THURSDAY THOUGHTS: Locked Out

I
had coffee with friend and fellow blogger, Wendy, last Saturday morning.  Here is a link to her blog http://partofmystory.blogspot.com.
 I mentioned since I started blogging
again, after a rather lengthy absence, the few posts I’ve done have been
serious and I missed the funny me.  Cuz I
am a funny one.  And when I say funny I
don’t mean funny Ha Ha, but funny in that I do and say stupid things.  Like this episode a while back with my
equally funny sister, Chrystal.

 
During
my basement dweller days Chrystal and I would occasionally go grocery shopping
together.  (She lived upstairs in the
main part of the house and I, and my two cats, lived in the cute little basement.  Cute, if you could overlook the
spiders.)  We came home from one such
shopping trip to find I was locked out of my apartment. 

“No
problem, just go through my house, through the garage and laundry room and use
the connecting door,” Chrystal suggested.

“Ok.”  As I said that I was trying to remember if I
had left that door unlocked or not.  I
usually locked it even though she was the only one with access, because I’m a
fraidy cat.  What if the bad guys come
through her house, rob and kill her, and then decide to check out the basement
dweller!

Sure
enough, it was locked.

“I’ll
get a screw driver and hammer and take it off the hinges,” said one of us.  I think it was me because I remember being
the one to actually UNSUCCESSFULLY take it off the hinges. 

“Well
since that didn’t work just use the hammer to break the lock.”  I distinctly remember it being Chrystal who
came up with that idea.

After
about 20 minutes of the two of us taking turns trying to break the stupid lock,
which of course wouldn’t break because it was doing its job, we gave up.

“This
door is not the sturdiest of doors.  What
if we use the hammer to chop a hole right next to the door knob, and then reach
in and unlock the door.”  Again, I credit
Chrystal with suggesting another brilliant plan.

So
chop we did.  And we chopped some
more.  We got a lot of aggression out on
that stinking door!

 
“Wow,
these doors are sturdier than they appear,” I said after another 10 minutes. 

Another
few minutes of chopping and we had a hole big enough to reach through only to
find out that, in our earlier attempt to break it, we had damaged the lock
beyond use.  So locked it stayed.

We
stood there for a few minutes staring at all the wood chips on the floor with nothing
to show for it.  It was then that
Chrystal decided to give it a shot with the hammer and screw driver to take the
door off the hinges. 

It
came right off. 

What?!?!?  What had I done wrong?  I have taken doors off hinges many times to
move large furniture in or out or to paint or something.  What?!?!?

We
discussed if for a bit and decided it was because we were tired.  And maybe also needed some therapy time to
hit, punch, yell, and destroy an inanimate object.  Poor little door.

Since
we rented the house from our church we thought the most Christian thing to do
would be to hide it and get someone else to come put in a new door before the
elder in charge found out.  Which is what
we did.  Unfortunately the elder in
charge was mowing our backyard when the chopped up door passed by.  He laughed, shook his head and said he didn’t
dare ask what happened.

So
that is how my single sister and I solved the problem of being locked out.  Would a husband have gotten it off the hinges
on the first try?  Or would he have not forgotten
his key in the first place.  Either way I
think our plan worked out just fine.  I
got in didn’t I?

Question:  Ever been locked out?  Have better luck in getting in than we did? 

THURSDAY THOUGHTS: Be Still and Know that I am God

Photo by Lois Flores

I
was recently asked if I could “Be Still” for a while and await an answer
regarding a job.  I replied, “Well, I can
tell you it is part of Psalm 46:10 and the entire Psalm starts out with
telling us that God is our refuge and strength. 
But to actually put it in to practice, nope, I can’t do that.”  Fortunately my potential employer chuckled
along with me, also knowing that waiting isn’t easy.

When
you’re single, your income is it.  You’re
not a supplemental income alongside your spouse’s to help with extra
expenses.  You’re not a comparable amount
to be part of the monthly budget.  You
are it!

Sometimes
I find that scary. 

Sometimes
I find it an exciting opportunity to see how God will work things out. 

Be
still…and know that I am God…

Sometimes
I find it frustrating. 

Sometimes
I find it a good way to trust God.

Be still…and
know that I am God…

Sometimes
I want to make a phone call and get things rolling.

Sometimes
I just want to sit at His feet and watch Him work.

Be still…and
know that I am God…

It’s
not just “knowing” that He is God.  I
have to “let” Him be God.  It’s the
difference between reciting Psalm 46 and believing it and trusting Him enough
to live it out. 

I
joke around with friends and say, “This is the year I marry money!”  My Portland to Coast team would like extra
money to buy a van, team T-shirts, a cushy hotel and massage in Seaside after
the race.  But until I find that rich
husband it just isn’t going to happen. 
But in reality, I have found someone…

I
found Him while I was being still enough to know
Him and then let Him be God.