What wilt Thou have me to do?

For years, I've struggled with the concept of "What wilt Thou have me to do?" Basically, I understand the question, but how do we really know what the Lord is telling us in reply? I think it's just my stubbornness that has made me ponder it so much (want to talk about consecration? I am the wrong person to talk to that about, stubborn ol' me...), but it just seems... difficult.

One thing that always sort of got to me was about the whole when-I-grow-up-I'll-be-a-whatever question. For school, at the end of every year, my mom would have us write what we wanted to be when we grew up. For the first few school years of my life the answer was, without fail, "a missionary or a nurse," but once I was in about third grade, I realized that I didn't really want to be a missionary or a nurse. I wanted to be a "wife and mommy." By the time I got to twelfth grade I made it all sophisticated and wrote "homemaker" but the idea was essentially the same.

Which is all good and well, but that's the sort of thing that the Lord has to determine for you, at an appointed time (also good and well, don't get me wrong). So I've spent the last few years sort of floating around, doing random jobs and enjoying myself thoroughly. Also fine. But there was one thing that always sort of got to me--what was I really doing with my life?

Well, I still have no idea what the answer to that question is, but this isn't so much about what I'm doing with my life as what I'm letting the Lord do with my life.

Last Wednesday there were a lot of remarkably helpful comments made, one of which sort of eased my mind about what I was doing with myself these days. They were reading from Ephesians 2:10 "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

They were pointing out that every work we do is specialized and prepared, and God has a very specific path He wants each one of us to travel. Basic stuff, true. But then someone made the remark to the effect of, "You know, kids today try to decide what to do based on what they're good at, which doesn't make a bit of sense, because they're really supposed to be doing whatever God wants them to do, not what they want to do."

As an aside, anybody who knows anybody in my meeting can guess who this might have been (one hint, it wasn't my dad).

Anyhow, there was more to it than that, but it was a good thought for me, one I needed to be reminded of. I'm in insurance right now, which is weird, and certainly not something I would have chosen of my own accord. But that's OK, because for some odd reason, this is where the Lord has me. I was enjoying the verse from Ecclesiastes 9 about, "whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." For some reason, my hand has found insurance, and I need to make sure that I do it to the best of my ability so that I might honour the Lord.

Which is scary to me, honestly. Because it means that I've got to work extremely hard to make up for what I lack in common insurance sense. But... I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength!

Apologies and vomit

I have no idea what was in my head as I was writing yesterday. Seriously, Nancy Pelosi was the best I could come up with? Not only that, but I wasn’t very polite about it. I don’t know her personally (uh, obviously) but I’m sure her job is very challenging and it’s not really her fault that her speech writers gave her a “verse from Isaiah” that isn’t legitimate. So anyhow, Nancy, if you ever read this, I’m sorry if I came off rudely.

In other news, well, nothing. I was in Borders with a bunch of army guys today, and they all held the doors for me, which was nice. Usually there’s one polite guy who holds the door open, but by walking through the open door I usually walk past him, and have to open the other door by myself. Not that I mind, actually, and I’ve never even given it a second thought until today, when I realized that if there are lots of polite men in one place, they can open all the doors at one time.

Oh, and I was reading this verse in Isaiah the other day about the priests and prophets who drank so much that they vomited all over the tables and there was no clean place. It’s when I read verses like that that I fully appreciate being able to make mental images in my head without the accompanying smells.

And then in Ecclesiastes there was this hilarious verse about Solomon looking for wise people and he could only find one in a thousand men that was wise, but he looked in a thousand women, and couldn’t find even a single wise one. First, I never noticed that before, and it caused me amusement, and I hope I have opportunity to bring that up one time.

Secondly, Solomon had a thousand wives (slash concubines). Coincidence that he used that number? Well, maybe. But my personal theory is that one time he realized that he was surrounded by countless women who were ALL DUMB! It’s bad enough when a guy realizes that his one and only wife is foolish, but to realize you’ve got a thousand of them?

No wonder the guy was so depressed!