I want to share with you something that occurred to me today as a lesson. A whisper in my ear from God that is comfort, and clarity. This world can be very difficult to sort out and when God gives you clarity on something, I so hope you learn how to notice it, digest it and use it.
Your Noni (Barbara) makes an amazing chocolate cake. She has made me one for my birthday and dad one for his birthday and it is just perfect. She uses good chocolate, real butter, and chocolate chips inside so that when you are taking a bite, you taste rich cake but also bursts of more flavorful chocolate too. Like I said-- it is just perfection.
I have a friend who I care about very much- this friend does not have God in their life and this person has been going through a tough time in various ways on and off for years now. My heart has ached trying to find a way to be an encouragement. I have listened to the pain and happenings in this person's life, but have always been thinking in my head, "Lord, what am I supposed to say to make the pain of this kind person a little bit easier?"
Today, out of nowhere at all, I thought about Noni's cake. All at once, Noni's cake was like the Christian life. The life that walks with God. (Although the Christian life is not perfection like the cake-- God is the perfect part). I was at work cutting a tray of fruit and I said out loud, "Well, you can't even get that cake without the right ingredients." I know I looked like a crazy person in that moment and luckily no one walked up and asked me who I was talking to. But that got me rambling on and on in my head.
The point is-- I can't truly "encourage" my friend in the sense that I know encouragement to be. I know a God who is the author of encouragement. My friend does not know Him. I have a life that, although fattening, exhausting and migraine inducing like the cake- is made perfect through my relationship with Someone who is perfect. He is the only supplier of ingredients. He places in me and in my life the kind of ingredients possible for making a cake. My friend, although kind, smart, considerate, diligent, ethical, patient, and trustworthy- does not have the ingredients to make the "cake of comfort" in tough times.
Although difficult to swallow (ha ha), I have to come to terms with the idea that I cannot ever truly encourage my friend. Because encouragement is really just pointing people in the direction of ingredients they need to make a cake. I don't know what I will say or do the next time that I am hearing of a hardship with this friend or any other person-- but I realize now that encouragement is just this simple- when you look down at the ingredients you have to work with and you don't have the right ingredients- you cannot expect to get a cake out of it.
Your dad and I are endeavoring to read through the Bible this year together. In past years, I have tried and fizzled out. We are trying to keep each other motivated this year as well as doing some other things to focus on God daily together and apart. We have been watching less TV, being on the internet a lot less, and less video games (dad's not too psyched about that). The end result is that since the right ingredients are going in to our life right now, we are happier. We are still exhausted from a certain 1 year old that cries all night trying to grow teeth and a certain toddler who says "no" to everything and doesn't follow instructions. We are working our butts off to work full time, clean the house and care for each other and for you while spending a lot more time per day focused on God. But even though I would have thought I did not have time to add in a Bible study and Bible reading and more prayer time, etc-- I do. Because God makes the time (just like he made the 5000 person lunch out of 5 loaves and two fish business) because we are trying to use the right ingredients.
I love you--- please sleep all night.
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