Wannabe Christian Doorman

This thought, came from a strange dream, that I had.

In the dream, me and my wife, were at a new location to us. We were both interested in what was going on around us. Unfortunately, we didn’t remain in step with each other, as such, a certain distance just slowly came between us. At one point, my wife started to walk were the ground was unstable. My concern for my wife was very real, as I tried to get back to her. (Part of my wife’s disability is being unsteady on her feet.) But I was too late, as she fell over, and hit the floor hard. Then I woke up.

I was not as troubled, as I think that I should have been, by such a strange dream. But it’s not the way that I would like to have woken up. I was troubled slightly, but also had a strange peace, of some sort, around me.

When I’ve had weird dreams like this before, I’ve placed them before my Lord God.

So I asked, something like, “Lord, if this is from the enemy, and not of you, then let me quickly forget it. If there is something from You in this, then please explain or reveal it to me?”

In a round about way, the thought, “You can be in the right location, but out of step”, then came to me.

If me and my wife, remain in step with each other, then we can both support each other. I can provide an extra support, if it is needed, as she can lean into me. There are also times when, she can boost my confidence, by just being with me. There is a strength in being in step, with each other.

How much more strength can we call upon, if we remain in step, with Our Lord God?

John 15:1-17

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

If we are going through a bit of a tough time, then are we still able to say, “We Are Blessed!” ???

Last week, I wrote about how I needed to rebuke myself, so that I would choose to not be so grumpy. This week, I’m writing about part of the way, that me and my wife, tried to remain on the side of being thankful.

Short version, we had to, literally, keep saying to each other, “We are blessed.”

The short version of our fun and games we had, was car troubles. A hire car had been provided to us, as ours was broken. It was not as nice a car, as our one is, and, the car had a bit of a smell to it. It smelt of cleaning solution, with a rich tone of stale smoke. (It appears that a previous user had been smoking in the car, ignoring the no smoking sign.)

Neither me or my wife, particularly liked the car. (We could have tried to change the car, but it had been such a battle to get the car, that I just didn’t have it in me, to try to change it. 😦 )

Many times, as we went to use the car, we would look at each other, and one, or both of us, would say, “We are Blessed.” Sometimes, with a bit of a wry smile.

We both knew, that neither of really didn’t like the car, but we were both trying, to make the choice, to be thankful for it.

It would have been all to easy to moan and groan about the situation, to each other, and anyone else who would listen, but we were trying to steer clear of that.

If we had gone down the route of moaning about the situation, then how much more upset, would we have been inviting into our lives? The path we were travelling along would have been the same, but how different would the experience be?

Wry smiles, with a hint of laughter, or moans and groans, feeding our resentment?

We kept trying to choose the “We are Blessed” route, and I believe that our experience was all the better, for doing so. It wasn’t a walk in the park, as we were upset and annoyed by what was going on, but we were trying to not add, to the upset, that we were feeling. Instead, we were trying to recognise a truth, that was actually there, all along, that we are blessed.

We were trying to focus on the truth, that our needs were being met, through the car, that we didn’t particularly like, even though our personal comfort, was not being met. Hence, we kept on declaring to each other, “We are Blessed.” (Which very much so was/is a Truth.)

If we are going through a testing time, then are we able to see a truth, that we can be thankful for, so that we can then declare…

We Are Blessed!!!

______________________

Jeremiah 17:7-8

⁷ “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
⁸ They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

______________________

2 Corinthians 12:8-10

⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I effectively needed to tell myself to, not be so Grumpy.
I’d been having a bit of a testing time, and I was effectively, finding myself, falling short, of a better way of dealing with the situation, even though I’ve written about a better way to deal with tough situations in the past.

The short version of the troubles, is car problems.
My wife has a motorability car, a bit of a nice one, and it broke down.
It’s only just over a year old, and it was broken. 😦

I’m not going to go into all the details, as this would be just chasing after the chaff. But the situation I found myself in, to my thinking, was a comedy of errors, one after another, until I reached the point of, “I give up.”

I’m trying to think of a short way to explain, what happened, and the only way I can think of is. I had expectations of what would happen, if things went wrong, and they didn’t work out, as I would have liked.
I spent too much time, on the phone, chasing my tail, talking to several parties, to try to work things out, to find it was a lot more work, than I could cope with.

We were without a car, for just over a week.
It was when the hire car turned up, that I then needed to have a word with myself. (After the main storm had settled, a bit.)

As I said, our car, the broken one, is a bit of a nice car, and the replacement hire car, was not as nice of a car.
This irritated me a bit. (More than it should have.)
My thoughts were going to, we’re paying for the nice car, and now we’ve got this not so nice car (that’s different to our one nice one, which meant that I didn’t know where certain functions where on the car were), for I don’t know how long, it’s just not right!
This was on top of all the other grief that I’d had, plus a few other niggles.

I was loosing the battle to not being grumpy, and as such, I was going the wrong way.
We were mobile again.
We were blessed, and I knew it, but part of me, wanted to focus on the wrong side of things.
It shouldn’t have been this or that, and now I’ve got to settle for this. It’s not right! (Was the direction I was heading in. 😦 )

All along, part of me knew this was wrong thinking, but I still couldn’t seem to shift it.

I needed to admit that I was unhappy with what had/was going on.
I was listening to praise music, as this is something that I normally do.
As my bad mood increased, my want to do this, was less.
Fortunately, good habits, prevailed, mostly.

