Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Tight

Perhaps this post could also be titled "A year in review."

"I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me. O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave; you have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit." (Psalm 30:1-3)


I snapped this photo about a month or so ago, after I got a nice paycheck and restocked my pantry. Heck yes, I celebrate the contents of my pantry. I think it's nice to be able to afford to eat something besides peanut butter.

I think I've blogged about this before, but around the beginning of this year, I felt like God said 2014 was going to be "a tight year," at least for me. When He said that, I was like, "Oh, I'm going to get fired." And I did.

This was definitely a tight year financially. It was interesting getting to practice what I preach about tithing. ("So, the One who has the power to send people to hell gets paid first. Everyone else, too bad, so sad, you're gonna have to wait 'til next month to get paid.") I hadn't been in this tight of a financial situation in a long time, and it was awesome getting to see God take good care of me. Yes, at one point, I was living on peanut butter and raisin bran, I lost weight involuntarily, and on a couple of occasions I felt myself get a little lightheaded. But I'm still alive. God definitely made sure of that. (And I rediscovered the versatile, wonderful world of toast. Need breakfast? Soup crackers? Dessert? A new cat toy? No problem! It's toast to the rescue! Cheesy theme music playing.)

This was also a tight year emotionally. I had no idea that I would need to get into psychotherapy again, but I'm glad I did. (And I'm glad I blogged about it.) It was good to have professional validation that I'm not crazy. (Even though I did just write a public service message for toast. Cheesy theme music continues.) I had no idea that I would need to work through some depression issues and suicidal thoughts YET again, but I sure am glad I did. Hey, when you gotta poop, you gotta poop.

I discovered a huge wad of bitterness inside me that God had to uproot. I asked Him to suck out all the poison, just as if it were a venomous snakebite (which, metaphorically speaking, it probably was, multiple times). He encouraged me to just let Him draw it out. In the process (which I still need to participate in), I noticed that I had been using a forgiveness prayer (that one of my church's classes taught us to pray) like a formula. That formula wasn't working for me anymore. So, I just started kinda puking out forgiveness prayers however naturally they felt to me -- whatever seemed necessary to unclog the junk that was hurting me inside my heart. That seemed to work a lot better.

I guess you could say that waves of issues started charging toward me like a tsunami, and I just kinda surfed through them as best I could. God did say that I would find freedom by riding the waves that would come, and He was right.

And, of course, I'm still learning how to surf my way through life (because there are SO many things that just won't work with a formula), and there's still more work to do. And I'm very OK with that.

Speaking of work, hopefully without giving away too much information, I found a job nearly three months ago at a magazine that serves the metalworking industry. I've never worked in a machine shop, so I have to do quite a bit of research to edit and write materials at my job. In the process, I've learned a lot.

I didn't realize how huge the metalworking industry was all over the world. And I've learned that there is a huge variety of ways that you can cut metal. But the idea of it is pretty basic: All you need is a tool that's strong enough to cut through a hard hunk of metal, something to hold it down with, and a reliable computer-controlled machine to do it with. These machines can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they can use very sophisticated technology, but when you think about how many metallic parts a machine shop needs to produce in a given day, the cost is understandable... especially considering that all of the metallic parts usually need to look exactly like one another. And the unending quest for efficiency and productivity is also understandable.

An interesting thing happens when you cut a hard hunk of metal with a hard metallic tool: Your tools can break, if you're not careful, because of all the friction. It can get dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. So, these machines are equipped with specialized liquid that cools the hard hunk of metal while it's being cut.

The process is so automated that you don't always need a human being to do the job. Sometimes, you can just program a robot to do your metalwork for you, perhaps over the weekend or after you've gone home for the day (which I learned is called "lights-out manufacturing," a process that is often used in the automotive industry).

So, modern-day metalworking is pretty much everywhere, and it's a pretty big deal. And I'm really glad the technology wasn't around during biblical times.

"But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand." (Isaiah 64:8)

For me, in addition to having a "tight" year, I felt like God told me that themes in 2014 would be "fun" and "flexible." I did have fun this year. I relearned how to have fun this year. And I had to constantly be flexible for all the changes that would occur. I mean, it's hard to ride waves if you're not flexible.

I think the concepts of "tight" and "flexible" seem contradictory, but God recently showed me how both concepts are at work at a potter's wheel. The clay needs to be flexible, and it also needs to be ready for the potter to squeeze it tightly in His hands so that He can shape it into whatever He wants. (At least, I'm assuming that there is "tight"ness involved while working at a potter's wheel. Hmm. Maybe I need to do some more research. Or I could make some toast! Cheesy theme music resumes.)

