One morning just after Timmy had brought home a new hive of bees,
I had to go out to move a pan of honey off the deck.
This is how I dressed up--rain jacket, thin scarf over my face, and big leather gloves!
At the same time, I wasn't all that afraid of the bees.
When I was a very wee girl, I had sat on a porch swing beside an old man at an assisted living home
where my mom was a helper to the cook for a few months.
A bee had come buzzing nearby and I had panicked.
But the old man had said, "If you sit very still, there is no reason to be afraid of it.
See!"
And he let the bee land right on his finger, where it sat safely and serenely--and he did not get stung!
That left an unforgettable impression upon me as a tiny little girl.
I was never again quite that afraid of bees.
When Timmy was working with the bees the other day, I was up close and never got stung.
There is a lot to be said about being still.
Being still and letting the bees buzz.
Whatever the bees are in your life--
pesky annoyances, hurtful grievances, hurt feelings, unfair treatment and criticisms, life's messes--
and those things that go hopelessly on and on and never are resolved.
It isn't easy to be still.
I read this evening in Fitzwater's blog about perseverance. She wrote,
"Interesting that the Christian experience rests on the word “persevere”, which means
to stay under pressure.
Stay under the water. Don’t fight the seaweed.
"What I want is for [my troubles] to go away and to quit...and
to go back to easy. That’s what I want. (Well, not really, but you know
that quitting-would-be-easier-than-doing feeling, right?)
But God doesn’t pull Jonah up out of the water. He keeps him right underneath there –just sends a big fish instead.
"God might want us to stay right where we are. Let it be hard. Feel the pressure of responsibility bearing down.
"Can’t breathe under it all. So we pray. We call out for strength.
Jonah says, “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.
From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my
cry.” (Jonah 2:2 NIV)
The distress doesn’t go away. There is just the answer in the middle of it.
Being swallowed up by something large and unexpected. Being swallowed into a place where there’s air but not freedom from the pressure all around.
And right there from the fish Jonah sings of grace and thanksgiving and salvation.
“When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."
"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."
(Did you get that?)
But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you."
http://www.christyfitzwater.com/thankfulness/overwhelmed-but-with-oxygen/
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