Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Dear Jack

Re: Replacement Windows

Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with those expensive, double-pane energy-efficient kind.

Yesterday, I got a call from the contractor who installed them. He was complaining that the windows had been installed a whole year ago and I had not paid for them yet.

Hellloooo?

Now just because I'm blonde doesn't mean that I am automatically stupid.

So I told him just exactly what his fast-talking sales guy had told ME last year ...namely, that in just ONE YEAR these windows would pay for themselves! Helllooooo'? (I told him). It's been a year!!!

There was only silence at the other end of the line, so I finally just hung up....

He hasn't called back, probably too embarrassed about forgetting the guarantee they made me.

Bet he won't underestimate a blonde anymore.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Giving up "Isaac"

Genesis 22:1-18


"Often what you offer God is not what He wants. He usually wants that which you dread giving Him. It is Isaac, the well beloved, that He wants you to give up. What He is after is what comes between you and Him. He will not rest, and neither will you, I might add, until you have given Him everything. If you want to prosper and enjoy God's blessing, don't hold anything back from Him. What comfort, freedom and strength there is when nothing stands between you and God." - Fenelon

We are almost at the day of transition. The guys are moving to Chicago this August 01. Bittersweet - I find myself excited one moment and in tears the next. How I look forward to hearing of their journey ahead, how I long for the steps taken so many years ago. When I hold their hand, I am amazed at the strength, the shape, size while remembering how all four fingers and a thumb would wrap around my little finger. How did all those years go by so quickly........

And it is when I am trying to hold on that God speaks into my ear and whispers, "Isaac". In my loving them so much, I also placed much of my self-worth as a mom. Not just a mom, but a mommy. There are mothers, moms and mommies in this world - just as there are fathers, dads and daddies - I am a mommy. And as they are leaving - I am wondering - what and whose am I.

So often, I have/am placing my worth in my role as a wife, a mommy, a business owner, even as a Christian. I am taking these "roles" and creating my "Isaac". Only when I give Him my Isaac am I able to be one with Him. To see that what/whose I am is His.

And that is all this dot of my life is about. ________.____________________________
After the dot comes eternity - with Him. Why would I want to put "Isaac" between Him and me in this dot - to risk my place with Him forever. Why would I want "Isaac" as my self-worth, when "Isaac" will be no more, but He has/is/always will be.

So I put before Him my "Isaac". Each and every day. Sometimes frequently throughout a day. It is sometimes hard to trust that there is better than my "Isaac". That I won't be completely empty - that He will and has filled that spot. Looking back, I see that when I have given up my "Isaac" - I am then focused on His face.

Focused on His face - A face that words can not describe - a "true Isaac".