This year's winter has been a record breaker! Week after week we have been hit with snow, ice, and below zero temperatures. Weather is something that doesn't bother me too much, however I must say 'It's getting a little old living in the tundra'. At dinner the other night, our family was visualizing the smell of spring, freshly mowed grass, a warm 70 degree day, flowers in bloom, and bare feet on the payment. We all oohed and awed over how wonderful the thought of spring and how much more we will appreciate it this year after the winter we have experienced.
After our most recent mixture of snow and ice, a week later the streets are still partially covered with deep pot holes, ridges, and patches of ice and snow making for adventures travels. At the end of our street a large ice and snow mix had developed and froze making for a challenging trek through it's whindy, slippy curve. I had to laugh yesterday as the car slid into one track and then fishtailed to slip into the next icy track as I rounded the corner to our home. I felt like I was on a ride at an amusement park when your car switches from track to track and you gimme back and forth in your seat. By the end of the day, I was actually looking forward to my amusement park ride as I navigated my way home with a smile on my face.
It brought to mind the thought of living on the edge and living in the moment. How much more fulfilling my life would be if I simply lived with what I was provided for each day, never knowing where or how tomorrows provisions would arrive.
I think of what a 'hording' society we are with our freezers full of food, our storerooms stuff full of 'what I will use someday', our closets brimming with clothes 'I will fit into again', and the ever present 'kitchen junk drawer'.
It makes me wonder with all my 'stuff' I am trying to manage am I really valuing the 'important' things in life?
The thought takes me back to when Milo and I were first married and living in married student housing while attending college. We had a 'tiny' one bedroom apartment with a corridor kitchen, we ate in the living room, and the bathroom was large enough to accommodate one person at a time. Our grocery bill was about $80/month and consisted primarily of ham sandwiches and pancakes. The 'major' decision at the time was if we could afford a car payment of $80/month for a used Ford escort and the highlight of the week was having enough empty pop cans to redeem for a refund in order to take in a $2 show at the movie theater.
17 years later we manage a household budget thousands times more and we have enough bathrooms to accommodate each member of our family. We have a kitchen, dining room, a living room, a sitting room (we we never sit in), and a rec room. A bag full of cans redeemed at the can shed ($12.00) only pays for 1/2 the cost of the movie and the good news, we don't have any car payments!
So am I more happy now with more money to manage and more space to accumulate stuff?
When God called Abraham he said, 'Leave your country, your people, and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.' So Abraham at 75 years old performed a life changing act and he gathered up is nephew, his wife, all his possessions he had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan.' Genesis 12
WOW! Abraham put his life totally in God's hands. God's call to him was a call to separation. A call to lose his life and love God more. A call to put off the old self and put on the new self. God said get out of your comfort zone, leave back much of what is familiar to you, and set out on a NEW journey. God promised Abraham that He would make him into a great nation and that he would be blessed and all those that followed him would be blessed as well.
So I ask you today, are you just comfortable managing all of your stuff? What has God called you to do today that you have not yet responded in obedience too? Are you willing to ride the roller coaster of life with all of it's ups and downs, it's shifting track to track, and it's unpredictability in order that God can work and do amazing things in your life?
Take a chance on God, you won't be sorry that you did.
Jill
