I WANT MILK!

My mother would often tell me that weaning me from mother's milk was an extremely tough task. Distractions, formula milk, music, "kuchy-kuchy-koos", didn't work. The combined innovations of grandparents, aunts, uncles and whole lot of people had no effect. I was pretty adamant about what I wanted, and nothing else seemed to satisfy me.

Mom would say, that with the feeding bottle in my mouth , I would stare straight at her face with a look that could probably burn her down and then break into a high-pitched wail. Weeping, and wailing and highly irritated was what I always was….

Finally, when all methods were exhausted, I decided to let go. Clinging to my mother’s bosom, I decided to give other food a shot. That’s how I got to have the most critical and demanding taste-buds in the whole house. ;)

I don’t know if babies think --- Do they?? But if they do; I guess these would have been the thoughts in my mind, “Ohmygosh!! They are cutting my food supply, how cruel and mean!”, “What’s this new stuff they’re giving me? It doesn’t taste like mama’s milk, I’m not used to this”, and then of-course… “WAAAHHHHH!! I want milk.. I am hungry….and I can’t eat this..”

Sometimes God stops certain supplies in our lives. Yes, Jehovah Jireh – the provider of all our needs --- stops our provisions sometimes. And no matter, how much we throw tantrums, box the air, and wrestle with circumstances; it’s not going to come back. Yes, it’s not going to come back.

My dad has always taught me, “you grow when you are uncomfortable”, and that’s exactly what God does to us to push us to utilize our potential. God purges away the comforts and pushes us out of our comfort zones. He does this, so that he can nourish you with new lessons, new challenges and push you to consume the next level of blessings in your life.

David writes beautifully,

Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me. Psalm 131:2

I'm unsure about the exact circumstance for which this Psalm was written. (Let me know if you know that...) But, it speaks to our situations. And I think that what David did, is something that we need to imitate as well.

Used to mama’s milk, so comfortable in familiar life, suddenly, we’re shoved to change. We’re pushed to unfamiliar terrain. At such times, we have a choice; we can lament about our past providence, and cry and complain about our present situation, OR, we can calm our soul and quiet our minds believing that as long as we are in the bosom of God, everything will be just fine.

A weaned child no longer cries for mother’s milk, instead, she surrenders to the will of her mother, rest assured that she is in the safest place in the world. A weaned child has no clue of what she’s going to be fed, but believes in nothing but the face of her mother.

No matter what supply God is taking away, or what boundary he’s pushing you out of. Remember, that it’s only to feed you with something bigger and better to make you stronger and more useful.

When your mind takes those free roller-coaster rides, give yourself a break, and take a moment to gaze at your Father’s face. I think a lot myself, but quite often I’ve realized that too much thinking can get morbid. To remain calm and stay peaceful is a choice that we have to make. Because only then, we can work with God to see His purposes come to pass in our life.

Sometimes, I get upset about stuff. And then after a conversation with God, I can almost hear him say, "Hey kid, I need you to do some stuff..maybe it's not big and all..but it's still my stuff, and I need someone like you..btw don't get into those..."I-give-up-Lord" modes often and waste your time..we need to work on how to get things done...we can't keep working on fixing your emotional swings always!!"

If you're like me..that's what He's got to say to you as well! :)

Let's be like David..

...I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother's milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me. Psalm 131:2

Learning to remain calm... in HIM,

Callie

Work Done list

It's one thing to say, "God, I will do this, I will surrender, I will leave this, I will give this away.." and it's another thing to say to "God, I have done this, I surrendered this, I left this, and I have given this away."

There was someone who prayed this kind of prayer. Any guesses ??? When this thought first came to me, I said.."Yes I know! It's the Pharisee, he was the one who went around saying, I fast, I give.. blah blah.." (Luke 18). And I was waiting for a lesson from God on those lines.

But that was not the lesson and the person was not the Pharisee, it was Jesus. And Jesus said this to God. (John 17:4,6,8)

"I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.

"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me."

"I gave them the words you gave me."

When the world for which we work and slog for, expects measurable results,  Why can't the All powerful God expect the same too? God expects results from my life. That's the lesson I had to learn. 

We can't be fooling around with our good intentions alone. When it's all been said and done, we would have to give God the specifics. Well, that's what Jesus did. Are we working towards that too?

Somethings are easier said than done. It's our first big problem in trying to figure what we have to do, let alone trying to produce results. But I guess that's where relationship plays a role. A sense of purpose, and a clarity of destination does not happen from intelligence, experience or wisdom. It births from a thriving relationship with God. That's what Jesus had, and that's why He produced results. 

I'm not saying that God too looks at us based on our 'performance', NO, that's not true. God's love for us is unconditional and it's by Grace we have access to Him. Nevertheless, God prunes all His children, as a garderener prunes a vine. Watering and pruning till it grows into the sunshine. And he longs to see fruit in you and me. 

Have we given enough thought to this? Well, I haven't and I hope to seek God in this direction. To get closer to Him and produce results. So that I too can give a 'work done list' to God.

