I say all that just to tell you that I stopped by the auto parts store this morning to buy new windshield wipers for the van. As the extremely helpful young man was ringing me up, I started reading a package of windshield treatment wipes on display by the register. The claim made right there on the cover was too good to NOT wind up on the blog, so here it is: “Patented hydrophobic technology”. You can actually make your windshields afraid of water. No doubt.
Which leads me to my next question: If the technical term for rabies is hydrophobia, does using those wipes on your windshield automatically make your van rabid? Are there shots for that?
ANYway… I told you last time that the Lord has been changing the way I look at things, and I suppose that doesn’t preclude windshield treatments, right? Well, on a more serious note, He really has been changing my mind about a lot of things. I can’t even wait to get started telling you all about it, but I think I’ll have to break it up into a few more posts. Don’t worry, though, I’m finally back in my comfy little spot in Panera with my hot tea and muffin (blueberry today), bent on getting a couple of posts pounded out before I leave so you don’t have to wait around on me this time.
I’ll start back in by telling you about that verse that He re-showed me (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I mentioned it at the end of my last post).
From the very infancy of my spiritual walk, I’ve clung to the words of Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through him who gives me strength”. Every test in school, every trial in life, I’ve quoted that verse and held tight to all it implied in my heart. God can and will give me the drive and ability to make it through any task set before me. I mean, that’s what it says, right? And then I read it again the other day in context, and He changed my mind.
Contentment has been a theme in my life lately, so maybe that’s why it all struck me differently when I began reading just a few verses before the “famous” one: “…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything though him who gives me strength.”
Oh how I am trying to learn that secret Paul! To have the strength to be happy with what I have – no more, no less. It’s a tough struggle for me, and I dare say that I’m not alone in it. And it’s really just as tough on one side of the spectrum as it is on the other. When we’re out of money, I’m all too aware of our needs and worry about how they will be met. When we have more money than we “need” (which doesn’t happen often in my opinion… but I have a feeling He’s going to change my mind about that too), I find myself consumed by my wants and the never-ending pursuit of “more”. It really is a struggle that only He can give me the strength to face. But I’m learning that I don’t call on Him nearly as often as I should in that area of my life.
So that’s where He began to change my mind a few weeks ago – by teaching me that contentment takes spiritual strength. I truly can be content in any and every financial circumstance through Him Who gives me strength. Given my incredible lack of words right now (in quality, not volume – I never have a problem with volume…) it probably doesn’t seem like much of a mental conversion, but it was the beginning of something huge – something that’s definitely not over.
God had a deep message for my heart the day I re-read that verse, but we all know that sometimes words alone just aren’t enough to get the point across. So to make it stick, He took me to Atlanta to see that you truly don’t have to own a thing to be unmistakably rich in this life.
(to be continued)
1 comment:
I look forward to hearing from Him through you!
May you feel loved, blessed and rich today my friend!
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