Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Have you ever felt like running away?

Photo courtesy RichardSweet, rgbstock.com
Running away. 

That's what I want to do when I allow my life to get too busy. When I'm juggling so much that things start falling through the cracks. When the pace I'm keeping causes my body to rebel and I find myself fighting stress-induced maladies. When I have so much on my mind that I can't remember important stuff. 

I tend to keep going until I hit the wall. I crash and burn. I get all ugly with everyone in my life. Everything they do irritates me.  I don't even like the face I see looking back at me in the mirror.  I rant, I grouse, I snap. You don't want to be around me. I don't even want to be around me.

That's the state I've been in for a while, now. This weekend, it all came to a head and I just wanted to run away. Unfortunately, that's not an option, so I turned to my old stand-by stress reliever - food.  I headed to the grocery store with every intention of filling my cart with junk and then eating myself into oblivion. 

I started through the aisles with a lump in my throat and tears threatening to bust loose. I had just placed the first item in my cart when I got a text from a friend.

"Come have breakfast with me in the morning."

My response - "I'm pretty toxic right now and I'm probably contagious."

I told her where I was and what I was about to do. Fortunately, she loves me enough to risk making me mad. The next few texts back and forth made me face the truth, made me realize that was a stupid way to handle my feelings, made me admit that gorging myself on junk food would only make things worse.

I already knew that, but at the time, I didn't care. Thank God, she did!

I left the store without buying anything. Knowing she was praying for me at that very moment. We met the next morning for breakfast and then spent the day together.  We talked through what was bothering me.  We laughed together.  She listened. She gave good, godly advise. She understood.

I didn't want to run away anymore.
Thank you, Lord, for seeing me right were I was - in the middle of the grocery store about to indulge in sinful gluttony - my drug of choice. You loved me enough to prompt a friend to contact me at that very moment. Thank you.

It's true, when you are tempted, God will provide a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13). 

It's up to us to take the way out or to continue on our path of destruction.

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Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Brokenhearted and Crushed in Spirit



Sometimes life can be overwhelming. We’re tired and worn, discouraged and disheartened by the problems of life in this world.  The good news is that when we cry out to God for help, he hears and delivers us from our troubles.

That doesn’t always mean he takes away the circumstances. Often he does a greater work by strengthening us and changing us as he walks through those circumstances with us.

We are never alone and we never leave one of our own to struggle through their own difficulties. We gather around them, pray for them, encourage them and support them.  That’s what the family of God does.

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