But one thing is for sure. God is a potter. He isn't a manufacturer who entrusts lights-out, hands-off creation to a heartless robot. If I want Him to reshape me into something new, I need to be soft like clay. I can't be hard and cold like a hunk of metal. I'm not really talking about that iron-sharpens-iron concept that Proverbs 27:17 talks about. I'm talking about presenting myself to the Potter who insists on taking His time to restore me, reshape me, and re-create me into something original -- not manufactured, not copied, not mass-reproduced at a factory. God is a Potter. He isn't a factory owner.

I really think this is a huge misconception that Pharisees have. I know because I used to be one.

" 'How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?--but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.' Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees." (Matthew 16:11-12)

Leaven is dangerous. It makes bread rise. It makes things puffy. What if you were making bread, you mixed leaven into the dough, and then you suddenly realized that you were supposed to be making unleavened bread (i.e., tortillas or crackers (NOT toast)) instead? That would be tragic. You couldn't just identify a section of your dough and say, "OK, here's where all the leaven is. If I can just chop it off, I can still make my unleavened bread, no problem." Nope. That leaven is ALL mixed throughout the entirety of the dough. There's no way to get it out.

Unless, of course, you resort to drastic measures. Just using my imagination, perhaps you could hire a wizard to cast the leaven out of your dough. Or perhaps you could go redneck on your dough and hire a demolition crew to blow it up for you. Or maybe you could just pretend that your dough is OK and just invent a new kind of waffle. (Puffy competition for IHOP? Minus the toast.)

I think maybe God uses very drastic measures to miraculously squeeze the leaven out of us ex-Pharisees. I think this happened in the Bible, too. In John 3, a Pharisee named Nicodemus was serious about following Jesus, so when he asked Him how to do it, Jesus replied with the famous "You have to be born again" explanation. Of course, Nicodemus was flabbergasted. "Um, I'm a grown man. You're saying that I have to crawl back inside my mother's womb and do the whole birth thing all over again??" In a metaphorical way, yes. And it ain't easy.

I think perhaps the most drastic example of transforming a Pharisee in the Bible happened with Paul (the Pharisee previously known as Saul). After dedicating his life to killing Christians, Paul's life came to a screeching halt when Jesus showed up one day and asked him why he was persecuting Him. The incident blinded Paul for three days before he ended up dedicating his life to converting people to Christianity.

As an ex-Pharisee, I can say that self-righteous, hyper-religious people have some severely wrong, terribly skewed, tragically inaccurate ways of seeing God and His Kingdom. Sometimes Pharisees need Jesus to show up in a blinding way and be like, "Um, you need to stop what you're doing before you kill anybody else. It's time to stop spreading your death-filled life around. Enough is enough. I'm about to go redneck on you and blow up your leaven-poisoned dough."

One major mistake that Pharisees make (and I used to do it a lot) is teaching, in a nutshell, that God is a manufacturer who treats His children like just another hunk of metal that needs to be machined... and that advancing in His Kingdom is like becoming a lights-out, hands-off, heartless robot that's supposed to machine a certain quota of metallic hunks, or else.

That's one major way that I was hurt at a spiritually abusive church where I was deeply involved many years ago. We were all basically taught, in a nutshell, that God wanted to put us on an assembly line. Get saved --> learn about the Father-heart of God --> get some inner healing --> become a lifegroup leader --> go on a short-term mission trip --> get "called" to a foreign country --> go to missionary school --> become a long-term missionary for at least 2 years. That was life. Everybody had to do it, or they were considered to be spiritually inferior.

My gosh. I understand now that that is totally NOT how God's Kingdom operates at all. I think it's more like the following. Get born --> get born again --> find out why you were born --> cling to the One who made you get born in the first place --> learn to like Him, because He doesn't ever, ever, ever want to leave you, and the more you get to know Him, the more you realize how you deserve to not be born at all, and the more thankful you are that you were born in the first place. Or something like that.

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you." (Psalm 32:8-9)

God's Kingdom isn't a machine shop. It's a potter's wheel. Freedom isn't a formula. It's a Person.

