Y2K

I have two followers! They are my mom and my daughter, but hey! I'm being followed. Now the pressure and resulting procastination set in. Truly, I woke today wondering what to write about. I already feel like it needs to matter...this is good. After that thought, I got a delivery...breakfast in bed. My sweet husband of eighteen years today brought me coffee and a bagel in bed. How sweet is that?! He offered to cook me eggs, bacon, grits-aka "the works" Southern-style, but he knows I don't like breakfast until after cup two of morning joe. I love that man!

We traveled to Gran and Pop's later, as is our Sunday tradition, and ate a yummy lunch. Just as I was leaving, my mom reminded me that I still have stuff in her basement. (Please don't even ask why I still have stuff in my mommy and daddy's basement.) I made a half-hearted removal effort, grabbing two more boxes of stuff I'm figuring we don't need since its been sitting there gathering dust for years. One box included old bank statements that I began shredding when we got home, and I came across this brochure from my bank to the left. Do you remember the panic when the year 2000 was several years away? I had friends in the banking industry and they worked their behinds off preparing for the catastrophe that was to come. Everyone worried that all machinery would stop working, no one would be able to access their money, the "grid" (whatever the heck that is) would freeze up, we'd all have to resort to squirreling away food in our basements and loading handguns. Anything computerized would be baffled since it was the new millenium. In other words, for you youngsters;) it would be the end of the world as we know it (thanks be to REM). I might have been in a baby-induced coma-like sleep, but I don't remember any of this happening. Catastrophe aborted.

When I came across this brochure today, I asked B to put it aside for one of my "life lesson talks with the kids that they really don't care to hear". Because, they are always screaming the sky is falling, like many adults, when we should realize that our Father's got big enough hands to hold that sky up, defeating gravity, and hang on to all those stars He mentioned to father Abraham. I tend to be extremely mellow (and I'm probably under-exagerating here), but I was quite a bit more anxiety-prone before I became a Jesus freak. I have found, in the subsequent years, that my God delivers.

"You're my cave to hide in,
my cliff to climb.
Be my safe leader,
be my true mountain guide.
Free me from hidden traps;
I want to hide in you.
I've put my life in your hands.
You won't drop me,
you'll never let me down."
Psalm 31;3-5 Msg

My favorite name for God in the Bible is Jehovah Jireh, God provides. I have a very personal story that I will share with just you. When our oldest was born, I stopped working (for money;) to stay home with her. At the time, B and I made equal incomes, so you can do the math. Not much income divided by two equals half of not much income. Twenty months later, baby girl two came along, and well, money was still pretty tight. (Coulda helped if I'd stayed away from the store with the bulls-eye...) One day, after trying to pay bills and not having enough there for much needed groceries, I just sat down and cried and prayed for God's help. I had the strangest feeling I should check my closet, hopped up, and reached in for an unused handbag. Guys, you won't get this, but the girls will. Women always have a stack of handbags in their closet that are the wrong season, color, or size for their current need. So, back to the purse. When I reached inside, my hand felt something in the bottom of this first bag I grabbed, one I had not carried in probably a year. I pulled out a twenty dollar bill! I jumped up and down I was so shocked and happy.

You might say "so what?" Or, my story may sound unreal to you. The money was there all along. But, I was wondering how to buy food, and yes, the money was probably always there, but I don't leave cash in purses. I am the woman who NEVER has cash. And, as I said, things were tight. I had emptied that purse and left twenty dollars inside, all by itself? Its my story and I'm sticking to it. It is just one way that God has provided for me. Note that He did NOT provide $200 nor $2000. He did NOT provide for me to win the lottery. He did NOT rain manna from heaven every day for the rest of that year...although HE could do all of this if it was His will. He provided for my immediate need and gave me the hope I needed so we could plug away, doing the work, to improve our condition.

"What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way He works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how He works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met." Matthew 6:31-33

Just wondering what you need today. I use the words "trust" and "faith" interchangeably. So I am going to substitute on one of my fave verses. Trust is believing without seeing. Check it out for yourself...Hebrews 11.

Hope you have yourself an unreal day!