Investing

Ask a group of people how God speaks to them and you are bound to get a lot of interesting answers.  You might start a few arguments, unleash some bitter root judgements and vex a couple people in the process.  Perhaps you shouldn’t ask the question after all.  Without being overtly spiritual, I can tell you when I know God is speaking to me directly.  It happens about when I have lost all patience and want to run someone’s head through a wall. 

I told you it wasn’t a deeply spiritual communication.

This week, I was in exactly that place.  I was staring across a desk at smiling woman who was being utterly useless and catastrophically unhelpful.  She excelled in the art of apology, but was falling short in her ability to get anything accomplished.  Her form of “help” was akin to shouting directions from the river bank at a drowning swimmer.  This assumes she were sitting in a lounge chair, drinking a white wine sangria, and her instructions were about how best to paint ones toenails.  I was trying desperately not to behave in a hateful manner but she was breathing my air and I was starting to resent her very existence. 

That, dear friend, is when I know that God has something to say to me.  Let me be clear, it’s not that I want to hear from him at those moments, but training has lead me to understand that when I am furious at someone, 9 times out of 10, I’m to blame. 

It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. Prov 20:3

Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out Prov 17:14

I seem to need constant training in this area, so the good Lord continues to introduce me to new layers of bureaucracy, idiocy and technology so that I can pass His tests.  He is so very good to me, He is always investing in my character.

Did I mention I’m failing miserably?

What about you friend?  How are you doing with life’s little tests and trials?  Are you framing them with faith and learning or frustration and legalism?  A wonderful young man of 14 summed it up best this week, when he told his mother that she could stop investing in his character and future, because it was leading to excessive amounts of frustration on his part.  

Amen brother.

I’m praying for myself this week.

(and you as well.....)

xoxKaren