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For the past several years I have enjoyed a green smoothie for breakfast a few times a week. My daughter-in-law got me started on these when Tom and I were trying to get geared up for our hiking adventures at Big Bend. I call it a "green" smoothie because of the two cups of spinach I cram in there, but in all reality it's more purple, because I also add a hefty amount of blueberries into the mix.
Yesterday, as per my custom, I got out the blender and all the lovely ingredients. I grabbed the bag of blueberries from the freezer and whipped one up. (I go through so many berries each week that I started buying the frozen ones in bulk at Sam's... a four pound bag for less than ten bucks... can't beat that!) When I went to put the bag back in the freezer however, I hadn't noticed that the seal on the re-sealable bag hadn't closed all the way. In order to fit this gargantuan bag in my small freezer I have to lay it on its side... and when I did...
Yep. Little purple marbles pouring out of the freezer onto the floor and rolling like crazy to the four corners! I just stood there for a second. Has that ever happened to you? You're just immobile, totally rigid, watching the havoc unfold. Then it hit me. Frozen blueberries thaw almost instantly at room temp. These babies were gonna be mushy, purple puddles... EVERYWHERE if I didn't get on the stick and get 'em up ASAP!!
I grabbed my broom and went to town sweeping them into a pile, or I should say, trying to. The more I swept, the more they rolled, leaving little purple streaks all across the kitchen and dining room floors. Ugh! When it came to getting them out from under the fridge and stove, the broom wasn't gonna cut it, so I used a yardstick instead. That must've been a sight! Me, prostrate on the floor, face against the fridge grill, flashlight in my mouth, frantically windshield-wiping the berries out the sides. I'm sorry you missed it :)
After about forty-five minutes sweeping, waving, scrubbing, and wiping up all the purple goo... the ordeal was over. I had lost approximately five bucks worth and two pounds of blueberries and gained a free, and totally rad, purple streak in my hair on the floor side! Ahhh. Life. Sometimes it's all... breakfast as usual, and other times it's... berries All. Ovah. Tha. Place!
There's gotta be a metaphor for life somewhere in there.
One minute you're coasting along. You've got it all together. Things couldn't be more grand. And then... BAM! The bag bursts open and your life is in pieces all over the floor! What do we do when that happens? Let's take a moment to weigh our options.
On the one hand, we could freeze. We could let disappointment paralyze us. We could waste valuable time thinking about all the could haves, and the should haves. We could bemoan what's been lost... and we could stop there. That, however, wouldn't do us much good in and of itself, would it?
Perhaps option two would be better. We could fly immediately into action. We could immerse ourselves in the busy-ness of tidying up. We could mop up or sweep under the rug all the hurt, all the pain. We could sanitize everything, including our feelings, put on a brave face, and pretend like nothing ever happened. Not so sure that's a great choice either.
I think option three might be the trick. We could pause. We could pray. We could ask the Almighty to help us take stock of the situation. We could ask Him to move us from the place of disabling fear and discouragement to a place of forward motion. We could ask Him to help us glean what lessons we can from the past, and then trust Him to help us clean up the mess, pick up the pieces, and move us, one-step-at-a-time, into a brighter future.
Life can throw us for a real loop sometimes. This year has been hard, harder than I suspect any of us could have imagined on New Year's Eve 2019. Life was coasting along. Days were pretty much typical. The future looked bright. We rang in the new year with eager anticipation it would be all that it implied... new, fresh... good. It was breakfast as usual, until it wasn't.
People have suffered unimaginable losses in so many ways. Jobs. Life savings. Health. Homes. Loved ones. Peace of mind. This year has felt like a colossal bursting of the bag with fallout spreading to the four corners. What are we to do? Well, first off, we can pray. I was reading in the book of Joshua the other day, Chapter 10. The Israelites were moving into the promised land as God commanded them, driving out and defeating their enemies at God's direction. They had just defeated Jericho. Now the people were facing the Amorites. Permit me to recount those verses here:
"v. 12-13 At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, 'Sun stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.' And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day."
I was blown away by the the Lutheran Study Bible notes pertaining to these verses. Here is what it said in part: "In Scripture there are more evidences of this kind; they prove that God allows Himself to be prevailed upon.... Why, then, are we so remiss in regard to prayer? Why are we without faith to such an extent and so fainthearted, as though our prayer amounted to nothing?"
What are we to do? We can start with the most effectual thing. We can pray. When things fly out of our control, we can turn to the One who holds the universe in His hands, the One who commands the winds and the waves and bids the sun stop in its tracks. When life is uncertain, we can turn to the One who is constant, the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't mind that we show Him the spoiled, wasted pieces lying in puddles on the floor. He encourages us to lay that brokenness at His feet. He knows just what to do.
He grabs a rag. He stoops. He picks up the pieces and wipes up the mess. He reminds us that He loves us, that He still has a purpose for our lives, and that we needn't cry any more over spilled blueberries. He has a plan, to give us a hope and a future, and with Him, it WILL be new, fresh, and bright.
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