Looks Like Granite

By Cynthia Ruchti –

Eavesdropping on conversations yields some of life’s most fascinating moments, and for writers, it’s not only acceptable, but a necessity. Character studies.

I remember walking through an airport a year ago; collecting snippets of conversation like corduroy pants collect lint.

“Okay, then,” a businessman said into his cell phone, “offer them fifty million, but that’s our final offer.”

I kept walking but would have loved to have heard the rest of that conversation.

A middle-aged woman told the younger woman sitting next to her in a boarding gate waiting area, “We’ll have to stop somewhere on the way to the church. I only packed my black tights. I forgot the pink pair. I can’t wear black.”

Funeral? No. Black would have been appropriate. Wedding? Maybe. Pink tights, huh?

The conversation I overheard the other day gave me pause, as they say.

“Looks like granite,” the elderly man said. “But it’s really yogurt.”

Now…

Yes! Me, too! I wondered what subject would have evoked that kind of observation. Looks like granite, but it’s really yogurt.

Before the day was over, I found a use for the phrase. A crisis hit, smacking me with the force of a block of granite.

Looks like granite. It seemed immovable. Impenetrable. A problem as heavy and crushing as granite.

But God, the true Rock, crushes “crushing” problems. To Him, they’re more like…yogurt.

Nothing threatens Him.

Does that comfort you like it comforts me? He can’t be intimidated much less overcome.
The next time I feel overwhelmed by something life’s catapult hurls at me, I’m going to rephrase my response. Instead of whining, “This is hard!” I’m going to straighten my posture, raise my eyebrows as I survey the scene, and say, “It might look like granite. But it’s really yogurt.”

PRAYER: Lord, give me the grace to see what You see when You look at the problems that seem so tough to me. Help me find hope in the truth that Your sovereignty trumps everything and turns crushing troubles into something no more threatening than a smoothie ingredient.

“Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you,” Jeremiah 32:17 NIV.

Faith step: When your need is great, tap into His limitless need-meeting ability.
—Cynthia Ruchti

Was That Dumb Or What?

By Carin LeRoy –

Recently my husband and I were traveling to meet up in the same location for a conference. I was coming from our home in Florida, and he was coming in from the Midwest. En route, while on a layover my husband called and said, “Well, I missed my flight. I had the time of departure wrong and didn’t leave enough time for the bus ride to the airport.”

“Boy, my husband needs me around to take care of the details for him. How could he miss his flight,” I thought—although I refrained from saying too much to him on the phone. As I sat in the Philadelphia airport for my 4 hour lay-over at Gate 30 sipping coffee and reading a book, people start lining up to board. Walking over to stand in line, I notice the screen says “Phoenix.”

What? I’m not going to Phoenix. I’m going to Rochester!

I realize in a panic that I’m in the wrong terminal. With a bus ride in between, I start heading to Terminal F pulling my luggage and racing through the airport. I had less than 30 minutes before the plane departed. Praying as I ran, I threw my shoes off, grabbed them and ran barefoot down the halls.

Lady sprinting barefoot in a panic through airport = she’s in danger of missing her flight.

Out of breath, I arrive at the gate exhausted and hand the agent my boarding pass.

“Ma’am, the flight just departed.”

I realized too late there was a BIG difference between C30 and F30. While I chided my husband in missing the details of his flight, I had done worse. I had more than enough time to figure out where I was supposed to be, but was blinded by my own stupidity and lack of attention to detail. Texting him my dilemma he wrote back, “Wow, that was dumber than me!”

How many times do we have a self-righteous attitude? We judge others for their actions and think we have it right when we are blind to our own mistakes. That’s why God reminds us in Matthew to take the beam out of our eye before we try to take the speck out of our brother’s. God knows our human nature will scrutinize the faults of others, but neglect to see our own. Let’s remember to let encouragement trump judgment. Maybe there are times for constructive criticism, but scripture is clear that grace and mercy are far better.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to check my own actions before I find fault with others. Keep me mindful that a self-righteous attitude does not honor you, but showing others grace and mercy does.

“Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7: 3-4 NET).

My Car or My Oversized Purse?

By Janet Morris Grimes –

While the gas was pumping, rather than cringe at the rising prices, I chose instead to clean out my car.

I started with the trash, which proved to be a series of receipts or unopened junk mail, and a newspaper that featured the plight of the homeless in our area. Next was my prayer journal and a couple of partially read books, which I slid into a rear seat pocket. The umbrella went into the trunk, where it fought for space with the jumper cables, a bottle of coolant, a quart of oil, and an unexplained decorative glass bottle of Coke.
In the back seat was a box that held my bottle of water with a hook that I take on walks with me, a leaking bottle of Benedryl, and a mismatched series of things that travel best in boxes. A bottle of hairspray. A comb. Some extra deodorant, and exercise clothes, and my tennis shoes with an extra pair of socks.

