Hold your horses

Yep... my pen is itching.  Maybe it was the sheer number of visits to my last post, maybe it was just the exhilerating feeling I got while I was writing yesterday... maybe, just maybe, this writing thing is starting to come together.  My kids were at the table yesterday doing their homework w/ a friend and on the kitchen computer screen was my Blog's home page.  My 3rd grader and his friend were getting a kick out of reading the last entry (Love is not an option) and kept asking, "Wow, how did you write all of this?  How did you THINK of all of this?"  I could have said, "Welcome to my head... its a mixer party up in there!" but instead I just blurted out, "God."

What a profound knee-jerk response it was... I didn't even really think it through... it just came out.  So today, even with a ton of things to get done; floors to be swept and vacuumed, the kitchen sink resembles an earthquake aftermath and I"m pretty sure eveyone's wearing their last pair of clean underwear... I just wanted to write.  Will I finally write a chapter in my outlined future best seller?  Not today.  Do I have earth shattering news?  Nope.  But I know one thing... I am SUPPOSED to write today.... its part of His plan.

For those of you as fleshly narcisstic as I tend to be, you might be wondering what this has to do with you?  Actually, this topic is for everyone... because we all need to learn to hold our horses.  I love the bumper sticker (which is saying something, I usually despise bumper stickers... I find them a passive agressive way to communicate what you should just be saying out loud!)  Anyhooooo, the sticker that says "We plan, God laughs."  I suppose its a spin from Psalms 16:9 which states that "We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps."  (NLT.)

We can plan with the best of intentions but we truly have no idea what our future holds.  Only God does.  So while we are designed to make choices, have free will, plan for the future... one thing is for certain, we don't have any control over it.  And I think that is why its so important that we learn to hold our horses...for we have no idea (truly) as to what our plans will produce in His timing.  (For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11, NLT)

I think in this day and age we get very frustrated when things don't happen the way we want them to... especially with regards to timing.  I mean, how spoiled have we become?  100 years ago a woman my age was on the verge of being dead.  Had she still been alive (ahem,) she would have spent all day either warming bathtub water, creaming butter or grinding wheat.  C'mon, now I get irritated when my chicken breasts take 11 minutes to go from frozen (oh yeah, in my temperature controlled Garage freezer, no less) to defrosted so I can throw them in my double oven to have dinner ready 35 minutes later.  We are a society and generation of NO patience.  Yet we have no knowledge of future events, nor are we privy to what lays ahead and how it affects timing as it relates to our "today."  All we know is that we have planted desires in our heart and in HIS timing, they will come together... which, might I add, will produce the greatest outcome for us as well!!!  Did you ever notice how when you finally accomplish something you have had your heart set at...its always at the right time?  On the flip, pay attention to how it feels when you are trying to push for something and its really not "coming together" or if it does, it didn't bring you any satisfaction, or it felt like a struggle?  Aha.... God's timing.

He alone can see what is coming.  It doesn't really work when we want to do this whole God thing, but only in an advisory capacity.  Um...he's good.  I don't think he's posting any Craig's List ads for counsel in the "gigs" section...so you are going to have to trust me that if you can just "hold your horses" and do your part TODAY... he will exhalt you in due time.

So hold on to your dreams and lifelong goal list... they are important...its what God has created you to be (or some version of it, we'll get to that in another post!)  The heart of the matter is that we walk by faith, not by sight.  Listen to what you are to do today, because His ways are bigger than ours and quite frankly, the guy just knows more than we do.  I know today's Blog entry won't cause me to wake up tomorrow with a publishing contract or an amazing speaking opportunity (although I do use my scrambled eggs spatula as a microphone sometimes) but it will have been just one thread woven together in the tapestry of my life as God intended it to be.  Besides, laundry and dirty floors will still exist after I have pased in this life... just like your inbox, and your Facebook page.