Cooling My Jets

Hello all you fellow humans who are locked up at the moment!

 

Here in Australia, the rules seem a bit Draconian. Like, if you're over 65, you’re only ‘allowed out of your home’ to seek medical help, pick up a few groceries and get a modicum of outdoor exercise. And of course, all that is provided we engage in “social distancing”.

 

I didn’t think we'd be GLAD that Tony must go to the hospital every working day, but it does give us a reason to get out of bed and put on some clean clothes. As I mentioned last week, we are ‘living’ for that little time out.  But as the weeks progress, and things are clamping down tighter, we’re not sure how many “lateral activities” we’ll be able to include while we’re out, or for how long.   

 

Our children are careful to monitor just how much fun we have on the going and the coming, and we’re trying to obey……just. I think I’m thankful that they’re all so caring.  

 

We’re relieved that we bought a treadmill when Tony first got sick, so we have that to keep us somewhat occupied. We are still losing weight and still on the plant based diet, but our victories are beginning to be a bit microscopic. 

  

And on that note, I’ve been listening to my other favorite preacher, Ravi Zacharias.  He makes me think, which is hard when you’re on a treadmill.   

The other day he made an interesting comment in a sermon, filmed 6 months ago before all this crazy started.  He said, “I’m was born a Hindi Indian, and I know several languages.  I think it’s interesting that in ALL of them, we use the phrase, “Time is walking”, or “The Clock is walking.”  Only in English is the phrase, “The clock is running” or “Time is flying”.  

There, pounding it out as I walked, something akin to wonder came over me and he was able to help me verbalize what I’ve been feeling these past few weeks.  I wasn’t born in India, I was born and raised in a post-depression household where both of my parents had to work to realize the Great American Dream.  Paramount to that was hard work and the general feeling that “Time was of the essence”.

As a result, Although I might consider myself lazy, it’s possible that I have way too much …….. What shall we call it? White middle class ambition?

… and now here I am.  I’m even thinking of taking the “No Junk Mail” sign off of our mailbox, I’m that bored. To top that off, I’m guilt-ridden that my ‘procrastination list’ is growing.  

 

But wait, didn’t we just challenge each other last week to PRAY for things that don’t involve us?  Yes, I’m happy to say that this week has been absolutely FULL of prayer requests from all over the world. You remember I asked for prayer for our Missionary kids running the Angola hospital?   Good news is that the government let a guy travel down and get their generator fixed.  Now they’re getting back to ‘normal’, which still is very understaffed and needy, but they’re settling in well.  The OBGYN wife even safely delivered a healthy set of triplets! 

 

How about other new prayer concerns from all over the world?  You just tell God you’re open for business and you’ll have a LOT to pray about!  

 

I just had a nice phone call from three grand boys who have just been on a ‘nature walk’. We will look back on these days and realize that they may have changed our lives.  

I need (and maybe you) need to stop fretting about the lack of activity.  Stop blaming myself that seemingly nothing got accomplished today, and instead of that, just let go, get into some relaxing times with our Creator, and let it happen.  I’m going to try that this week.

Next week I’m going to work hard and to tell you something besides how pathetic we are. Maybe it’ll be a story from days gone by, who knows!  I do know that our  God is at work in all of this and we can make it!! 

As always,

Marsha