dream-awakener

feeling like a rubberband

i think these days if you were to ask my how i feel, i would have to tell you i feel like a rubber band that is being stretched in all possible directions.

there is the pull of ministry and the local level where we are in the of our second year. there are so many good things happening and so many blessings that God has given us, but there are also heavy trials and deep pains.

there is the pull of ministry at the national level, which i don't even want to touch at this moment.

there is the pull of ministry at the international level. i get e-mails almost daily in regard to different crises that are happening in different parts of the world. ukraine is a big one these days with the probably election fraud and the demonstrations on the street. i hope and pray that justice will prevail in the ukraine and that we continue to pray for the people there. there is kenya and the famine and hunger that lies heavy on my heart.

on top of the pull of ministry, my apartment is in total disarray. there was a pipe that broke on the seventh floor, which flooded the sixth floor apartment above me, and the water had to go somewhere. it soaked through the roof, tore down my paint and this acidic yellow substance dripped all over my bedroom for about two days. it left the new carpet stained, it destroyed my desk top computer and ruined most all of my books that were exposed. so many parts of my bedroom have been thrown into my living room space to make my apartment one huge mess.

i am very thankful for sleep, though due to demands, sometimes i haven't gotten little sleep. though i am glad to say the last two nights i have finally had two nights of good rest two days in a row. and i expect that to be the case in the next couple of days.

when i begin to feel like a rubber band, i always make sure that i take my sabbath day off, especially when things are crazy. taking a sabbath day for me just reminds me that god is god and i am not. it always refreshes me for the next week.

i also am enjoying reading through the psalms in my time of disorientation, for a number of psalmist went through seasons of disorientation and so they have become my tutors for prayer.

i knew i should have waited to teach on the psalms, for God most always has me experientially go through whatever topic i am teaching our community of faith. so when we decided to do cries of the heart, specifically going through the disorientation psalms, well...

i'm glad this current series is just four parts, and i am really looking forward to our next series on 'the new humanity' when we go through the book of ephesians. it is a book written to a church with no evident problems, but just a great plan of how things could be.

posted by J.R. Woodward @ 1:58 PM