Originally published Monday, 26 September 2016.
I love Annie's all-chocolate graham cracker bunnies and only the all-chocolate graham cracker bunnies.
At this point, you are probably asking 2 questions:
- Why is she telling us this? I promise there will be a good point.
- Why is she eating something so childish as that? Because I try to pretend my kids love them.
So, sometimes, with these all-chocolate graham bunnies, they run out of stock (probably because they are so amazing). Then I have to settle for the mixed bag - with vanilla and chocolate chips. I try to pick out my favorites. But, my all-time fave bunnies, well, they don't taste the same- the other flavors rub off on them.
Almost every time, after I do that, I vow not to buy that mixed bag again. But, yesterday, I did. My sugar craving won over bad memories.
When I sat down with the bag at home, I considered...
What if I saw things differently?
What if rather than expecting that these bunnies taste exactly as planned,
I expect a different plan,
but not an all-together bad plan?
What if rather than pushing my demands,
I open myself up to delight in these bunnies as they are - in a new way?
I can accept:
They won't be as flavorful as before, but different.
They won't crunch exactly the same, but different.
They won't be my all-chocolate bunnies; but different.
I crunched, munched and considered them a whole bunch...and by golly, I liked them. I really liked them. I do like green egg and ham, or rather the vanilla-coated chocolate bunnies in my hand.
If I failed to consider them from a new angle,
I would have failed to grasp the joy present in the moment.
How might you need to see things from a new angle?
What might God be prompting you to let go of - so you can grab hold of - a new view?
Times change. People move on. Days look different. Life evolves, turns and seasons change. And what I find can be the hardest thing to contend with are good times, gone. Good memories, lost. Good laughs, evaporated.
What is it you are still grasping for - that is long gone?
Might you consider a new angle?
Perhaps what is good is gone, because what is great - is coming.
Have you considered that?
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Is. 43:19
When we look at a job as dead-end, we miss the little path God has jutting out to a new opportunity. When we see a marriage as failed, we miss the rail that leans us onto God's great love. When we see finances as doomed, we miss the door God wants to open to save us. When we see our anxiety as endless, we miss the small prompting of new life God calls us to. When we see life only as overwhelming, we miss the wind of God directing us where to go.
What are you missing?
Maybe something has taken new form because God wants your heart to take new form.
We are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:18
Next time something seems lost, paused or different than expected, ask yourself these three things:
- Might God be doing "a new thing"?
- Am I open armed or closed armed to his movement?
- Will I believe that God is moving me from glory to glory,
or will I walk against his wind, trying to step back into an old story?
Friends, I know it is hard. I hate it too. I stomp my feet, I chide change and I turn my back on things outside of comfortable. But, I am going to assure you - and me - we are not sitting with a mixed bag of blah. What we are sitting with is a bag of blessings. God is moving us into spiritual progress, greater spiritual blessings. There is fullness God so desires we enjoy.
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