I believe that there was a part of me, that was trying to not be so grumpy.
A part of me, that was trying to tell me, that, we are blessed. That we now had use of a car, and that we were now mobile again.

It was a choice to try and think this way.
It was a bit of a battle, that was more of a struggle to break through into, than I would have liked. But, slowly, my thinking, started to get a bit better.
A couple of things happened, that just blessed me. (I think that I can call them, opportunities, to do something useful, which just helped me.)

I think that, part of the turning point was, trying to tell myself, to stop being so grumpy about, what was going on, and to look at the positive things, that were also happening, just there, in front of us.
I’m also thinking that I needed to acknowledge, in a correct way, that I was unhappy, with what was going on, then bring it before my Lord God.

Looking back, I’m thinking that it would have been so much better to have remembered that three little words, can make a big difference. But this time, that thought didn’t come.

Those words are, Accept, Repent and Forgive. There is power here.

Even though the three words didn’t come to me, I was guided to a better way of looking at things. Which, eventually, I did. 🙂

Can it be that, sometimes, to not be grumpy, is a choice, that we just need to make, on some level???

A had a picture of me talking to a friend about a couple of recent blog posts. The titles of the posts in question are…

When’s the Right time to Forgive?

How do we Forgive, when we Don’t want to do?

In the picture, I was saying to my friend, that I’d been writing posts that I’d rather of not written, as the experience that went with them, was unpleasant.

My friend went onto to ask the obvious question of, “What happened then?”

My thoughts then went to…

Why do you want to talk about the rubbish that I’ve had to deal with, when I’ve got gold, that’s been refined from the experience?
Why would you rather catch the chaff, and let the good kernel, fall to the ground?
I have some great principles to share with you, but you would rather talk about the details of the bad experience?
WHY???

I think that the reason the picture came to me, so quickly, is because, I would probably be making the same mistake, myself, in a similar situation. 😦

Why do we so quickly fall into this trap?
Why do we want to jump straight into all the gory details, instead of wanting to pick up the gold, that is waiting to be taken?
(Me included, to that one. 😦 )

We may all laugh, or smile and nod a bit at this thought, and put it down to something like, “It’s just our human nature.”
But, do we have to remain in that way of thinking?
Could we try to become aware of such thinking, and to then try for a better way instead?
Kingdom Thinking, anybody?
Could we try to search out the good stuff, and then let the stuff, that is of little, or no value, just fall away?

Romans 12:1-2
12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This is one of those thoughts, that just came to me. (Quite some time ago now.)
It might be a bit of fun to have a look at it. So, shall we do just that then?

The thought is about threshing wheat, but doing it, the wrong way round.

The right way to thresh wheat, is to throw it up into the air, out in the open, to then let the wind take the chaff (the not so good stuff) away.
The kernel (the good stuff), should fall to the ground, to then be collected and kept.
(This is only my basic understanding of threshing, I’m not an expert.)

If we have, even a basic understanding of threshing, then would we ever actively consider, doing it the wrong way round?

How silly would we be, if we were to throw the wheat up into the air, to then chase the chaff around, trying to gather as much as we could?
To then leave the kernel on the ground for others to come along and take away. Or for us to trample on and destroy, as we try to chase the chaff around???

Is there anyone, who would want to actively be the silly one, who chases after the stuff, that should be left to fall away?

But are there times, when we have done just this?
Are there times, when we go chasing after, … Rubbish, when there is Better stuff, just waiting, to be picked up?

Rather than me carrying on with this post, and then filling your mind with my thoughts, I’m going to finish here, and just ask that you might dwell on the final thought, with Our Lord God, for as long as He leads you to.

What are the things that I’m chasing, that aren’t so good for me, that I should just let fall away?
What are the Good things, that I should be picking up, that I’m currently missing?

When good things happen, then it can be all to easy to get carried away.

Did Elijah get carried away, when he jeered the prophets of Baal?

I’m sure that someone spoke this thought to me at some time, in some way, and then suddenly, it’s just reconnecting.

When Elijah, had his great success against the prophets of Baal, when he had his time of, winning but becoming worn out, in 1 Kings 18:16-46, did he become worn out, because he got carried away?

Before, I’d often thought that it was funny when Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal.

1 Kings 18:27
²⁷ At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”

It presents a fun picture to me. The true prophet of God, making fun of the false prophets of Baal. But, was it God’s will, for this to happen?
For Elijah to taunt, the prophets of Baal?
Was it the way of love, to taunt those, who were going down a wrong path?

Now please, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to judge Elijah, as I don’t know if I would have done any better, and I know that there are times, when I’ve got carried away myself.

What I’m trying to work round to, is, can we try to recognise when we are starting to get carried away, and then, to stop it?
To not waste energy on, a bit of fun, but instead, to keep that energy, for when we really need it?

How much energy did Elijah spend, making fun of the prophets of Baal?
We read just one sentence, but how much time does that one sentence cover? 5 minutes, an hour or a longer time?

If Elijah had rested during that time, instead of spending the energy he had on making fun of the prophets of Baal, then would he have had enough energy, to deal with Jezebel’s threat, which she sent to him, through a messenger?

1 Kings 19:1-3
19 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. ² So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

³ Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,

When all is said and done, can we keep in step with our Lord God, and do what He would like for us to do?
Can we keep in step to the Beat of Our Lord God’s Drum?
If it speeds up, will we then speed up?
If it slows down, will we then slow down?
Will we do all that we can, so that we won’t get Carried Away, but instead get Carried Along, as we keep in step with Him?
Our Lord God Almighty.