“I was overcome by distress and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord: ‘Lord, save me!’ The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.” Psalm 116:3-5
I thought it was Thursday and it was getting late. You may remember my issue with garbage day, so remembering caused me to jump into ‘hurry’ mode. Grabbing a half-filled trash bag I thought of all that wasted space!!! So I opened up the refrigerator and started scrounging for trash to fill up my bag! (Does anyone else do this????) I hit pay-dirt!
In the back of the shelf was a container of mystery! How long had it been there? What did it hold? Heading to the sink, I opened it up… and the smell hit me before I could make out what it was. Holding my breath, I poured the ooozy goo down the garbage disposal, rinsed and repeated SEVERAL times! Feeling a sense of accomplishment, I headed to the street with my garbage, only to discover that I was the only one! It was Wednesday!
It is UNusual that I am that prompt. When a nasty or unpleasant job awaits, I usually put the PRO in procrastination. It is a character flaw. In English, placing PRO in front of a word usually makes it different. It means to ‘put in front’ or ‘take care of in advance.’ There is NO such word as ‘crastinate!’ I looked it up BEFORE I started writing this because… well. You know!
WHY is it man’s natural inclination to wait for distress or sorrow to strike BEFORE we call on the Lord. WHY do I continue to search for ways to get myself out of trouble instead of giving it to Him right up front? The last 100 times I tried to be my own superhero, all I found was that my own efforts were smelly and useless for my own rescue. But since David wrote that Psalm, I guess I am in pretty good, but messed up, company.
Learning to lean on and trust the Lord with my heart and life is a long term lesson. Like ‘garbage day’ trouble seems to have a schedule and it ALWAYS shows up. But then… so does God! The longer I know, love and trust Him, the more I realize that he WANTS my garbage. EVERY BIT OF IT! IN ADVANCE! In fact, He has a word for doing just that. It is called TRUST… or FAITH! He promises HIS graciousness and righteousness as the reward He gives me when I QUIT analyzing and START the Trust process.
I have a LOT of ooozy goo in my life that needs to be disposed of. But little by little, as I trust Him, I find it is easier and SMARTER to hand it over NOW… and to stop finding ways of putting it off.
