Why?

It’s been a long year. Oh, wow, that is the worst cliche ever! And it’s a horrible excuse, a cop-out, in fact.

Time to rise above.

I’ve been juggling a whole ton of different projects, and it can be stressful to say the least. Why? Likely because I’m trying to hide from grief behind the excuse that the work needs to be done – and I like to do a lot of different things. Sewing and quilting, also knit and crochet. Write, and also read. Garden, maintain a pasture with a really cool tractor, and train my mini horses. And that is just a few things. I also have the ‘must-dos’ housework! Yuk.

Still not an excuse. I start a project, like a blog, and then I get busy doing other stuff and don’t get back to that blog for a while. But, I do also have a couple of other blogs via Facebook, and that seems to be just a tad easier. Except that WordPress really is easy. 😉 And I’m not one to either plan – or keep a schedule!

How is that a good thing? P-L-A-N is a 4-letter word and ‘schedule’ is its noxious half-brother! And I will not be a slave to such a cruel master! Which leaves me looking a bit irresponsible to other folks! But, for me, not planning is the best way to experience the unexpected blessings that can only come out of faith in God!

So, that will cover at least one ‘Why’. The reason I haven’t posted in ages. Also, a few will remember that my soul-mate left this world a little over a year ago, and I’m still getting used to walking this road without him. And I have been slogging through settling all of his affairs and re-homing all of his homing pigeons, (see the other part of this site), which has been about the hardest thing ever. But he wouldn’t want me to wallow in sorrow, and I promised him that I would be ok, so Onward and Upward!

So, the next ‘Why’: I have been reading through the Bible every year for three years. Cover to cover each year. And I see and learn something new every time I read. This year, I’m going to try to listen to the scriptures through one of my Bible apps. (There’s a ton out there, so I won’t advertise just yet.) But, I can tell you this: Listening to someone read the Bible is a whole new level of cool! For one thing, you can pray while you are hearing the Word of God.

Now, I know there are a whole bunch of folks who neither believe in the validity of the Holy Scriptures, nor do they fully believe in the power of prayer. To that I say, “Your loss.” Sometimes I get so wrapped up in what I am hearing and learning that I totally forget to share the experience! And for a while I did feel a bit guilty about that, but then I realized that sometimes God just wants me to sit and talk with Him. I can’t fix everything and I can’t make everyone hear me or the wonderous things that I hear, and sometimes that has a tendency to get me down. And that is just not what it’s all about!

In this past year I have come to learn: A person’s spiritual walk is their business. They can choose to hear me or not, or they can choose to hear someone else. My only responsibility is to live my life according to what I know from God’s word.

So, here is the Final ‘Why’. This morning I was listening to the Psalms on the Tekarta Bible app in the KJV, which comes along with some really cool music. I had to listen to Psalm 10 about three times yesterday and today before it hit me. Verse one says, “Why do You stand afar off, O Lord: Why do You hide in times of trouble?” The psalm goes on to describe how bad people do bad things to the folks who can’t defend themselves. It gets pretty graphic to say the least. The psalmist knows and understands that God is in control and the psalmist is also pretty sure that God is going to do something about it, at least he hopes so.

The last time I listened through the psalm, I also prayed through it. And then it hit me. The only way that bad things can happen is that good people do nothing! Yep, another cliche. But it’s true. Yes, God fights that battle, but have you ever noticed that even when God instructed His people to do nothing but watch, He had also already told them to be ready. The people were instructed to train and learn, practice and hone their skills, get up, get dressed, and get ready. Sometimes the people were then instructed to go in and actually swing a sword, but sometimes they were instructed to watch or even retreat.

The lesson: If something is bugging you badly enough to make you pray about it and demand that God do something about it, that is most likely the Holy Spirit instructing you to sharpen your sword and get yourself ready for battle. In other words, get up and do something. And by the way: God does look out for the helpless and the innocent. Do you remember the horrid way some of the defeated nations went about worshiping? Yeah, they sacrificed children to Moloch – along with a bunch of other atrocities. But that’s another story.

The answer to the question, “Why?” Probably because God is waiting for His child to become obedient so the work can get done.