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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

A Small Victory

This morning Faith was bringing a banana, a big glass of ice, and a treasured Starbucks frap up to my room. Isn’t she the greatest? What a sweetie! Well, when she got to my door she put the tray down and knocked. I opened the door and she tried to pick up the tray again. She spilled it all. It all went airborne. Ice everywhere. The frap flying across the floor. Could this be the unpardonable sin? No ice. No frap (in a place where fraps, when they are available, cost more than in the States...if you can believe that). No breakfast? Then I did the unthinkable. I said “It’s okay honey, let me help you clean it up. No problem. Don't worry about it. Thank you so much for bringing to me.” No anger, no sinful reaction, no over reaction. And not only did I not respond incorrectly. I didn’t feel incorrectly. I wasn’t hiding my anger. I wasn’t hiding my frustration. I didn’t have any. I only had compassion for her and her predicament. She was trying to do something sweet and to do it well and it flopped. Now my appropriate reaction might not sound like a big deal to those of you who are more spiritual than me or who haven’t had to deal with the sins of anger and frustration in your lives. But it was a spiritual victory for me. God showed me in that moment how far He has brought me. I was so grateful to Him for the fruit of the Spirit that He is filling me with as I depend on Him. Now let me tell you I have a long way to go on my spiritual journey. I have not arrived. I have plenty of failures (read: sin) in areas where I know when I blow it. Then let’s not even talk about all the sin that I have that hasn’t been revealed to me yet. The closer I grow to my Lord the more I realize how far from Him (in character) I am. Yet He is faithful. He is completing the work that He started in me. I am grateful for that. I am grateful for the fruit He brings forth in my life when I know that my own reaction if He left me to myself would be so different. I thank Him for the small victories.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

May God bless you in
your very important
work for Him in Bolivia!!!

Anonymous said...

I can definitely relate, girl! It seems like the closer we get to Him, the less we can "get away with". (Not that we ever get away with sinning!) But maybe you know what I mean. Just keep on loving our Savior! I pray for all of you daily!
In His Grip,
Kathy

Anonymous said...

ACK!!!! Frap down the drain would have definitely tested me...roflol.


It is so encouraging to see God at work.

Thanks for sharing!

MJ

Sunshine said...

WOW - I LOVE this post! You handled it beautifully. I am bringing my frustration and anger to God SO often now that I am getting discouraged. I want to be consistent but find myself doing the very opposite. Thank you for this post - it spoke to my heart. God is faithful. Sunshine