One of my best friends, Melanie, went through a horrible divorce a few years ago. She found herself ready to forego the rest of her life, for the peace of the after life, one night and prayed as she went to sleep that night that God would take her on with Him while she slept. She was praying that she would die in the night. She no longer wanted to face her existence when she awoke the next morning.
Upon her eyes opening that next morning, she was immediately devastated. She was so sure the night before, that she was going to meet her maker. . . that He would answer her prayer and take her on home with Him. As she opened her eyes and realized that He didn't answer her prayer, she was overcome with heartbreak from an unanswered prayer.
As she came to terms with the reality, she laid in her bed, sobbing. Over and over, in her head, she heard God speak to her four simple words, "Go Make The Coffee". Problem. She didn't want to go make the freaking coffee. She wanted to be dead.
Eventually though, she got up and made her way to the coffee pot. There, she found a peace she had never felt before. So much peace, that it left a lasting impression, not only on her life, but also in mine. As I have faced my own depressions, I have thought, "go make the coffee". just go do the next thing.
In today's My Utmost for His Highest Entry, Oswald Chambers writes: "When the Spirit of God comes to us, He does not give us glorious visions, but He tells us to do the most ordinary things imaginable. . . His inspiration is to do the most natural, simple things-- things we would never have imagined God was in, but as we do them we find Him there."
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT THAT GOD IS IN THE MINUTIA! We don't have to be on some lofty religious playing field to see and feel what He's doing in our lives! He's in the little things!!
What little ways do you see and feel God at work?
Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteI am a firm believer in the saying that God never answers us with 'No'. Instead, He answers us with 'Not right now'. In the case of your friend Melanie, it was not yet her time to be taken to Heaven (and hopefully it will not be for a very, very long time).
What I do find utterly frustrating about God is how He is the cleverest of clever and the master riddler of all creation. We as humans ask for something specific and concrete, and He instead tells us to do something mundane or routine. "Go make coffee" or "Go for a run" or "Don't forget to take out the trash". Our minds our too feeble to understand and, like the children we are - His children, we resist and fight back and throw a tantrum and pout. Yet, when we finally DO listen, His plan is revealed to us and we realize something magical, something miraculous. We call it serendipity or fate, but what it really is God's clever and sometime snarky way of telling us, "See? I told you so." That's what makes Him so awesome.