Remember Who's In Control

"The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases." Proverbs 21:1

Whether your candidate won or lost last night, let's remember to pray for our nation. Isn't it comforting to know that regardless of who we voted for for President, we know who really holds the future of our country in his hands?

True Satisfaction

I looked through my pile of mail the other day to find another yet another catalog in the stack. It seems like they arrive daily, even though I know that's an exaggeration. I tell myself not to, but I can't help but flip through them. Of course, when I do, I always see some particular item that I didn't know I needed and now can't live without, so I'm forced to keep the catalog for the soon-coming day when I place my order. Ah, the power of advertising.

On the flip side of that, there are some days when I just feel like I need something new. I don't know what it is, but I definitely need something. No advertising has been forced upon me, there's nothing in particular that I have in mind, but I'm sure that if I go find myself something, I'll feel better.

Sunday morning at church, we sang a song that was new to me. Now, I've grown up in church, been a Christian since I was very young, and married to the pastor for nearly 20 years. Let me tell ya, I know a few songs. But, I didn't know this one.

The downside to knowing so many songs for so many years is that I often sing them without really letting the words soak in. Sundays are busy for pastors and their families. It's a work day. Sometimes it's very hard to turn our minds from "work" to worship, so I end up singing, "I love you, Lord" while thinking, "Where are the Jones' this morning? I haven't seen Jane in several weeks. I should remember to pray for her and give her a call. I hope she's not mad after what happened at the last business meeting..." and on and on.

No one but you Lord,

can satisfy the longing in my heart;

Nothing I do

can take the place of drawing near to you.

The words caught me off guard. It was a simple song and I've sung a million like it before. But for some reason, that morning, as I stared at the overhead screen, God and I had a quiet moment together. Because I didn't know the song, I just stood there, looking at the words and soaking in their truth. Try as I might to soothe my soul with some thing, I can really only do it with some one. God spoke to me clearly that morning, assuring and reminding me that he is enough for me and drawing near to him is the only thing I need to satisfy those longings in my soul.

That catalog is going in the trash.

Selective Knowledge

This afternoon The Pastor, our son, and I all went to Wal-mart to do some grocery shopping. On the way home, a truck was driving in front of us that had a sticker on the rear window that said, "Real trucks don't have spark plugs."

"What does that mean?" I asked "Don't all cars need spark plugs to run?"

The Pastor told me that the truck was a diesel and diesel engines don't use spark plugs. He then launched into a 15 minute explanation of engines; how they work, the difference between gas and diesel, spark plugs, glow plugs, on and on... He went on to explain compression ratios and ignition source and finally finished up with the difference between regular gas and premium gas and which kind you'd want to use in which kind of cars and why.

I looked at him dumbfounded as he beamed with pride at his vast car-guy knowledge. After a minute or two of silence I finally asked him the question that had been plaguing my mind while he spoke...

"How can you know all that and not know how to work the remote for the TV?"