Rocking My World

I don't have a fun travel story or any new recipes to share tonight. To be completely honest, Todd and I had chips and salsa for dinner. That was the entree and the side. Fancy, huh?

I may not have made a dinner to brag about, but I sit here tonight feeling like the most blessed girl in the world. I have decided to look at the blessings God gives me a little differently, all because one verse is rocking my world.

To give you a brief back story (I'm skipping the messy details), some close friends of mine are struggling. Poor decisions have caused a lot of pain and I was at a point where their drama was becoming too much to handle. I brought this up to my amazingly wise friend Allison and she quickly put me in my place. She reminded me of the story in Luke 5 where some men, wanting to help their friend, lower him through a ceiling to see Jesus when they couldn't get through the crowd to make it in the door. Impressed by their bold belief, Jesus said, "Friend, I forgive your sins" (Luke 5:20). In reality, it was the faith of the men who knew the only way to save their friend was to take him directly to Jesus. Allison explained that we have to be like those men. We have to lower our hurting friends through the ceiling to Jesus. We have to carry them. Have I mentioned how wise she is? I felt very selfish for convincing myself that the drama was an inconvenience to me. As I spent time reading my Bible last night, I flipped to Luke 5 to look at that passage a little closer. I didn't even get to verse 20. Verse 8 was enough to make my head spin.

In the same chapter, Luke shares an incredible story. Jesus is preaching to a crowd of people and they begin closing in on him. He gets into a boat, allowing everyone to see him. After speaking, he tells Simon Peter to get into the boat and asks him to let his nets out for a catch. Peter tells Jesus that he's been fishing all day and hasn't even caught a minnow, but he'll try again. Peter drops the nets and they are immediately filled to capacity. He says to Jesus, (are you ready for this?) "Master, leave. I'm a sinner and can't handle this holiness. Leave me to myself."

Wow.

When is the last time you responded to a blessing that way? In all reality, Jesus was just blessing Peter's career. He was a fisherman. Fishing is what he did. I'm sure he had seen a big catch before. But Peter knew this was from Jesus. He was so blown away by the kindness of God that he wasn't able to handle it. I don't know about you, but I often get accustomed to blessings. I get up every morning and go to my dream job. Not just the dream job, but the dream company that I prayed for specifically. I prayed for nearly two years for my career, yet even when I got the job offer, I don't remember saying, "I can't handle this holiness."

I don't want another day to pass without showing this kind of thanks for the blessings my Savior has so lovingly given me. When I look at my husband, or talk to my parents on my drive home from work. When I pull into my driveway and grab food from my pantry. When I wake up in the morning with a healthy body, I will think to myself, "I can't handle this holiness."

But here's the best part. After Peter said those words, Jesus said to him, "There is nothing to fear. From now on you'll be fishing for men and women." Jesus wants to bless us. He wants to pour His grace and mercy on us and He wants us to be thankful. But we can show our thanks by telling others about His goodness; by fishing for men and women.

I may have just written a novel (thank you for sticking with me if you have read this far!), but I don't want any of my blog readers to think that I have this shiny, happy life where everything falls into place all the time. If you take anything away from the things I write about or mention, please know I don't take them for granted.

I am very thankful.