Danger of the Mundane

Mundane-  characterized by the practical, transitory, and ordinary.

I had to look up transitory then-  means temporary

Lately I have been knee deep in the mundane and the transitory.  I have been to the doctor's office more times than I care to ever go again.  I have handed out medicine way toooooooo many times.  I have washed and washed and washed dishes, laundry, carpet, bathtubs, noses, tables.  I have picked up, put up, broken up, clammed up.  Then I have read and taught and retaught.  Do you ever have one of those days, weeks, months, seasons?  Yesterday I was just so tired of it.  Did any of it really matter for anything worthwhile?  Was any of it not transitory?  The Lord, my daddy, replied with a resounding "YES!".  The truth is none of it really for a Christian is ever truly mundane.  It all matters.  My attitude matters.  The how and the why matters.  But more than that.  What God has been showing Terry and me is that with Him there is no mundane.  He meant for this life to be one great, long, fantastic adventure with Him, where time and time again we watch Him show up and show off in our lives over and over again.  If you read the Bible, His chosen ones never just muttle through life.  He parted waters, made weak ones great, healed the sick, called fire from heaven, the sun to stand still.  All by or through ordinary folk like me and you.  Monday, God confirmed to Terry and I, that what we were praying about, a certain miracle, was on the right track and that He was setting the stage for something great in our lives.  I felt like I was floating.  The God of the universe orchestrated certain events just for me!!!  Then came Tuesday, dishes and  supper.  Wednesday brought doctors appointments, grocery stores and more supper.  By Thursday I was  far away from being on the edge of my seat, waiting on Him to do something big.  I was down right depressed!  Dragging through my day.  Then His word, His people and His Spirit smacked me in the back of the head and heart.    Every act of my day is meant to be something big from Him or for Him.  I must prayerfully walk through my day as though the dishes I am washing are going to be on a table set for Him to eat off of.  When I am at the doctor, that it is meant to show that young nurse what a christian looks like, so that she might be drawn to Him and SAVED!  At Sam's (heaven help me) with 3 kids, that they would see me smile, laugh and love them even while trying to buy food for a family of 5 on a tight budget.  It's possible you know.  With God's help I've done it.  God so desires to be real to us in this life.  We must quit functioning out of our own strength, methods or finances.  Like Pastor Charlie preached the last two weeks, He is calling us out of the boat, to walk on the water.  He wants take your loaves and fishes to do something huge.  I don't want to miss it and I know you don't either.  What are your holy desires?  He has birthed them there for a reason.  My sincere prayer is that all of us get out of the boat.  That we would be a crazy loving, giving, sharing, trusting generation of women.  That we would live at the end ourselves where He can do His most awesome work, draw others to Him through our lives!
Love you girls!  Lets do this!
Carrie

Considering it pure joy??

