I have absolutely no idea what this is called. All I know is that this morning seeing this brought joy to my heart. Well, maybe not joy, but happiness for sure. You will notice that one side of this dirt road now looks brand new. And that means goodbye potholes that try to eat my car and hurt my bladder. Apparently friends, when you live on a dirt road these are the things that you get excited about in life. What is happening to me? This also probably means it’s time to start running outside again since I can no longer use avoiding ‘death by pothole’ as an excuse.
I had some Amish peaches I was going to open this evening. A friend had given them to me and I decided to break into them tonight. Expect... I couldn't break into them. I couldn’t get the jar open. And I tried. Hard. Like a really valiant attempt, you guys. And I’m not a weakling. I can put some muscle behind things. This jar got the best of me tonight though. And so I went for these instead. Probably not the best choice I’ve ever made but you win some you lose some, I suppose. Now... I really need to start running. The peaches, however, will be an office competition tomorrow of which male that I work with can muscle open this jar. Of course, it will obviously be because I loosened it up for them first.
And I don't want to brag… but I think I might be the chicken whisperer. I basically just scored the lottery in chicken eggs over here. Just sayin’.
I got to get meet up with a friend today. And let’s just pause for a moment and thank the Lord that restaurants are back open. There is just something about sitting across from someone over coffee or food and just being able to talk. It does my heart so good. And this wasn’t just any friend. This friendship has a pretty cool story behind it.
I’ve prayed for a lot of things in the last year. Some the Lord has answered. Some he hasn’t. And some are still a work in progress. And man did I struggle through prayer. Like deeply struggled. Like sitting on my bed sobbing, asking the Lord to show me that He uses prayer struggled. And he did, friends, in a way I could never have imagined. If you haven’t had a chance to hear my story on that one I’ll share it in the days to come.
One of those prayers that the Lord answered involved a friendship that I never expected and that truthfully seemed impossible given the turn of events in my life. For the last year I have been in the habit of carrying around a prayer sheet in my back pocket. I have a lot of verses on here, specific requests, personal things, and a list of other people. When I’m struggling with anxiety or overwhelmed with the current state of my life, I’ll pull this paper out and pray through it. Every few weeks I’d redo it and add the old one to my pile. It's a pretty cool pile to look back at. Although confession, a few of them definitely ended up in the laundry. Ooops.
At the beginning of January, I sat down and redid my whole prayer sheet. And on January 1st, I added a specific request regarding this one particular person. I started praying that I would have an opportunity to get to know her. There really was no reason for me to start praying this... She lived an hour and a half away from me and I hadn’t seen her since August. We exchanged texts once in November, but for some reason the Lord led me to start praying this in January. And so I did.
Three weeks later I made plans to meet a different out-of-town friend. And... I bet you can’t guess who else showed up on this day. The Lord literally brought this person I had been praying for right to me.
And it gets even sweeter.
The three of us ended up meeting up again the next week. I was just going to hang out for the morning and then head back to work. But they asked me to come with them to drop off the other friend at an office for what was supposed to be a quick appointment. Sounded like a plan to me.
Three hours later, we were still waiting in the car.
Three hours.
Three hours, you guys!
This person who I had started praying for at the beginning of January that I would get an opportunity to get to know, the Lord literally put us in a car together for three hours. I can't type that without smiling. Because….
Can you guess what’s coming next?
God is Good.
Today as we sat down for lunch I had the chance to share with this friend this story. She had no idea what I had prayed. She had no idea how the Lord had shown himself to me in allowing us to reconnect. And as I got to clue her into the other side of the story, I think we both sat there with tears in our eyes.
Friends, I have so many questions in life right now. So many uncertainties. So many prayers, and desires, and hopes, and dreams. I’m taking small steps forward trying hard to navigate through it all and faithfully follow the Lord in it. I doubt and I struggle a lot. But when I look back at prayers and moments like these, I’m left in awe. I’m so incredibly humbled at how big our God is and how intricately he works in our lives. Even if it doesn’t quite go how we think or anticipate.
Now if you’ll excuse me, apparently I have to go fill out a march madness bracket. I think that’s for basketball, right?
I’m kidding I know it’s for basketball.
But the real question is... how do I decided what team to pick to win each round this year? Best team mascot? Best team colors? Maybe I’ll shake things up a bit and go with which state I’d rather live in. I’ll let you know tomorrow what I settled on!