Wondering, Wandering, and Writing

God, I love you so much!  Thank you so much for bringing me to you!  I want to live just the way you want me to.  I want to share this joy with everybody I know! You are so wonderful! Thank you for getting me on a better path for my life.  Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for rescuing me from that mess I was in.  Amen.

Dear God, I love you.  I am so glad you loved me first and you sent some of your children to tell me about you and your strength. Thank you for guiding me.  Thank you for the Bible so I can learn how to live the way you want me to.  My friends need you, too, God.  I don’t understand why they don’t want this joy, but you can rescue them, too.  Please, God. Please bring my friends to you, too.  Amen.

Dear God, You are so awesome and I love you.  But my friends don’t want to be around me anymore.  They say I’m too happy and I act like I’m better than they are. I just want to share the story like others did with me. Why won’t they just listen to me?! In the meantime, help me find some new friends. Thank you. Amen.

Dear God, Thank you so much for my new friends!  We get together and read the Bible and pray and share meals.  It’s so much fun!  I didn’t know I could enjoy being with people this much.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Amen.

Oh dear God!  My old friends are texting me ALL the time.  They have so many problems!  Will I pray for this?  Will I help with that? Give me the words to tell them about you.  Send someone to help them with their craziness. You know I’m too busy teaching about you to go help with their stuff.  Thank you for taking care of all that!  Amen.

God!! What’s up with all this?!?!!  Why aren’t you bringing my old friends to you so they’ll live right?  They just keep getting into trouble and fussing and fighting!  Oh, dear God I am SO glad you brought me out of that. So very glad.  Thank you for my new friends.  Amen.

God.  Are you there? Hello?! Where are you?!  Where WERE you?? My old friends …. They’re in the hospital with hypothermia and malnutrition and you SAID you would answer all our prayers!! I asked for you to send somebody to help them! Anyway, thank you for getting me out of that mess or I’d be there with them.

Yes, God, I’m still here.  My new friends and I are over here teaching kids about you.  You should know all the good things we’re doing for you.  You know everything.  Aren’t you proud of us for sharing the good news?  What?  I need to check my attitude?  What are you talking about?  I’m doing all the stuff my new friends say I should.  I read my Bible, I pray, I go to all the church meetings, I tithe, and I even give some extra money to the outreach program.  I think I’m doing pretty well.

God, it’s the middle of the night and I can’t sleep.  I keep thinking of my old friends. Why haven’t you sent them help?  The help they need is a friend?  Well they have each other!  They need a friend who knows you?  Well, send somebody for Pete’s sake!  Me? Are you serious? After all the lies they put on social media about me? I started living the way you say to and then they exaggerated everything I ever did wrong.  I just don’t think I can be nice to them.

Reread the story?  What are you saying God?  I’ve read that book all the way through!  Oh, well, I skipped some boring parts here and there.  Read it like haven’t seen it before, when I’ve been teaching it to others? I don’t have time for that. Read it to see what Jesus gave up so I could have this joy?  I know you can see my eyes rolling in disbelief.  Maybe I can squeeze this into my schedule.

Oh dear God.  I have become so comfortable with being forgiven, with being your child. I take it too lightly.  You are so right (of course you are). Now that I am beginning to understand how much grace you have given to me, how can I not extend that same grace to others?  It is not easy, God, to forgive their meanness.  I don’t want to fall back into that mess and muck and mire.  Can I take someone with me?  Someone else who understands that not one of us is worthy to judge another?   You are right, too, God, that I need a checkup from the heart up … to check the motives behind my ministries, whether my words are seasoned with your wisdom, and if my actions are guided by an attitude of love and grace. Amen.

#bgwww21