The alarm clock went off…and I hit the snooze button instinctively.
I rolled over about 30 minutes later only to realize that we were LATE for school.
I had a flashback back to college when I would be frantically running around my apartment half dressed looking for two shoes to put on…they didn’t have to match… any two shoes would do.
I hurried into Liv’s room to wake her up. She is like a 13 year old in the mornings. She yells things like “come back later” and “I wanna stay here forever!!!”. I quite frequently have to pull her out of bed by her ankles and hide her cozy warm comforter. It’s bad.
( I recently realized that I will be waking her up for school for the next 15 years…. Jesus take the wheel)
I tried explaining to her that we were running late. She didn’t get it. (She didn’t care is the actual truth)
I was barking orders at her like a football coach… “Go Go Go Liv! Take those PJ pants off!!”
I removed her diaper and began to put lotion on her when… she pooped on the carpet.
That’s right people. Just right there on the carpet…while staring me dead in the face.
I had zero words for her. Zero. I had to take a moment and sit at the feet of Jesus before any words could be spoken.
“LIV?? Where did that come from and why did you do that?” I asked her.
“I don’t know mama. I don’t know,” was her response.
We cleaned up the mess and continued downstairs to grab breakfast and head out the door.
I was throwing stuff around, stuffing food in a Ziploc bag…pouring milk in a sippy cup. I was moving QUICK.
(Hindsight… I don’t know why I was so frazzled…it’s just preschool. But is it just preschool? It feels like the walk of shame
when you take your kid in late)
I filled my coffee mug to the brim (had time for that mind you… there is ALWAYS time for that) grabbed all of our belongings and 12,000 bags and walked out the back door.
If you read a previous post of mine you have heard my dilemma with our back courtyard…. and that dilemma’s name is Beans. (I didn’t refer to her by name in the previous post…the hatred runs deep…judge away) Beans is our miniature weenie dog who has the temperament of a crack addict. I mean she’s INSANE.
So, I stared ahead, with arms full and coffee in hand, and Liv and I began our journey to the garage door. Beans saw this as an opportunity to weave in and out of our legs as fast as she possibly could and before I knew what was happening I tripped, throwing everything in my arms forward INCLUDING my hot mug of coffee.
It was like slow motion, the mug landed RIGHT on Liv’s head and scolding hot coffee ran down her face all over her school uniform.
ARE YOU JOKING ME??? I thought. Liv screamed bloody murder as I chased the dog around in anger before realizing I should probably console my child.
I picked her up, ran back inside stripped her down and changed her uniform. I didn’t even wash the coffee out of her hair… I mean..let’s face it.. you couldn’t tell.
We piled into the car and raced to school. She was late…but ONLY 3 MINUTES. I mean…I should win a gold medal or something for those shenanigans.
Inconveniences are NOT FUN. When we are inconvenienced we automatically get flustered and out of sorts. We grow stressed and annoyed and turn inward as we think of how these distractions are affecting us; how they are messing up our schedule or our agenda for the day. We ponder how much time we are wasting or how much of our time someone else is wasting.
Our culture has created a me-centered approach to each and every day. We don’t want to “deal” with other people or situations that are going to slow us down or get involved with things that will not bring us any gain.
But, do you know what I have learned about inconveniences and distractions? Even in the midst of what feels like an inconvenience the Lord can teach us something, teach others something or use us to change someone’s life.
Now, I’m not talking about poop on the carpet kind of inconveniences….I’m talking about the kind of interruptions in our day that involve people and their needs and their stories intersecting with ours.
I have come to believe that truly loving people will NEVER be on our own time and will probably always feel like an inconvenience. I think that God likes to catch us off guard because when we have things all planned out we operate in our own strength…sort of in this “I got this” mentality.
When we are pushed beyond the bounds of what makes us comfortable or what we have planned- what’s on our agenda, that is when we learn the most about what it means to truly know God and truly love people.
Jesus is a GREAT example. (always…He’s the man…or was the man…well still is)
“On his return, Jesus was welcomed by a crowd. They were all there expecting him. A man came up, Jairus by name. He was president of the meeting place. He fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come to his home because his twelve-year-old daughter, his only child, was dying. Jesus went with him, making his way through the pushing, jostling crowd.
