A Word of Encouragement
By Belinda (but not really)
A call to a friend who has dubbed me her Sanity Committee. Her friend answered the phone and called her from another room saying that it was the Sanitary Committee on the phone. Boy did she get that wrong--although maybe not--I did wash my dishwasher filter yesterday! :)
A few people call me their Sanity Committee (because I'm a type B person with all type A friends!) but I don't actually get called on very often. I'm like a big round red Fire Alarm in a glass cabinet--there for an emergency. And when someone actually wants to break the glass it is scary. I know I don't have anything but God and it's at such a moment that this becomes as clear as a freshly squeegied windshield.
So I listened; hard; and then said, "Can I pray?" And as I prayed, something I'd read this week was playing around the edges of my thoughts. Where did I read it? Was it the great book I'm reading right now, Leading from the Second Chair? I sighed as I remembered I'd left it behind in my briefcase at work. But no, it was coming back to me now, it was in my Life Application Study Bible; a character study on King Saul. That was where I'd read lines that I'd underlined and reread several times this week. I don't know who wrote the commentary, but the words encouraged me, and they encouraged the friend who broke the glass on the fire alarm, so I share them here:
And as I said to my friend (and to myself) "God bless you as you surrender your weaknesses to him. He will do amazing things through them."
A call to a friend who has dubbed me her Sanity Committee. Her friend answered the phone and called her from another room saying that it was the Sanitary Committee on the phone. Boy did she get that wrong--although maybe not--I did wash my dishwasher filter yesterday! :)
A few people call me their Sanity Committee (because I'm a type B person with all type A friends!) but I don't actually get called on very often. I'm like a big round red Fire Alarm in a glass cabinet--there for an emergency. And when someone actually wants to break the glass it is scary. I know I don't have anything but God and it's at such a moment that this becomes as clear as a freshly squeegied windshield.
So I listened; hard; and then said, "Can I pray?" And as I prayed, something I'd read this week was playing around the edges of my thoughts. Where did I read it? Was it the great book I'm reading right now, Leading from the Second Chair? I sighed as I remembered I'd left it behind in my briefcase at work. But no, it was coming back to me now, it was in my Life Application Study Bible; a character study on King Saul. That was where I'd read lines that I'd underlined and reread several times this week. I don't know who wrote the commentary, but the words encouraged me, and they encouraged the friend who broke the glass on the fire alarm, so I share them here:
"From Saul we learn that while our strengths and abilities make us useful, it is
our weaknesses that make us usable. Our skills and talents make us tools, but
our failures and shortcomings remind us that we need a Craftsman in control of
our lives. Whatever we accomplish on our own is only a hint of what God could do
through our lives. Does he control your life?"
And as I said to my friend (and to myself) "God bless you as you surrender your weaknesses to him. He will do amazing things through them."
Comments
And Marilyn, yes, I've thought about that so much since I read it and wish I could give credit to the person who God inspired to write that small paragraph.