This cute corgi, Jade, teaches me.  We had had our park walk then I stopped by the office.  This is what I was met with returning to the car.  In the front seat...ready to go home, probably for lunch!  This girl lives for food. So cute.

I took on an additional activity that crowds out time to write.  It was a purposeful decision that has me questioning whether Missing Pages book will ever be finished, let alone come to first draft.  

A handy Christian excuse concerns God's timing.  "Maybe it's not His timing", I think.  Well, maybe it is and I am doing what I do when faced with a hard thing; finding something new and exciting to take up my time.  Then I have a convenient excuse.  

Am I waiting for creative explosion to surge through my brain and writing will become effortless?  In what universe do I live?  Writing is hard, boring and....so hard.  Corgi waiting for a meal is hard.  But she trusts me to get her home, put the food in the bowl so she can have a full stomach.  

Do I trust God in the waiting, hard times?  Trusting him looks like going to the computer, opening a book chapter that needs edits and just doing it.  Every day...for weeks... until that first draft is done.

God, forgive me for confusing your timing and patience for a license to procrastinate.

Help me to write every day for the glory of Your story.

Nancy B

Serving in Obscurity

I find that as I get older life gets busier.  Yes, I volunteer for many of the activities I am involved in; my choice, my busy-ness.  How do I think about this brisk pace?  Positively and without regret...most of the time.  The phrase I 'heard' from my Heavenly Father in our car-talk was, "Serve in obscurity".

...the state of being unknown, inconspicuous, or unimportant.

If I complain about the pace of life and grumble about being stressed and tired from responsibilities, then I am not serving in obscurity.

Serving in obscurity doesn't mean showing your husband your half page of 'to do's' for the day.  It does not mean tooting your own horn when you make connections with friends who needed that word of encouragement.  And certainly not moving the conversation to yourself when you aren't asked.  All of which I do on a regular basis.  How about you?

Jesus served in obscurity.  

After Jesus's glorious transfiguration witnessed by Peter, James and John, Mark 9:9 states,  "As they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead."

Who does that?  Jesus did.  

He warned his disciples as the time for his arrest and crucifixion neared.  He knew the suffering and glory ahead of Him.  Yet this...

His disciples knew where he was headed but argued about which of them was the greatest among his chosen twelve.  Not serving in obscurity.  Absolutely not.  And this...

"From there they (Jesus and His disciples) went out and began to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it."  Mark 9:30.

Jesus served in obscurity.  How much more should I?

Teach me, Lord, for I am needy and insecure.  I don't know how to conduct myself in this world.  You are my Savior, my King - the One I turn to for ALL things in life and death.  Thank you for Your example of serving in obscurity.  Amen!