Bloggin' It

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

When up is the only direction you can go


You know those days...those days that all you can think about is the next thing you have to do...the next place that you have to be....the endless list of to do's.  It is always on those days that you can't find a parking space in the garage.  You go up and up and up and up and the whole time you think "UGH...I don't want to have to park on the top.  I don't want to have to go down all those stairs and this is taking forever.  This is such a waste of valuable time."  But then you get to the top and what you thought was such an inconvenience ends up to be such a blessing.  At the top of that parking garage is a beautiful image that had you not gone to the top you would have never gotten to see.
View of Charleston, SC from the top of the MUSC parking garage  

God is that way...he slips those precious moments into the rush of the busiest days to make us stop, reflect, and realize how truly blessed we are.  I have definitely found that it is in those times when I have that endless to do list and the anxiety of getting things done is just about to choke me one of these precious moments gets slipped in, and if I don't let myself get in the way it is the biggest blessing I could ask for. 

Today was one of those days. Today is the last day I work before a much needed break for the Christmas holiday.  It is no secret that I LOVE MY WORK...in fact it really isn't work for me...it is my passion. All that to say that in less than 48 hours I will have a house full of family and friends for our annual Christmas Eve celebration.  Of course in true McDaniel fashion we don't just put out a few finger foods and call it a night.  Like most things we go BIG or we don't go at all, so my stress level, good or bad, is usually at def-con level 5 by this point.  So I have all of these things on my mind and I am trying to focus on just getting through today to get to tomorrow, and all the things I need to do.  

But first I have patients to see...get to the top of that parking garage so to say.  Thankfully it is right in these moments when I might be losing sight of how blessed I am that my sweet and compassionate God gives me a real loving knock to the head.  Today that knock came in the way of a sweet little person and his precious family who invited me in their home...their sacred space to tell me their story and share their lives.  That precious opportunity to sit in that home with this family and talk about that amazing little person they are caring for and all that goes into that was just what I needed.  We talked about the hard stuff, the fun stuff, and everything in between.  This isn't a traditional situation and it isn't what any of them planned, but it is perfect.  It is full of love and hope, and it is a perfect home that came out of an imperfect situation.  It should never be a surprise to me that in these moments I am awed by the grace of a God who knew long before this family did that He would knit them together to be exactly what they needed and exactly what I needed.  I walked out of that visit with a new resolve that everything doesn't have to be just right to be perfect.  There is all kinds of perfect in all the imperfect.

I had planned...insert hysterical laughter here...to have this Christmas season be so intentional for my little family. (Please refer back to that blog post about doing advent every night up until Christmas and making this season one to remember.  Now I am really laughing out loud.)  But you know what I have to give grace to myself and to the fact that we didn't do an advent every night, but I can truly say that now more than ever before I am so thankful for the time I have and whatever that looks like.  I am thankful for these 3 people I share a home with.  I know that we will never have it all together, but that's okay.  God takes our imperfections and knits us together to be perfect for each other.  All we have to focus on glorifying Him and doing all we do with a loving spirit.  With that the focus, no matter the imperfections, we will always be exactly what He calls us to be.  He delights in our imperfections, because then we have no choice but to give that to Him so that He can pull together the impossibly imperfect and make it positively perfect in every way!  

2 Corinthians 12:9
And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

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