Reason #268
I always feel as if I could write forever on Sundays, as I am always challenged and encouraged each Sunday. I feel completely overwhelmed by God's love when I have the opportunity to spend time in His house each week. My Sunday afternoon tradition consists of calling my mom after lunch and telling her how amazing God is, how loved I feel by Him, and how He just consistently blows my mind with what He is teaching me. So I never really know how my posts are going to go on Sunday night. I never really know what I am going to blog because Sundays are always full days for me.
Well, tonight, I made a total and complete fool of myself. I had this incredible day full of amazing revelations, of nearly being moved to tears, and I gracefully managed to make a mess of myself. Now, I try to write each posts with some sort of vagueness. I do this for several reasons, but sometimes you just need to know the full details in order to understand my thoughts. God has been teaching me about redemption. I have learned many lessons over the past year, and each one has come in due time. He has been faithful to help me really learn one before beginning another one, and now we are smack dab in the middle of the subject of redemption. As some may or may not know, I entered back into the dating scene a few months ago. I have not mentioned this in its entirety, however, I've blogged quite a bit about it whether or not you realize it. So, you actually know more than you think you do. I mentioned a few posts back that God really speaks to me through others and has used various relationships to teach me. This one is no different. This has most definitely been a learning experience for me in many, many ways.
Tonight Aaron and I went to Starbucks. I have blogged many times about my obsession with chai lattes, and my tastebuds were fully set on enjoying one. It has been pretty cold this weekend, so I could not wait to sip some of that warm goodness. I waited in line forever only to find out that this particular Starbucks was out of chai. I don't like regular coffee so I had to make a split decision. As with most things in life, you have your favorites so it's really hard to pick something else that would match up. I settled on a different type of latte. I took a few sips and decided I would sweeten my drink up a bit before continuing on. What I didn't pay attention to was the fact that my lid was not firmly pressed back on to my cup. That's right, you know where I'm going with this. So, pretending to be cool like all of the other coffee drinkers present, I picked up my cup and began to take a long drink. It just so happened that Aaron decided to take this opportunity to look up at me. All of the sudden, his eyes began to open wider as did his mouth. I noticed this strange look on his face, coupled with the fact that my drink was taking too long to actually hit my tastebuds, and then I began to feel it. That's right. I was succesfully pouring a hot pumpkin spice latte directly onto myself. And I will add that it was coming at me with a vengance. My brain finally put two and two together, so I was able to stop the flow before I had emptied the entire cup into my lap. Not to worry, I was wearing black so there were no noticeable coffee stains on my clothes... just the smell... and the sticky-ness.
So I sat there totally in shock and not sure what to do. Really, it was quite funny but after I finished laughing, part of me just wanted to cry. What a disaster! I felt like such a nerd. Really, who does that? I am 25 years old, I should know how to drink from a cup by now. I was totally embarrassed and there was no way to hide what had just happened. I could not have played it off at all, so I didn't even try to. And of course, Aaron just had to witness me foolishly dumping my drink in my lap. I know all guys are impressed by that little act. I was just glad that I waited a few months into our relationship before humiliating myself. But, being the good boyfriend he is, he jumped right up and grabbed a stack full of napkins. He bent down and began wiping up the huge mess I had just made. He didn't laugh at me, he didn't berate me for making a ridiculous spectacle of myself in public. No, he just looked at me with sympathy and concern that I was now wearing my drink, did his absolute best to help clean up the mess I had created, and then he kindly offered to get me a new drink.
I didn't mean to pour my drink all over myself, I really didn't. I've never even done anything like that before, at least not in my adult years. This was a total accident. I was so embarrassed, so humiliated, and I felt completely vulnerable and slightly helpless. And I thought about how much I do this in life. How often I just make a total and complete mess. Some times, it's by accident. Some times, it's intentional. Some times, I don't even realize I'm doing it until it's too late. So I find myself sitting right in the middle of this mess completely paralyzed, totally caught off guard. And I don't know what to do. It's sticky, it's yucky, it's terribly humiliating and I just want to disappear into thin air. But God is so gracious to render aid each time. He stoops down and He begins to clean up the mess, my mess, the one I've created. He doesn't have to, it's my mess after all. I'm the responsible party. But He rolls His sleeves up and those nail pierced hands get to work. He doesn't take the opportunity to point out my faults, to laugh at me, to scold me or futher humiliate me. No, He pours out compassion fully realizing that's exactly what I need in that moment. And even though I just want to sit and cry, His grace begins to comfort me and I realize that it's going to be okay. Sure, my ego may be hurt a little, my pride slightly bruised, but He's there to take care of the situation. And so it gets cleaned up as if it never happened. He lovingly wipes away the stains as if they didn't exist and it's done. Taken care of, once again.
So I'm thankful to serve a God who isn't afraid of messes. A God who will get right in there with us and clean it up. I'm thankful that no mess is too big, too scary, too gross for Him to handle. And I'm grateful that He selflessly takes care of it with grace and compassion each and every time.
