On Wednesday I woke up at what my brother-in-law calls “0 dark thirty” for a business trip to Seattle. I had plugged my computer in to make sure I had a good charge for the five hour flight, a great time for writing blogs and sermons. I tossed the charging cords into my suitcase but saved the computer to go in the side pocket for easy access on the plane.
Twenty minutes into the drive to the airport I realized that I had forgotten that last step – so no computer on this trip. Ok. I have my phone to stay connected and for writing, I’ll go old school, pen to paper.
I settled into the flight only to realize that I had forgotten the charger cord for my phone, now flashing “low battery.”
As my morning continued to fall apart, I find that while I DO have a pen, there is not one…, not one piece of paper in my Mary Poppins purse. (Crayons, flashlight, assorted cough drops and mints…, but no paper, no pad, no left over sheets from one of Jeff Nelson’s meeting… nothing..) There was a lone, blank envelope which would have to be good enough.
With a blog post banging around in my head I started scribbling on the back of the envelope. I quickly ran out of room and well… did what was necessary. I carefully tore the envelope apart to be able to write on the inside. The man sitting next to me started to snicker. “I saw you write Advent Blog Day 11 on the paper and I couldn’t help myself. I started reading over your shoulder. But when you started scribbling on the corner, you lost me. Can you please read that last part to me?” He went on to introduce himself. He works for the Billy Graham Foundation; he was on his way to Alaska. A man there had left a large sum of money to the foundation in his will. “I go myself,” he explained, “to make sure the gift is the right thing for this man. We need to be good stewards of God’s people as well as God’s money.” Well AMEN to that. And for that I spared him my rant on Franklin Graham and his politics.
“How on earth do you right a blog every day?” he asked me. It was my turn to laugh. “Sometimes you just have to tear open the envelope to get it done.”
Too often we hear God calling and we are tripped up by the minutia of life. Phone calls that are not made because finding the number is a two step process. Visits that don’t happen because traffic is bad.
Blogs that go unwritten because there is no paper.
If you hear God calling you today….. open the envelope, work through the little things that take us off the path God has for each of us.
Grace and Peace at Advent.
Myra