A flowered bag of clothes no one will claim also rests in the back seat, something I need to ask my daughters about next time I see them.

The keys that I need to get into my mother’s house are in the console, along with a few barrettes or ponytail holders, a broken pair of sunglasses and our GPS system. In the side pocket of the door are some maps, an ice scraper, and a miniature phone directory.

In short, my car has become the place I keep everything I could possibly need at any given moment.

It is my oversized purse.

PRAYER: Dear God, Thank You for the way you care for us, even in the midst of our idiosyncrasies. You created us to be funny, quirky, and to be able to laugh at ourselves. Thank You for this gift, and we hope we bring a smile to your face from time to time as well.

Quick on My Toes

By Elaine James –

“Where did you get those cute shoes?” I inquired.

She responded, “Bed, Bath and Beyond.”

Shocked, I repeated “Bed, Bath and Beyond?”

She flippantly replied, “Yeah, that must be the beyond part of the store.”

We laughed. “Wow! You’re quick on your toes. Did you just make that up?”

Most confidently, she chuckled “Yeah”. I had to laugh with her. I never thought of the ‘Beyond’ stuff in that title.

Suddenly as I focused on the beyond of Bed, Bath and Beyond title, I began to put it in spiritual terms; Here, Now and Beyond. The here and now are staples of everyday life, but the beyond is the part I forget to focus on.

First, how many times in my life do I hear a prayer, title or a Bible verse and not focus on each word? After all, a prayer like Our Father, which Jesus taught to his disciples, when simply recited is just babbling to God if I don’t really know who I am praying to and what it is about. The beginning line of that prayer, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,” taught me to adore and praise God.

Second, beyond is eternity or my time after death. Where will I go and why? How could I be living my life daily with the understanding of “eternal security with Jesus in heaven” or “Beyond”? The Our Father prayer goes on to say “Your Kingdom come,” which begs for the eternal security I experience when I focus on the cross and Jesus second coming.

Third, the beyond is not more things I want or have. It is the need God grows in me to be in relationship with Him. The Lord’s Prayer that asks “give me today my daily bread” which is the essential fruits of the Spirit that I need daily.

If I trust in the Lord with all my heart daily I can experience the “beyond” that the Lord freely wants to give me. I was “quick on my toes”; a pun intended by God as I went from shoes, to toes and “Beyond.”

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:9b-13 NIV).

The Blame Game

By Carin LeRoy –

I like to play the blame game in my marriage. My husband tells me I always find a way to fault him for something.

“Are you coming? We’re going to be late,” he’ll say.

“I’m coming, but since you didn’t show me how to work the alarm clock, I got up late” (not that I should have read the directions).

“When can you sew the button on my pants?”

“I can’t find the button, where did you put it?” (even though he gave it to me when he asked me to sew it).

After over 30 years of marriage it’s now become a joke between us. I can always find a way to blame him for something—as ridiculous as it may be. With a roll of his eyes he’ll say, “Well I knew it had to be my fault.”

Well, if I’m full of blame, then he’s full of excuses. He can find an excuse for anything.

“Is there a reason you threw the paper and wrappings all over the garage floor instead of just putting it in the garbage right here,” I’ll ask.

“The lawn mower was in front of the trash can. (Really? Why not push the mower over?)

“How come you didn’t ask if I wanted a little rice pudding, too?”

“Well, you looked pretty content.” (But why not ask?)

I think our little traits go way back to the Garden of Eden when we read God’s questions to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.

“Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?”

Excuse from the man: “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Where was your responsibility in putting your own mouth around that fruit?)

Then the Lord said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

Fault-finding from the woman: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Excuse me, but didn’t you pick the fruit and disobey what God said?)
It’s an age-old problem – laying blame and giving excuses. It started the day man and woman chose to sin. We see how mankind has been affected by those beginning days in the garden. In part, my husband and I joke about it in our marriage. But in serious situations, assigning blame or making excuses can have grave consequences. Learning to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand by admitting our mistakes and wrong behavior will bring healing and peace in our relationships. God will be pleased, too.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to take responsibility for my actions. Excusing my sin or blaming others is not pleasing to You. Give me humility and help me to recognize and admit my mistakes in order to create harmony and peace in my relationships.

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:2-3 NIV).

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