Answered Prayer

For those who celebrate the Christmas season, January is often a financially challenging month. Once you receive your bills, you realize (yet again!) that you’ve overspent your budget.

I had barely begun planning our payments when our dryer started making this weird, piercing noise. It was signalling the end of its existence. I thought with great irony, “What perfect timing!” Almost simultaneously, the cell phones of my husband and my son accidentally broke. Didn’t they say bad luck comes in three’s?

Unexpected expenses come up, often at the most inappropriate time. Unfortunately for us, we don’t have a buffer for such. Swiping the plastic card seemed the easiest option – but again, more bills to pay! What else could I do? I remembered to pray…fervently, intensely. And I actually stopped writing at this point as I waited for God’s response.

No, I did not get a cash windfall. But, the noise from the dryer became more tolerable and would actually stop after a few minutes of use. We found old cell phones to replace the broken ones. Not exactly the answer I was hoping for, but there’s a lesson to be learned here. In a world of instant gratification, God is teaching us to live with what we have (and what we can afford).

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. (Philippians 4:11)

Blue Monday

Today is Blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year. Mondays are always depressing but today, the temperature also happens to be -19 ⁰ C. With the wind chill making it feel colder, it’s difficult to find anything positive about this day.

Now I understand why bears and other animals hibernate in winter. How I wish I could do just that. I want to crawl under my blanket, sleep and wake up in spring.

Here in North America, a lot of people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder during winter. SAD (what an apt acronym!) is a type of depression that scientists say is caused by the long, dark nights and too little sunlight. Waking up when it’s still dark, staying in the office the whole day, and then going home when it’s already dark really does not allow you to see much sunshine. This, plus dealing with the frigid cold, walking in deep snow and wearing layers of clothes every day, can affect you physically and emotionally.

The cold and dark weather really slows down your activities. And just as well, after a hectic Christmas season. Maybe this is God’s way of forcing us to pray more, reflect more, meditate more. As Christians, we should be joyful people - not focusing on the long, depressing winter but anticipating the warm, comforting days of spring.

He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men's ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Magic Slate

One of the best toys I had as a child was a Magic Slate. For those too young to know, it is a piece of dry erase board the size of a notebook, with plastic cover. You can write on it with a stylus (a piece of wood shaped like a pencil). When you’re tired of it, you simply lift up the plastic cover and the writing disappears – like magic! I used to enjoy writing things on it that I didn’t want anyone to see, and lifting up the plastic cover when someone tried to look. There are newer versions of this toy, now electronic, with erase or delete buttons instead of a plastic cover.

We often talk about starting on a clean slate. Since it is the start of the new year, most of us want to start fresh, start anew – put the past behind and just look forward to the future. But this is easier said than done. For someone my age, I have already accumulated too much emotional baggage. I want to await with great hope and anticipation, but fear and worry weigh me down. I want to have a happy outlook but past hurts, resentments and sins haunt me. So how do I wipe the slate clean? Alone, I can’t do it. But looking at the cross, I know that Jesus has already done it for me.

I want to use my magic slate this year – erase all my fears, anxieties, hurts, resentments and sins. I will be hopeful. I will be happy. I will be blessed. As I mark a major milestone in my life, I claim that this will be my best year yet.

“You will show me the path to life, abounding joy in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever.” (Psalm 16:11)