The Blend

Every week I send an email to the people in my church who attend a service that I'm in charge of called The Blend. I started sending this email out every Thursday originally because it would remind them to plan to be in church on Sunday, but I've really enjoyed using the forum to share little snippets of how God is working in my life. I'll probably be including those emails in my blog. (That way I'm almost certain to have at least one entry a week) Here's what I wrote today:

This week I was reminded of Jesus' words in Matthew 6:25-27:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father fees them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

Since my kids are on spring break, Anne took the girls up to North Carolina to visit my sister and her family. I stayed home so that I could work. (Somebody has to write this email, right?) Now, it's been quite a long time since I was a bachelor (our 15th anniversary was yesterday), and since Anne usually takes care of feeding me, I don't have to think about fixing food for myself very often. Of course, I wasn't all that concerned. I mean, I can live for a pretty long time on cereal, instant oatmeal, granola bars, and ramen noodles. That diet helped me get through four years of college. But, on my first night of bachelorhood, something happened that made me smile. As I pulled into the driveway after work, my stomach was growling and I realized that I hadn't thought about what I was going to eat that night. I stopped by the mailbox and went into the house. As I was sorting through the mail, I saw it. It was a flyer for Crisper's restaurant. I'd received something that looked like this before and I remembered that there had been a coupon inside it the last time. Now, I have to admit to you that I'm a coupon user. I know that most people are too cool to pull out the ol' coupon, in fear that the person in line behind them might think they're a cheapskate, but I've never been hung up on that stuff. I figure, if I can save money on something I was going to buy anyway, it's like free money. Why would I pass that up? Anyway, back to the story...As I opened up the brochure, the words leaped off of the page at me. In big, bold letters there was a coupon that said, "Buy NONE, get one free!!" Well, I have to tell you, that's the coupon MOTHER LODE! I mean, you can always find a coupon that says, "Buy one, get one free." But if I was only going to buy one anyway, that does me no good. But, to find a coupon that gives you something for FREE! Now, you're speaking my language. Well, I'm sure you can guess that I turned right back around, fired up the Honda and enjoyed my West Coast Chicken sandwich and bag of chips. Now, to most people none of these events would have been significant. In fact, to me it was just sort of fun. But, as I was enjoying my sandwich, I had to smile, because I knew that God was smiling with me. I knew that God was looking out for me, and that it was His way of letting me know that He even cared about the little things. It's so easy to get caught up in worry and wonder if God is watching over us. But, if you pay attention, you can see His hand in a lot of the little "coincidences" that come our way. Oh, by the way, tonight I'm having dinner at Jersey Mike's. You guessed it, "FREE regular sub. Your choice. No purchase required." Yeah, God loves me. :)