#268 - Because He selflessly bends down and cleans up our messes all the while offering grace and compassion.
"The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation." - Psalm 145:9
Well, tonight, I made a total and complete fool of myself. I had this incredible day full of amazing revelations, of nearly being moved to tears, and I gracefully managed to make a mess of myself. Now, I try to write each posts with some sort of vagueness. I do this for several reasons, but sometimes you just need to know the full details in order to understand my thoughts. God has been teaching me about redemption. I have learned many lessons over the past year, and each one has come in due time. He has been faithful to help me really learn one before beginning another one, and now we are smack dab in the middle of the subject of redemption. As some may or may not know, I entered back into the dating scene a few months ago. I have not mentioned this in its entirety, however, I've blogged quite a bit about it whether or not you realize it. So, you actually know more than you think you do. I mentioned a few posts back that God really speaks to me through others and has used various relationships to teach me. This one is no different. This has most definitely been a learning experience for me in many, many ways.
Tonight Aaron and I went to Starbucks. I have blogged many times about my obsession with chai lattes, and my tastebuds were fully set on enjoying one. It has been pretty cold this weekend, so I could not wait to sip some of that warm goodness. I waited in line forever only to find out that this particular Starbucks was out of chai. I don't like regular coffee so I had to make a split decision. As with most things in life, you have your favorites so it's really hard to pick something else that would match up. I settled on a different type of latte. I took a few sips and decided I would sweeten my drink up a bit before continuing on. What I didn't pay attention to was the fact that my lid was not firmly pressed back on to my cup. That's right, you know where I'm going with this. So, pretending to be cool like all of the other coffee drinkers present, I picked up my cup and began to take a long drink. It just so happened that Aaron decided to take this opportunity to look up at me. All of the sudden, his eyes began to open wider as did his mouth. I noticed this strange look on his face, coupled with the fact that my drink was taking too long to actually hit my tastebuds, and then I began to feel it. That's right. I was succesfully pouring a hot pumpkin spice latte directly onto myself. And I will add that it was coming at me with a vengance. My brain finally put two and two together, so I was able to stop the flow before I had emptied the entire cup into my lap. Not to worry, I was wearing black so there were no noticeable coffee stains on my clothes... just the smell... and the sticky-ness.
So I sat there totally in shock and not sure what to do. Really, it was quite funny but after I finished laughing, part of me just wanted to cry. What a disaster! I felt like such a nerd. Really, who does that? I am 25 years old, I should know how to drink from a cup by now. I was totally embarrassed and there was no way to hide what had just happened. I could not have played it off at all, so I didn't even try to. And of course, Aaron just had to witness me foolishly dumping my drink in my lap. I know all guys are impressed by that little act. I was just glad that I waited a few months into our relationship before humiliating myself. But, being the good boyfriend he is, he jumped right up and grabbed a stack full of napkins. He bent down and began wiping up the huge mess I had just made. He didn't laugh at me, he didn't berate me for making a ridiculous spectacle of myself in public. No, he just looked at me with sympathy and concern that I was now wearing my drink, did his absolute best to help clean up the mess I had created, and then he kindly offered to get me a new drink.
I didn't mean to pour my drink all over myself, I really didn't. I've never even done anything like that before, at least not in my adult years. This was a total accident. I was so embarrassed, so humiliated, and I felt completely vulnerable and slightly helpless. And I thought about how much I do this in life. How often I just make a total and complete mess. Some times, it's by accident. Some times, it's intentional. Some times, I don't even realize I'm doing it until it's too late. So I find myself sitting right in the middle of this mess completely paralyzed, totally caught off guard. And I don't know what to do. It's sticky, it's yucky, it's terribly humiliating and I just want to disappear into thin air. But God is so gracious to render aid each time. He stoops down and He begins to clean up the mess, my mess, the one I've created. He doesn't have to, it's my mess after all. I'm the responsible party. But He rolls His sleeves up and those nail pierced hands get to work. He doesn't take the opportunity to point out my faults, to laugh at me, to scold me or futher humiliate me. No, He pours out compassion fully realizing that's exactly what I need in that moment. And even though I just want to sit and cry, His grace begins to comfort me and I realize that it's going to be okay. Sure, my ego may be hurt a little, my pride slightly bruised, but He's there to take care of the situation. And so it gets cleaned up as if it never happened. He lovingly wipes away the stains as if they didn't exist and it's done. Taken care of, once again.
So I'm thankful to serve a God who isn't afraid of messes. A God who will get right in there with us and clean it up. I'm thankful that no mess is too big, too scary, too gross for Him to handle. And I'm grateful that He selflessly takes care of it with grace and compassion each and every time.
#268 - Because He selflessly bends down and cleans up our messes all the while offering grace and compassion.
"The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation." - Psalm 145:9