Gifts of grace

Consuming God's blessings without communicating His goodness 

short-changes the very purpose of His gifts of grace in our lives 

- Joe Stowell

Wow.  It's been a while.  God has been at work so much in our lives, and it would be wrong to not take the time to share His goodness.  It started with loss.  Not just one, but many.  Not jobs this time, but material things.  The things that shouldn't hurt so much, but find a way to hit us right in the gut.  The enemy sits and waits for these types of opportunities. He attacks when we're consumed with all of our human grossness, when our eyes are briefly distracted from the Greater Story and pulled like magnets into self.  

Loss #1) My flash drive failed.  I lost all of my graphic work that I've done over the past 3 years.  In the technology driven world we live in this is not a rare occurrence, but it IS the worst. thing. ever.  I was completely defeated. I was in the middle of a HUGE commissioned project based on the work I had done the year before.  All of it was gone.  I took it to get it recovered, and it was found to be completely corrupt.

Problems that turned into loss #2)  Jeep, jeep, jeep.  We love you. You have been good to us.  After dropping close to $1000.00 on some silly repairs, and the day AFTER putting new tires on you, you decided to pass out in the middle of Nowhereville, TN after hours.  Sorry we pulled off your driveshaft, but glad you're finally home.  

Loss #3) Our beauty queen, Belinda, also decided to take a nap (indefinitely?).  God rest her pretty soul.  Not sure what will become of her now.

Loss #4 & 5) Dropped the flip camera in the toilet and my cellphone in the tub.  Flip camera was somehow recovered, but the phone is forever on silent.  It's not like anyone calls me anyways, so I don't mind too much.  Thanks to Facebook and a friendly tip, putting the phone in a bowl of rice over night worked as the rice absorbed any residual water.  I was able to save my pics and vids which was my biggest worry.

Loss #6, 7, 8, 9... ) my sanity, sleep, weight (I don't mind this one), milk supply (I'm working on it), and I could probably continue. Whining? Yes.

SO WHAT? My desire is to write about God's amazing grace and provision! We're all well aware of our human selfishness and lacking.  I'm going to break it up into a few posts because I want to tell the detail.  

"Randomness is not random to God.  God is not the least taxed by keeping every subnuclear particle in it's place..." 

- John Piper

The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD. Proverbs 16:33