Faith Keeps Us Walking When Understanding Takes a Hike - Part II

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Oh, happy day to you! Thanks for taking the time to stop by for our Coffee Hour and more of our September’s Wow, which is all about keeping the faith, even when you don’t understand the what and why of your circumstances. Grab your coffee and come on in. It’s moving day in Austin, Texas!
As I recall the day we were moving them into their new apartment in Austin, Texas. It was one of those unforgettable God-incidences – not a mere coincidence -- where you knew that you knew that He had ordained everything up to that moment in time.
We had been unloading the truck for a couple of hours, and Lauren, my daughter-in-love, had been in the hot, and I do mean hot, moving truck pushing things to the front and directing the unpacking traffic. She began to suffer from heat exhaustion, unbeknownst to her, but my husband recognized it and got my attention.
I looked up from what I was doing to see him guiding her over to the curb that they shared with their neighbors, and he set her down ever so carefully. “Bring me some paper towels soaked in the ice water from the ice chest.”
Now, the tone in my husband’s voice told me not only was he serious, but he spoke with such an authority I knew something was up, and it wasn’t good. I ran the ice cold paper towels over to them and saw immediately that the color from Lauren’s face had drained and she wasn’t looking so good.
As we began to press the cold paper towels on her neck, her forehead, the color in her face began to come back … but not for long, because when she tried to stand up about fifteen minutes later, the color ran away so fast she nearly collapsed.
George was right there to keep her from falling, but she was complaining of feeling incredibly nauseous so he told her to sit right back down. She did without any argument.
Now before all this with Lauren had started, we met their neighbor Aaron who showed some Texas hospitality right away and jumped right in to help unload the truck. He shared that he and his wife had just moved from Kansas. And I thought we had a long-haul move! He and I began to work together to unload more items from the truck while George stayed with Lauren, and Jeff was in feeding the kids.
After getting her somewhat stable, George decided to take Lauren into the apartment and out of the heat, but again, when she stood, her legs were like wobbly sticks, unable to hold her up completely. Jeff had just come out and when he saw that, he ran to her other side. He and George each took an arm and helped her up and into the apartment while Aaron and I continued working, and talking.
“So did you have to hire movers to get ya’ll out from Kansas to Texas?”
He smiled at my attempt to sound like I was from Texas. “Oh, no, my wife’s company moved us out here.”
I was impressed and didn’t hesitate to ask what his wife did. “She works for Chipotle Restaurants.”
“Get out! Shut the front door!” I exclaimed. He looked almost offended and I quickly added; “That’s why Jeff’s here, because he’s supposed to start working for them”!
“Really?” he asked.
“Yes!” I stopped to set down the heavy dresser we were moving out of the truck. “So what does your wife do?”
He looked almost shy as he responded: “Well, she has 24, or 25 restaurants.”
Again, I didn’t hide my emotion laced with shock and disbelief wrapped up in a knowledge that God was definitely up to something!
He went on to explain she was the district manager and I wondered out loud if this is who Jeff had been dealing with, and asked her name.
“Elsa.”
I’ll be right back; I’ve just got to find out if your wife is his potential boss!”
I ran up the stairs so fast you would have thought I was shot up there through a torpedo machine. “Jeff, Lauren, who is it you’ve been dealing with at Chipotle?”
In unison they bother answered: “Elsa!”
I jumped up and hollered. “Your future boss is your neighbor! Aaron is her husband!” I haven’t been this excited since I don’t know when but let me tell you, I was beside myself in disbelief, comforted by God’s sovereignty. This latest signature on their moving papers went a long way in helping me to surrender my son to Austin Texas … things were going to be just fine … or so I understood!
Join me next week for the conclusion to our monthly WOW!
Faith-ing thru those times of not understanding,

Evinda

Dancing with the Butterfly-From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Thanks so much for joining me today for a little break. I have a fun story to share with you so grab your coffee and come on in for a bit.

Just a couple of weeks ago, my assistant and I were in Texas at the C.S. Lewis Writers’ retreat and when I got a chance to take a break, we went exploring the sights around the camp in search of nature’s beauty so she could capture it with her camera. Walking up the hill was invigorating and calming at the same time. It was such a peaceful place full of woodsy-type smells, the sound of whispering branches as the wind rustled through them, birds talking off in the distance, and other creatures, too. At one point we even saw a deer saunter across the road and take off in the forest of trees.

Suddenly something sort of whimsical caught my attention, its colors dancing before my eyes, teasing me and taunting me to follow it in flight. It was a beautiful butterfly. As I watched it traverse the air just in front of us, almost as if it was showing off, I was mesmerized. The little beauty pulled me out of my trance when it landed on the ground just in front of us.

I started to move toward it ever so slowly and motioned for Jocelyn to join me so she could capture this beautiful butterfly who had its wings wide open, in all its glory, as if he was showing off. She got one picture but as she crouched down beside me and  got the camera focused, the little bugger shut his wings and then after a pause, took flight again.

We stood and watched it, expecting it to just fly away, but instead, it flew around us and around us and toward us and then away from us and then back toward us. This went on for a couple of minutes and suddenly, in my gut, I realized this butterfly was wanting to dance and if it had a voice, I could only imagine the joyful laughter we may have heard coming from this beautiful creature and the pleas for us to join him for some playful dancing.

I lost count of how many times we danced with the butterfly, stopping when he did, bending down to try and capture him with his wings wide open displaying his colorful splendor and each time we would get just right, and Jocelyn would get ready to click and smack! Wings shut, he would sit there for a pause, probably laughing at us, and then he’d get up and take flight again.

It made me think of the pursuit of happiness, how just when we think we’ve arrived, bam! Here comes heartache, trouble, trials and our happiness takes flight again. And then unannounced, it returns, flittering and fluttering, tempting and teasing us to reach out and grasp at it just one more time because for sure this time we’ll catch it only to have it intercepted with life’s disappointments and troubles.

This happened enough to where we thought we’d never get the shot so we began to walk the way we came and as I turned around, my mouth came open in disbelief; he was following us! At one point he came so close to my face I jerked backwards in my reflexes. We were back in the dance, falling for his tricks when he would land on the ground with his wings wide open only to shut them when we were ready to take a picture.

Suddenly I got an idea and picked up a leaf. I stood up and held my arm straight out with the leaf in between my index finger and my thumb. “Be still and see if he comes,” I told Jocelyn. It wasn’t thirty seconds and suddenly, there he was, perched on the leaf in my hand looking right at me. Happiness bubbled up inside me and I could barely contain myself, but I did. I stayed right there, in the happiness of the moment before he took flight again!

Oh that we would stay in the moments filled with happiness, soaking up the laughter they bring, not worrying about it going away, or about tomorrow for that moment is what we have here and now.

Joyfully,

Evinda