Elbow Deep In the Dishwater of the World

I don't know about you, but I really hate doing dishes. I don't mean rinsing and loading, I mean scrubbing and drying. Yuck. There is probably physical pain I would rather endure than doing a sink full of dishes... but I digress.

One thing that I have learned from doing the dishes, however, is that because I do them slowly (you think I'd be faster since I hate them, right?) I have a lot of "alone time" to think and ponder on life. Sometimes I'm not so sure I like that very much. I think about what I have to do in the days following and the latest tragic story I read in Time magazine. I think that maybe someone will call me soon excitedly telling me I'm just the applicant they're looking for! Then I think that maybe nobody ever reads those ridiculous online job applications. I think about school and life and where I'll be in ten years and if I might sadly still be here taking night classes and waiting tables (not that there's anything wrong with that, if you are). So basically, you can see why I hate the dishes. Of course, my life isn't tragic and more often than not God uses this alone time to tell me so.

We can get so bogged down in our circumstances that we miss the bigger picture. So what that McDonald's hasn't called? Maybe there's a better offer waiting just around the corner. We're impatient people. I'm an impatient person. I'm a planner. I want to know what's going on and when and what should I expect. Sometimes I need to just be still. Not stop living or just quit trying and refuse to care. Not that at all. I've been thinking about Psalms 46:10 ("Be still and know that I am God...") recently and how that scripture is constantly taken way out of context. Rather than poorly dictate what I had in mind to share with you, I just found this article by Jason Jackson while searching for different translations of said scripture. I encourage you to go read it and find a place where you can "be still" before Him and allow Him to work in His timing so that you may ultimately give Him the glory.

I love this paragraph from Jackson and think it adequately sums up all that I came here to say today:

So as your world crumbles around you, the call from Scripture is: don’t flinch in faith in God. Stand still — not because of a self-made confidence, not because you are the most composed person in the face of disaster, not because “you’ve seen it all.” Be still because of what you know about God.

What do we know about God? First of all, do we understand who He is? He is everything. He is healing, He is strength, He is wisdom, He is courage, He is comfort, He is anything. Anything you could possibly think of that you need, He is.

What do YOU need today?