I have been pondering over a conversation I had with someone earlier this week.  How can we continue our walk toward holiness and continue to grow when we don't feel good, really sick or really tired or really depressed or really_________ (fill in your own trial)  When I had three kids 4 and under I was tired.  Fatigued.  Worn out.  Not to mention emotional. Which could have been because I was tired.  So I would cry, scream, eat, cry, scream eat.  Just a vicious cycle.  Looking back I can see I was drowning in fear and shortsightedness.  You know when you keep telling yourself this is how it is going to be forever...blah blah blah.  Though my kids were small and hopefully won't remember their mom a wreck I grieve over bad decisions and moments lost by not sustaining myself on His word.  I think I could have enjoyed them more.  I would not have made such poor judgements.    In the last couple of years I have read biographies of women who endured much more than the baby blues, a small house in a bad neighborhood and squabbles with the hubby.  They didn't just endure.  They did what James 1 says they considered "it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything."  Trials here are sickness and persecutions.  The women I have read about changed their world and mine.  One of my favorites has been Elisabeth Elliot.  Alot of us know her as the wife of Jim Elliot, the one who was killed in a jungle by the ones he was trying to carry the gospel to.  Your husband killed now that is a real trial.  She lived in a jungle for a year as a single woman before marrying him.  Not knowing anyone she, followed God to South America.  She lived in a house where the walls did not meet the ceiling.  Where bugs, huge bugs and bats came into her room every night.  Now that is a trial.  Persevering through all for her Lord.  Amy Carmichael is one I am just now getting acquainted with.  So far I do know she lived in the slums of England to reach out to the lowly poverty stricken women of her day.  She didn't have to.  Her family had a decent place to live.  But she wanted to display that you could have joy in the midst of such darkness with Christ.  She endured terrible sickness from her conditions, bugs, rats all for the Lover of her soul.  Joy in the midst of trials.  These two women did not turn to the right or left when things got difficult.  They persevered in joy.  I could go on and on.  Gladys Aylward, a family favorite.  Again endured much heartache and sickness all for the name of her God.  She carried His love to the children of China.    Reading all these books has helped me to carry on in the midst of my own trials.  Truly, mine pale in comparison to theirs.  Who am I to complain?  Who am I to say I can't carry on another day?  There was nothing great about these women other than the God they served and followed.  The very same one I serve and follow.  The power they had is the same power offered to me everyday, that I choose to pick up and use or ignore.    Over the recent years I have chosen to imagine them as my cloud of witnesses, chanting on the sidelines of my life.  Encouraging me on in my race.  I want to run with all I have for Him.  The GREAT ONE who pulled me from my pit.  I share all this for a reason.  I have struggled with many things in my life and continue to.  I know you do to.  Some times He picks us up and carries us through, and you look back and know you couldn't have made it with out Him.  Other times we must make the effort to hold on and move forward, dig in.  I know this life in the times we live is hard.  Hard to stay faithful to your husband when so much is being offered otherwise.  Hard to serve others when the world says you deserve  more me time.  Hard to be pure, hard to love more, hard to quiet your soul before Him.  But we MUST and we CAN, cause He says so!  The Bible says "He gives strength to the weary"  That a godly woman's "arms are strong for her tasks"  If you sense urgency in this, there is.  The devil prowls around looking for another one to take down.  Hold fast!  When we lay our heads down for the final time, just before our eyes close to open on our eternity, we don't want to look back and see the rubble laying in heaps of the decisions we  have made and the loved ones left in the midst.  Don't quit!  Don't quit! 
Walking this road with you and Him,
Carrie

I LOVE COFFEE! (a confessional of sorts)

I LOVE coffee!  I love it anytime of day.  I love it when I wake up, right when I wake up and I love it right before bed.  At times this has made me feel like my Memaw (or grandmother to you formal people).  Terry says I have a problem.  That I might as well smoke a pack of cigarettes cause its the same thing.  I disagree!  It's not just the coffee, I love my cup.  It's just a plain black stoneware cup.  But it is my cup!  Everyone knows this is mom's cup.  When my cup is dirty, in the dishwasher, when I realize the next morning I forgot again to turn it on.  I can get bummed!  Crazy I know but I am just being for real!  This morning I slept late, missed quiet time, missed my time with Terry before he left.  I was bummed.  As I pulled out my black cup to console my self over my black brew (yes black is how I love it)  I thought I am like this cup.  When I have gotten up early, had my time with Him, I am clean and ready to go.  Ready to fulfill my purpose.  Ready to serve others.  Ready to pour out all He has poured in me.  Pour on my husband the love and respect he needs.  Pour on my children the time and attention they need.  Full of the word and His Spirit so I will be prepared for any situation.  This morning I was like my dirty unwashed unusable coffee cup sitting in my dirty dishwasher unable to be used.  Now the coffee is still there, waiting to be poured into my cup, but the cup wasn't ready.  The Lord was still there waiting on me, in my favorite chair in the living room.  Waiting to give me what I needed to get through this day successfully but I wasn't ready!  On my own I have nothing to fill it with.  There is no good in me to pull from.  I have no strength on my own, no wisdom, no talent, no, nothing good.   As His cup I grieve the time I missed with Him this morning, and offer up to Him the time I have now.  Not near as quiet or as long but all I have.  Tomorrow however when He opens the cupboard of my day I want to be sitting there, and I want Him to say "Oh my favorite!  She is here!  Come let me fill you, I have the perfect job for you to do today, and only you will do" 
     Father forgive us for rushing into our day unprepared!  Help us to take so seriously the job you have for us to do.  Even though I am just a plain black cup, I want to be used and filled and used and filled.  Fill us up today Lord so that we can pour on others your love and your guidance and wisdom and patience and thankfulness and mercy and grace.  God I need you.   Amen
Love you girls so much, prayed for each and everyone of you this morning.
Carrie