the other shoe

Life is good right now.

Makes me a little anxious actually.

I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

This is the first time in my adult life where life is moving forward, no storms are being lived through, no tormoil. In fact I'm finding myself more and more at home in who I am, and realizing all different things about myself and others. It is such an abnormal feeling, I'm not sure how to describe it.

I was mentioning to someone this past weekend about life going well, yet waiting for the other shoe. Her response was she's been waiting for the other shoe for seven years. Not to be a pessimist or anything but today as I thought back over this, I thought her time of "plenty" is nearly up.

Seven years has a lot of Biblical significance. What I thought of was back with Joseph and seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. To get through the famine, to survive, the people had to rely on what they had stored away.

I think that is true in our spiritual life - there are seasons in our lives where there is plenty. Plenty of God's blessings, plenty of joy-filled moments, etc.

BUT then there are seasons of life wherein famine strikes, and we struggle through. Maybe we are in the Word of God, but none of it we can eat, it seems dry, tasteless, life is maybe hard, etc.
Yet during this season of famine we are supposed to turn to the storage shed, because during our season of plenty we stored up those moments of God's faithfulness and God's blessing. We stored in our heart the Bread of Life, so that on days during the famine we would have something to turn to.

So rather than waiting for that other shoe to drop I choose to be thankful for life and the goodness of life and the mercy and grace of God.

I count and store away in my heart...
the people in my life who bring joy into it just by being who they are.
the body of believers I'm surrounded by and who I'm privileged to serve our God with.
the new friendships I'm developing and that have formed.
finding a place to belong, and actually belonging.
a job that is so much more than a job.
living out my identity.
and MUCH MORE!!!