voices of others that enter our minds unobserved, and that God’s voice serves as a salve, as medicine, correcting our lives by a degree or two, if our ears are open to hearing Him convicting us.
This is what happened to me recently.
I had been swimming that day, as I do in that lake in the summer.
Usually, I see one fish, maybe two, as I swim along before I tire.
But that day I saw a school of fish, something rare in this lake. “Wow!” I thought. When I saw another school of fish, a large fish, and another large fish, and then two more huge schools of fish, I began to think, “This is VERY, VERY unusual.”
Literally hundreds more fish passed me that day, until I finally asked, “God, do you want to speak to me?” through this very unusual situation.
And He did speak. And His voice healed my heart. But that is for next time because my time is up again, and as mentioned HERE, your attention span is much too short (No! It’s NOT that I get distracted and forget what I’m even writing about – of COURSE NOT!)
God uses anything, everything, to grab our attention – poke and startle us a little- if our eyes, ears, and hearts are open to this possibility.
And so, the best way to course correct to avoid walking off the cliff by the invisible wind of culture? Clean out your ears to the voice of God, friend. He’s already speaking. We simply need to find our ears on the ground and reattach them to hear what He is saying—more on this next time.
Photo Credit – Will He Fall Off The Cliff Or Receive Help? by Felipe Souza on Unsplash
Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!
I love the song with incredible wisdom by Simon and Garfunkel that goes, “I am a rock. I am an island . . I have no need for friendship. Friendship causes pain. Its laughter and its loving I disdain. . . I have my books1 and my poetry to protect me.”
When I was young, I would belt that song out at high volume, thinking that if I believed it, thinking made it so.
And so, children sometimes peel back the curtain of heaven for us to quickly glimpse before the curtain is closed again. All we have left is a memory. What is our response to hearing stories that push us into the realm of the divine, whether we want to go there or not?
Thank you for liking me! I like you too! Let’s journey together!
And then hope descended in the form of a feather. Was it a clue? The feather slowly floated from above and landed beside her. She examined it quizzically, then looked up to try to locate the source of this object.
She held it in her hands, the soft white of the feather brightening her otherwise grey surroundings, the dull grey she felt inside and saw everywhere she looked within her and around her.
She set the heavy weight on her stomach aside; it moved easily now, and she sat a bit longer examining this feather. It symbolized hope to her. “If another could fly, why couldn’t she?” she wondered, looking longingly upward into the sun, clouds, and blue sky that parted the grey sky as she watched.
She stood up now and wondered, “How does one fly?”
She turned around once, twice, spinning her arms with the feather outstretched in her right hand. She felt the joy soaking into her skin with the sunlight. Maybe she didn’t HAVE to stay pinned to the ground, rooted in pain to this one spot, she mused.
And then she saw it, a flicker at first. “Was that a dove circling above?” she wondered. She stopped spinning and stared, her eyes straining into the sun. Yes! There! It was fuzzy again. WAS it a dove, or…?
She doubted herself and her vision and her hope. “Who was she to think that…?” She found herself slouching against the wall again, slowly sinking back into that familiar curved position, ready to hold her head in her hands in that overly familiar position again to help the pulsating pain, which she felt beginning again.
“What do you choose?” he asked her. Jesus was now standing before her and holding out his outstretched hand. She blinked as she looked into the sunlight and saw only the shadowed outline of this person. Was it a person standing in front of her?
What was He saying? Her hearing was suddenly fuzzy, garbled, and his voice was only just clear.
“What was that?” she asked, finding one of her ears on the floor and trying to attach it. It fell off again. And he was gone, leaving only the feather.
Restoring Life 