A Swift Kick in the Butt

Sometimes I "need a swift kick in the butt."  When my uncle wanted us to straighten up, he would ask, "Do you need a swift kick in the butt?"  I was scared of him.  And he wore cowboy boots.  I was pretty sure that if I ever did make him mad enough to kick me, his cowboy boots would make it hurt all the much more.  He had a point though, sometimes, we do need a kick in the butt to get us back in our place...or...well I suppose that is another topic entirely!

I got a swift kick in the butt this weekend.

I complain a lot.  Mostly about my roommates.  Or about not getting my own way.  A lot of times, those 2 are linked. 

This weekend my pastor gave a fantastic sermon on Jacob.  Jacob messed up over and over.  Deceiving his father, taking advantage of his brother, stealing a birthright......on and on.  And yet, God showed up, just where Jacob was and spoke intimately right to Jacob's heart.  Jacob was in a place...with no name and a stone for a pillow.  He was supposed to get all this inheritance and this great blessing and he was in a nowhere, no name place and he was completely alone...except that he wasn't.  He was in a place where God talked to him.  And when Jacob awoke, he said, "surely God must be in this place." 

Jacob did get his inheritance, blessing, land, animals and his relationship with his brother patched up.  But in that place, that night, he had the dream with the angels going up and down the staircase and God talking to him and his heart's perspective changed.  It didn't matter that his pillow was a stone or that this place was in the middle of no where.  God was there. 

Sometimes we are in the middle of nowhere and we think there are things that should happen that will help get us far from where we currently are...and nothing happens and we sit in the dark in the middle of nowhere and think, "God, where are you?!"  He is there.  And our no where becomes the in-between where we were and where we are going and our blessing is that much sweeter because of our no-where-in-between.

Sometimes I hate living where I do and with the people I live with.  I honestly hate it.  But when my heart is right.  When I look at God instead of everything I want and everything that is happening that I don't want...none of it matters.  And my roommates are sweet.  My circumstance and my place don't change; my perspective and my heart position do and that changes everything. 

I played with Deacon today.  I taught Kizzy how to catch a baseball and told her her Grandpa Jody would have been proud of her.  Jenny brought me popcorn.  The list goes on and on.  Things that probably happen every day but because I am so focused on my stone pillows and the nameless place I am in, I forget that God is here.  And God makes all things sweeter.  Even me.

The sermon helped me remember that my heart has GOT TO BE FOCUSED ON GOD.  If I forget that, I'm no different than the deceitful, thieving Jacob alone in a no name place wondering where God is.  If I remember to keep my heart focused on God, I can be like the abundantly, blessed Jacob.  Thanks God for the swift kick in the butt this Sunday.