Ohhh Mondays

I've been waiting to post this blog until today as it is all about today.
 Mondays. The day that signals the end of the weekend, the beginning of the long work-week, long school-week, and for some the day when we ask, "Where did that paycheck go?"

Mondays. When everything goes wrong and a co-worker, fellow-scholar or friend says, "Well, it is Monday." we accept this explanation as a valid reason why the coffee was spilled , the fax machine jammed, the server was down, the co-worker or scholar three desks over is grouchier than normal and the boss or professor just dumped an impossible assignment on us. We accept it as the cause of our fruit cup leaking all over our lunch container making our sandwich soggy. Of course we thought we zipped the Ziploc fully but actually didn't. We accept, "Well, It is Monday." when at the end of the day it's raining and we are in a building needing to get to our car-where sadly, our umbrella is, And our spouse calls us right as we get to our car to ask us to pick something up for them on our way home-when what we needed was for them to say, "Hey, just thinking about you. I Thought I would call and see how your day had gone. I Love you, bye." We say, "Well, it is Monday" when we arrive home where our children are in refusal mode no matter what we say or threaten, our best friend tweets to say they cannot make the Monday night girls-night at Hobby Lobby we had set up so Monday would end on a high note, and finally the national news anchor reports that surprisingly, several candidates slung mud at one another, and here are those highlights.

Perhaps this is why I have never heard anyone say, "I love Mondays!"  I'm not about to tell you that I do. Nope. Not gonna happen. Forget it sister! Move off of that thought and back to reality.

But... You knew that was coming, right? Yep, Pastor's wife always has a big but. (I just threw that in there to give you a laugh on a Monday). So what's the but?

Just this. Maybe Mondays are doomed to be this darkened catastrophic day of gloom and mishap. But what if we chose to go through our Monday in conversation with God? What if when the coffee spills we say, "Lord that is hot!.Ouch." and when the fax machine jams we can look heavenward and say, "Really?" not as if to say we blame God for a fax jam, but more to say, "Really God, Can you believe this Monday I am having?!"

When the server crashes we might say, "I wanna hit this computer with a hammer. Good thing I don't keep a hammer here, right God?".

When the boss or Prof. dumps that ginormous assignment in our lap, or on our desk, we can say, "Again Lord, good thing I don't keep a hammer here." and/or, "I know I should pray for all people in my life Lord, but I confess my prayers for him/her would probably not be good prayers right now. Can you help me to see their side of things?" I know...I know, that would be a tough thing to ask for. Some might rather say, even though it is wrong, "Hey God, can you hand me a hammer?"

When we find our soggy sandwich, we can joke with our creator, "I was thinking of fasting and praying through lunch anyways." and then ya know, maybe pray during lunch since you suddenly have some time freed up in your day.

When we run through the rain to our car, we can acknowledge that God is with us, and sent the rain n the first place. "I know, I know, the farmers need it, we've been in a drought. But you couldn't turn it off for five minutes?"  Because God can handle a little complaining. It may even give him a laugh on a Monday.

After our spousal let-down we can ask God to help us not to turn into a total grouch as we run our extra errand, and to please, please, help us be nice to our family when we get home. This could be a really important prayer if those kids are in refusal mode.

When our pal has to cancel girls-night, we can look heavenward and sigh. He understands.
When we see the evening news we can look heavenward and sigh. He knows.

Our God is a God who sees all and knows our hearts. He doesn't need us to tell Him what we are going through or how we are feeling about it. We need to tell Him. Because it draws us closer to our God and being in conversation with Him reminds us that we are not alone. He is with us. Always.

In Genesis 16:13, after God sent an angel to speak to Hagar as she hid alone in the desert, she learned what we know: He sees us, He is with us.We can talk to Him and He hears us.

 "Thereafter, Hagar referred to the Lord who had spoken to her, as, "The God Who Sees me." for she said, "I have seen the One who sees me."


Have a tolerable Monday, and share it with my friend and yours, Our Father in heaven.
Let me know how it goes.
Blessings-Lorilise

Speaking of Great Expectations....

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen.  Hebrews 11:6

Last week Lorilise shared a post about expecting God to make a way for us to do the things for which we are called.  As I've been ruminating over this, it occurs to me that I don't often expect great things from God.  Frequently, my faith is reduced to barely a shred of hope that God will step in at the last minute to cover the little tiny gap that is left  between my effort and something truly great.  The implication here is that I've got it mostly covered on my own, and I only need God to grant me a few drops of His strength and goodness to get it the rest of the way.


WHAT?

Yes, this is actually how I (often) function.  So, when I'm finally at the end of my own strength (which really doesn't take that long, if we're being honest), I am able to recognize God when He steps in.  Of course, I'm totally blown away because His strength and goodness far outweigh anything I could ever conceive.  Then it strikes me that He's been at work in my situation- in my life- all along!

He is always at work; He doesn't step in just to save me from myself at the last possible second.


Let that sink in for a minute.

I've had this idea, and I don't think I'm alone in this, that God is around to help me do good things.  When in reality it is God who lets me participate in His good work.

How did I get that backwards?

I think it is because at my very core, I still would prefer to do things my way.  But wouldn't it be so much easier to do things God's way?  I mean, seriously, He's GOD!  I'm pretty sure He has the best, perfect plan, plus I'd be willing to bet He's considered everything and has all the details worked out!

So where does this leave my faith?

My expectation = My faith.

Based on my expectations, I would say my faith needs quite the adjustment!  I need to recognize that God is always at work in my life, and He is always doing greater things than I could ever do on my own!  Changing my expectation of God to reflect who God really is, increases my faith in Him.

