Last night I got off the phone with a session member (Presbyterian Church's local governing body) with a new monthly job: writing an article for the newsletter.
I had volunteered to do something else to help out but they were feeling the need to have more content in the newsletter and asked me to take it on instead. And wasn't I just saying a couple of days ago that I wanted to become a better writer by writing more? God is kind of funny sometimes.
So I got off the phone and my husband (who will henceforth be called "John"* to simplify things--hooray, I gave him a name!) said, "honey, you need to learn to say 'no'."
In a lot of ways I know he's right, I tend to be a good doobie and take on what people want me to take on. Then (once I get off the phone, finish hitting send on the email, leave the meeting....you get the idea!) I start to think, "oh man, what did I say I'd do that for?"
So I got off the phone and John said, "honey, you need to learn to say 'no'." And at roughly the same time I though to myself, "oh man, what did I say I'd do that for?"
But, you know what? I actually believe that sometimes God puts opportunities in our paths and we can learn and grow if we just say, "yes!"
I know from repeated experience that lots and lots of things good in my life came about because of other far more random actions or events (both happy and sad) that were crucial to creating the situations where the good things happened.**
And I also believe that lives are supposed to be lived for other people and not for our own benefit alone.
Rationalize much? Maybe--but then again, who knows what good may come of saying "Yes!" to the opportunities that arrive?
* I had a lot more trouble coming up with a blog name for my husband than I would have expected. His suggestion was, "just call me 'John' and be done with it"--bingo! done!
** During one of our recent and frequent snowstorms, John, Rose and I watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire--now that was a good movie! I have a suspicion that finally watching it in 2011 makes us the only three people on the planet who hadn't seen the movie before 2011, but if I'm wrong and you haven't seen it before 2011 either? highly recommended.
So what exactly is the movie about? In short it's about this:
Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees, How did he do it? A) He cheated. B) He's lucky. C) He's a genius. D) It is written.And so, here I go, doing a bit of writing myself--lets see where (if anywhere) it takes me, shall we?
Answer: D) It is written.
