Take a Deep Breath

I'm talking to myself with the title of this post, but if you want to play along, feel free.

Today was one of those days. I was go, go, going from dawn to dusk. Well, maybe not as early as dawn and later than dusk, but you get the picture.

There was one point in the car this evening that I pulled these out of my purse in desperation.

According to the back of the bottle two small gumballs are the 21st century equivalent to Calgon. You don't even need the bathtub anymore, ladies. Just chew a couple pieces of gum and "you'll experience a tingly taste sensation throughout your mouth as Origins own peace makers, including Peppermint, Basil, and Eucalyptus, release bursts of calming coolness. Within minutes, tense jaw muscles relax and unclench, gnashing teeth grind to a halt and the band of tightness around your head loosens as pressure, tension and the weight of the world melt blissfully away."

WOW.

Sign me up.

Strangely, (although they do help a little) even these "amazing" morsels didn't take away all of the stress in my life and make everything better. I'm saddened now at the thought that I had the presence of mind to grab some gumballs from my purse, but it did not occur to me to pause and draw near to the One who truly can make the "weight of the world melt blissfully away". Peace is not in a bottle my friends. It is not in a candy bar, a tv show, a computer, a clean house, a cup of coffee, a new wardrobe, a perfect body, a padded bank account, in another person, or "fill in the blank".

Did I name your thing? You know the place or thing where you are searching in vain?

It is not there.

YOU WILL NOT FIND IT.

Try here.

Seriously, try it.

I don't know where all of that came from.

I sat down to write a post about the 15 minutes I had to transform myself from the harried Mom who just dropped her son off at soccer into pulled together and refined faculty wife who can hold an intelligent conversation with a well known and respected artist. 15 minutes is NOT enough, by the way. 15 years is not enough, actually.

But hey, it seems God had another message in mind for this post because I can promise you that last bit did not come from me! It speaks to me, though. And that's all I have to say about that.

But before I close, I do want to share one more thing. My friend Sharon and I got together today and she encouraged me to seek out this verse. When I sat down to read it, I was filled up.

"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Colossians 1:9-14

WOW.

Sign me up.