Strength Beyond Self

"Into every life a little rain must fall" is a familiar saying about the inevitability of trials, struggles, and hardships. But some times it feels like a little rain turned into a torrential downpour. This can be a challenge in life that will require strength that is beyond our human limits. What will we do then? What is possible? In his letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul describes just such an ordeal. He wrote of an apparent affliction that weighed so heavily on his heart, mind, and body that he didn't expect to survive the situation.

We do well to pay attention here because Paul's approach to the problem still works today: "We would not trust in ourselves," he wrote, "but in God who raises the dead ... and will deliver us" (2Cor 1:9-10). The strength we need to make it through tough times is available through Jesus Christ, whose supernatural energy flows through every believer's mind, body, and spirit.

This happens when someone receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and His Spirit comes to live inside the new believer (John 14:17). As a result of this "indwelling," the power that Christ demonstrated while He was on earth and the power of the One that brought back Jesus from the dead, prevails in those of us who call upon Him for aid during difficulties. However, for us to access His supernatural strength and the very power of God, we must trust His promise to supply to us what we need and when we need it (Phil 4:19). As long as we struggle to muddle our way through using our own abilities and strengths, we will prevent His Spirit from unleashing His divine help in our lives.

Jesus Christ's power is released into our lives when we acknowledge our own helplessness. The effect is immediate. Just as soon as we surrender to Christ, His might begins working inside of us so we can endure various struggles and hardships while maintaining our joy and peace.

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I am toying with the idea of posting on Tuesdays only, or every five days. To be bluntly honest, I'm not sure I can go that long between posts. I don't know if I can go that long without "talking." But there are many reasons for thinking about the change. My first concern is that I give my readers plenty of time to access my site and read my post. Publishing every Mon, Weds, and Fri, I imagine it's easy to get behind. All you have to do is get occupied or busy for a day or so and you're automatically behind in reading my blog. Once a week doesn't sound like enough so I'm leaning more heavily toward every five days. That would give you more time to read my posts and it would give me more time to write the actual post itself. I know in our hectic and frantic lives these days it's next to impossible to check and read posts every single day. That was one of the reasons I went to the MWF routine from my original daily concept I had when I first started blogging over a year ago. I wanted to give everyone time enough to read my posts. And my posts seem to have become longer lately so you might need more time to read them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do but I just want to provide a blog in which you can easily read and keep current. Would it be easier for you if you knew you have five days to check out my blog? If you knew you had a minimum of five days between posts, would that make it easier for you? I really need some feedback here so I'm going to leave today's post up for five days and just see what happens. If you don't like the every five days concept, please take the time to write a comment and left me know your feelings on the matter. Or if you think of a way to improve by blog, again, please tell me. The only problem I can see with doing it every five days is that occasionally it may come due on a day I simply don't have time to write. For instance posting today makes it due again on Monday and our small group is starting up again next Monday. Would I have the time to go to small group in the morning, get my chores done in the afternoon and still have time to blog? Well what I can do is just delay it one day if I need to on that post and pick up again on the every five days plan the next time. So occasionally it might be six days between posts. And I can see where it could conceivably be best to post an early blog say at four days. I just want to give you plenty of time to read my posts so that you won't get behind so fast and end up frustrated over the whole thing. Maybe you don't need a schedule. You'll get to my post when you get to my post. That's fine with me. But the thing is I need a schedule. I need to hold myself to account every so many days. So I'm not going to post on Friday as I normally would and aim for Monday and we'll just see how things go. I know how hard it is to suddenly discover that you've gotten behind and so you have to sit there and read and read to get caught up. We'll see if this helps. But I really need your comments. So please, comment on this post.

I have felt a good, strong presence of the Lord this week, well, actually since I got my car but I don't think getting the car has much to do with it. I've just felt closer to Him. I feel his presence in my chores in that I do all things for His glory. I really feel like I am cleaning His house. And that's good, because it is. I long to turn everything I have over to the Lord in a very conscious act; not just as an aside, "oh and by the way, everything I have is the Lord's," but rather as a lived statement of faith. I want to be consciously aware of the fact that what I have belongs to him. I find that I clean a little better when I remind myself that it is God's house I'm cleaning.

I have an Executive Board meeting tonight at 7:30 and I'm not looking forward to it. I'm just not a "meeting" kind of person. And, because of my hearing problems, I don't follow along with the conversation very well. It's easy for me to miss something said and have to scurry around and see if I can determine what was said by what is said next. That doesn't always always work as you might imagine. But I try. My biggest problem isn't so much that I don't hear well as it is that people have formed the irritating habit of talking very, very fast these days. And when people talk fast there's just no way for me to catch up because by the time I either have it figured out or have decided to let it go, I'm a minimum of two sentences behind in the conversation. But I have a report to make tonight and I'm not prepared at all. So I need to get that sorted out and taken care of.

I went to three different thrift store yesterday looking for chair cushions. I didn't find any cushions but I managed to find myself a couple dresses and a couple skirts. I bought only one top. Tops are hard to find because it's difficult to find a top that doesn't have a stain down the front. What does that say about society? I guess that we're all messy people. But I have enough stained tops of my own. I don't need to buy those from other people. And I need to get in and organize my closets because I can't ever seem to find anything to wear and I end up alternating between the same three outfits week after week. I've got three closets so I think I'm going to hang all my dresses in one, skirts in another, and tops in the final closet. Either that or put all my good clothes (my "church" clothes) in one closet and my day to day wear in the others. No, I like my first idea better. Anyway I have things I need to do today so I think I will go and get busy.

Now I'm going to remind you that it will be Monday (5 days) before I blog again and in this situation, with small group starting up, I may not blog until Tuesday if I find that I don't have enough time to get it written on Monday. I know this may seem like I'm making a big deal out of nothing but I pretty much live my home life around my blog. I know that's terrible to say but it's basically true. I would say that church and blogging takes up 97% of my home life. Which leaves me just 3% to manage the house and relationships. When I put it this way it doesn't sound so good. Maybe I need to think on this. Well I am making changes with my chore lists so that 3% might actually be closer to 10%. Until next time...