Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Messages from the Mush Pot


So here I am God, back again today writing about my offenses toward you.  How arrogant that sounds, perhaps I should revise that to say I have issues with my life.  Or let’s just get down to the heart of it.  I feel like a kicking, angry two year old who, after sincerely praying for your will, hasn’t gotten what she thought would’ve been the most profitable of short term solutions.  Problem is, I only see short term, and you, ‘ol Wise One, see through to a much grander future than I can even conceive of.  One that, oh my gosh, might not even have “yours truly” at the center of it all.  So this pouting two year old is left with a choice to trust you or not. 
 
That’s what it really comes down to, God, do I trust you?  Will I be satisfied with your responses to my prayers regardless?  Do I really want to follow you -- your not so popular, not so sparkly, follow me no matter what, will?

I can say I’ll be content, Lord, whatever you put or don’t put before me.  But logging on to Facebook, the site where all good things are displayed, I tend to feel less thankful and more jealous.  Summers are the worst God, and if I’m not careful I fall into the dangerous game of comparison. That deadly game always brings me down, making me feel less than the best and brightest, always lacking in the consumable blessings department.  I lose perspective of my intangible, obscure, less glitzy blessings that I know are truly priceless.

And writing Lord, back to the business of honoring you through words, I have some “issues” about this that I need to discuss too.

I’ve tried to be brave.  Really I have tried to keep getting back up to face life or back on my knees to beg for your courage and strength.  I’ve tried to record those things that would be uplifting to others, as a testimony to your grace and mercy.  Although, we both know you’ve sat alongside me as I’ve privately recorded things that will forever remain just that.  Because publishing words, only after the grit and grime have been wrung out is much more presentable and palatable.  Plus it keeps me looking cleaner to write after the burn of shame has worn off enough for me to proclaim a higher message. 
 
I just want to be pleasing to you Father, but I’m still such a work in progress.  The more you reveal to me about the “issues” that need adjusting, the more I feel as if I’m in the perpetual Mush Pot…that place where I go to develop character that rarely comes without your admonishment and my sacrifice. The Mush Pot, not designed to be fun, but a place of…let’s just say revealing, exfoliating, and sometimes excruciating exposure of the most tarnished parts of me.

That’s it God.  I want so badly to shine untarnished, reflecting only you…and then write about it.  But, ask me to write while I’m in the Mush Pot?  Like yesterday’s writing, it’s not a pretty sight to behold. And it’s humbling. Don’t ask me to keep sharing what it feels like to be pruned down to a bare, vulnerable stalk with weeping wounds.

Unless...I’m wondering if ‘being in the trenches’ with my nephews, with other wounded, beaten-down souls, doesn’t involve me recording grit and grime in the middle of my own battles. Maybe you’ve called me to the less pleasant role of recording my Mush Pot transformation. And just maybe you’ll fashion a sling-shot worthy, Goliath flattening weapon, suited to launch my own not so smooth, in the middle of being refined, stones.
  
I love you, Lord, and just ask that no matter what you place in my life, you’ll use it to bring honor to you.

There, now how’s that for a happy ending for today:)   

I’ll see what tomorrow brings…






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