Crushed

This is the kind of prepackaged food that I love to find at grocery stores...

You've likely noticed that the boxes are crushed.  They look tampered with.  Undesirable.  Maybe almost like garbage.  So why in the world do I love to find boxes like these?

Well, what you may not be able to see is the price tag labels on the boxes.  The 12-pack boxes of Wheat Thins are reduced to $0.75 and the Skillet Basics dinners are reduced to $0.35.  Hello!  At those prices (less than half of what I'd normally pay) these products are valuable to me.  Yes, the boxes look contorted but the contents are still worth something.

In the same way, when we get crushed by life's circumstances it makes us more valuable to the kingdom. Why?  Because we've been through some stuff, survived it, and can now help someone else get through that same stuff and survive.  2 Corinthians 4:8 says

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

The next time you face a trial that presses you on every side, remember that God is allowing you to be crushed in order to craft you for His purposes.

Poor Chips

The other day I was asking my 12-year old son what items he would like for me to pick up at the grocery store for his school lunches.  He asked if I would get some snacks like the ones I normally get.  They come in individualized bags but are sold separately instead of in a multi-pack.  I find them at the grocery outlets I shop at and they are anywhere from 4 for $1 to 8 for $1.  The price is on a sticker attached to each bag.

"Already got them on my list," I told him.

Then he said, "Yeah, the kids call them 'poor chips'."

"Why do they call 'em 'poor chips'?" I asked trying to get a sense of whether this was bothersome to him or not (which is tough to do with his personality).

"I don't know."  His typical answer.

"Wait, are these the same kids who trade food with you at the lunch table?"  I countered.

"Yeah.  They'll be like, 'I'll give you my drink for your poor chips'."

Just then my 13-year old pipes up.  "Yeah, my friends like the snacks that I bring for lunch, too.  They always trade me for their school lunch stuff."

When I was growing up 25 cent chips (or 13 cent chips for that matter) would not have been cool.  But in the same middle school cafeteria that I sat in over 25 years ago what's cool has changed.  Imagine that!

My Many Miracles

I haven't talked in a while about my mortgage.  After all, the original aim of this blog was to show anyone who may read it the miracle I am trusting God to do--paying off our mortgage in five years.  We are currently in year two.  September of 2014 will be three years.  The mortgage balance is at $91,332.42 and I am still trusting God.

The reason that I can post about so many things aside from my mortgage is because God is so good!  He constantly blesses me, teaches me, and rebukes me as a good Father should.  If I were to look only at what I don't see happening in my mortgage balance, I would be missing all that I do see happening around me on a daily basis.  My neighbor's two-year prayer answered.  My seven-year old's sorrow in lying.  Finding freedom from fear.  A warmth inside of me that cannot be taken on a 20 degree day.

I look forward to seeing how and when God will pay off my mortgage, there's no doubt about that.  But in the meantime I am content in seeing the daily miracles that remind me of His faithfulness.