THOUGHTS

May 28, 2020

A reprint from 2013

"The world is so full of a number of things,

I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

Robert Louis Stevenson

This is my mantra, my excuse for not doing housework: there are so many other wonderful things to do!  However, dust balls accumulate faster than a dirty snowball rolling down a hill heading straight for me.  My response is to RUN! HIDE!

"A clean house is a sign of a broken computer."

"How to clean the house:

1.  Open a new file in your PC.

2.  Name it "housework."

3  Send to "RECYCLE BIN."

4.    Your PC will ask you, 

"Are you sure you want to delete housework permanently?"

5.  Calmly press the "Yes button."

"And when all else fails, 

"Keep calm and carry a wand."

Some of us have avoided cleaning house for years, our spiritual house.  We're hiding like Adam and Eve did in a garden where there was not a speck of dust.  How long have you been hiding?  One of our children's classic poems goes, "I'm hiding, I'm hiding and no one knows where.  All they can see are my nose and my hair."  In that sense, we all act like toddlers sometimes, hiding in plain sight, or running when we are easily caught.  (However, being a woman of a certain age, one time it took me nearly a whole block to catch up to my 3 year old grandchild.)

"Do not let it be imagined that one must remain silent 

about one's feelings of rebellion 

in order to enter into dialogue with God.  

Quite the opposite is the truth:

 it is precisely when one expresses them 

that a dialogue of truth begins."

Paul Tournier

I'm reading a book by Pam Vredevelt, "The Power of Letting Go." She says, "In our time of letting go, God is the one we need to run to because He knows us better than we know ourselves.  Run to God.  It sounds so basic.  But when we're distressed, our natural tendency is often to retreat from everyone, including God.  We run in all kinds of directions by keeping ourselves excessively busy.  We turn activities food, alcohol, novels, shopping, entertainment, and other people to mask our pain.  Rollo May said it well: 'It is an old and ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way."'

"The tendency is strong to say...'God won't be so stern as to expect us to give up that!'  But He will;  'He won't expect me to walk in the light so that I have nothing to hide,' but He will; 'He won't expect me to draw on His grace for everything,' but He will.'  Oswald Chambers

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart 

and lean not on your own understanding; 

In all your ways acknowledge Him, 

and He will make your path straight."  

Proverbs 3:5-6

So if you have been leaning on your own understanding and feel like it was just knocked out from under you, go to plan B: Be honest about your need to trust Him.  Don't run or hide.   Then we should all be as happy as our King!