For me, lately it's been Him telling me to not rush my freedom and to let it happen very gradually. It's been me learning how to be flexible and to be ready for the tightness to squeeze in around me. It's me having fun with the most wonderful Friend, the most faithful Father, the most powerful God in the universe. It's me not really caring about all the things that I used to care about.


I really just want relationship. And I have it with Him.

Happy new year!

Friday, December 26, 2014

Food, family, and fellowship

I should warn you that this post is long and rambling. (In fact, it's probably my longest blog post ever.) Warn you about it, yes. Apologize for it, no. If I don't tell my story, who will?

To be perfectly honest, in this season of my life, it is easy to tell who is close to me and who isn't -- or at least who takes the time to read my internet posts. The ones who don't, and the ones who still keep me at a safe distance, will ask me this question: "Are you going to spend time with your family during the holidays?"

Nervous chuckle. Um, well, it's an innocent, legitimate question. But the short answer is no.

The long answer is once upon a time, there lived a little girl named Tirzah who grew up with what her therapist would call a disorganized attachment style (please check out this previous post if you would like more information on that). The little girl grew up to become a woman who desperately needed some major inner healing which, unfortunately, involved permanently disowning herself from and cutting herself off from her immediate family. To process this event and its multitude of consequences, repercussions, and effects -- and also because people who have disorganized attachment styles need to spend time reflecting on their lives in order to properly heal -- I am going to blog about it here yet again. My intention in doing so isn't to be like, "Oh, look at me and how über-wonderful I am!" Rather, it's to be like, "This is my blog, and I need to unravel some stuff out of my brain. Thank you for reading, and please feel free to relate to any of it if you need to... although I honestly hope you won't ever need to."


The way I see it, Christmas is a holiday that you're supposed to spend with family. You buy or make them presents, you observe traditions, and you enjoy the day as cozily as you can while trying to not stuff yourself with too much food.

So, since Christmas ought to be spent with the family that's closest to you, that's exactly what I decided to do this year. I don't have an immediate human family anymore, but my immediate family is God and my cats. So, after praying about it, I gladly spent Christmas with Him and them. In this post, I have shared a picture of the food spread that I enjoyed yesterday. Since my cats have their own food to eat, and since God never gets hungry, I was the only one who ate my Christmas lunch. (I ate at 10:56 a.m., so I guess technically it was a Christmas brunch.) Forget turkey, ham, or steak. Give me some chips, dips, and sandwiches, and I will be in holiday-food heaven. Seriously. When I had an immediate family, my favorite holiday meal was a picnic-style deli spread that mom would make (usually around New Year's). So, my extremely simple palate and I went to town yesterday.


And I totally disrupted my babies' nap schedules with my classic rock DVDs. I know it wasn't your typical traditional way to spend Christmas, but so what? I enjoyed myself. Merry Christmas to me!

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household.' " (Jesus talking in Matthew 10:34-36)

"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life." (Jesus talking in Matthew 19:29)

"Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, 'Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.' And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.' " (Matthew 8:19-20)

Last weekend at church, while I was singing in the choir during one of the services, Jesus and I were having a conversation (which caused me to miss at least one of my entrances, but I don't think He minded). He caught my attention by randomly telling me, "I don't have a place to lay My head, either."

After I wrapped up that afternoon at church and was walking to my car, I thought about how awkward it must have been for Jesus to have grown up with Mary being His mother, God being His Father, and Joseph not really being His father. ("Hey, Jesus, how come You don't look anything like Your dad?" "If I were to tell you, you wouldn't believe Me.") When I arrived at my car, Jesus asked me, "Now do you get it?"

"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it -- lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish'?" (Jesus talking in Luke 14:26-30)

"But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:7-11)

A few years ago, I was walking through some heavy situations with some leaders at church. After they prayed for me about something, they said that they felt like God was saying that He was giving me a gift: I was feeling His pain. At the time, I thought that meant for that particular situation. Now I think I understand that God has been allowing me to feel a lot of the pain that He feels anytime He feels misunderstood, rejected, neglected, left out, or just plain stuck in a very awkward place.

Gosh. Jesus knows how I feel. He can relate to me. And I think maybe I can relate to Him a little bit now.

Jesus was, no doubt, the most patient Person to ever walk this earth. And He still is. He would plainly talk about Himself and the things He was going to do, but so many people didn't understand it.

"Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Then the Jews said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?' But He was speaking of the temple of His body." (John 2:19-21)

As far as my life and all its current awkwardness is concerned, I've come up with three analogies to describe what it's like to disown yourself from your parents and/or explaining it to people:

1) In the movie Home Alone, Kevin McCallister is, quite frankly, a little turd to his entire family. Due to an innocent oversight, his family leaves for Christmas vacation without him. When he notices that they are gone, he thinks in horror that his turd-like actions caused his tragedy: "I made my family disappear."

Then when he realizes how mean his family was to him, he rejoices: "I made my family disappear." No, dear sister, he was in fact NOT what the French call les incompetents. He turned out to be quite the little powerhouse who singlehandedly prevented his entire house from being robbed.

Yes, when I first "made my family disappear" a few years ago, I grieved tremendously hard. But after I realized how terrible they really were to me, I eventually rejoiced pretty hard. And, as it turns out, I am in fact NOT what the French call les incompetents, either. Bless this highly nutritious dinner and the people who sold it on sale. Amen.

However, unlike Kevin McCallister, I won't be reunited with my family.

2) In my favorite movie of all time, The NeverEnding Story, Bastian is very interested in reading Mr. Coreander's book. Perhaps trying to use reverse psychology, Mr. Coreander tells Bastian that he isn't really interested in books. But Bastian insists: "I've read Treasure Island, Last of the Mohicans, Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Rings, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Tarzan..." Mr. Coreander says, "The books you read are safe. By reading them, you get to become Tarzan or Robinson Crusoe." Bastian says, "But that's what I like about them." Mr. Coreander is like, "But afterwards, you get to be a little boy again."

I often hear people talk about how they're away from their family and how hard it is. And I understand that it is; I'm not minimalizing that at all. But my situation isn't like theirs. They are only away from their family temporarily. Maybe they'll get to see them once or twice a year. They still have a relationship with them.

When I first joined my choir, I tried to get to know people, and I dove right in during one conversation. The girl I was talking to was like, "So, do you have any family here in town?" I braced myself and replied, "Uh, I left my family." She was like, "Oh, OK." Then I think she talked about how her family was in Louisiana. And she asked again, "So, do you have any family here in town?" Um... never mind. I was hatched from an egg. Yeah, let's go with that.

In my particular situation, I don't have a long-distance relationship with my immediate family. I don't have them anymore, period. I didn't set a boundary with them. I amputated myself off from them. I'm not connected to them anymore, period. I'm not living vicariously through some fictional book character. I AM the book character, and the story is occurring in real life.

And if you don't understand that, I don't know what else to tell you. Unless I make stuff up. Um... my parents are international spies. That is why I never see them. I'd tell you who they are, but then I'd have to kill you.

3) Leaving your parents is like allowing your hair to turn gray in due season. (Some people look very good with dyed or highlighted hair, so what I'm about to say doesn't apply to them.) Sure, you could just color it red or black. But after a while, your aging skin and countenance are going to be a dead giveaway -- even against your jet-black dyed hair -- that you are getting older. You won't be able to hide it anymore. Sooner or later, you're going to have to face the truth, embrace it, and just let your hair turn gray and eventually white. You'll talk openly about your aging process, and maybe you'll say something like, "Honey, you're gonna have to speak up, because I'm an old lady. Now, what did you just say? I couldn't hear you."

I'm finding that the subject of my family isn't an easy one to avoid in conversations anymore. Sure, I can change the subject or encourage the other person to talk about himself/herself instead, but I won't be able to do that forever. I can cover up the truth for as long as is humanly and honestly possible, but sooner or later, the truth is going to show up quite loudly at the roots. It's awkward and uncomfortable, but I'm just gonna have to come out and say it: "I disowned myself from my parents because they were abusive. It's a very long, very terrible story."

"Then one said to Him, 'Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.' But He answered and said to the one who told Him, 'Who is My mother and who are My brothers?' And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, 'Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.' " (Matthew 12:47-50)

Leaving my family has been the hardest thing I've ever done, and I think it's been the most awkward cross I've ever had to bear. I say "I think" because I don't know what my future is going to look like. Maybe God has way more awkward stuff up His sleeve for me later on. He isn't mean or cruel. He just likes surprises. And I really don't know anything. He knows everything.

So, permanently walking away from my immediate family has been excruciatingly hard, and yet it has been excruciatingly freeing. Yes, I was raised by wolves. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just trying to be accurate. If you were suddenly released from a lifelong bite-grip of wolf-fangs at your throat, you'd probably feel just as free as I do.

