Recently I've been on the house-hunting treadmill and it's been somewhat of a depressing process. The rental market is ridiculously tight, which means that when rental properties are open for inspection there are 30 - 50 people there looking at it, and the majority of them will put in applications. This means that even if your application is good (ie, you're employed and respectable looking) it's still a bit of a lottery. I've applied for several places and been knocked back and I was starting to get quite discouraged about the whole thing.
Last week I was offered a place on a private lease (no real estate agent) but ended up turning it down - even though the place was lovely - because I had some concerns about the honesty of the owner, who wanted to put an illegal clause in the lease. It ended up being two days of rollercoaster emotions - thrilled to be offered the place, concerned about the owner, worried that if I turned it down I'd never find anything else, and eventually great relief and the conviction that I'd made the right decision. Through all of this I felt very strongly that God was keenly interested, and was directly guiding me. Sure, I had doubts and fears, but I still believe that God had his hand on the whole thing and kept me from making a bad decision.
This led to discussions with a couple of friends about God's level of involvement in these 'mundane' and trivial things. I mean, realistically, as long as I have a roof over my head and I'm warm and dry it really doesn't matter where I live... so why should God care, or bother to be involved? But that's the awesome thing, isn't it? The creator of the universe, the God who sustains all things, the God who sent his Son to save all humanity... THIS God knows me intimately and cares about all the 'mundane' areas of my life. A dear friend in another state had these words of wisdom for me:
It's funny - maybe frustrating is a better word - when you have the more rigid, apparently orthodox trying to insist that silly things like where we live and what we work are of too little import to God, He's far too busy with bigger things to fuss over material concerns (that is the sense I get anyway) yet I am there thinking, "if He's all-powerful then he can be as intensely interested in where I live as much as the state of my soul; He can be deeply into both simultaneously surely!" Indeed - as much as these rigid folk seem to discount or disallow experience - it has been very much my experience that God has plans for me for every facet of my life...
...I am getting a little weary of [these] blinkers - God is far more enormous than they would have Him - and more frightening too, in a good and terrible and stunning and comforting way. In fact it seems Jesus spends more words on taking care of the orphan and the widow than he does on orthodoxy. Hmm...
Last week I was offered a place on a private lease (no real estate agent) but ended up turning it down - even though the place was lovely - because I had some concerns about the honesty of the owner, who wanted to put an illegal clause in the lease. It ended up being two days of rollercoaster emotions - thrilled to be offered the place, concerned about the owner, worried that if I turned it down I'd never find anything else, and eventually great relief and the conviction that I'd made the right decision. Through all of this I felt very strongly that God was keenly interested, and was directly guiding me. Sure, I had doubts and fears, but I still believe that God had his hand on the whole thing and kept me from making a bad decision.
This led to discussions with a couple of friends about God's level of involvement in these 'mundane' and trivial things. I mean, realistically, as long as I have a roof over my head and I'm warm and dry it really doesn't matter where I live... so why should God care, or bother to be involved? But that's the awesome thing, isn't it? The creator of the universe, the God who sustains all things, the God who sent his Son to save all humanity... THIS God knows me intimately and cares about all the 'mundane' areas of my life. A dear friend in another state had these words of wisdom for me:
It's funny - maybe frustrating is a better word - when you have the more rigid, apparently orthodox trying to insist that silly things like where we live and what we work are of too little import to God, He's far too busy with bigger things to fuss over material concerns (that is the sense I get anyway) yet I am there thinking, "if He's all-powerful then he can be as intensely interested in where I live as much as the state of my soul; He can be deeply into both simultaneously surely!" Indeed - as much as these rigid folk seem to discount or disallow experience - it has been very much my experience that God has plans for me for every facet of my life...
...I am getting a little weary of [these] blinkers - God is far more enormous than they would have Him - and more frightening too, in a good and terrible and stunning and comforting way. In fact it seems Jesus spends more words on taking care of the orphan and the widow than he does on orthodoxy. Hmm...
2 comments:
Thems sounds like fight'n words, girly! Great pos. Whodathunkit, God is actually so big he can be very very small and polite and tender. My word, I can really feel a gush of love for Him at times.
Well, don't get carried away or anything... :)
I'm feeling eerily calm about the whole thing - because it's not just any god who is in control here; it's the God who CARES who is in control. That's win-win, in my book.
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