Wake Up!

"Thankfully, that heat blast from the car bomb wasn't a few inches closer, or I'd have a perpetually surprised look on my face after having my eyebrows burned off.  Even in my shitty life, I can find small mercies to be grateful for." (A Shameless Little Con by Meli Raine)

There is something you're praying for.  It might be for you.  It might be for a child, friend, co-worker or parent. It sometimes consumes you.  And, admit it, sometimes you feel abandoned. You feel that you're talking to the ceiling.  You wonder if you've lost your mind asking an invisible deity to help you when you hear nothing but the silence of an empty room. You begin to believe that He gave up on you.

A free book from Amazon and a sermon combine to remind me that I am not alone.  Jesus didn't die on a cross to give up on me.  He died FOR me.  He said MY name before He said, "Yes, I am willing to suffer and die on a cross."



As I consider this, (believe me, using your name when you do is powerful), I recognize that I am the one giving up. It isn't that God has chosen to leave me in the wind.  He's still here working on I-don't-know-what for my benefit while using this opportunity to prove to me and others how good He really is!

Perhaps this indicates that I'm not ready for the answer to my prayer.

Is it possible that, like the disciples who have been asked to 'watch and pray', I've fallen asleep?  Am I too exhausted to stay awake and be present for the gift of all gifts?

We are told that we are the hands and feet of God in this world. Am I simply asking from God - without doing my part?

Am I so blind that I don't see how God is working in my life and the lives of others in simple and ordinary ways?

How often do I fail to realize that I could be without eyebrows but for His grace?  Because His grace might not look breathtaking and miraculous in favor of ordinary, I don't even notice, being asleep and all.

It's time.  It's time to wake up.  It's time to recognize each small gift that I've been given - for truly, none of them are small.  All of them present an opportunity for gratefulness.  All of them show me a way to grow closer to God. The closer I am, the more I will be able to hear His whisper.  The deeper the relationship becomes, the more it serves to create opportunities to move in directions where His will becomes the answer to my prayers.

And, each 'small' gift shows me He is near and fully engaged.

Let me be fully awake and on my knees in gratitude,