While I'm on the subject, I truly don't think my birth mother is saved. I think she thinks she is, but when I pray for her, I get the impression that she isn't. I think the fruit I saw in her life confirms it: She would only read her Bible whenever she was at church or whenever she had to teach a Sunday School lesson, she constantly lied, she always gossiped, she hated everybody, and she only cared about looking good. I hope I'm completely wrong about this, but I don't think she knows God at all. (When I knew her, she wouldn't ever log on to the internet, and she often wouldn't listen to me. Maybe if my relatives are reading this, they can help point her to the Way, the Truth, and the Life.)

"Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife." (Proverbs 17:1, NIV)

"In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, 'Rabbi, eat.' But He said to them, 'I have food to eat of which you do not know.' Therefore the disciples said to one another, 'Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?' Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.' " (John 4:31-34)

When Jesus was on this earth, He was accused of extremely ridiculous things. I wonder if when people were cruelly telling Him that He had a demon, or when they told Him that He was being blasphemous, or when they were beating the crap out of Him, if He was thinking something like, "Eh, this is nothing compared to the sting of being betrayed by a friend for 30 measly pieces of silver."

When I realized that God was telling me to leave my parents, and when I was counting the cost of doing so, there were a lot of things that I didn't realize that I needed to factor into my cost-counting. I didn't know that I would need to permanently separate myself from my sister or her in-laws, too. I didn't realize that there would be certain geographical areas that I would need to avoid because I would no longer feel safe there. I didn't know that I would have to hear one aunt choke back tears or that I would endure another aunt feeding me a guilt trip. I didn't realize that my walking away from my parents would eventually contribute to my walking away from my former best friend as well. I didn't know that I would encounter a seemingly endless deluge of disappointments as time went on and that the only replacement immediate family that I would have would be God and my cats.

But they're good company, and I'll certainly take them. Truly, they are enough. Father God takes impeccably good care of me, the Holy Spirit is the most faithful Coach you'll ever know, and Jesus especially understands how I feel. He likes me enough to let me know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings. For example, if anyone from church word-slaps me, of course it stings, but I sometimes work through it with the logic of, "Eh, this is nothing compared to the sting of being abused by your family who supposedly loved you."

"Fellowship" is an interesting word. I'm discovering that it can have more than one meaning. My college pastor helped me see this for the first time. He explained that "fellowship" isn't necessarily hanging out in the fellowship hall at church and eating refreshments with a bunch of people who you're only socializing with on a surface level. According to this pastor, "fellowship" is really supposed to mean digging deeply into one another's lives and living life together.

I think maybe Jesus does this when He lets us share in the fellowship of His sufferings. Maybe He'll say something like, "You feel rejected? Yep, I do, too. All of your friends left you when you needed them the most? Yep, Mine did, too. You feel like your father turned his back on you? Yep, I know how that feels, too. You feel like chopped liver? Yep, I do, too, and so does My Father; why do you think He likes to reward those who diligently seek Him?"

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also." (Jesus talking in John 15:18-20)

I think I get it now. And yet, I may never fully get it at all. At any rate, Jesus, if You're looking for a place to lay Your head, please come lay it right here between my shoulders, or in my lap, or in my arms, or in my hands, or on my pillow, or wherever You like. Please consider me to be Your friend, Your family. Please make Yourself at home in me. 

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Candy dish

You know how sometimes you go over to somebody's house, or maybe you're at the doctor's office, or maybe even the breakroom at work, and there's this big candy dish there? It usually gets filled around Halloween, but most of the time you will find a candy dish just about anywhere, and it's often faithfully filled up by whoever maintains it. Whoever is in the room as soon as the candy dish is refilled gets first pick of all the good stuff. It's a bummer to visit the candy dish a few days later, after all the good stuff is gone, and see all the reject candy sitting at the bottom of the dish with some bits of stray wrapping. Then if you're desperate for a snack or a sugar rush, you're stuck with all the reject candy -- like Mary Jane candy. Sorry, but I didn't like that stuff when I tried it. I prefer Jolly Ranchers, any flavor. Or Tootsie Roll, any flavor. Or even that plain dollar-store peppermint stuff that's especially plentiful this time of year. (But not Mary Jane. Yecch.)

Well, I don't have a candy dish, but I do have a blog. I intend to fill this post with bite-size nuggets -- and you get first pick! Maybe you won't like some of them. Maybe you will reject the ones that taste like Mary Jane to you. Or maybe you'll like all of them and gobble everything up immediately. But I hope you will enjoy, and don't spoil your dinner!

