Interruptions - And God's Grace

We are creatures of habit. We all have habits that we preform automatically, without really even thinking about.  We get up about the same time, go about our business generally in the same order, drive to work using the same route, follow the same routine during our day, sit in the same pew at church, and get a little disoriented when our routine is interrupted by something. 

But life will often interrupt.  The little interruptions I can handle, it's the big interruptions - the bad news from a doctor, the phone call in the middle of the night, the computer network crashes (dealing with that at work for two weeks now!), the request for help from a daughter who is 2000 miles away and simply cannot write her paper alone - that force us to put our own agenda away and do what God has asked us to do.  I can't make it through them with out a bountiful amount of grace from Him, and He provides it in bushel baskets. 

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,

He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;

To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,

To multiplied trials he multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources

Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,

His power no boundary known unto men;

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Words by Annie J. Flint

Pasted from <http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/g/hgmgrace.htm>

Taking things for Granted

This blog entry is not the most well-written one, but I want to post it anyhow because I feel it needs to be said.

I watched the I Stand Sunday  event yesterday, then saw this prompt in one of my books:  Think about the things that we take for granted that deserve our gratitude:

We have:  (in absolutely no particular order)

Clean air

Clean water

Abundant food available

Opportunities galore - to work, go to school, worship, come and go as we wish

Technology at our fingertips to explore the world

Our families

Electricity and running water

A roof over our heads

Schools for our children to attend and the right to educate them as we see fit

Freedom to travel across state lines without having to show "papers" at the whim of a government official

The freedom to worship God without fear that our doors are going to be rammed in and our pastor jailed

Many in other countries do not have these things that  Americans and we as Christians take for granted.   Think about those who live in refugee camps without even the most basic amenities.  Having worked with refugees and after attending the Refugee Roundtable this summer, the conditions they live in are severely lacking.  And we complain when our internet is slow?   There is a constant joke going around about "first world problems", I've even said it myself, but it does cause me to stop and think, and pray for those who are suffering.  We have medical care that is world renown.  Ebola may be a scare, but we can get treatment for it as soon as symptoms arise.  In other countries, they often have to wait until they are too far along, which contributes to the mortality rate.   We run to the doctor for the slightest sniffle.

I think of those who are in countries where the church is being persecuted on a daily basis. Those who have to meet huddled together, with someone watching out the window.  Those who cannot freely move about without fear of a bomb going off near them, or being kidnapped and killed because they are not the right faith.  Those moms who send their children off to school, not even knowing if they will see them again that night because of the on-going, constant war in their countries.  We have so much freedom, and have had it for so long that we assume it will always be this way. But we are in danger of losing some of those freedoms.  There are people here who would deprive us of the freedoms we possess.  With tomorrow being election day, if we want to preserve some of the freedoms, we must do our part.  

Freedom of speech.

Freedom to worship God how we want.

If you want to maintain those to, then you need to exercise the third:

Freedom to vote.

Please exercise that freedom tomorrow.