When my beat is about to stop, and when there's just few more moments to pass, I wish I can breathe these words to Him "I surrendered all, I surrendered all, All to Him, my precious Savior, I surrendered all."

Learning to produce,

Callie

Image Courtesy

http://www.trybpo.com/5-creative-ways-to-put-your-virtual-assistant-to-work/100834-134/

Why I CAN'T BELIEVE?

 
As I write this post, I'm surrounded with several friends. They're my only company in the nights. Just that, when they're around I need to rub my feet against each other, or clap or slap my hands from time to time. And yeah...I'm talking about mosquitoes.

I'm tired with the manual confrontation, so I resort to technology. I reach out to take the mosquito repellent and plug it to the socket. Flashing a small LED, it starts working and keeps the mosquitoes away. 

Summer has set in already, and it's beginning to get hot. Grabbing the AC remote, I switch it on.

The mosquito repellent needs just 5 watts of power, and the air conditioner requires almost close to 1000 watts of power. However, both of them are connected to the same power source. 

If the current supply gets cut off, both of them are not going to work. 

Our lives are quite the same too. But somethings makes us think that we need to be empowered by God only for the so called 'big' things in our life.  For the rest, we assume we can take care by ourselves. Little do we realize that small or big, we can do all things only by God who strengthens us.

We all face 'big' challenges in life, and at such times, we say …"Hey! NO way, I can't do that." If you're saying that, then ask yourself, "Was it really me, who did the other stuff in my life?" 

I have a chronic problem of faith-deficiency, and in each of those cross roads I remember this verse, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13

This time, the word ‘everything’ spoke to me. 

Though I was working on having faith for the ‘big’ things in life, I failed to realize that the strength for every ‘small’ thing I do is also from Him. It’s the same Source.  The same power supply. My real problem was not my lack of faith, but my inability to be grateful.

If I had realized that the ‘so far’ in my life is God’s hand, and not my plan, it would be easy for me to believe Him for the 'hard' things. But somewhere in my heart I tend to think, that it’s all been because of me. It’s my effort, my brain, my work,  and my resources. Therefore, I define what is 'easy' and I define what is 'impossible to achieve'.

There are these really beautiful verses in Psalm 44.

“It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm and the light of your face. For you loved them.” - 3

And the poet goes on write

“I put no trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.” 6-8

When we boast of God for the small things, we can be sure He'd let us see the BIG things as well. But we boast of ourselves in the small things, and struggle to have faith to see destiny come to pass.

It'll be easy to trust God in big things, when we remember that the small things we do is also because of Him. 

When Thanks comes first, Faith comes easy.

Learning to be grateful,

Callie

Image Courtesy 
http://www.comicrelated.com/news/3230/dc-for-december-09

What the Spider taught me..

It's hard for me to romanticize the rain, see beauty in the beetle, be charmed by flowers, or be taken captive by the moon. But, I like catching cockroaches and pulling their legs off. Also, when I smash mosquitoes, I take a moment to see its tiny body covered in its own blood - or mine. If all this counts..then I'm a nature-admirer too.. :)

There was this big cobweb in the elevator with a fat spider enthroned right at the center of the web, waiting to catch it’s prey. Now, the spider web was really large. It was almost the size of both my palms placed beside each other. Right above my head, hung this really complex construction.

I don't know how a spider weaves a web, but I'm sure that it definitely is a tough piece of work. However, for the all powerful me (who knows nothing about spiders or weaving webs) it would only take a minute to dust away that intricate and complex structure.

Absorbed in the pleasure of its own work, I bet the spider never realized my power to destroy its weak and delicate web.

Studying, working, earning, saving, getting accepted, building houses, castles, dreams, getting married, raising kids..Whew! our life is complicated too, and just like the spider, we sit on the throne we've built for ourselves assuming that we are in full control. Our webs are intricately complex and exceedingly beautiful. But quite often we forget that our web which looks strong enough to hold us, is actually flimsy and temporal.

It seems like we’re in control of everything, until our life comes crashing down on us. That’s when we realize that we were NOT in control. No wonder people seek God when all is gone.

It’s true that we were created to work, labor, relate and build our lives. But, we shouldn’t forget that there is a God, all powerful, all knowing, and all seeing God who holds the real control. Whatever we do is subject to Him.

Whenever I go through a rough patch, I say to myself, “Hey…Don’t worry, God is in control.” But when I started to get increasingly obsessed about planning and building the details of my own life, the spider taught me. “Slow down.. Be careful..Do you remember that God is in Control? And NOT you.”

I don’t believe in a punishing, unjust or unfair God. Yet, there are times, when I realize that I better be careful that I don’t overindulge in self-love, overstep His commands, ignore His direction, or get too busy to spend time with Him. Thanks to Mr. Spider who reminded me this.

"There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD. Proverbs 21:30"

Be thoughtful, Be Grateful. Remember He is in Control.

Learning to let go,

Callie