HE's the One who started the Fire!

Have you ever felt the frustration of not being able to do hardly anything? At knowing there is so much you need to get done...and there's simply no way you can manage it all?

This sickness I thought would be over in a few days is still refusing to depart, willingly or otherwise! I spent 10 days - ten days!! - in bed, and the last few days I've only been able to get up and do a few things in the morning, as long as I rest often; then in the afternoon I just crash for the rest of the day. It's been decades since it's taken so long to get over something.

Now...have you ever had a time when you felt like this in your walk with Jesus?  A time when your weakness simply won't let you do all the things you'd like to do for Him?

                           A WEE BIT OF KINDLING

                               Me:  For now, I can't gather                                    

                                       big logs for Your Fire,
                                       or pour fuel on Your flames,     
                                       so they're brighter and higher.

               In my weakness I bring You
               just some twigs...a prayer...a thought...
               such a wee bit of kindling,
               but it's all that I've got.

                     God:  Just your wee bit of kindling
                              is all that I need.
                              Does the force of My Fire
                              come from you...or from Me?

                             When the logs are too heavy
                              to be lifted or rolled,
                              when you can't bring Me wood,
                              tend My hearth - feed my coals;

                              take your wee bit of kindling
                              (it's all that I need);
                              o'er the heat of the coals
                              lay your twigs - let them bleed!

                                              Then stand back and watch
                                              what that does to My Flame.
                                              Hear the sizzling whispers
                                              that shout out My Name!

                                              'Tis a glorious blaze,
                                               leaping high, leaping free!
                                               Stay and watch it, My Child,
                                               watch My Fire, and you'll see

                            that your weakness won't limit
                            My Word or My Deed.
                           Your wee bit of kindling
                            is all that I need.
                                          **********************************(Becky Rhon)****

 He knows!  He understands.  He is not limited by our weakness. You know, He definitely wants us to contribute to his Fire...but the Fire itself depends on Him, not on us! After all, HE started it, laying on it the most important "firewood" of all:

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(I would add that "not being able to" do things for Him is NOT the same as "not wanting to"!  We can't use this as an excuse or "justification" for idleness. When we do that, God will go on without us...but WE will lose out on the blessings and growth that come from taking part of His Work on earth.)
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May each one of you have a wonderful week, full of God's peace and healing!

Eli, on John the Baptist (Wait...he ate WHAT??!!)

We were in the car after church, on our way to lunch and then to the airport for us to catch our flight back to Quito.  When asked what he had learned in Sunday School, our precocious 4-year-old grandson Eli started his brief narration about John  the Baptist, which included these "facts":
                                                                                                                                          

"John the Baptist lived in the desert and ate cockroaches and wild honey...and he bath-tized people in the Jordan River."

I don't think we were the only ones who were amused by his version.  I can just imagine God listening in with a twinkle in His eye and a grin on His face, and saying, "Close enough, buddy!  For now."

We have such a patient and understanding God!  When we try...but don't quite make it...He might say to us, "Close enough, Child!  For now."  He doesn't expect us to be perfect, so He encourages us, seeing that we sincerely strive to take steps toward the goal, and knowing that eventually we'll get it right.  On the other hand,  He DOES expect us to continue learning, and growing ever closer to "eventually getting it right".  "Close enough!" doesn't mean we've reached our eternal goal and can stop...that's why He adds, "For now".

When we earnestly seek to follow Him, He looks at us the way we look at Eli. Eli gave it his best...didn't quite get it all straight...but we've seen his potential and know that it won't be long before he tells us that "John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey and baptized people in the Jordan River."  He's growing and learning...he'll get there. God knows our potential, our sincerity, so He can look at us with a smile and say, "You'll get there!  You'll make it!"
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On a completely different note...I've been really sick!  In my last post, I mentioned that I was getting over whatever I had in San Antonio.  Then, after 2 or 3 days of feeling fairly well, I went downhill again. Maybe God gave me a special grace to be able to get through the days of traveling, and then do laundry and put stuff away...before ending up back in bed! (So, was it a continuation of what I had?)  Or maybe it's all the fault of the guy on the airplane!  I was in a window seat, and the man in the seat directly behind me coughed quite lustily...right up the space between our seats and the wall of the plane.  From what it sounded like, he didn't even cover his mouth.  So his germs came streaming their merry way up to me and I thought, "I hope we don't come down with something."  Well, I did.

