When God's Focused on the Long Run - And, I'm Wanting a Sprint.

What's Next?

I learned a couple of things this weekend.

First, thank goodness for women like Shannan at Flower Patch Farmgirl.  She keeps things in perspective for me. As I read her adventures I see how quiet and ordinary can be boring. (Her life could never be considered Q&O!)

Full disclosure.  I'm really longing for some quiet and ordinary in life right now - maybe a bit too much.  Have you seen the new addition to the Footprints story?

Yeah, that's me.
Those who follow me on Facebook or twitter have likely seen some changes.  Our family has been through a lot this year.  Grief.  Job loss.  Health stuff.

I was about to type, "Our family has had it's fair share of ...."  But, that phrase really doesn't have any meaning, does it?

The second thing I learned this week is how influential a good book can be.  (Especially the conversations in can evoke.)    I've been reading "The Power of a Whisper: Hearing God and Having the Guts to Respond" by Bill Hybels.     Saturday,  I grabbed the book to read in the car while I waited for my step-son to finish his violin lesson.   When he jumped back in, he saw what I was reading and asked if it was any good.    I told him I was really enjoying it and how Bill has an easy-going way of writing - and a very self-deprecating sense of humor.  I mentioned a certain story about whispers.  (I honestly can't remember if it's in this book or not - could have been one of the other times I've heard him talk.)

Anyway, Bill speaks of picking up milk (or something) from the grocery store and he was getting into the car to head home.  He heard a whisper, "Turn around."  He resisted.     He was tired.  It was snowy.
"Turn around," it repeated. 
As the story goes, he eventually listened to the prompting and saw an elderly woman walking from her car holding groceries - so he offered his help.  Little did he know this would require walking back and forth from her car to her apartment a couple of times... in the wet snow - up hill, both ways.     You get the idea.

At the end of the adventure, she stops him, grabs his elbow and tells him,  "You were an answer to a prayer."

At the end of the story I was saying to my step-son how God doesn't always show us the whole plan - he just asks us to listen and follow.  As most teenagers listening to a adult who is trying to be all wise and knowing (facepalm) - he was already ahead of me.  "Turn around."  Yep.  Turn around.

So, I'm in a "turn around" point in my life.  I'm trying hard to listen and respond.  I know all too well how it can hurt when I don't listen.

I know what happens when God wants something  to be easier in the long run...   but I explain to him how a nice short sprint is what I had in mind.

I've been feeling for a long while like a change in career was coming.  But, what I didn't have was the clarity of what it might look like. I was also too afraid and maybe a bit too lazy to make that happen.  Hello, layoff.  I see you.
Recently some whispers have been falling into place.  (Actually, some whispers that probably should have been heeded a while ago are now showing themselves as how they could have been possibilities for NOW, but since I neglected them, they might be possibilities for the future.)
This old dog can learn new tricks.   But, sometimes you have to prod her before she'll get moving.

Looking at the photo above,  I'm not focusing on the huge canyon before me.   I'll choose to focus on the magnificent colors of that horizon.
Have you been hearing any whispers lately? Share.