Can I Help You With That?

Around Labor Day this year my husband decided to pour a concrete slab for a partial basketball court for our boys. I have accumulated many funny-concrete-pouring stories over the past twenty-plus years. I will spare you those.

On this particular concrete pour our good friend who is a rock mason, and experienced in pouring concrete, came to help my husband. Our friend brought his three youngest children with him; the littlest is his only girl.

After the cement truck came and went I went inside to straighten up my kitchen. Our friend's little girl followed me in shortly thereafter. As I was scurrying around my kitchen I started to unload a grocery sack that was lying on the floor that had cans of chili in it.

“Can I help you with that?” She asked. Wow; six simple yet powerful words! I was elated  with her offer of help.

I wonder how many times I've missed out on an opportunity to help someone else because I was too busy, or too wrapped up in my own stuff? Or because I was being selfish with my time and talent? Or because I was frozen in my tracks with fear of not ‘doing it right’?

I wonder how many times I have passed on help from my Heavenly Father because I didn’t avail myself of His help.

My latest word fascination is with the word incline. As in He inclines His ear to us when we ask Him for help. I ran across the word incline in a Psalm the other night.

Incline your ear to me

rescue me speedily!

Be a rock of refuge for me,

A strong fortress to save me!

Psalm 31:2 (ESV)

In another version:

Get down on my level and listen,

And please-no procrastination!

Your granite cave a hiding place,

Your high cliff aerie a place of safety.

(The Message 31:1-2)

There are several different Hebrew words used in the Old Testament for our English word incline. Most of them include common definitions. Words such as to be drawn, to hear, to be attentive, heed, to pay attention, to stretch out, extend, to bend down, to bend, and to bow.

I get the mental picture of a benevolent Father with a small child bending down to get on eye level or bending gently to pick up a child that needs comforted.

I think all too often we see God only seated on the Throne in His Sovereignty and not inclined towards us in His love.

There is one instance of incline used in the Greek in the New Testament that stands out and overwhelms me beyond words and beyond tears.

After he took the wine, Jesus said,

"It's done . . . complete."

Bowing his head, he offered up his spirit.

John 19:30 (MSG)

This was the ultimate act of God inclining, bending, and bowing towards humankind. May I ever be aware of His desire to bend towards me everyday of my life. 

Cursing at Pie Crust and Other Things I Don’t Want You to Know I Do.

First of all let me apologize to my church ‘Aunties’. Well, and probably my mother too, but she’s used to me by now.

Every time I make an apple pie with homemade crust I think I should be given an award for the ugliest-best-tasting pie! I have never gotten the knack for rolling pie plate shaped crusts that don’t fall apart on transfer from cutting board to pie plate. (I have since learned they need to go in the fridge for five to ten minutes.)

So the other day as I was transferring the latest ugly crust to the pie plate and it fell into a million pieces in the space between the cutting board and the pie plate I said a word you definitely can’t say from the platform at church. Well you could but… ya, no.

I thought what would your church Aunties think about that? Well after they got over their shock they would probably say nice mouth DenaRae and love me anyways. Not that they would condone the language. Neither do I to tell you the truth, but hopefully they’d go home and pray that I’d stop cussing because honestly I’m trying to. But it is a habit a long time in the making.

I remember one occasion when I still had my driver’s permit and someone cut me off in traffic. I let loose with a hand gesture and a string of four letter words…and then I remembered my mom was in the car. “DenaRae young ladies don’t act like that and they don’t talk like that!” was all she said. It’s probably a good thing my dad wasn’t in the car.

What’s my point why am I telling you all this? There are days I am so frustrated with where I am in the process of my life. I’m not just talking about cursing at the pie crust either. There are many facets of my life where I can see where I want to be, yet I feel as if I am perpetually stuck on level 33 in Candy Crush not able to clear the required jellies to get to the next level. Somehow I don’t think I am alone.

So today I choose to trust His process of who I am becoming. The woman He designed me to be. 

Pliable…

Sometimes I wonder if there is something wrong with my comprehension skills. I can be in situations and only realize the enormity of them at a later time.

Most recently this happened when I was the sub for a teacher’s assistant at an elementary school. It was story time for what felt like a multitude of wiggly kindergarteners seated on the floor in front of me.

The story was about a little girl with super-curly super-long blonde hair that seemed to make an entrance into rooms before she did. As I was half way through the story one little girl raised her hand. I called on her because I thought she wanted to say something about the main character of the story.

Instead she said this: “When my mom gets out of jail she’s going to take me to the store to buy gum and candy…” And I think the end of her sentence was “and all sorts of stuff.” But I was so stunned I went numb and didn’t really hear the rest of her sentence.

What do you do with that? I meaning really. I was so taken aback all I could do was redirect her attention back to the story. When I got home that night I said something to Doug. It about killed him.

I feel so deeply for this little girl, and I feel deeply for her momma as well. It is nobody’s Plan A, nobody’s life long dream to be sitting in a jail cell promising their child a trip to the store to buy candy upon their release. The cycle for this momma probably goes mess up, guilt, shame, mess up, wash, rinse repeat.

As I walk this stretch of my life my heart breaks and I’ve had an epiphany. I have spent so much time being frustrated and not understanding why what I’ve had planned didn’t work out the way I thought it should, or the way I’ve wanted…Nicaragua, my writing and speaking, and working for the school being prime examples… I haven’t seen His hand maneuvering me to where I need to be. I have walked a path to make me who I am and I haven’t understood the ecclesiastical to everything there is a season and how it applies to my life.

I am starting to see what He is doing in me is opening my eyes to the hurt in people so I can be His hand extended. Whether it is to a single mother in the hills of Nicaragua, or to a woman who is ministered to by something I said or wrote, or to a kindergartner who needs kindness poured out on her to help her through her day.

I need to be pliable so when God closes a door I can recognize the window He has flung open for me to jump through. I need to be pliable so He can use me where He wants me to be, so when He whispers move over here I move! I need to be pliable, flexible and willing to go the places He has planned for me. This is so not me. So not my comfort zone.

I realize I not only need to become more pliable I need a deeper understanding of the word reassignment.