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I wonder if the same people who complain about stores selling Christmas stuff in September also complain about people posting sonogram pictures of their baby on Facebook. It's the same concept, right? Early celebration?

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A small stretch of road in my general vicinity is maintained by a local chapter of atheists, according to a sign posted there. When I drove by it recently, I wondered if perhaps I should confront these road-maintainers about how the road doesn't actually exist; it's really just a figment of their imagination. But I decided not to after all. I think that would be too snarky, even for me.

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I recently received snail-mail correspondence regarding a 401k that I never had, and I got email spam in my personal inbox regarding a company website that I no longer have access to... because that particular company fired me 8 months ago. I was about to raise a stink about it (it's just inconveniently humiliating), but I was reminded about how wonderful it is to no longer work for a company that isn't anywhere close to having its act together. Thank you for proving my point yet again!

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During recent visits to the vet, I felt like the doctor was trying to psyche me up for what it's like to own a really old cat -- that my cat won't be very active and will move more slowly. OK, I get it. If I had cataracts, I'd probably move more slowly, too. But doc, you ain't never seen my Macho in full swashbuckling action after dinner. He puts Errol Flynn to shame.

And I'm getting older, too. I'm totally OK with Choochie taking an almost-nap next to me while I'm slouching here typing this. I think all three of us have been very good company for one another while we've been growing old together.

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I've lived in my apartment for two years now, so I've gone two years 1) without my own washer/dryer 2) without cable and 3) without really cooking for myself (except for cereal, toast, sandwiches, or junk that you can heat up in the microwave like TV dinners, soups, and hot dogs). Heh. And I'm still alive. How about that? Thanks, Lord!

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Galatians 5 talks about spiritual fruit. I've heard pastors talk about how the fruits of the Spirit take a while to grow, just like how regular fruit like apples, oranges, grapes, etc., take time to grow. That makes sense. If you try to rush the growth of your fruit, you could get into all kinds of trouble.

I think the Robertsons learned this the hard way on a classic episode of Duck Dynasty. Willie bought a vineyard, and he had every intention of turning it into a fully operational wine-producing wing of his business. Unfortunately, he didn't do his homework before he made his purchase, and he discovered that wine is actually produced from a very specific type of grape. He decided that he didn't have time to wait for the right type of grape to grow in his new vineyard, so he recruited his family to help him make his own vintage redneck wine with store-bought grapes and sugar. The results, of course, were disastrous. I believe Jason described the wine as tasting "like a cross between doe urine and jalapeño juice."

So, don't rush your fruit growth, and make sure you're letting the right type of fruit grow in the first place. And I am also preaching to myself.

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Ever since I was preparing to go off to college more than 20 years ago, I've heard and experienced all types of reactions anytime I mention the words "writing" or "writer." The following two examples are my favorites.

Me: "I'm a professional writing major."
Somebody else: "UGH! I hate writing!"

Um, thanks for making me feel socially desirable?

Me: "I'm a writer."
Somebody else: "Oh! You must really like to read!"

Um, no, I really like to WRITE.

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Recently, I took my car in for some maintenance that turned into several more repairs than I had anticipated. I was thankful to have been able to pay for it all, and I'm thankful to still have a car that works after driving it around the Metroplex for nearly 6 1/2 years.

While the car was in the shop, the dealership insisted on sending me away for a few hours in a loaner car, even though I would have been content to hang out in the waiting room instead. So, I drove a brand-new car for a very short while. I wonder if perhaps it was just a ploy to get me to see what driving a brand-new car was like. Although the drive was smooth and high-tech, I intensely missed my old car. Forget the GPS, the upgraded digital readouts, and the fancy reverse back-out camera. I missed MY old car. I missed the CD player, the felt seats, the wider view in the windshield, and the fact that I've spent the past 6 1/2 years making myself comfortable and making tons of memories in MY car.

And while I was driving around the brand-new loaner car, it clicked for me that God feels the same way about me. I don't want to replace my old car -- MY car -- with a brand-new one. And God doesn't want to replace me -- even though I still need a lot of work and have failed Him plenty of times and have lots of scratches -- with another person. He wants to keep me. He wants me. He has a lot of sentimental value attached to me. I'm in His family. I'm HIS. So, while I was driving around town for a very short while in a brand-new loaner car, I received some majorly deep inner healing.

Hmm. I wonder what my therapist would have charged for a session like that.