Longreach

5am Friday I found myself wrapped up in a big wool blanket. It took up most of the room on the passenger side, but we had to keep blasting the aircon to defog the window and my thermostat is very sensitive. I had pushed a pillow up between me and the door so I could get at least a little sleep after leaving at 2:30am. We were going to leave at 3, but Matt couldn't sleep as usual before a trip, so we decided to leave a little early.

As the sun began to rise we found ourselves basically in the middle of nowhere making our way down the dusty roads marked in places by the odd cattle station. It was brilliant.

There is such a marked difference driving down a dirt road than driving down a paved one. The dirt road makes you feel like you are a part of the scenery...all 900km of it. It's refreshing and relaxing, not to mention there isn't much traffic. Seth enjoyed the trip as well. I was amazed at how well he handled it.

Longreach itself is wide and flat and brown with the same colour river running through it. It made me really appreciate where we live on the coast and all of its green and water. But it does have a sense of beauty in its own way.

Matt spoke on Sunday at the church there (his little sister is the Chaplain at the high school there and a part of the church) and did an excellent job...I may be a little partial seeing as he is my husband, but I know good when I hear it.

Monday morning we headed back...this time at 1:30am...this time Seth wasn't sleeping. But it was perfect timing as we found a most gorgeous place for breakfast just as the sun was rising. We had never even heard of the place.

It was quite a tiring trip as Seth sleep very poorly while we were away, but we went away to bless others and despite our tiredness we came away feeling much more blessed ourselves.

Longreach

We are headed to Longreach tomorrow…over 900 km of dirt road.  It was about time for an adventure and it’s fantastic because Matt has never been there either.  We will be there until Monday and then we head back…yes, 900km on Friday then another 900km Monday, I hope Seth has a good time (has anyone had an 11month old that has enjoyed a 12 hour trip??).

Humility

Both of them were grubby, hard to understand and may have had a little too much to drink. They were what a lot of people would consider 'typical' aboriginals, and they walked into church several weeks ago.

One of them said hello to me. Thinking back I can't remember his name, although he offered it. I smiled and was very polite, but relieved to move past. As we were singing during praise and worship, I noticed they had sat up the back and I was relieved because it meant that others coming into church that afternoon would be more comfortable to sit closer to the front. I thought it was good of them to stay out of the way. Whether they did it for others comfort or their own, I couldn't say.

James 2:1-4. My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favouritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (NIV)

I've read this scripture many times before. In fact that is why God could remind me of it, because I knew it fairly well. I had read it in the past thinking I was glad that I did not act that way. And so there I sat embarrassed and ashamed. I only wished God had reminded me of it in time for me to do something about it. I wanted to invite them to sit up the front, even though one of them started belting out a chorus with lots of gusto, but little pitch. It was probably one of the best parts of the service. Afterwards they left before I could show my appreciation for them being there so I'm glad others showed them more kindness than I had. But at least next time I'll be more prepared.

Krispy Kreme Analogy

I am quite partial to analogies.  I love to find  random associations between two wholly unrelated topics.  And as a side note, I hate reading books with lots of similes.  ‘Like’ or ‘as’ are completely boring ways of describing something, and now with that said I’ll probably use one in my next post.

So I would now like to make a correlation between Krispy Kreme (hereafter referred to as K.K.) donuts and God working in our lives.

I just spent this past week in Brisbane, and for those of you who are unaware, Krispy Kreme donuts are only available in select cities such as Brisbane and Sydney (none in Cairns) in Australia, unlike America where they are so widely available.  So any time I go there I have in the back of my head the fact that I will get to eat some.  On my latest stay in Brisbane we went through the city a few times, but never with the opportunity to stop at a K.K.  I found this very disappointing as the week went by and was hoping that perhaps one of our friends might pick some up themselves…which they did not.   I soon realized my chances were pretty close to nil and I would just have to wait till next time.  I found, however, a sort of peace about this and thought God could actually make a way for me to have a donut, so I thought I would let him have a go.

…I will time out here for a second for those of you who think I am being a little over dramatic about a donut.  There are some of you who may be shocked and disgusted at the fact that I would ask God to get me a donut…and perhaps I shouldn’t, but He and I are pretty close and I thought I’d share my feelings with him cause I really really like donuts and Australians are not very good at making donuts (or pancakes).  Moving on…

The last night that Matt and I were in Brisbane we went to a wedding, and at the reception… of all the things the bride and groom could have chosen to use as wedding favours…they chose to use K.K. donuts.  That is right my friends, I got my donut…and not just one.  They put one on Seth’s (my 11 month old son) hi chair and he isn’t allowed donuts until he’s at least 25, so I got two. 

Now, this may not have been God’s divine hand moving in this situation, but that’s beside the point because after telling you that whole story, it doesn’t really matter for my analogy.

Bear with me…I’ve almost gotten to my point.

I thought about the fact that sometimes when we are looking to fulfil our purposes in life, we look for God to make them happen in the most obvious of ways.  And when they don’t happen the way we expect, we think that’s it, there is no chance of it happening.  But sometimes God wants to give us the desires of our hearts in unexpected ways… after all, a God that creates a world full of wonders such as the ones we see on earth, must enjoy continuing to use his creativity .  And it always comes at the right time and in the right place.  Not only that – when he makes it happen he doesn’t just give you one donut, he gives you two.