| | What a week... suddenly being single again, still passing classes by the smallest percentage, slipping into apathy... and severely sleep deprived to the point of a headache and dizziness. Yeah, it's been fun. Not.
So, after an extremely long day at class and probably the worst pcol
exam EVER I decided to go to the gym and talk some things through with
God. You know, the gym is my best friend and worst enemy. It all
depends on whether I am there because I want to or because I feel awful
if I don't. But that's a different story. Today I was there because I
was on autopilot and the gym is a safe place to think.
It happened when I turned the music off...
I'd been listening to a mix I made before I left for the IT project,
when life was kind of crashing around me. Today seemed a good day for
it again. But my CD player wouldn't work right, it kept skipping and
stopping and stuff. (Word of warning, don't ever get an off-brand CD
player even if it's on sale for $20. It's not worth it.) So I only
heard the first half of Acres of Hope. But it worked. My heart kept on
singing and... this is where it gets amazing... I talked to God for a
bit and suddenly all the hope that I'd been lacking for the last
30-some hours came rushing back!
God really does bring us through valleys and acres of hope. Both.
Not that life is great. It's still... yeah... and it'll be a while
before I can get through a day and not have to force a smile at some
point. Or look in the mirror again. Hheh, it'll be a while before I can
bring the mirror out of hiding. That goes for the scale too. Or watch a
chick flick without cynicism pouring from every ounce of my body. Or
eat without feeling nauseated and guilty. Or go back to Real Life.
Or... a lot of things. But that's okay. God heals all things and He's
already started to work on me.
I'm giving the lesson tonight at Awana. I typed it out because I'm a
planner and a nervous person and I need to know what's going to happen
and I need to know exactly what I'm going to say... here it is. (For
those of you who know the background, it'll be amazingly ironic.)
I pray that this hope doesn't dissipate after the sun goes down... nights are always harder than days. But I'm hopeful again.
Anyway, here's the Awana lesson:
Do you ever ask God for something and then wait for a long time before
He gives it to you? Have you ever prayed for something and God didn’t
give it to you?
I want to tell you the story of a little girl tonight. Her name is
Gladys. She lived in Ireland with her mother and father. She went to
church and learned about Jesus and asked him into her heart when she
was a very little girl. She prayed to God every night for the people
she loved.
She also prayed that God would make her beautiful. She wanted to be
tall with blonde hair and blue eyes like her friends and the other
little girls she knew. She prayed very hard about it every night. Every
morning she would wake up and jump out of bed and run to her mirror and
see if God had answered her prayer. But each morning she saw the same
thing as before. She was short with dark hair and dark eyes. But she
didn’t become angry with God even though it seemed like He wasn't
listening to her.
When she was older God told her that He wanted her to go to China to
tell people about Jesus. When she arrived in China for the first time
she learned why God had not made her tall with blonde hair and blue
eyes. She looked at the people that God had called her to serve and saw
that she looked like them. They were short with dark hair and dark eyes!
Gladys lived in China as a missionary and helped many people, including
many children. She saved over 100 children from the Japanese bombs by
taking them through the dangerous mountains and across the Yellow River
to a place where they could be safe. But if she had not trusted God she
would not have obeyed Him when He told her to go to China. Sometimes
what God does makes us wonder if He cares about us. But He does care,
and He hears us when we pray to Him. We just need to trust Him until He
shows us why He is saying no.
Trust God when He doesn’t make sense
Trust God when He doesn’t give you what you want
Trust God because He has a plan and a reason for what He does
Trust God because He loves you and made you just as you are because He wants you to be that way! |
| | Posted 11/17/2006 1:44 AM - 20 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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