I had just moved out of state and was trying to figure out a new daily routine having just added a new part time job to my Uber driving income. I had gotten up at 5:00 AM to get to 6:30 Mass, grabbed a cup of coffee and scone from the local coffee shop and started picking up Uber riders until I went home to get ready for my 12:00 to 5:00PM job after which, I drove until 9:30.
I received a phone call from a girlfriend in another state at about 10:00 asking for my “brain.” She had somehow hit the wrong combination of keys on her computer making her cursor disappear. I’m not sure why she thought I could help her fix it, especially with me being 500 miles away. She must have been desperate to call me! Unless she remembered that I had done the very same thing years before, but who can remember how to fix those things? Not me! Even so, she and I have different computers. Not to mention, after a day like that, I wasn’t sure how much “brain” I had left. Under the best of circumstances, I would really need to see the computer to MAYBE figure out something.
I opened mine to see what I could figure out. Without being able to see her cursor, she was pretty much in the soup and unable to do anything I suggested. She had already called a computer service, but they were unable to help her either. We hung up and I went to bed.
I received a text early the next morning: “Lots of begging last night. Finally restarted computer and went to bed. Getting ready for church this morning. Went into computer and (smiley emoji, thumbs up emoji).”
As I reflected on what happened, I wondered what I would have done. As it is, each day is a moment-by-moment reliance on the Lord. Even so, my accuracy is somewhat hit and miss. In fact, that night I was asking Jesus to help me with a work schedule I could manage to survive and still make enough money to meet my obligations. He has always provided for my needs, and I have never been without. Even so, I struggle with walking the tightrope of being responsible to work and allowing Him to provide and trying to control everything myself to make sure I have enough money, or whatever else.
For also when we were with you, this we declared to you: that, if any man will not work, neither let him eat. ~2 Thesalonians 3:10
So, when a situation comes up like what happened to my friend and I’m beating my head against a wall and nothing I try is accomplishing what I need, I know one of two things is happening.
Either the enemy is seeking to frustrate me, make me upset and even make me angry at God because He’s not making things work like I want them to work; or Jesus just wants me to stop and do something else.
Maybe there is something else I should be doing, maybe I need to call someone I’ve been needing to talk to, or maybe Jesus wants me to rest with Him. Read the Bible. Write in my journal. Lie down. Take a nap.
I don’t know how long my friend worked on her computer. I know it had to be a good while, even before she called me. But when I think of all her anxiety, frustration and “begging.”
Why should she beg? Why should any of us beg? We are children of the King, aren’t we? Only the “dogs” that sit on the floor waiting for the scraps to fall from the Master’s table beg. The Children of the Master sit and eat their fill.
And behold a woman of Canaan who came out of those coasts, crying out, said to him: Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David: my daughter is grievously troubled by the devil. Who answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying: Send her away, for she cries after us: And he answered, saying: I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel. But she came and adored him, saying: Lord, help me. Who answering, said: It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs. But she said: Yea, Lord; for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters. Then Jesus answering, said to her: O woman, great is thy faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt: and her daughter was cured from that hour. ~ Matthew 15:22-28
We are not dogs. We are His Children. Children don’t beg. Orphans beg. We are not orphans. We are not forsaken. We are not abandoned. Children have full plates of provision before us because it is our birthright.
I would like to think I would have stopped–sooner than later–stepped away from the situation, and taken a couple of calming breaths, Thank the Lord for His help in guiding me to exactly what I should be doing and how to do it. Then ask the Lord if I should be doing something else. Then, do that. Or maybe I should just shut off my computer and go to sleep–in peace.
Be anxious for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. ~Philipians 4:6
