Do you like Spiders?

I ran into this beautiful spider while working clearing some metal. She almost surprised me when I moved a piece of metal and saw her 6 inches in front of my head. She was busy capturing a bee.

On Friday I was out working, it was humid, the sweat was glistening down my back, my shirt as wet as if I'd of run through a sprinkler, and I felt it. A cool breeze. The ushering in of the changing of the season. Granted it'll still be hot for another month, but we are starting to get breaks in the heat. Trust me, 91 is much more tolerable than 110. So I felt the breeze and the chill from the sweat turning cold and just smiled. With a light rain, cool breeze, fall was giving us an announcement that it was on it's way.

With Autumn, one of my favorite times of year, I get my inspiration back. Ginger says my inspiration is rain, for drawing, which is why I find it so hard to draw in Summer. I believe her. Ever try to draw a detail portrait with sweat dripping down your face? I've done this, and you can ruin a piece of art quickly. My inspiration is rain, the coolness of Autumn evenings where I can open up the windows and let the fresh breeze blow into the apartment. Ginger and I did that this weekend. Just let the Summer stuffiness out of the apartment and let the freshness in. The ole girl (the apartment) loved it.

So the week has been crazy, both work wise and ministry wise. Work was slow with my boss so he put me on standby a couple of days. Did that stop me from working? Noooo. My boss's neighbor, who owns a dirt pit, has needed help for a while. He tells me my boss, Mark, is my main job, take care of that, but if he doesn't need me then give him a call, so I did. He hurt his back getting bucked off a horse so he needs someone who can do what he can't. I've worked with him before. Funny, the first time I worked with him he laid down the law. He tells me if he catches me taking a nap, then I get docked an hour. He tells me about all the previous help before and the various stunts they've pulled or how slow, etc. And then I begin to work. That first day he watched me. He'd go off and do something and sneak around through the trees to see if I was working. I was clearing brush and trees. And he found I could work. And he found that whatever he asked, I'd do. No job was too menial, I've dug ditches, and chainsawed trees, and cleared brush and uncovered pipe and cleared fence line. He found that he had to tell me to take breaks. He has opened up about his life, I've opened up about mine, and the relationship has been a good one. He taught me how to drive his four wheeler. So this week I'd go and work for Rogan for a couple of days. Then, when Mark needed me, I'd work for Rogan from 7 to 9, go and work for Mark, then if I got off early, I'd go and work for Rogan. And then half a day Saturday I worked for Rogan. And now I'm, in a way, two neighbors right hand man. Mark had a couple of air conditioners he was just going to take to the salvage yard without tearing them down. Usually we do. I convinced him that we'd make more money on them if he gave me a couple of hours to tear them down. So in a light rain, I went to work. It made him probably 8 times more than what he'd get. And it paid my payroll and plenty more for him. For both these men I've become a sounding board, a counselor of sorts. One believes in God and is trying to find his way back to Him, the other has never really known Him. People ask me why I do what I do. Because my life is not mine, it's God's. I find that when I do what God wants, He provides for me. Ginger and I's bills get paid, I make a little extra (like this week), but the real joy for me is listening and sometimes giving advise to these two business men. Sometimes I don't talk, I just listen.

And that has carried over as well into the ministry I work with in Celebrate Recovery. The upper leadership is in a state of transition right now. Usually I'm quiet and reserved. Well, not this week. I sent an email out to the top leaders and expressed not only my opinion on things but giving my support to my mentor who people have been bashing. I also stated that our enemy is not each other, it is the enemy of God who is not flesh and blood. It was a rather long email but I felt God prompting me. Too many people were going to other people and complaining, so alot of stuff was being spoken about in the dark. Not anymore. As one counselor who is very dear to me (he married Ginger and I) said, this happens in ministry. It is a shame, but he is right. Things are getting on the right track right now but I've been on the phone ALOT this week. My role of sitting quietly in the background is, for now, changing. And I'll be getting to teach the lesson this week, on of all things, Forgiveness. Your prayers would be appreciated.

So as I look back on this week, I see God using me. It is not me, I've found, it is God. I don't look and say, I'm going to help or fix this person. I find myself saying, God use me how you wish. And He does in such a way that He gets the glory. I'm just human but I have a power in me that is greater than the world, God. And as long as I don't get in the way, He can work. What a mighty God we serve, what a mighty God we serve, angels bow before him, heaven and earth adore Him, what a mighty God we serve.



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