Under Construction

If you live in Bristol, or have visited my end of our fair city these last few-make that several months, you have to have noticed the massive construction project underway. My friends and I have started taking bets as to which road will be closed with no warning on what day. It sure has been a headache! No matter which way you turn, you will find a delay.

I cannot tell you how much of a trial it has been. Never mind that the streets are soooo torn up, it feels like I am navigating the back roads of Maine on most of them. Delays, huge aggravation, and ridiculous road conditions.

Isn't that just like life? More delays and problems than you can count, it seems? One long annoyance... and in my neighborhood, noisy, at that.. : D

Unless you can see the big picture, you can miss any good that come out of all this aggravation.

Let me digress for one moment.. Well, I will, anyway, because it's my blog, and I can't hear your silent pleas for mercy... : P

A month or so back, when I was really agitated one morning- I had followed a car that had surely lost it's gas pedal, it had to be wired by inertia... ugh.. anyway, at the pinnacle of frustration, I opened the window and hollered at the policeman directing traffic. "So, any idea when this mess might be finished?" He chuckled and responded, " Thanksgiving??? Christmas???"

I hulked away in stony silence.

As I pondered his answer, I began to think about the construction that the Lord does on our character. It can seem awfully inconvenient and painful, at times. I wonder at how it can be such a long and arduous project. Especially on HIS end.. : P

But as we are fashioned with love, we become more and more lovely in the process... I want to look like my Papa.

Have a great week!

Thirsty?

It was a great weekend, lots of fun, fellowship, and oh yeah, heat... the kind of heat that leaves you breathless. You can see the sizzle rays in the air.

As I was driving from Point A to Point B yesterday - (and YES! I have re-read my last blog!,lol) I realized how thirsty I was... Not just dry in the mouth but parched... utterly. Not a good choice in the nearly oppressive heat.

All I could think of as I coursed along with the AC on "Arctic Chill," was how I COULDN'T WAIT for water. Cold, refreshing water. I peeled into the Walgreen's parking lot like someone on I- 84-aka Nascar, lol. yet, I digress. : D

So I strode into the store with one single purpose; I didn't see anything in my path, just the pearly gates of the cooler- (insert angelic choir, here)

After standing in line almost patiently; waiting for what seemed interminably- for the elderly woman to count her million pennies. I was out the door. I tore open that bottle and laid into that thing like I had been in the desert for a month or more.

Gulping like a newborn, I emptied the bottle in an instant. The cool tingle worked it's way through me, and I strode off to the air conditioned car.

Funny though, as much as I needed that water, and my body was craving it, isn't our inner man the same way? Don't we need that Spiritual Drink just as much?

Cranky tellers, miserable sales clerks, delays, long unmoving lines, disappointments, hurts, pain? There are soooo many things that can drain us dry. Hurting people... How fast the tank can empty!

If you know where to find that drink - it's more refreshing than the ice water. There was a woman a long time ago that asked Jesus about that same drink. The one that refreshes your soul... Here was His answer...

"If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

All you have to do is ask... <3