The beauty of entering into a beautiful home that has been freshly painted, while we've been basking in God's creation and studying God's Word this past week was only heightened as we all got to lay down and sleep peacefully in our comfortable, familiar beds. Ahhh...the simple things of a beautiful life. Thank you, LORD. I am grateful.
Andy and I prayed together before bed, as is our custom, that today would be a day of Spirit-filled worship with our corps people and that we would get to witness new people come to a salvation experience (which has been happening most Sundays and it is AWESOME). We prayed that the Spirit would come and sit heavily and make us all uncomfortable. I fell asleep so excited to worship with our corps people today and woke up that way, too.
And then Benjamin didn't wake up at his normal time. I thought he was just tired from the busyness of this past week and so I let him rest and did the rest of the morning routine. Andy left extra early today as being away from the office all week had him just wanting to get there. Elijah was dressed, fed and happily playing while waiting to leave for church.
When at the last possible minute Benjamin was still was not awake I went in to wake him and get him dressed. As I picked him up from his slumber (by the way, I am usually VERY strict about not waking sleeping babies!--but I really wanted to be at the corps in time to prayer walk our neighborhood!), he made a quiet moan and then vomited all over my uniform and himself. That rich bile color and smell... not what I was planning for this morning!
Naturally I became quite concerned as now the "Bible Conference bug" has made its way into our house through our most vulnerable member. Being quite candid, I'm disappointed that I will not be at the corps because I know God is going to do something good with our people and I want to be with them. Today is also the day of our monthly soldier's meeting which means I'll miss that and all of the covered dishes that go along with it. I really love our new corps people and value the time we have to live in community with them. I don't want to miss out! They bless me!
So here I sit. Thankful for personal time to worship and to listen. I'm reminded of Colonel Janet Munn's words this week at Bible Conference as she spoke about Luke 13 and the "disrupting faith" of the bent over woman whom Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Jesus challenged the oppressive status quo and made everyone uncomfortable. In my personal experience of the mighty moving of the Spirit, it can be uncomfortable. Rather than exist in the tension of the discomfort we oftentimes squelch the Spirit and move on with our formulaic worship wondering why we have the same results or no results. I think we do this in our personal time with God, too. Naturally we don't like feeling uncomfortable. We like routine and predictability but perhaps God has other things in store so that we totally depend on Him.
Colonel Munn asked of us, "what gets us bent out of shape and disrupts our faith?" While this question can go two ways, I suggest that the discomfort of a stomach bug has disrupted my faith this morning in a positive way. I will rejoice in it and use this time wisely as it is a special, unexpected gift outside of my Sunday morning norm. Thank you, LORD. Thank you for the holy discontent brought to my heart this morning from a stomach bug.
