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Not What I Think The Are

             And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

This is my Battle Bible verse for today. When I got home from Florida, my desktop computer crashed. I got it back yesterday but can’t find some files (especially my organizer files – my contacts, my to do list, my schedule. Basically, I’ve lost my mind.) A few weeks ago, Google decided that my author’s profile was my primary profile. That wasn’t so bad – two clicks and I was back to my primary profile. This morning, those two clicks take me to a new window, and the same place I was before I clicked twice.

Some folks might say, “no big deal.” But if their car stopped working, or their microwave or some other piece of equipment they use for their work, they might better understand my perspective. Fortunately, with both a desktop and a laptop, I can limp along, switching to the laptop when the desktop doesn’t work. But it’s frustrating. I want my tools to function properly!

But as I look at today’s passage, I have to grind my teeth a little. God will meet all my needs. Well, between the two computers, all my computer needs are met. They just aren’t met the way I want them to be. What I want God to do is miraculously make find my data and straighten out the issues.

Over the last week, I listened to all four gospels and the book of Acts. Have you ever noticed that little is ever said about Jesus procuring food or earning money? In fact, He advises against our focusing on these. Instead, we should be seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. So the reality that makes me grind my teeth is that what I need from God is not for my data to be found or my issues to be resolved, but for me to turn to Him, trust Him, grow to be like Him. My need is to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love my neighbor as myself – which requires that I show patience to everything and everyone that is getting in the way of my computers doing what I want them to (including me!) And I find myself thinking along the lines of wisdom, direction, attitude, creativity, courage, and vision.

With respect to the little problem of my organizer – as a friend would put it – I have a chance to reframe the issue. I have an opportunity to re-evaluate how I have thought about life. There were categories of activities that I didn’t use, and categories that I did use, but the tasks could just as easily have been put into a different category. They tended to be grouped into types of tasks, rather than purposes of the tasks or on the importance of the tasks. At the same time, I suspect that if “Love God” were a category, nothing I do would get assigned to it. Neither would it help (I suspect) to put things into categories of wisdom, direction, attitude, creativity, courage, and vision. But the lack of wisdom, direction, vision, and creative answers means that this is a place of both opportunity and growth, and that brings me back to my need for patience. Ultimately, the answer may not matter. I can put something in the category of “home and garden” or in “creativity” or something else. But the answer isn’t the key – the key is in the meditation on what is important and why.

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