FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2022 - SPIRITUAL THOUGHTS

 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2022 - SPIRITUAL THOUGHTS

On Fridays, I tend to look at spiritual things

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(From a daily lesson)

Overcoming not Overwhelmed

We all go through seasons where it feels like everything is falling down around us. Sometimes bad things happen all at once. It’s not necessarily any one thing that sets us off, but the combined weight of everything can feel overwhelming. At times we look to the future and see no way out.

Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor of Ravensbrook concentration camp during the Second World War, famously once said, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” When life’s struggles come, it can feel like we’ve been plunged into darkness, but the reality is there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

If we focus on the darkness, we will always feel overwhelmed. We can’t visualize how we could possibly come out of it unscathed. When we focus on the light at the end of the tunnel, we know that we can make it through. We can trust that even when we’ve come to the end of ourselves, God’s strength will get us through.”

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I am generally upbeat and positive.  But, sometimes that is standing on the point of a pin.  It’s a delicate balance - a puff of a breeze can push me off that pin, and I can slide to the bottom and find myself in the muck around me. And, if the breeze gets stronger, I’m not just standing in the muck, I’m swimming and breathing in the stuff.  

I ask myself “Who is this that is slogging through the sewer, opening her mind to the dark side”? (knowing, of course, it is me).

Deep inside, I know I need to climb to the top of that pin again, I know that wallowing in the muck leads to despair (and ultimately death).

“Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I think I'll go eat worms!”.  So goes an old nursery rhyme.   

But, like the story (above).  I’m on a train going through a tunnel - it is dark, maybe even totally dark, maybe there is an odor, a stench, that first offends my nose, but as I stay longer in the dark, the smell lessens and I forget that there is an exit to the tunnel.  

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(Excuse me for a term I rarely use)

I’m in a room full of cow sh*t.  It stinks, it touches my clothes, it touches my skin.  Yuk.

A farmer comes by and calls the sh*t cow manure (which I guess it is).

Then a horticulturist comes by and recognizes cow manure as a form of fertilizer.  (I remember the days when (, especially in spring) a manure spreader puts the manure on fields to help them grow.  But, driving past a field that is undergoing recent manure spreading smells!!!)

Then another agricultural expert says “wow - fertilizer!!  Fertilizer is good for crops.  WOW - you are in a room full of awesome fertilizer.  You are really blessed!!!   

But, if I’m the person standing in the sh*t I don't recognize it as being an awesome fertilizer.  

Maybe there is a lesson for the man - to adjust his attitude.  In my Saturday story, Gottfried (which literally translates from German as “God’s Peace”) moves up the scale because he can muck out the stables and clean out the “manure”.  

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A change of topic - my future.  I’ve written (from my reading), “The past is passed - it is gone, it cannot be changed, the future is unknown, it hasn’t been written yet.  All we have is the present”.

So, why am I concerned about my future?  I will die and I’m only a little scared of death.  Will I be like the people in the “memory care” unit where I serve?  Will I have dementia?  Will life be passing me by?  

Will I be like Warren Buffet - still a viable financial wizard at age 92?  

So, while the future hasn’t happened yet, I can be quasi-aware of it and anticipate it by doing the suggested things:  good nutrition, good health, good sleep, friends, family, social, mental exercises, spiritual thoughts, positive thinking, and taking care of myself.  Failing to plan is considered as ‘planning to fail’.  So, yes, I need to be aware of what I do today will affect my future.  But, I can obsess over it.  

I have a deep inner compulsion to be of value.  Lately, I’ve been examining what value I have?  I’m no longer a great tuba player - I’m not even sure if I’m a ‘good’ tuba player.  Do I move away from the tuba?  (That has been part of my life for 63 years).  Do I stop working because I’m getting old?  Do I stop writing my daily blog?  Do I stop sending positive notes to friends (or even to enemies)?  

Am I losing some of my fervor?  “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelations 3:16).  

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My resolve is to stay strong until death (aka “the end”).  Is that a reasonable goal?

And, I need to remember “In EVERYTHING give THANKS”.  (Yes, Karen, your billfold will show up soon!!! - note it did show up yesterday!!!)

I can only Love God as much as the person I love the least

What does God expect of me?  To love justice, show mercy, and walk humbly with God

LOVE WINS!!

Karen White, October 21, 2022, ©