Too Busy To Be Grateful
Introduction
I write this aboard flight 795 headed for Dallas! As I prepare to leave for a mission trip to Guatemala for the next week. Reflecting on this past week, it has been a whirlwind of things to do while also taking a moment with friends to celebrate the great nation within which I live.
As I prepared this week for my trip, there was an overwhelming pile of things to get done, and I ended up having to get a Power of Attorney due to house-buying delays, which moved the closing date to a date when I would be in Guatemala. On top of that, I had coworkers in town for training and so it was a busy week. I had originally hoped to spend some time during the week preparing this week's post, but sadly as mentioned above, I was unable to find the time for it. So this week's post will be a shorter one.
As I went through this week and all the chaos of trying to finish paperwork, complete training, and recover from some cold, it was incredible to see God working in the chaos. I had originally planned to close my house on Friday before I left for my trip, but trying to train as well as close the house wasn’t going to happen and so what I saw as a frustration turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I was able to focus on training.
It’s so cool to me to often look back and see how something we didn’t want or saw as a delay may have been a blessing. I remember when I was younger that when I would miss a green light or get caught in traffic, I would thank God because I believed He was possibly protecting me from a car wreck or something else.
It’s funny that as I’ve gotten older, rather than getting better at thinking like this, I’ve gotten worse. I am more prone to be frustrated rather than grateful. Rather than trying to see the blessings or the protection in the delay, I get frustrated with the situation. As I reflected on this past week and considered all the things of life which seem to be delayed or where God is seemingly doing nothing, this morning, I found myself asking the question again. What blessing is God granting me in the delay? Where is God protecting and providing for me? I am simply not seeing it because I’m mad that He hasn’t brought me to where I want to be, rather than being grateful for where He has me.
I am excited for an opportunity to get away from the business of work and have a chance to serve and experience something completely different and new. To have an opportunity to help children in another country and hopefully learn to be more grateful for the blessings I have in my own life, those I see, but also those million tiny blessings from above that God pours into my life that I all too often miss simply because I am too busy to notice or unwilling to slow down enough to focus on anything but myself and my priorities.
So until next week, when I hope to recap the excitement and adventure of Guatemala, I hope you all have a wonderful week!
