Let me start off by saying that God can use anything to say something to us. He can use a friend, He can use a book, He can use any number of things that don't even have anything to do with Him, directly. This includes fortune cookies. Yes, I confess I have a teensy belief that those little white strips of paper can be possible messages from the Lord. I'm actually not kidding.
If you're still with me at this point, then I have to assume you either agree with me, or you are just so fascinated by my departure from all things true that you can't look away. Back to my explanation. Here's the thing: I am always looking to hear from God. One of my spiritual gifts falls under the Teacher/Learner type, and so my nature is to be constantly taking in whatever I can. I crave learning as much as I need to get out what I've learned. And because I know that God is always interested in teaching me something, I try to keep open eyes and ears to my surroundings. If He wants to remind me of something, the Holy Spirit will show it to me in His creative, often unexpected way. So though I'm not hunting for secret messages from the Lord in a mystical way, I just try to maintain a teachable heart.
As a family, we happen to love the Chinese food. Tonight we went to a new place nearby with the exotic name of Red Velvet Asian Cafe. I don't remember seeing any velvet anywhere, but in addition to the yummy food, they have really great Jasmine tea and a turquoise tea set for sale that I'm dreaming about. As we finished eating, the owner, the most smiley Chinese man ever came over to bring our cookies; this place is high class because it gives you both almond cookies AND fortune cookies! That's exciting to me. But the fortunes were different. They were double sided, for one. Upon first glance, the side I saw said "Banana," with Chinese characters below it and an English pronunciation in parentheses for each character. Odd. Sophie opened hers to find it said "Watch." Nate's said "Driver," and Kevin's said "June." What??? We waved the kind man over to the table, and Kevin held his up and asked what it meant. He basically replied, in broken English, "June. It's a month. You know, June." No no no. Kevin says, "But WHY does it say June?" The man then proceeds to tell us that it is to teach you the word in Chinese! Chinese vocabulary enrichment! Have you ever seen that? Hilarious. So the next time I'm in China, in a taxi, and I need to say, "Driver, cool watch. Can you grow bananas in June?" I'm like almost totally prepared. Kevin thought we should go to Red Velvet all the time and save up tons of them so we can learn Chinese. You know, the right way.
That was a lot of rambling beside the point toward which I'm wandering, which is the other side of my fortune. It was not so much a message from the Lord as it was a validation of one of my most valued philosophies on life.
If you're still with me at this point, then I have to assume you either agree with me, or you are just so fascinated by my departure from all things true that you can't look away. Back to my explanation. Here's the thing: I am always looking to hear from God. One of my spiritual gifts falls under the Teacher/Learner type, and so my nature is to be constantly taking in whatever I can. I crave learning as much as I need to get out what I've learned. And because I know that God is always interested in teaching me something, I try to keep open eyes and ears to my surroundings. If He wants to remind me of something, the Holy Spirit will show it to me in His creative, often unexpected way. So though I'm not hunting for secret messages from the Lord in a mystical way, I just try to maintain a teachable heart.
As a family, we happen to love the Chinese food. Tonight we went to a new place nearby with the exotic name of Red Velvet Asian Cafe. I don't remember seeing any velvet anywhere, but in addition to the yummy food, they have really great Jasmine tea and a turquoise tea set for sale that I'm dreaming about. As we finished eating, the owner, the most smiley Chinese man ever came over to bring our cookies; this place is high class because it gives you both almond cookies AND fortune cookies! That's exciting to me. But the fortunes were different. They were double sided, for one. Upon first glance, the side I saw said "Banana," with Chinese characters below it and an English pronunciation in parentheses for each character. Odd. Sophie opened hers to find it said "Watch." Nate's said "Driver," and Kevin's said "June." What??? We waved the kind man over to the table, and Kevin held his up and asked what it meant. He basically replied, in broken English, "June. It's a month. You know, June." No no no. Kevin says, "But WHY does it say June?" The man then proceeds to tell us that it is to teach you the word in Chinese! Chinese vocabulary enrichment! Have you ever seen that? Hilarious. So the next time I'm in China, in a taxi, and I need to say, "Driver, cool watch. Can you grow bananas in June?" I'm like almost totally prepared. Kevin thought we should go to Red Velvet all the time and save up tons of them so we can learn Chinese. You know, the right way.
That was a lot of rambling beside the point toward which I'm wandering, which is the other side of my fortune. It was not so much a message from the Lord as it was a validation of one of my most valued philosophies on life.
A day is a span of time no one is wealthy enough to waste.
Yes!, I say to that. That is why I do a lot of what I do. That is even why I write for this blog, to make the most of my time and learning and even my pain while I'm here. God doesn't want us to waste any of it, and He will definitely multi-task your experiences in other people's lives, if you allow Him to. I cannot store up time. I cannot watch it grow like an investment. No one on this planet is wealthy in terms of time because we are not guaranteed a tomorrow. This one fact levels the playing field across humanity.
So how can we make the most of today? What does "making the most of the day" even mean in your world? Don't be tempted to think that changing 47 diapers is not as valuable as building a home in Haiti. God has put you in your roles with your people in your shoes for His good purposes. That's not to say He doesn't like to mix it up at times, but you just need to stop yourself if you feel anxiety about where you are not. It's easy to feel stuck...in a job, in a home, in a marriage...but the entertainment of that kind of thinking will only take you farther from understanding why God has you there. It helps to remember that His ways are so much higher than ours.
Wise man once say:
So how can we make the most of today? What does "making the most of the day" even mean in your world? Don't be tempted to think that changing 47 diapers is not as valuable as building a home in Haiti. God has put you in your roles with your people in your shoes for His good purposes. That's not to say He doesn't like to mix it up at times, but you just need to stop yourself if you feel anxiety about where you are not. It's easy to feel stuck...in a job, in a home, in a marriage...but the entertainment of that kind of thinking will only take you farther from understanding why God has you there. It helps to remember that His ways are so much higher than ours.
Wise man once say:
"So be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do."
Ephesians 5:15-17
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