Norah's on the mend and felling tons better!


Enjoy It!

As I type these words, I am about to close up shop on what has been an awesome day. Now, it wasn’t exactly a perfect day… I didn’t get my way in everything that happened and I didn’t get all the things done that I intended to. I didn’t win the lottery or hear my favorite song by happenstance. It was just a petty run-of-the-mill, work on stuff and meet with people kind of day, but it was awesome. Why? Well, it was an awesome day because I don’t have the stomach flu!

I know that sounds super random and all, but on Sunday afternoon Norah exploded with the stomach flu out of nowhere and as soon as I saw it start I thought, “Oh no… here comes our family’s whole week!” I just knew that we would be passing that bug around through the whole house from one family member to the next just surviving and trying to take care of each other… at least, that’s how it’s always been in the past. We were doing all we could do to help Norah be as clean and comfortable as possible while at the same time getting our minds, hearts and laundry baskets ready for the doom that lay ahead… We prayed, hoped and watched the clock for over 24 hours, and praise the Lord, Norah got better and no one else has goten sick... yet! I thought we would be spending the week in our PJ’s wishing we could just go on to heaven, but instead we’re up and at ‘em and having a pretty normal (and awesome) week.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 8 the teacher tells us, “I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat, drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun."

Just enjoy life… I think this is a great New Year’s verse for 2008. Ecclesiastes talks over and over again about how life is 'meaningless,' and when it says that, it doesn’t really mean that life has no point; it just means that life is hard to understand and there’s no way you can make sense out of all of it on this side of things, so just trust God, love the people around you and make the best out of what ever is in front of your face… This hasn’t been ‘the most awesome day ever’ or anything, but hey, I don’t have the stomach flu, and even if I did, it would be over in 24 hours.

So, how can you do this? How can you just toss up your hands and say, “I’m gonna enjoy this life!?” Well, you can’t do it by trying to make sense out of all your stuff. Why not just start out by thanking God? “For what?” you might say… Well, here are some awesome facts that I am going to try to carry around in this New Year: 1. God loves me more than I’ll ever understand and is working absolutely everything out for my good. 2. I will never, ever, ever be punished for my sins because of the mercy and grace of Christ. 3. I don’t deserve anything, but am outrageously blessed in so many ways by the tender kindness of God. 4. No matter what happens now or ever, no matter how terrible, I will be in heaven one day and all the troubles, pains, striving and tears will be distant memories like inside jokes from Middle School. I can praise my God and enjoy this day... and you can too.