Within the Lines

Grumpiness

Monday was starting out as a grumpy day for me; well, actually it started Sunday night.  You know that feeling of needing to scream or stomp or throw something, tho you know you can't, but you're looking for a good reason?!  About mid-morning (Monday), I had a sudden revelation break in to my meditation on reasons to be mad -- I didn't have to give into the feelings; I could pray!  So, I took a break from my frantic drivenness, went into my bedroom, plunked in a chair and waited.  God focused my attention on a book beside the bed, Surrender by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  I weighed my options for a bit -- did I want to read the book? "certainly not"  so did I want to remain miserable and infect everyone else in the house, collapse into bed at night hoping no one would remember in the morning?  "NO!  more-certainly not"  So I got up, got the book and opened "randomly" to a section titled "Signing Our Surrender".  It speaks of signing a contract of surrender to God.  She goes on in the next section to describe the joys of those who have willingly surrendered.  Included is this "Covenant Prayer" written by John Wesley, based on a Puritan text:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

Exalted for thee or brought low by thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thou art mine, and I am thine.  So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven.  Amen.

In the latest issue of World mag, the following is listed in Quotables (pg 18):

"I've had a very good life, filled with love and family and faith.  You can make life good, or you can make it bad."   Dianne Odell, who lived nearly her entire life in a 7-foot long metal tube due to complications from polio.  Odell, who despite her health problems gained a high-school diploma and wrote a children's book, died on May 28 at age 61 when a power outage stopped a pump drawing air into her lungs.

I chose (and choose) surrender.

Oh, and P.S.  Monday went amazingly well, so that I lay in bed that night marvelling at what God had done.