So, what are your expectations of God?  What does your faith look like?  Do you see any upcoming changes in your expectations?

Great Expectations

Expectations can be a great thing. Or a beyond, beyond less than great thing that creates great disappointment.
I expect food delivered hot and fast when I go through a drive-thru. Mostly because I am in a hurry, starving because I've been "too busy to eat", and oh yeah, the establishment's commercials set up that expectation.
So while receiving an order of  limp, luke-warm fries and a less then tasty sandwich, I feel disappointed and ripped off, I tend to chastise myself, "What'd you expect? It's _______, (insert fast-food joint's name here).

Even though half the responsibility surely rests on the disconnect between a New York ad agency, the restaurant's Marketing Department and the actual restaurants, some responsibility is mine. Because I have had bad fast-food meals more often than I have had good fast-food meals.
I should at least switch locations, or chains, right?

This type of expectation falls into the category of I expect this because I want it to be true. Really more wishful thinking on steroids.

There are great expectations that come to fruition and I am always so thrilled.

 In July of 2011 Keith and I stood at the altar of a sanctuary with carpet so worn you could see the holes in the floor underneath. Dust on the widow sills was measurable in inches. The windows themselves were beautiful-just dirty.( In fact to put it in realty terms, the building had great bones. It  needed cleaning and updating).

We prayed together to God. We told our Heavenly Father that if this was where He wanted us to do ministry, we would do it, we would give it our all, we would meet His people in the Shaw community and do life with them, helping in the ways we could, sharing the Word, breaking bread, and working really, really, really hard.

We did not place expectations on God as to what color the walls would be painted, who would paint the walls, how many people would help us, or how hard it would be to renovate a building while serving in the community. These things mattered but were not at the forefront of our prayers,

Our expectation was if God wanted us here, He would show us the way, to continue on Eva's theme from last week, step by step.  I continue because Eva was right, and Dr. King was right when he said, "Faith is taking the next step even when you can't see the whole staircase." Keith and I believed in God's ability to move us through our journey, And we just had to take the next step. And then the next step. And the one after that. One at a time, each one taken with equal faith in the God we love.

God brought us people to help with the building. Actually-we helped them as Keith and I epitomize the term unskilled laborers. God brought us people to help work at our first National Night Out only a month after being blessed with our church building.God brought us people from the neighborhood who have become our mentors, sounding boards, friends and great church members. With each step we took in faith and continue to take, God showers blessings upon us. Most often in the form of the beautiful people of the neighborhood.

My expectation now is that God will continue to bless if I will continue to step, alongside my favorite pastor and yours, Keith.

I do come to church every Sunday with great expectations. I expect to encounter God through Worship in music and in hearing His Word. Harry and the rest of the praise team and Keith, are vessels for this encounter.

I also expect to share life with friends, reveling in their victories, and praising God with them for those. Praying with them about their struggles and mine.

When I go to work each day I expect to work hard to earn my pay and am never disappointed. I also expect God to show me ways I can be Jesus' hands and feet for those I encounter. I pray to God each morning to show me someone I can minister to and to give me the right mindset and words to do so. As long as I am praying that prayer, and have that expectation, I have had that opportunity. No kidding.

This is a lot of me going on and on about how great our church is-and it is. And a bit of me sharing about my Monday-Friday life. But my point and I do have one, is that if we want to love others the way Jesus does, and grow as a disciple of Christ then we all have a job to do. We need to know we are on a mission from God. We need to have an expectation that God will show up if we ask, that He will bless our lives by allowing us to be His hands and Feet not just on Sunday but daily.

Who's willing to do two things with me?
1. be willing to be one of those vessels of God's love for others.
2. set up the expectation.
Okay three things.
3. take the first step.
So are we willing? Are we ready? Let me know how it goes. You can share in the comments section so we can all be encouraged by your great expectations.

Blessings, Lorilise

Changes

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

So it seems a little weird to be saying that on the 9th of January, but as far as I'm concerned, "the year is still young!"  : )

And though it may seem too late to some, I think this is the perfect time to talk about New Year's resolutions.  By now, many people have already started to lose determination steam for their resolutions, but I figure, "What's the rush?"  We are talking about changes we want to make over the long term, right?

On the 1st of January of this year, I made a realization about myself.  I realized that I get easily overwhelmed.  Anything that takes patience, or a long term solution, really just frightens me.  The thing is, I really, REALLY want to be Super Woman.  And I am so task oriented that if I see that a task can't get done in half an hour, or an hour, or a day, or any conceivable amount of time, I put it off.

I. Simply. Don't. Start.

So things don't get done.  My house stays messy.  My weight remains the same.  My Bible sits untouched.  My prayers lay unanswered because they were unasked.

Then, when I resolve that things are going to be different, I run head first into my disorganized life in a kamikaze frenzy and wonder why I can't keep up the pace long term.  Hmmmmm.........

The reality is that while I know that things need to change in my life, I don't know how to keep the ball rolling.  I can start the ball on its way, but I just can't keep the darn thing in motion!

So here is where my second realization came in.  I have to change the way I make changes in my life.  I cannot waffle between overwhelmed despair and Super Woman frenzy every other week.  You see my problem is that when I see a huge obstacle, I think, "Where in the world am I gonna get enough energy to accomplish this mountainous feat?"

Here's the secret...

I only need enough energy for one small step.

That's it.

So this year, I'm gonna take that step.  I know that God is calling me to make some changes, so this year, instead of trying to overhaul my life in an hour,  I'm just gonna put my hand in His and trust that one small step is enough.