Learning to Trust the Master

I get an email with excerpts from Max Lucado books. I love his stuff and it always makes me want to read more. Here is one I read today from his book Next Door Savior. It really spoke to me and I loved it.

A man and his dog are in the same car. The dog howls bright-moon-in-the-middle-of-the-night caterwauling howls. The man pleads, promising a daily delivery of dog biscuit bouquets if only the hound will hush. After all, it’s only a car wash.

Never occurred to him—ahem, to me—that the car wash would scare my dog. But it did. Placing myself in her paws, I can see why. A huge, noisy machine presses toward us, pounding our window with water, banging against the door with brushes. Duck! We’re under attack.

“Don’t panic. The car wash was my idea.” “I’ve done this before.” “It’s for our own good.” Ever tried to explain a car wash to a canine? Dog dictionaries are minus the words brush and detail job. My words fell on fallen flaps. Nothing helped. She just did what dogs do; she wailed.

Actually, she did what we do. Don’t we howl? Not at car washes perhaps but at hospital stays and job transfers. Let the economy go south or the kids move north, and we have a wail of a time. And when our Master explains what’s happening, we react as if he’s speaking Yalunka. We don’t understand a word he says.

Is your world wet and wild?

God’s greatest blessings often come costumed as disasters. Any doubters need to do nothing more than ascend the hill of Calvary.

Jerusalem’s collective opinion that Friday was this: Jesus is finished.

Such is the view of the disciples, the opinion of the friends, and the outlook of the enemies. Label it the dog-in-the-passenger-seat view.

The Master who sits behind the wheel thinks differently. God is not surprised. His plan is right on schedule. Even in—especially in—death, Christ is still the king, the king over his own crucifixion.

Can’t he do the same for you? Can’t he turn your Friday into a Sunday?

Some of you doubt it. How can God use cancer or death or divorce? Simple.

He’s smarter than we are. He is to you what I was to four-year-old Amy. I met her at a bookstore. She asked me if I would sign her children’s book. When I asked her name, she watched as I began to write, “To Amy …”

She stopped me right there. With wide eyes and open mouth, she asked, “How did you know how to spell my name?”

She was awed. You aren’t. You know the difference between the knowledge of a child and an adult. Can you imagine the difference between the wisdom of a human and the wisdom of God? What is impossible to us is like spelling “Amy” to him. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:9).

I keep taking Molly to the car wash. She’s howling less. I don’t think she understands the machinery. She’s just learning to trust her master. Maybe we’ll learn the same.

Hope you all have a blessed day.

Toy Drive for Children's

Time for an update. Today was a great date. We finally got a pastor at our church. I am so stinkin excited. His name is Griff Henderson and he seems to be a great guy. He even met Levi today and said a sweet prayer over him. He's definitely OK in my book after that.

I have been trying to get life ready for the holidays. I have been organizing gift lists, I started baking, and I am getting ready to sit down in a little bit and think about decorations and stuff. See if there are things I want to purchase during the black Friday sales. I have also been getting geared up for black Friday shopping as well. I always feel like the holiday season has begun when I get up and go shopping ridiculously early that Friday morning.

The other thing I have been thinking about a lot lately is Levi's birthday. He is going to be two next month. Can you believe it. I think back to being in the hospital that Christmas two years ago and I tear up every time. As most of you remember we did a blanket drive for Levi's birthday last year. So this year in honor of Levi's second birthday we will be collecting toys for ages two and under to donate to Children's Hospital. These toys will be given to the children on Christmas by Santa Clause. If there are any left they have a cart they push around and give the children toys when they are hospitalized. They will use the extra toys for this. If you are interested in donating some toys just call me or email me (cindy.bergren@gmail.com). We will take the toys up to the hospital on Monday December 22nd. We so appreciate how awesome you guys were last year with the blankets and how much you love and pray for Levi.

Speaking of our little angel. Steven and I woke up Thursday night to a sound coming from the baby monitor. It wasn't a hurt sound or an upset sound. It mostly sounded like singing. It took 45 to get him to stop "singing". (He is definitely a Bergren). This would have been so sweet except it was 1:30am. Bless my little angel's heart.

Well I am off to finish working on my holiday lists.

I know I haven't posted in a while to let you know what has been going on. Sorry about that. I will start with Levi since that is really why everyone checks in here. He is doing great now. We switched him from formula to Pediasure. The poor baby got all stopped up and didn't poop for a few days. Luckily when he finally did poop I wasn't home so Steven got to clean that one up. Steven said it was so bad he had to give him a bath afterwards.

Steven lead worship at church this past Sunday. I was very excited for him and I wish I could have been there. (We don't take Levi out this time of year.) He said it went well.

As for me I have been super busy. Getting ready for the holidays, Pampered Chef shows, Bible Study, and just regular life stuff has kept me hopping. I did attend the Women of Faith conference this weekend with some of the ladies from church. Here is a pic of us at breakfast on Saturday morning. We had a lot of fun. It was a great time of worship, fellowship, and learning. My favorite part was when Sheila Walsh spoke about having faith even when things weren't going well and it didn't feel like God was answering our prayers. We have definitely learned a lot about that the past couple of years. (Can you believe it has been two years.)

I have taken up a new hobby. (My friend Kara says I collect them.) I tried my had at making jewelry yesterday. Here are a couple pair of earrings I made. I have a couple other things I started, but couldn't finish because I needed more stuff. I think I like beading and will be making a few Christmas presents. I think next I would like to learn to quilt, but it may be a while before I take that on.



Well I think that is all for this evening. I am going to go watch Stargate and clean up the house a little before I hit the sack.

Sleep tight!!!

Tag

Well I guess I got tagged by my friend Jess. (At least I think I am the Cindy she tagged. If not I just started my own game. Ha!) Here is what I have to do.

1) Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer
2) Choose the 4th picture
3) Explain the picture
4) Tag 4 other people

So here it is:

This is a completely unedited picture of my dad playing putt putt. It was taken with Steven's cell phone which is why it isn't a very good picture. The pic was taken back in April when we took my niece to play putt putt when she came up to visit with my parents. Well that was kind of fun.

Now on to tagging someone myself. I only know of four people who read my blog who have blogs of their own and since Jess tagged me and Jonnelle was the one who tagged her then I will tag Amber and Melody. Lets see those pics!

11-1-08

I know you have all be anxiously awaiting to see the Halloween costumes I have been diligently working on. Well here it is. We did Super Mario Brothers. It was fun and Steven and I even won best contest at the costume party we went to tonight.

I also spent yesterday morning working on some cupcakes for the cake walk at the Fall Festival at church. They were totally inspired by some I saw on Fancy Flours. I must tell you I don't know how my friend Rachael decorates cakes and cookies all the time. So you can scroll down to see the picture. I put the picture way at the end of the blog so Melody doesn't have to see. (She has a fear of the item adorning my cupcake.) So I am warning you Melody don't scroll down.