Molly stood in the kitchen, arms clutching tight, as a harness around her waist. Her husband stood in the doorway and I, to the side, had a fleeting thought and voiced it. “I can come back later, I said.”
“No, it’s fine, maybe you can help”, her husband and her both said. Her husband asked me, how much do you rely on devotionals?
“Hmm, well, I read them, and I definitely enjoy them, but I guess I measure them like any other book”.
“Measure?” he said.
“I tend to be analytical and cautious. I measure them by the Bible.” I mean, anyone can write words. Anyone can make promises fit into an empty space. A vacuum will suck in whatever is close by. I find if it is contrary to what God is doing in my specific life I treat it carefully.
“That’s what I’ve been telling her. It is not a horoscope”.
That is a scenario that took place some 32 years ago. I wish those convictions would have stuck.
Words swim around my head. I have more ideas and thoughts about hope and scripture and observations that I can hold lately, but nothing seems to fit on paper. I feel like I’m feeling my way around in the dark. So much for a 30-day challenge. It has become a 30-day pressure cooker. And I have to let it go.
I notice the bees are still here, maybe not in as great a number as in years past, but I see them. And they are doing their jobs, gathering pollen and making honey. They are doing nothing about the shortage of their own species. They aren’t concerned. I know we are not bees, and we have a different set of responsibility, but I can only hold so much and can’t give what I don’t have.
Gather what you can and distribute it to your sphere of influence. Then….live
Our words have power and weight and effect.. We see that all the time. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. What I say or write today will most likely return to me in the future in some way. So, yes, I want to measure them, carefully, but once they go out, let them go.
Inspiration comes. Catch it as it flies by. It doesn’t hang around long. It has wings. I get inspired at the most inconvenient times. When I am driving, in the middle of the night, during my work day. It can be frustrating trying to hold onto a thought, especially with a memory like mine. I will repeat it in my head sometimes over and over until I have a place to write it down. I have written things in the wee hours of the morning. When I don’t, by morning they are gone.
A quote I once read says “When we stop fearing failure, we become artists.” I thought about this. I thought about how many times I shut my mouth for fear of being criticized, misunderstood, or challenged. Not that we should blurt everything out with a “hell to care” attitude, we shouldn’t. We should measure what we say, find a way to appropriately say it, and say it! If it comes out wrong or not the way you intended, fix it.
I am learning, finally, to measure my words by the standard I believe is true….that is, God’s Word.
I believe everything you read in the Bible on a certain day is true. That doesn’t mean it is true for my situation at a given time. That doesn’t mean that everyone who talks about it or writes about it is an expert on it. The Bible was written for our instruction, yet is to be mixed with faith, with inspiration and guidance from the Holy Spirit. It is not a manual with a trouble-shooting chapter. It is God-breathed and it still breathes on those who seek and pray and call upon Him.
I know more because I know less
I know less about who God is than I used to, therefore I know more about my need to find Him daily. I know less about hope, my subject, so I know more about my desperation to find it. I know less about words than I knew before, so it takes longer to write them.
I know less, so I know more about learning and waiting and listening and measuring.
In my less
I am blessed
Cause I know more
