Blessed

I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer. ~ Jim Carrey

The greatest blessing God can give us is to put us in a position where we must trust in him, for such dependence is our only path to joy.  He will do whatever is necessary to disrupt our self-sufficiency and illusion of control.
 ~ Jim Denison

I’ve personally prayed for the ‘rich and famous’ blessing, but God chooses to bless me with the joy of dependence in Him. And I am truly blessed!  ~ Shari

Waiting…

WAIT. That word describes 2012, so far, in my life.

John Maxwell explains the word “WAIT” in today’s minute. Have the lessons caught up with me yet? I could make myself crazy trying to figure it out, which is what my problem-solving brain constantly tries to do.

Dictionary definitions:

“Stay in place in expectation of”…

“To be ready and available”…

“A state or attitude of watchfulness and expectancy”…

These all point to activity in the mind, if not the body. So while we appear to be at rest, motionless, aimless even, we stay ready and expect what is next. Even when we don’t know what ‘next’ will be.

Flowers

Where I come from, October begins the dying season. Leaves flare into yellow, orange, red flames then retire in a state of brown. Flowers have already shown their glory and now they go dormant to await a new spring.

Not here.

These flowers in my new normal world are apparently awakened by the colder temperatures, flourishing in the fall sun.

I’m not a master gardener like my sis-in-law, so perhaps this isn’t as odd as it seems to me. But that’s part of the journey, it seems… seeing something as new that others may see as mundane, or maybe don’t even see anymore.

 

Perspective Shifter

A friend of ours learned two months ago that he has brain cancer. The incurable kind.

His wife is journaling on CaringBridge about the new normal that has become their journey. Despite this development that no one would call ‘good’, she signs off her latest entry with these words: “God is good, ALL THE TIME!”

Their path is a bona fide perspective shifter to my journey and definition of a new normal. I struggle with directional impairment and getting lost on the unfamiliar roadways. I continue to search for my next career opportunity (being one of the ‘uncounted’ in the job numbers). Yet I am healthy, and so is my beloved.

With the adjusted 5-year plan in both my career and finances, my perspective on those earthly things may have shifted. But the absolute in my life stands firm: God is good. ALL the time.

And that’s what matters today and for eternity.