Awesome God,
I love You. I am in “re-entry” mood. Re-entering everyday life. No more ship’s announcements, sail-away parties or shore excursions. No cabin stewards, dining room wait staff and photographers. Everyday life.
(12:26 p.m.)
You take such good care of us Lord.
Thursday, July 21, 2011 (6:08 a.m.)
You do Lord. You truly do!
Thank You for the blessings of a fairly effortless re-entry. Bags are getting unpacked. Lawns mowed. Plans executed. All these things haven’t usually happened this readily in the past. I choose to believe it has everything to do with what I read in The Message yesterday. Eugene Peterson’s interpretation of Paul’s words to the Romans (12:1-2) sums it all up so nicely.
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Oh Your goodness Lord! I’ve read these verses many times before. There’s a newness here. Things I’ve not considered. Placing my everyday, ordinary life before You as an offering? Oh yes Lord! Please. Embrace what You do for me. Oh that I would learn to do exactly that Lord.
There is much to do around here today Lord. We have friends and loved ones coming over to share food and laughter. There is some general straightening up that needs to happen. As does food purchasing and preparation. I am asking You into the details Lord.
You were here with me yesterday, keeping me on track. I had read the Self-perception devotion associated with these verses and saw again that “Our part is to turn our will and our life over to the care of God. As we give our life to Him, He [underlining mine] will work changes in our life, making us into a new person. As we are changed on the inside, we will begin to evidence those changes in our external attitudes and actions.”
Ah, yes Lord! Change me! Improve my ways of thinking, processing and executing. The last paragraph of this same devotion states it clearly, “We all have great potential for change, but we cannot do it under our own power. As we yield our life and will to God, we can depend on Him to renew our mind and heart. He will begin to remove our defects of character, transforming us from the inside out.”
I still have a Sunday ‘funny’ from twelve years ago that speaks exactly to this. A butterfly telling a caterpillar, “Don’t you understand? That part of my life is over.” As You work in and through me in my everyday life Lord, how I ask that You would keep me focused on You, Your will and Your way. Thank You Lord. Thank You for great adventures and for everyday life. I love You. Thank You. Amen.
(567 words ~ 7:02 a.m.)
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