Now

I've been feeling overwhelmed lately. We had a fabulous Vacation Bible School, and I thought that I would breathe a bit easier once we finished it, but there are lots of little, yet very important, follow-up jobs that follow VBS and I've felt slammed by many other things since then. I can't seem to get my head above water. 

We're renovating an old farmhouse and trying to move into it, but the house we're currently living in has required emergency repairs. I'm currently staying at my parents' house and recovering from the Worst Allergy Attack in History. WAAH. Yes, Waah. Can you hear the whining? 

You are likely dealing with your own storms and mine probably seems rather silly, but it's mine. God's been teaching me a lesson through it. It's one you've likely already learned and the fact that I'm needing to learn it might also seem silly to you. But in case anyone else is in a wallowing kind of mood today, I'm going to share it.

Much as I try to wallow in my situation, God keeps nudging me in the shoulder to stand up, look at it what's really going on. That latest unwanted scenario was unpleasant, yes, but now what are you going to do about it?  

This C.S. Lewis quote showed up in my feed this morning and I think it says it well:

“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own,' or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life -- the life God is sending one day by day.” 


For me, it's a reminder to not wallow in the "what went wrong" or to live in the mindset of what my future plans are (the plans that keep getting interrupted), but to recognize, with a good attitude, what is going on in the here and now.

Last night at church, when I wanted to just go home and curl up in bed (but oh, yeah, I can't go home to my bed,) this is the hymn sung at church:


It sings of God taking our hand during those storm-times, not to say "there-there", but to help us stand up.

There are times for resting, but there are not times for wallowing. Right now, it is time to stand up and do what needs doing. I'm not standing on my own strength, but with Him holding my hand and leading me where He wants me to go.

1 Thessalonians 3:8 says it best:

For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord.

Living NOW includes annoyances that feel like trials and even real trials. But it doesn't make improve situations to live anywhere but the here-and-now. Now, it's time for me to stand up and stand firm in the Lord.