Today's blog was written from the heart of Cathy Harvey, Administrative Assistant to Shepherds College
I. Setting & Sin
I was rushing and I was
irritated. Trying to get out of the
house on time for work, my mind was multi-tasking to the hilt, spurred on by my
irritation with everyone in the house who didn’t pick up after themselves. The little foxes were eating the vine and they
were fueling my mood minute-by-rushed-minute.
Pride stepped in, gloating on how good and organized I was and why
couldn’t everyone else be like that? “It
is so easy,” I thought; “Would it kill you to take 3 seconds to put your shoes
away so we’re not tripping on them?”
Take 2 seconds to drop the dirty clothes in the hamper
instead of on the floor, “etc., etc., etc.”
I whisked through the house in my last ditch effort to get out the door
in time, snatching and tying up a bag of garbage to toss in the trash on my way
out to the car.
I was also energized by my latest art
project -- a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e -- Thanksgiving Day cards (in my humble
opinion-not!) that I was making and hoping to send. A wedge of pride slipped in there too, going
beyond thinking they were cute to puffing myself up in the fine details of
individually cut pumpkins, curled wires around the stems, hand drawn details
and a spiritual message on the inside, of course. I was so organized I had even written our
Christmas letter and had them copied, folded, and ready to include in the
cards. I had spent evenings making and
cutting all the pieces parts, and I decided to spend my lunch hour at work gluing
them together. I scooped up the cards, the
pumpkins I had stamped and cut-out with the curled wires, envelopes, scissors,
glue, & Christmas letters, and carefully, but oh so quickly, stuffed them
into a handy plastic bag of just the perfect size, and with a handle, thank
You, God! I dashed downstairs to grab my
jacket, lunch, purse, and keys, and scrambled out the door.
My arms were full so I hurriedly
stepped into the garage to toss the trash bag I had tied up. Without turning on the light, I barely had an
empty finger to push open the lid of the trash can before tossing it in. On to
work with all my “stuff” piled on the passenger’s seat, I daydreamed about my
lunch hour when I could craft to my heart’s content. And wasn’t everyone going to love those cards?!
With prideful thoughts bursting like pus out of infected wound, I carried on in
my mind unaware that “pride cometh before a fall.”
I was so excited I considered taking
my lunch at 10:00, but held off until 11:00 when I finally told my co-worker I
was going to lunch. Grabbing my lunch
bag, I looked for my craft bag, but I didn’t see it. Did I leave it in the car? Surely not, I was so excited about the whole
project, but I did have a lot of stuff to carry, maybe it was there. I ran out to the car but couldn’t find
it. I went back to my office and looked
again. Hmmm, no bag. I sat down and retraced
my steps and everything I had carried out to the car. I ran the Instant Replay tape in my mind: my
hands were full, the garage was dark, and I was hustling like a maniac to get
out the door to show everyone just how organized I could be without their help. Oh, noooo!
With a sinking feeling I realized that I had let go of my craft bag when
I tossed the trash—and it was trash day in our neighborhood!
I immediately called home to see if
the garbage men had come yet. Of course
they had, I knew they had, because in the split second of realizing what had
happened I heard His (God’s) still, small voice. It was so very clear. “So you think you’re better than everyone? So
organized and puffed up over yourself and your gift which I have given
you. I’ll show you what I can do. I will let you throw out your craft with your
own hand.”
II. Conviction & Remorse
I can’t really describe how utterly
smitten with conviction I was: guilt, shame, embarrassment, horror, remorse and
repentance all rolled into one devastating realization. I could hardly focus on
my work the rest of the day. All that
work, all the time, so hard to come by, thrown away—“by my own hand”!
I was remorsefully depressed for the
rest of the day.
III.
Forgiveness & Healing
But God— (I love that phrase)
But
God is a God of forgiveness—after the chastisement and consequences had
been served. I knew He was right. I felt His loving correction. It was swift, perfectly targeted, and
just. He spoke the truth in love to my
heart. So, I began to create the pieces
again, but with a new, humbled attitude.
A few days later I received an e-mail from a very dear friend of mine
who had introduced me to the Christ of the Gospels in high school. She wrote because she was giving up her
stamping craft. Would I like to come
over and see if there were any supplies I could use? Would I?
I had just received an unexpected Christmas check, so off I drove to her
house, several suburbs away.
III.
Reconciliation & Love Abundant
When I walked in she had craft
supplies covering her dining room table and floor of everything imaginable for
crafting cards! She had crafting tools I
didn’t even recognize. I was a little
overwhelmed at first, but she handed me a box and told me to fill it up! I started with the supplies I had thrown
away. God did not replace my supplies
item for item. For every thing I had
tossed, He replaced it many times over!
I had tossed one glue
stick. Nancy had unopened packages of glue sticks in
sets of 3 or 4. She told me to load up
with whatever I wanted! She had a
rainbow array of cardstock already cut to card size, stamp sets, colored
markers, doubled-sided tape, glue dots, glitter and much more. I was ecstatic! God had forgiven me and let me loose in an
art supply store with a credit card that had my name on it! I gave her my Christmas check and she gave me
two boxes filled to the brim to carry everything home. I’m sure it would have totaled more than my
check, but it was a win-win situation.
She was de-cluttering and gaining back time and space in her life for
other priorities, and I felt a little like Job who was given back many times
over what had been lost.
I think of this lesson every
time I sit down at my table to craft. It
was a good lesson.
“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at
www.shepherdscollege.edu.
