A Little Drink

This past month and a half has been an interesting one, to say the least. There are many other adjectives you could use to describe unemployment, but we'll leave those to your imagination. Suffice it to say, over the past few weeks I have cried tears of joy and tears of pain. I have basked in the sunshine of clarity and belief and wallowed underneath the bedcovers with groans of confusion and doubt. I have worn my best business attire but more often than not, I have worn a party hat. A pity party hat, that is.

I'm not proud of the stuff that has been squeezed out of me. It hasn't been pretty. Worst of all, I've hated oozing it onto my family and friends, and yet, even as it's happening, I seem to have no control over it. Which I hate even more.

Do we see a theme here? Pride squashed. Lack of control. It's almost as if someone is trying to peel my sticky fingers off of something I don't need to hold onto. And make sure that even if my hands are filled again, I won't be able to chalk any of it up to my own doing.

And I just thought I was having a little restlessness. HA!

After a few conversations here and there with friends about the old devotional book Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman, I finally decided that maybe God was telling me to dust off the book and revisit it. Maybe I'm in a desert and could use some water. Maybe.

I'd forgotten how thirst-quenching the book is. Yesterday's entry included this quote:

"The oriental shepherd always walked ahead of his sheep. He was always out in front. Any attack upon the sheep had to take him into account first. Now God is out in front. He is in our tomorrows, and it is tomorrow that fills people with fear. Yet God is already there. All the tomorrows of our life have to pass through Him before they can get to us." (F.B. Meyer)

Amen and amen.

(Ironic postscript: Right after I decided on the title for this post and typed it in, I reached up to get my mostly-full water glass and accidentally tipped it over onto my desk, effectively soaking the bills and manuscript sitting there. I just laughed.)