A Little Busy, A Lot of Faith

It took nearly all I could do to get the vacation up on here over the last week and since then you haven't heard from me. I'm not going to apologize ever for not writing. The title of the blog is Best Energies, Best Affections and that to me means remembering where I need to spend my time at. And quite frankly it has not been here, or Facebook, or reading other blogs or anything other than basic email lately. 
That being said, here has where I have been- to South Dakota and back, to pick up this girl to come and stay with us for a semester.

I'm not going to go into the whole story of how we got to this point, but V lives in Rosebud, SD on a native american reservation. She is part of an exchange program our church is starting to set up to bring kids here. 
It was made known to us that Satan would attempt to thwart the kids from coming, (He attempts to thwart any plans he knows of, though.) and were asked to pray that they would not be daunted but come. We did not have any difficulties in getting her to come. But on the Iowa end, it's a little different story. 
Early last week there was massive city wide flooding in Ames. On top of the flooding a water main broke, leaving the city with contaminated pressure-less water. What a bummer. We helped out family and friends with laundry. Then we discovered that our freezer was no longer freezing. My ten pounds of blueberries that my mother-in-law so nicely froze for me were turning into blueberry mush. Now they are stored at a friends, but are a solid block instead of individually frozen. Our entire fridge needs to be replaced. Thankfully, another friend is loaning us their old fridge until we find time to go shopping. On top of that, we have meetings and life, etc. The weekend before, when we were at Bill's parents, I failed to mention that I did a little flip over my motorcycle going down a dirt trail in the timber. I have a whopper of a bruise on my knee.
Today, our first full day with V, I tracked down a swimsuit for her to wear, loaded the excited kids up in the car to head to a pool only to discover it was closed! So we tried two more pools and they were both closed!!! At the grocery store I went in to just get a few things but forgot I did not have all of my grocery money, just  few bucks that were meant for the pool and almost checked out way more than what I could pay for. Once home I suddenly didn't know where my billfold was. Maybe I had placed it on the bumper of the car and it was now scattered all over Hwy. 69!! It wasn't, thankfully.
God is always good. I believe we use the word "blessing" to mean only good things but never bad, but if God works all things for the good of those that call on him, are not trials "blessings"? I'm not going to work the Greek to see about that because yes, generally blessings mean good things, but I almost hate the idea that if something isn't labeled as a blessing it must not be ordained by God. Does not James 1 say "Consider it pure joy my friends whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.? 
However, I have tried on my own to get that faith produced and its not getting me anywhere. By God's absolute ...ness of Himself, he has reminded me today of who does the work. Audrey's 180 pastor messaged me this verse. A Bible study friend wrote about this verse. And our worship leader blogged about this similar idea. I think God, in the middle of upholding me, is knocking... Hello? Bueller?


2 Corinthians 12:9-10
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 


Oh ho ho! I knew when God was tugging at my heart to have a Rosebud student that I was ready to dig in and do. But He said, "No. I will do."  And I'm stopped short. I love what Janel wrote
The way I see it from examples in scripture, God is going to dish out situations to His followers that are completely beyond their own ability to handle. He does this NOT because He wants us to look inward and muster up some extra strength, and understanding, and wisdom to as the saying implies ‘handle the situation ourselves’. How will we ever learn that God is truly our Refuge (Psalm 91:2 ), Strength (Psalm 46:1), Shelter (Isaiah 25:4), and Trust (Psalm 40:4) if we are never in situations when we have to completely rely on Him to get through?


On Saturday, when things kind of came crashing down, I flopped face down on my bed and prayed. Some say God is moved the the physical posture of a person in prayer. Whatever. He gets flopping on your bed. I grabbed my Bible and just opened it up. Well it came open to Psalm 119. And I read verses 49-56


Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. The arrogant mock me without restraint, but I do not turn from your law. I remember your ancient laws, O Lord, and I find comfort in them. Indignation grips me because of the wicked, who have forsaken your law. Your decrees are the theme of my song. wherever I lodge. In the night I remember your name, O Lord, and I will keep your law. This has been my practice: I obey your precepts. 


I so keyed in on Your promise preserves my life. What is his promise? Eternal life! What is the matter of replacing a fridge? Nothing. A near teen being difficult? Nothing. A schedule gone wacky? Nothing. I have his promise sealed within me forever. Oh Lord, let faith be the theme of my song. I am weak. Be strong.