Day 92 Skipping Moments on the Pond of Life

April 7, 2015
Day 92

Last week did not go so well. I was accumulating thoughts on a conveyor belt with a rusted "off" button. Clearly I was overwhelmed, underwhelmed, whelmed, you get the picture. To list all that I was sifting through would have interested no one except maybe a paid counselor.

Over the years I have learned some handy tools when this happens. Some of which are, shut up, keep moving, do not make any big decisions, perfect time to clean-it will really get serviced, keep thanking God rather than complain. These are effective, however, this time the Holy Spirit brought to my attention another insight.

I kinda want to be viewed differently but I know I am viewed by God as a simple, basic girl, especially when He doles out insights as pithy phrases. The divine insights intended for me are never earth shattering just highly impactful and effective. The words this time were: Live in the moment.  My initial reaction was a bit snarky. "We've gone to this level, God? Down a notch? What?! You don't trust me with anything less than a pithy phrase? I'll just head over to the nearest touristy restaurant and pick myself up a bumper sticker. "Live in the moment." Good one.

I'm not so cool, my quick responses have always caused me trouble, but not with the Lord. His definition of love covers women like me. He waits to explain this basic piece of info, waits for me to settle down. He has a man on the ground who fleshes this out for me daily, my husband.

Upon settling, the Lord explained what He meant.  He revealed to me a bad habit of mine. Something I have done for most of my life. I skip moments like I am skipping stones on a pond. I am physically here but my mind skips to there. And when I do this the scenarios my mind constructs are either fodder to fuel a twisted Saturday Night Live skit (I wish) or an Alfred Hitchcock horror movie. It just depends. But the truth of the matter is that rarely do my scenarios play out in real life. The fret over the fabricated scenario, the what if, is all for naught. Furthermore, these scenarios are not real, they are false, fabricated, made up, not happening.

Guess what, the aftermath of skipping moments is not good! It is fraught with emotions that align with my made up story but have nothing to do with the real, live moment at hand. Had I not skipped the moment I would remain grounded in real time, in real emotions and in real scenarios. This always bodes so much better.

This verse kills me. Such gut level honesty. I always read it like this, "Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow is going to be great!" But God instead makes me read the real words focused in real time, in real life, and in real situations, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." When I skip moments, I skip the opportunity to watch God show up for today's trouble. And guess what? As I look back there is not one day that stands out in my memory as a pathetically bad, failed mission, day!

My fretting does not happen when I am in the moment taking care of business. I am not fretting during these moments, I am moving and doing what needs to be done: keeping my eye on the road as I drive my mother in law to the ER, walking my father in law through the ER's halls with his chewed up fingers from the table saw, walking our ten year old daughter from the eye doctor to the hospital to be admitted for an unknown eye issue, riding in the ambulance with a son who has cracked his head falling off his longboard, riding and comforting the ambulance dude fretting over his little guy as we travel to the trauma unit in an ambulance with my seven year old who has just fallen ten feet out of the tree, listening to my daughter hundreds of miles away and encouraging my husband to take her to the ER (appendix removed), lying in bed at the Ephrata hospital with an eighteen month old struggling to breathe, listening to our daughter explain the accident, listening to her again with another incident, greeting the sewer cop who helps us understand we have a smelly problem, trying to find money for the house we "purchased" at auction. These are just a few. These troubled moments require my focused attention and allegiance to the only one who knows how to fix a single thing - Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The moments I listed are full of victories and stories that encourage me to this very day. Those moments were meant for snuggling on Jesus's lap. They were meant to look fully into His loving eyes with big requests He loves being asked to do. Those moments are meant for trust. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Live in the moment, seek His face, trust His word, walk in His ways.

Hebrews 4:7, "Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.'"

Today! This very moment is what I am called to live in, right here and right now.

Live in the moment! Man, I love that phrase.

(Laundromat in New Holland - talk about a moment! We were there till 1 am  laundering our entire wardrobes. Why? Don't ask! Just know, God is faithful. And careful when you travel. You might come back with something really hard to get rid of. Just saying!)