Anyway, my chest was still congested, but my sparse coughing bouts didn't produce very much, so the junk just stayed there.  What with fever, weakness and feeling rotten (and having lost about 9 lbs. in 5 days), I finally went to the hospital emergency room.  We were actually attended right away! What I have is "tracheitis"; the congestion is clustered around my trachea - something I'd never heard of before. Thank God my lungs themselves were pretty clear.  So now, with an antibiotic and decongestant, and doing some nebulizer** sessions, I should be back to my normal pace in a few days.
                                                                                                                           

(**You know, that mask apparatus you put on your face that makes you look like someone from another planet, and you can just imagine someone yelling, "Alien!   Call the Men in Black!")

I know some of you  have been praying for me, and I thank you!!   
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During this next week, may we all continue our journey with our Lord uplifted by His encouraging voice telling us, "You'll get there!  You'll make it!"

"When people get old, THAT gets squishy." (Eli's Anatomy)

That's what grandson Eli told me the other week as he pointed to my throat, so I  assume that's the part of us old ladies that gets "squishy". Of course, I'm not that old, but then he's only 4!  To him, I'm OLD!

It's true that since I lost weight, my throat looks a little more like a scrawny-old-lady-chicken-neck, now that there's not as much "padding" to fill it out...but I had never thought of it as squishy.  Now, thanks to Eli, every time I look at an older person's throat, I'll be tempted to subtly check out its squishiness!  (And maybe subtly cover up my own?)

Hmmmm.  After writing those last two sentences, I realized there's a lesson there.  We have a tendency to check out other people's defects and cover up our own, don't we?** I guess a true sign of humility would be to do the opposite: look for other people's good points and not seek recognition for our own.  (Not as easy!)
                                                  **********************************

We just got back from a wonderful almost-two-weeks with Eli and his siblings and cousins, plus his mom and dad, aunt and uncle:  our son Dan, gracious wife KC, and their Noe (9), Micah (7) and Eli...plus our daughter Debbie, much- appreciated husband Steve, and their Liliana (6) and Miriam (4...but almost 5).  Debbie's kids are Dan's kids' only cousins, so it's always special when they get together.  And Eli loved having someone around who was also 4!

The only difficult part of our time together was having, first Dan, and then me, come down with the flu...or some other sort of spoil-sport virus. He got sick only a couple of days after we arrived, and I went down only a day or two later.  Though he spent a day or so in bed, Dan's the kind that toughs it out when he needs to...so he did just that.  I tried to follow his example! There was no way I was going to miss out on interaction with our children and grandchildren, The hoarseness and rattle-y chest and cough made it a challenge, to say the least!  I think Dan was sicker...but also tougher!

Those of you who follow my blog know I never miss a week!  But that Wednesday I felt so very sick that I simply couldn't think, much less try to organize my thoughts enough to write something halfway intelligible!  So, for the first time, I let it slide.  (And the world didn't come to an end!)
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As I continue our story, remembering God's kindness and grace to us, I'll be telling you (among other things) about how He worked and blessed and taught through the circumstances surrounding the arrival of our five grandchildren.  At times, it seemed like He really outdid Himself...if that's even possible!

My chest still sounds awful when I cough, but the other symptoms have pretty much cleared up, and now we start getting back into our home routine, buoyed up by the memories of these days God allowed us to spend with our dear ones.  I'll try to include some photos in the next post.

I hope that each one of you had a wonderful start to the new year!  May you remember to write "2015" instead of "2014" on checks, letters, etc.!  I'll see you next week.  God bless you!
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**(I didn't mean to imply that having a squishy neck was a defect!  I was just making an analogy about human nature.)