Soaking Up the Spills...

I had one of those weeks last week where it seemed like I was dropping just about everything I grabbed and spilling every cup or bowl within the reach of my elbows!  Have you ever had a time like that?  The final straw came around nine one night late in the week when I got up from the couch to wash the dinner dishes and prepare my wife’s evening medications.  As I stood and turned to say something to Piper, my elbow bumped up against a glass of ice tea on the side table and sent its contents across the floor and living room furniture!

My immediate response was to yell out some words that expressed my discomfort with the situation, but instead I caught myself and just stood there for a few moments as I collected my emotions and my thoughts.  The first thing that I figured out was that I was on my own on this one.  My usual number one helper… Mandie our Australian Shepherd… was not going to be interested in ice tea so I was going to have to clean it up all by myself!  I could have sworn that when I glanced across the room at the dog laying on her chair… that she was laughing at me!

Once the red in my face began to clear, I reluctantly ambled over to the kitchen and grabbed a dish towel and the sponge.  I tossed the sponge onto the side table where most of the liquid had congregated figuring that it would soak it up.  Then I got down on my hands and knees and dried the floor with the towel.  I’ll share a little hint with you… don’t use a white dish towel to soak up black tea!  I am still trying to get the stain out!  But I wasn’t thinking real clearly at the moment and was exhausted… so I just grabbed the most convenient cloth I could get my hands on… Hummm… lesson learned!

Once the floor was dry I turned my attention to the little table and was happy to see that the small yellow and green sponge had absorbed all the spilt liquid.  Oh… did I mention that my left sock was soaked as well…  Earlier in day I had knocked over one of the cups with an once or so of Piper’s meds in it and that same leg was still sticky from that event… so combined with the tea… well, let’s just say a shower was due.  Just something else to add to the evening’s schedule before I could finally go to bed!

I had to laugh this morning as I continued to study from Colossians 3:2 in The Message Bible where it tells us to: “Pursue the things over which Christ presides.  Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you…”  My immediate translation of that section of the scriptures was “Jim, don’t be like a sponge absorbing everything that is spilt around you!”

My years with Hewlett Packard and their spin off, Agilent Technologies that I had mentioned in yesterday’s blog (8/4/15 “Like HELLO!”) where we manufactured precision electronic test and measurement instruments also gave me the antithesis of that thought in that we should instead be like a satellite or antenna that is programed to only  send or receive specific signals, frequencies or transmissions.

As Christians we have become new creations that now have the capability and the hope to look beyond what our five senses might be telling us.  We are not limited to what many may consider to be the obvious (and only) solution that is right in front of our noses!  But nevertheless, at times it is way too easy to get so absorbed with the events of our daily lives that we miss the adventurous frontiers that lay unexplored in the kingdom of God.  It is just a lot easier to go with the flow and sit in the middle of life’s events… like my sponge and the spilt tea the other day… and simply absorb what is flowing all around us!

Have you ever been there and done that?  I must admit that I have found myself guilty of that a time or two.  I thank God for individuals in my life like Piper who would love me enough to help me snap out of my lethargy of the moment and assist me in expanding my horizons beyond the confines of my senses by being led of the Spirit of the living God!

So what will it be for you today?  Will you be like a sponge and simply absorb what is spilt around you… or be adventurous and allow the Lord to expand your horizons and just possibly make the impossible possible for you?  Have a great and adventurous day!  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What or Who’s POSSIBILITIES am I expecting to EXPAND my life’s experiences today?”