All He Has Created You To Be

I had several posts almost or completely written. Now that I have my new computer I was building up my "inventory".

Then my brand new
from a box
only-used-by-me
built just for me laptop
crashed.

Can you believe it?

I think my magnetic personality conflicts with the innards of electronics.

Which means the writing program I use so I don't always have to write when I am online, was also lost. I did back it up, but now I can't get the backup to work either! I don't want to rewrite any of those posts because I am still hoping to recover them. So I'm going to write about a different contemplation altogether. And hopefully, I will not have to rewrite the other posts!
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"What grace it requires when we are misunderstood yet handle it correctly, or when we are judged unkindly yet receive it in holy sweetness! Nothing tests our character as a Christian more than having something evil said about us... Some Christians are easily turned away from the greatness of their life's calling by pursuing instead their own grievances and enemies."

I read this in the Psalm 23 book I mentioned previously. And it really hit me. Especially the last part.

When a person is hurt, especially if it is a deep hurt, it is so easy to become sensitive. And that sensitivity can rob us of "the greatness of their life's calling". Wow, that's pretty serious. What a way to allow a loss to become devastating.

Have you ever read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis? It has been years for me, but I remember something along these lines. The head demon tells his nephew to prevent the Christians from being effective by distracting them with minor life things and disputes between themselves.

I think Frank Peretti also addresses it in his book This Present Darkness. He paints the pictures of angels and demons fighting in the heavenlies while, below, the Christians are fighting and bickering and struggling to overcome. It's been a whole lot of years for that book too. But you get the gist.

For the sake of being vulnerable, and to get you to thinking about your own risk factors, I will share some things I could elaborate on, and may at some point, that could cause this in me if I am not careful to look to The Shepherd to give me all I need and to cause me to be able to "lie down in green pastures":

~ Being intentionally and ongoingly hurt by people who call themselves the Body of Christ (betrayal).

~ Being unintentionally hurt by others in that Body who are sort of "caught in the crossfire" (more betrayal).

~ Being a "step" or just obviously not the favorite by grandparents or other family members and unspoken etcetera. (sense of not belonging).

~ Being an adoptive mother and having people say tactless things (feeling like second choice, second fiddle, not the "best" mother for my child).

~ A close family member who chooses addiction over relationship (feeling inadequate, not valuable, unloved).

~ Being FAR from perfect all, most, or even some of the time (relationships, parenting, house cleaning, althletics...) and wishing I could do better (loss of confidence, failure).

~ Getting older, being heavier than I'd like, having chronic pain and fatigue (mortality).

I am sure there are many more things I could list. But do you get the picture? We can be distracted by so many things! The more we do not look to our Shepherd for guidance and, primarily, for VALUE, to give us sweet peace and to provide us with all we need, the more things can stack up. Even the tiniest life experience can sow seeds of despair and cause us to overlook or throw away the "calling by which you have been called".

And what a waste that would be.

I bought a card recently for a loved one. It caught my eye because I wanted a card with a bird on it and this one was a beautiful picture of a splendid peacock. Inside it reads "It is never too late to be what you always thought you would be."

I am changing that up a little.

"It is never too late to be all that God has created and called you to be."

Even if you take a break once in awhile.