I've heard it said, "women are like spaghetti". This is referencing the complex thought patterns in which many strands can become intertwined and one original thought could actually lead down many different paths. Given enough time with many twists and turns the thought processes will arrive somewhere but this somewhere could and most probably will be at an entirely different place than one might expect.
With much discipline and training one might actually be able to follow the thought from start to finish.
Many give up.
Others see the the tangled web and run for shelter.
I recently tried to unearth a single strand - all the way from start to finish. It took many turns. I got confused along the way but here's where I'm at.
As I was gliding somewhere among the clouds - Flight 4783 to Charlotte, I looked out the window and there was the moon. Like right there, really bright too. I'm sure God put that moon there, just for me. Then I saw puffy white clouds, I really love puffy white clouds and I'm pretty sure God put those there just for me too. Then as the we hit what had looked like a puffy white cloud and things got real cloudy and we started bouncing and rocking, I wondered if God put that cloud there just for me too?
We broke through the clouds and I looked down. Way down below were lights. Hundreds of lights. No, Thousands of lights. I began to think of the hundreds and thousands of people those lights represented and I began to wonder if perhaps God made the moon and the clouds for them too. And then I began to wonder about the lives of the hundreds below me. Did they know about the God who made the moon and clouds? Had anyone ever told them?
(here is where the strands of spaghetti get hard to follow)
One strand - leads down a path of near anger. I live in a country with hundreds of churches and there's still this possibility that some of those people represented by the lights might not have heard about Jesus. I remembered a time when I sat listening to the speaker at church as he told us how we don't have to go to the Third World countries to find the poor. It made me kinda mad because...
But wait....wrong spaghetti strand.
Another strand - takes me back a few years. It was my first time in China. We traveled out into the country, up into the mountains and were spending some time among Tibetan people. It was a day that impacted my life - at least for a short time. Apparently recently I've forgotten - but that's another strand, or around a different bend.
That day as I saw the prayer flags flying across the valley - I don't know how they managed to string them up the whole way across between the mountains but they did it. I saw the people spinning their prayer wheels - but what affected me the most was the group of men who were carving their prayers into rock.
Here in the mountains lived an amazing group of people desperate for their prayers to reach the spirits. Here in the mountains lived a group of people doing all that they knew to communicate with the gods. They needed only one thing.
JESUS.
They probably had never heard of Jesus.
And there was I. Before I was born I had people praying for me. From the day of my birth I've had people telling me about Jesus.
How is this even fair???!!
I remember mentioning to my friends how I had been taught of Jesus all of my life and here were people who had never heard. I remember carrying a picture of those guys carving their prayers into stone in my Bible. I remembered...for awhile. And then I basically forgot.
Another strand - led me to think of Hotel Rwanda.
But wait ...I think this was leading somewhere.
Flight 4783.
The moon.
The clouds.
The lights.
The people.
JESUS.
Then there is Luke 12.
"To whom much is given much will be expected."
Right now I can't think of anyone who been given more than me, and I'm convicted by the fact that lately I have focused on things I thought I didn't have and completely forgot how much I've been given.
What would God have me to do with all that I've been given?
You know what. This started with admiring the moon, it's gone from here to there and back again and I've still not arrived.
OR I'm possibly arriving at a place that's a little bit scary and could require something of me.
I'm beginning to see a tangled web.
I think I'll run for shelter!
With much discipline and training one might actually be able to follow the thought from start to finish.
Many give up.
Others see the the tangled web and run for shelter.
I recently tried to unearth a single strand - all the way from start to finish. It took many turns. I got confused along the way but here's where I'm at.
As I was gliding somewhere among the clouds - Flight 4783 to Charlotte, I looked out the window and there was the moon. Like right there, really bright too. I'm sure God put that moon there, just for me. Then I saw puffy white clouds, I really love puffy white clouds and I'm pretty sure God put those there just for me too. Then as the we hit what had looked like a puffy white cloud and things got real cloudy and we started bouncing and rocking, I wondered if God put that cloud there just for me too?
We broke through the clouds and I looked down. Way down below were lights. Hundreds of lights. No, Thousands of lights. I began to think of the hundreds and thousands of people those lights represented and I began to wonder if perhaps God made the moon and the clouds for them too. And then I began to wonder about the lives of the hundreds below me. Did they know about the God who made the moon and clouds? Had anyone ever told them?
(here is where the strands of spaghetti get hard to follow)
One strand - leads down a path of near anger. I live in a country with hundreds of churches and there's still this possibility that some of those people represented by the lights might not have heard about Jesus. I remembered a time when I sat listening to the speaker at church as he told us how we don't have to go to the Third World countries to find the poor. It made me kinda mad because...
But wait....wrong spaghetti strand.
Another strand - takes me back a few years. It was my first time in China. We traveled out into the country, up into the mountains and were spending some time among Tibetan people. It was a day that impacted my life - at least for a short time. Apparently recently I've forgotten - but that's another strand, or around a different bend.
That day as I saw the prayer flags flying across the valley - I don't know how they managed to string them up the whole way across between the mountains but they did it. I saw the people spinning their prayer wheels - but what affected me the most was the group of men who were carving their prayers into rock.
Here in the mountains lived an amazing group of people desperate for their prayers to reach the spirits. Here in the mountains lived a group of people doing all that they knew to communicate with the gods. They needed only one thing.
JESUS.
They probably had never heard of Jesus.
And there was I. Before I was born I had people praying for me. From the day of my birth I've had people telling me about Jesus.
How is this even fair???!!
I remember mentioning to my friends how I had been taught of Jesus all of my life and here were people who had never heard. I remember carrying a picture of those guys carving their prayers into stone in my Bible. I remembered...for awhile. And then I basically forgot.
Another strand - led me to think of Hotel Rwanda.
But wait ...I think this was leading somewhere.
Flight 4783.
The moon.
The clouds.
The lights.
The people.
JESUS.
Then there is Luke 12.
"To whom much is given much will be expected."
Right now I can't think of anyone who been given more than me, and I'm convicted by the fact that lately I have focused on things I thought I didn't have and completely forgot how much I've been given.
What would God have me to do with all that I've been given?
You know what. This started with admiring the moon, it's gone from here to there and back again and I've still not arrived.
OR I'm possibly arriving at a place that's a little bit scary and could require something of me.
I'm beginning to see a tangled web.
I think I'll run for shelter!
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