If it's looking really cloudy


Computer issues again this week.

With my laptop out of commission, I took up another project which I’d been preparing to do for some time—sorting through photographs. In order to do this, I had to sit on the floor and dig through a very deep cabinet for those overflowing boxes that’d been stashed away for years. I felt a few twinges in my back, but by Thursday, I had to get out the heating pad.

 I was determined to complete the first leg of the project, though, so, I went back to the job yesterday.

One minute, I was visiting with a friend in my den, and a few hours later, I was in such pain, I had to crawl to the bathroom.

Today, I’m wearing one of those heat patches, and using a cane to get around. It’s a lot better than crawling.

I keep thinking about what I read in Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for his Highest a few days ago.

He begins with saying, “Clouds are always associated with God.”

 

 A few photos of the English countryside I found while rifling through our snapshots

“It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials. Through every cloud He brings our way, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in using the cloud is to simplify our beliefs until our relationship with Him is exactly like that of a child— a relationship simply between God and our own souls, and where other people are but shadows.”

I’m not a fan of pain, but there’s nothing like it to make you run straight to Jesus.

Chambers references a verse in Nahum 1:3 which reads, "...clouds are the dust of his feet."

Pain, disappointment, grief, or any number of other experiences can make the clouds feel so thick, we can hardly put two feet in front of each other. (Or two knees as the case may be.) But when we can’t see anyone else, He is there.

Last night, I remembered the verse, “Come near to God and he will come near to you” (James 4:8). “Come near,” I kept sensing the Lord saying. “Come near.”

God and I in the clouds.

And if you’re in pain today, it’s God and you in the cloud, as well, in whatever circumstance you may find yourself in.

Just come near to Him.

It’s going to be awhile before I sit on the floor to sort pictures again, but that’s okay, right now I’m sitting at the feet of Jesus.

I have a friend who’s very crafty and puts herself in check by saying, “People are more important than projects.”

So true.  And more important than all is the time we spend with Jesus.  Just wish I didn’t have to go into back spasms to remember that truth.