Your Life… Sharing the Sweet Gift

I’m not certain how it happened, but I am alert that a change is taking place in me. Following the good news that the fast-growing mass in my body was nothing more than a benign nuisance, I was certain I’d live with renewed speed toward the swift accomplishment of my goals and dreams. Instead, the news has produced a distinctly opposite effect. I’ve slowed down.  I’m actually capturing the hum of the hummingbird’s wings as she steadies over sweet nectar I actually took time to prepare for her. Instead of running my dogs daily, we adventure slowly down country roads; happy explorers. A tasty selection of inspiring novels has added delicious variety to my solitary diet of non-fiction, spiritual growth books. Like Bell in The Beauty and the Beast, I set out on long walks with book in hand, stepping into riveting worlds created by gifted authors.

Weekly message preparation has paused for a season, creating fruitful space with groups of women on hiking trails. In coffee shops we’ve poured courage into one another: the literal picture of encouragement. We re-read Ann Voskamp’s masterful work on gratitude, One Thousand Gifts, and began counting the gifts in our own lives. I’ve set an alarm to chime on the hour, not as a reminder of a meeting I need to run into, but rather as a steady reminder to catch the whispers of God’s love that blew off the dust of the mundane within the previous hour… that Love fuels me…creates something effortless within me.

“The busyness of life leaves little room for the Source of our life!”[i] I read these words and wonder: is this why I have reached the dusk of so many days, choked and complacent? But how, in our fast-paced, bulging-at-the-seams, piled-to-the-ceiling life, do we make room for our Source? Hmmm, this might sound counter-intuitive, but let’s experience a little guiltless space by recapturing 10 minutes – TODAY! Hit the pause button. Silence your cell phone.  Step outside… or find that one clean spot in our home. Slip away from the clutter, the chaos. Kneel before Majesty. Inhale the calming security of His indisputable love for you. Remain silent and simply tune your ear to capture His heart: You are my dearly Beloved! I am here! You are not alone! Exhale all that oxygen-sucking worry that accuses God of neglect.  Then…allow yourself to re-awaken to His gifts: Enjoy the cricket’s evening sonnet; the bright glow of the moon, the calming rustle of the wind in the aspens, the glorious sparkle in a child’s discovering eyes. If you’re married, drink in the lovely drum of your husband’s voice as he shares this thing called ‘life’ with you. Give yourself permission to thrill at the sensation of his hand in your own…These. These are all gifts. Glorious gifts.

Summer will soon come to an end. Before it does, may I challenge you to make a conscientious decision to drink deeply of the life-gift you’ve received? Seek out a nearby garden and you just might enjoy the comical nature of the bumble bee. The actions of this bumbling tutor quietly instruct. She offers many lessons for those of us in search of a fruitful life.

Content to sip the sweet nectar before her, I discovered she wasn’t threatened by my company as I worked beside her, fixed on my own mission to extract the choking weeds surrounding her food source. She bounced gently from flower to flower, sharing glory-dust to enhance future blossoms.   She didn’t appear anxious like the swarming wasps that have built global fortresses around the rafters of my home. They dive and dart fiercely, in their never-ending, greedy attempt to stake claim to what belongs to others. Their only joy lies in destroying summer picnics and interrupting outdoor recreation. But the bumble-bee…she is relaxed and content with her God-given role: drink in sweetness and conceive something sweet.

Have we been given this same gift? Drink in sweetness in the beauty of God’s presence and witness the flow of something sweet through our lives!  Collect the glory-dust of His promises and sprinkle beauty within our own realm of influence!

Question: When and where could you slow down today and drink in the sweet nectar of God’s love toward you?

Challenge: The by-product of that carved space will be something sweet to share.  We pour courage into those around us through a listening ear, a timely praise, a gentle touch. Create an opportunity today to pour sweet courage into the life of someone you love!  Sweet honey! Try it again tomorrow…and the next day…

Anchor of Hope:  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV)

 

 

[i] Voskamp, Ann. One Thousand Gifts (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010)