*Phew* - III

Once again I'm grateful for divine protection... I'm beginning to write a lot of these sort of posts lately! I don't know why, but I think I've used up three of my lives in the last couple of weeks!

Anyway, so last night I was driving home at about 11pm. It was a quiet night, not too much traffic on the road thankfully... All of a sudden I saw a truck up ahead (about 50m away) that seemed to be in trouble. All of a sudden he started jacknifing all over the road, and his hazard lights started flashing. Now when I say truck, this wasn't one of those little delivery vans. It was a huge petrol truck, and it was coming at me on the wrong side of the road, totally out of control!

Thank God, there was a side street, and I quickly turned left off the main road. I went around the block and turned back on to the main street, to see if perhaps he was in trouble. The weird thing was, he was gone...

I'm thankful there was no-one in my lane up where he lost control, because they'd probably be dead, and I would have had to test out my first aid skills. Otherwise, if I had have been coming along just 30 seconds earlier, I'd be dead too. So I'm thankful to God - I guess this just means that He has more things on this earth for me to do, otherwise I could have been in heaven right now!

*Phew* - II

On Friday night, I was thankful once again for God protecting me... The light went green at an intersection, and I began to drive off (as I should). Suddenly, a police car came flying through the intersection (against a red light) with no warning at all! I nearly hit them. Thankfully, I braked in time.

But what's the go with that? My understanding is that emergency vehicles are supposed to ease out into intersections to avoid an accident. This one simply zoomed through, even though it was a blind intersection.

I'm just so thankful that I spent the night at church instead of in the police station (or worse, the hospital).

*Phew*

Last weekend I was in such a rush to get ready for the wedding that I left my hair straightener on when we went out. I didn't realise it was still on because the 'on' light is faulty.

I came home at the end of the day, and Mum and I could smell this weird rubbery smell. We were looking all around my room, sniffing, and I began to worry that something had died in there. Then I noticed the power point was on. The straightener! I had left it in a drawer full of clothes; I ran to the drawer and picked it up. It was still hot. I looked at some of the clothes and one of them had a brown burn mark on it; it could have easily caught fire.

What a close shave! I thanked God immediately, because I knew He had protected us from having our house burned down. That is how powerful He is - He can stop inevitable things like that because He has power over everything*. He really looked after us that day.

Thankfully I am not in charge of the world because I surely would have burned half of it down by now :)

*P.S. That doesn't mean, of course, that God forces people to do the right thing. This is why bad things happen: because people have a free choice; they can choose to do good or to do evil. But the Bible promises that one day God will fix the world and restore it to what it was meant to be.

My interesting day

Today was a fairly normal day - I worked on my assignments all day (as I have three due next Tuesday). But there were a couple of abnormal things that happened; allow me to fill you in.

Last week I had to resubmit an assignment (I've never had to do that before, and was quite perturbed). Weirder still, I had to resubmit it again. I was upset and annoyed, but I prayed about it and did my best. I got my mark back today. I get my marks online, so naturally I had this tense feeling of 'I-don't-want-to-know-what-I-got-but-I-have-to-click-on-this-link-anyway' as the page was loading, and then it was there. 89. What??? I expected 50, or maybe 60 if I was lucky, since I got it badly wrong the first time. But 89? I could have jumped up and danced around the room! Instead, I thanked God heaps. And felt really good.

Second thing... Mum and I were talking in the living room, when suddenly we heard a siren turn on and off really close. Mum looked out the window, exclaimed 'Police!', and ran to the front door. I, being equally curious, ran for the front lounge room window.

Outside our house was a scene one does not see every day. A policeman had pulled over a car and was arguing with the driver and two passengers. One of these passengers got sent away from the argument as he was getting aggressive. He was a wild kind of man - actually, he looked like someone from Bible times, if it wasn't for the fact he was wearing only a pair of black shorts that kept half-falling down. He was either drunk or high.

Things were getting more and more heated, so the policeman called for backup. Backup arrived very quickly, although in the meantime the policeman had to keep the men calm by placing his hand on his gun. The new pair of policemen arrived and approached the group authoritatively. One went to deal with the wild man - opening the door of the divvy van as if to say, 'leave, or you're going in here'. The wild man left, and the other copper got his book out to take down the names of the other two.

I'm not sure why this car got pulled over, but it was all very interesting. Personally, if I was one of the coppers, I would have drug tested the lot of them, searched their car, and if that failed, I would have done a roadworthy.

By and large, I think the police do a good job and deserve a pat on the back. Not many of us would want to deal with aggressive drug-affected people all day. Go the police!

Look at the birds

Where have I been all this time? Put simply, I've been off running a kids holiday program. But that's a whole other post...

What else has been happening? Heaps. But one thing I've been re-learning (or reinforcing?) this week is to do with just trusting God to provide my needs. I was a bit worried because I wasn't getting a lot of work, and the money was running low... but I believe that if God calls me to do something, then he'll provide the finances I need to do it. Anyway, I was encouraged today because work rang me at 6am. This was an answer to my prayers of the night before. And believe me, for once it was not a struggle to get out of bed for work.