In the crowd that day there was a woman who for twelve years had been afflicted with hemorrhages. She had spent every penny she had on doctors but not one had been able to help her. She slipped in from behind and touched the edge of Jesus’ robe. At that very moment her hemorrhaging stopped. Jesus said, “Who touched me?”
When no one stepped forward, Peter said, “But Master, we’ve got crowds of people on our hands. Dozens have touched you.”
Jesus insisted, “Someone touched me. I felt power discharging from me.”
When the woman realized that she couldn’t remain hidden, she knelt trembling before him. In front of all the people, she blurted out her story—why she touched him and how at that same moment she was healed.
Jesus said, “Daughter, you took a risk trusting me, and now you’re healed and whole. Live well, live blessed!”
While he was still talking, someone from the leader’s house came up and told him, “Your daughter died. No need now to bother the Teacher.”
Jesus overheard and said, “Don’t be upset. Just trust me and everything will be all right.” Going into the house,
he wouldn’t let anyone enter with him except Peter, John, James, and the child’s parents.
Everyone was crying and carrying on over her. Jesus said, “Don’t cry. She didn’t die; she’s sleeping.”
They laughed at him. They knew she was dead.
Then Jesus, gripping her hand, called, “My dear child, get up.” She was up in an instant, up and breathing again!
Luke 8
Jesus was obviously on a mission that day. Jairus was a leader at the synagogue. An important person…influential. His daughter was dying and He knew that Jesus could heal her.
As Jesus moved through the crowd someone reached out and touched Him. “Who touched me?” He really wanted to know. He stopped and scanned the crowd.
Suddenly a woman stumbled forward… “It was me,” she blurted out. She was an outcast…had been bleeding for 12 years. She was unclean and unimportant. BUT HE STOPPED.
He stopped long enough to apply His healing power over her life and CHANGE IT FOREVER. Suddenly the thing that had held her back for so long was no longer there…and she was healed.
I’m sure the people with Jesus were thinking, “Alright Jesus…we get it.. but there is a little girl dying…an important little girl…and you’re going to stop and deal with this woman.” And then the report came that Jairus’ daughter had died.
It was too late…that’s what everyone thought. They had run out of time and Jesus had WASTED His time on a woman who was really not even worth it.
I can imagine that Jesus chuckled on the inside.
Jesus, un-phased, moved on to the home, entered and raised the little girl from the dead. One minute dead, NOW ALIVE.
I mean…this story is the stuff isn’t it?? It is PACKED full of really convicting truths about our lives and the purpose for us existing.
Jesus was ok with being inconvenienced…it was not in His plan for that woman to touch His garment…and He could have kept on moving because the Bible says that she was immediately healed just from touching his garment…and He knew that.
BUT HE WANTED TO ACKNOWLEDGE HER. He wanted to give her recognition. You are alive…You are present and I see you.
His desire was to HEAL the undeserving, unclean woman….to touch and acknowledge that she had value. It didn’t matter anymore that she had been in hiding for 12 years… Jesus saw her, and healed her. He not only gave her a new physical reality, but a new spiritual one…she was no longer an outcast…forgotten and unclean…she had been acknowledge in a crowd of thousands.
The call on our lives is to be inconvenienced for the Gospel. To have our eyes outward, always looking for ways to affect the world around us, the situation of the person in front of us and the state of their heart. Selfishness tells us to get through our schedule and our to dos and feel that we have accomplished something…but have we really?
We are to BE LIKE HIM in that we are constantly open to people…willing to be inconvenienced. We are called to be people who are not so tangled in their to dos and their own plans that we miss the dying around us.
So, here’s the challenge on this mundane Monday: PRAY TO BE INCONVENIENCED. Look for ways to jar your schedule. Take a risk in your day and be aware of your surroundings. Don’t let today pass without you acknowledging someone. You may be the person that Jesus uses to heal, speak life, encourage and change today.
Don’t be afraid of poop on the carpet.
