I
just walked outside to get the morning newspaper. Yes, we are still among those dinosaurs who
have the paper delivered and enjoy perusing the printed page with a morning cup
of coffee before starting our day.
Although Chris generally double checks what she reads with an online
news source … often before she even gets out of bed. She just can’t bring herself to fully trust what
she affectionately calls The Daily Gossip.
I, on the other hand, can’t wait to get the paper. First I have to check and see whether I am
listed in the obituaries. Failing that
(thankfully), I continue on with a look at every page in there. So, it was important that I was retrieving my
morning jolt of news.
At
least it was until I walked right into one of those hidden spider webs that had
been surreptitiously constructed during the night, stretching between our front
yard tree and the front door of car parked in the driveway. That’s not so unusual in itself, mind
you. And I respect the hard work our
spider neighbors do at maintaining some semblance of control over the bug
population. But the strand that I ran
into was exactly at eye level. Strange
feeling to suddenly have a strand of sticky spider web draped across both
eyes. Temporary blindness. Frantic flailing of my arms and wiping of my
face. Those situations have to be some
of the funniest ever for an outside observer, don’t you think? From afar there is no discernible intruder. Just a strange human being waving his arms
and slapping himself in the face.
Perhaps sometimes, though not in this particular case, also adding a
particularly girlish scream into the mix.
Go on. Imagine it right now. It has to bring forth at least a chuckle.
Yeah. So … not exactly excited about having that
happen again. Ever. Gotta love the spiritual applications,
though. Sometimes circumstances can rise
up literally overnight and catch you totally unawares, temporarily blinding you
to what you know to be the guidelines of God.
Others watching you wallow in your worries don’t necessarily see the
real cause of your distress. To them you
appear to be struggling with thin air, with nothing. And they may even say things like, “Get over
it” or “What’s your problem?” or “How hard can it be?” you want to lash out at them, but to be
honest, they are well down on your list of priorities at the moment. All you can think about are the circumstances
you are drowning in. Whew. Ever been there? It’s not fun.
But it doesn’t have to be a permanent state of affairs either. Usually isn’t. Best approach is always to stop being frantic
for a second. Look up in prayer
first. Then, with the wisdom (and peace)
of a divine set of eyes, begin to deal with your circumstances. The answer might be as easily forthcoming as
an “Oh, of course” moment. It may
require actually asking for help with that one particularly sticky part of the web
that just keeps hanging on to your ear, annoying you over and over again. But once it is removed, the feeling is oh-so
wonderful. May God be with you today in
your web cleaning.
Psalms
5:3 says “In the morning, O Lord, You
will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.”
Father,
be with all of us as we clean off the annoying webs of circumstance that keep
us from really connecting with you.
Amen.
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