One thing I'll add: don't sit there and think "Well, it's all right for her, she's got a job... she doesn't know what I go through". Well, maybe I don't. But I do know what it's like to do it tough. Our family's relied on social security for just about ten years, we're a single parent family, and I've been a student for what feels like forever. So I know what it's like to shop in the 'reduced to clear' section of the supermarket, and to enjoy a night out as a 5-times a year luxury. Not that I'm complaining, of course: In fact, I'm thankful that I've gone through those times, because it's made me much more thankful for what I have, and has probably improved my money-management skills.

A group of birds feed on someone's leftover Maccas meal.

Birds don't stress about where their next meal's coming from: They know that somehow, somewhere, someone will leave something behind for them. Perhaps we could learn a thing or two from these creatures...

So now that we've cleared that up, I encourage you the reader to reflect on how you respond when you get hit hard in the back pocket, so to speak. Have you discovered the incredible secret of trusting God to provide your needs when the going gets tough? Or do you instantly break out in sweat and acne? I think it's amazing that God says we don't need to worry for those things, just to trust him to provide. And believe me, or at least believe God's promises: He really does prove himself faithful.

P.S. To all you out there who are struggling, to those of you who battle doubt and fear about the future, my heart goes out to you. I know the place you're in - and sometimes I end up there myself. Just be assured that God understands your situation, and he cares. He just calls you to trust him, that's all; He'll deal with the rest.

Happy New Year

I welcomed the arrival of 2007 quietly this year. The night before I'd gotten pretty much no sleep, so I just relaxed, cleaned my bedroom and watched the fireworks on TV, as well as the Sound of Music, into the early hours of the morning. When I finally went to bed, I couldn't sleep (?) so I finally drifted off some time around 3am to the sound of classical piano and soft rain.

The fireworks in Sydney were pretty good this year - compared to other years I remember. Flashes of flame and colour burst from not only the Syndey Harbour bridge, but also from high-rise buildings. These were accompanied by glittering camera flashes coming from the crowd, which could be seen from the air. Ahhh... Maybe I'll have to actually go there one year.

What did you do for new year's eve? Do you do the same thing every year, or do you mix it up from year to year?

One thing a lot of us do is make new year's resolutions. This is mine: (it comes from a song by one of my favourite bands... DCTalk)

To see Him more clearly

To love Him more dearly

To follow Him more nearly...

Day by day.

And I do intend to keep this one. I'm thankful for the year that was past - I thank God it was a victorious one in many ways, a year of breaking through, a year of taking new ground. But this is a new year: The past is past - both good parts and bad parts are all in the past. This is a fresh start - a new chance to make a difference. What are you going to do this year, to change the world?

'Tis the season to be... thankful

Christmas this year was a little different to previous years. In the past our Christmas celebrations revolved around travelling to Dimboola or Horsham or wherever Grandpa and Grandma were. But now, since mine and my uncle's family are the only ones left, we had to figure out something different to do. And since both I and my aunty had to work on Christmas day, we spent the day in different towns.

Still, it was a nice day. We had a quiet dinner at home, and played Scrabble all afternoon. It was... nice. I will admit though, there was a different feeling. Maybe it's because I'm older every year, but I recall being increasingly bewildered at the 'silly season' and where it's heading. Hearing of heated arguments in shopping centre car parks over parking spaces made me wonder - have we forgotten the real meaning of Christmas? To me, it seems like people have become consumed with making sure the dinner's just right, and that the presents they have bought will be 'good enough' for the recipient, or at least equal to or better than those of the other gift-givers. And then, because most are not entirely satisfied with what they get, they take the receipt which was packed with the present, and line up on boxing day to return it to the store, so they can buy what they really wanted!

I don't think I'm the only one thinking 'THIS IS NOT WHAT IT'S MEANT TO BE!!'. That's why I think I really enjoyed the simple Christmas we had this year. Just a simple dinner, a few lollies, a few small gifts, and a bucketload of love. That is what I think it's meant to be. And why? Because of the why. The reason for the season - that's why Christmas should be about giving, not receiving. Because God gave - he loved us so much that he gave. He gave Jesus, because he cares about our messed up world and doesn't want it to be this way. God is the ultimate giver, and we would all do well to be a lot more like him. We would love others so much that we would continually give instead of looking after our own needs - we would give others our care, our time, our kindness - meeting their needs, and making a difference in their life. God gave at the first Christmas - so I'd encourage you to go ye and do likewise!

Finally, I just want to point out something really cool that happened at this Christmas - it was really cool, actually. We've been praying for communities affected by the terrible bushfires we've had this year, and lo and behold, on Christmas day, many of them awoke to find snow outside! We were praying for rain, but they received an even better Christmas gift - a white Christmas. And if you live in Australia, you'll know that that pretty much never happens. So thank God for this amazing Christmas miracle!