A Frayed Knot

Are you feeling like a frayed knot these days?  Does your life feel like you are on the wrong end of a lemon?  Did the stuff that hit the fan all land in your life?  Did your dreams shatter? Did they all come true only to find you had your ladder up on the wrong building? Did life pull the rug out from under you or was that someone you knew?  Are you over worked, under paid, not appreciated or worse taken for granted? Com’on did you think I’d have the answer?  What if I told you – this is it.  It’s not going to change. It won’t get better if you get a nicer car or a higher paying job or a bigger house or a mate or a better mate or a healing.  Talk about sucking on a lemon lady – not very encouraging.  What if every time you complained you left a mountain of dirt behind you?  After a few years wouldn’t it be somewhat difficult to get around in your corner of the world?  That’s what happened to me.  I kept bumping into ‘Complaint Mountains’ that had accumulated in my life.  Dog gone, they nearly squeezed me out.  I was forced to my knees before the Lord.  “I give up, I can’t do this any more – I don’t even want to do this anymore”, I cried.   Then God said to my heart, “be a frayed knot my child”.  That’s biblical!  Oh Lord, “how am I supposed to be your woman under this load?”  And God said, “The question is good”.  Long silence………  “That’s it?  I was kind of expecting a more definitive answer.  Could I maybe get a little help here – a little illumination?”  I begged. The quiet was deafening and unending.   

From the play “Man and Superman” by the Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw comes a quote that I pondered for years, “There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it.”  As a young woman I could not get my mind around Mr. Shaw’s quote.  Life experiences brought a reality to the two tragedies but God brought me a quest and this weeks pearl.  

Pearl to String: No matter what circumstances I find surrounding me, no matter how unfair, difficult or painful they might be - the constant in my life is not to complain about it but to ask myself: How can I be God’s woman (man) is this situation. Right here, right now.  That question always leads me to prayer, thanksgiving and God’s Word.   

In The Message translation of 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 we see Paul learning to be God’s man in his situation. “Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it's all you need.  My strength comes into its own in your weakness.  Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.” 

Like a kid at Christmas opening toys, (Yea!) clothes, (Huh?) socks and underwear. (Ugg!) not all gifts from God are fun but all have purpose.

No longer a frayed knot - Now dancing in the palm of His hand,

                                                                                                 Lyndi