Brandelyn: Lyrical Contradiction

Shriveled and balled up

Matthew 12:9-13

This story is like a lot of those little stories in the Bible that you read past and don’t always see the significance the first, or second, or third time around. This morning I was doing my devotion time in the book of Matthew chapter 12 and almost missed out on it until my Bible commentary said this…
“By nature, our hands are withered and we are unable to do anything good ourselves. Christ only, by the power of his grace, curse us; He heals the withered hand by putting life into the dead soul, works in us both to will and to do, for with the command, there is a promise of grace given by the word.”
I had to read this a couple of times this morning and then I got it. There have been times when I felt this nudge inside of myself to call someone, or text someone, or give someone a hug. Or I will get an idea in my head that hounds me until I write it down. There have been plenty of times when God has given me words of encouragement to give someone and I always feel that tug of conviction when I don’t do it. However, it wasn’t until this morning that I had an Ah ha! moment and realized that not only does the ability to do good works for other people come from God, but also the desire.
Think about it, when you are heavy in your spirit, and bogged down with the problems of everyday life, it is the hardest thing in the world to do something for someone else. It is hard to even pick up the phone to see what they want! But the Holy Spirit within us is what gives us the ability and desire to do good works. I know this is going to sound a little corny, but just work with me. LOL.
Spiritually we are like balloons. We start out flat, shriveled and stuffed in a bag with a whole bunch of other balloons that look just like us. But then God chooses you, out of that bunch, He begins to blow his breath of restoration, peace, kindness, joy, humility, love and all of the other good things that makes God, God, and you begin to fill up and swell. Then what happens, you begin to rise as your spirit lifts you closer to God. And then what happens, now that you are full and uplifted, you are able to serve your purpose which is to represent God who filled you with that air (His spirit) and serve other people and bring joy to them. Have you ever seen anyone receive a balloon, or even really see a balloon and not smile or comment on how they want one? They bring joy, they bring you back to your youth when your parents took care of everything and all you had to do was sit back and know that everything is taken care of. Well guess what? You still have a parent who will take care of everything, IF YOU LET HIM….
If we focus on what we are supposed to be doing, spending time with God, serving others, bringing joy to the lives of those around us, seeking His kingdom first, then He will take care of everything we need. He will take our shriveled and balled up little selves, pluck us from the bag, because He sees something special in us, fill us up and allow us to do his work. But the most important thing about that balloon is that there is a string attached to it which always keeps us connected to Him and prevents us from going off on our own. And unlike myself when I was a kid, God won't let it go.

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“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” Mother Teresa

I came across this quote the other morning as I was doing my daily devotional. The chapter I was reading at that time was talking about being a servant and doing things for other people for the sheer desire to do something for someone else.

We all have down days, but we have to be very careful not to let those down days build up and start feeding off of each other and turn into depression. Depression is a sickness that is rooted in selfishness and too much idle time to think about everything you don’t like about your life. Which is why when times get hard and our cloudy days seem to run one into another we must turn ourselves into Smile Givers. We can evade depression by doing nice things for other people, by being smile givers.

            In our society technology has taken over relationships. I talk about this all the time, but one of the top five things on my pet peeves list is cell phone etiquette, or lack thereof. I can’t stand it when we are out to dinner and people are texting or on their phones or when you are trying to have a conversation with someone and they start texting or when you are in the car with someone and they are on the phone…I could go on but you get my drift. People spend so many hours on the internet, playing video games, texting that we barely know how to have relationships with each other. A friend can be really going through something, but we hardly take the time to look in each other’s eyes anymore to see what’s hiding there. There are needs all around us, and I’m not just talking about the huge needs that surround us daily, but I’m talking about simple, easily fixable needs, but we are often so busy, or so focused on our gadgets and distractions to notice.

            My challenge to you is to start being a smile giver. Do something nice for just one person every day and see how much better you feel. If you want to be happier in life, start sowing seeds by doing something nice for someone else and watch how your attitude begins to change. The key to happiness is not in how much money we make or the titles behind our names or the degrees we have or the stuff we accumulate. The key to happiness is what you pour into someone else’s life. Once more people begin to realize this, I believe our world would slowly but sure start becoming a better place.

Peace y’all

B

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            I live for days like this. Where everything is simply everything and my mind is quietly at peace. God has been teaching me a lot lately. A lot about myself, things I need to change, things I need to grow in, things I need to learn and improve on. God has also been teaching a lot about patience and planning. If we haven’t met, Hello My name is Brandelyn Nicole Castine and I am a habitual planner and perfectionist. I like things to be smooth, go the way I need them to go, when I need them to go and how I need them to go. I don’t like dealing with other people because they have a tendency to slow you down, hence my passion for one the most solitary art forms ever, writing. This way can be good, if I don’t let it overtake my life and relationships which is often does, but every day, I learn a little more and I grow a little more.

            Recently I have found myself more than little freaked out about what is going to transpire in the next few months. I haven’t heard anything from the grad school I applied to, my job and income ends in the next two weeks, (Praise God but yikes!) and I have found myself on this emotional rollercoaster because I can’t move forward until I know what is going on with grad school. The Land of Limbo is never a place I want to visit and here I am camping out exactly where I don’t want to be. Yet, instead of freaking out I have learned to take a different approach.

            I have been taking a break from book promotion.  Instead of freaking out because nothing is happening, I have learned to take joy in the fact that I am actually getting a chance to rest and quiet my mind enough to start book number four, which is now officially underway. Instead of worrying about what is going to happen next, I have learned to be grateful for the moment. I found myself truly thanking God today for allowing me to be able to handle all of the business I was able to handle today including paying my rent, in full on time. I have been in a place where paying my rent seemed like the biggest hurdle in the world and today I was able to do it with ease. That is truly a blessing. Instead of getting freaked out about not knowing whether or not I am supposed to be moving to New York month after next, I thank God that He has a plan and purpose for my life and as long as I stay obedient, humble and sensitive to what He is telling me to do, everything will fall into place.

            I guess the moral of the story is I am learning to get over myself, learning to stop tripping myself up and learning to let go and truly trust God. I don’t know what the future holds, but it’s not my job to know. God has not let me down one time since I’ve known Him and there is no way He will stop now. So right now, in this moment, I am learning to breathe, reboot, and let God drive while I take a nap in the passenger seat. (Again, if we haven’t met, I am completely narcoleptic when it comes to transportation, planes, trains, or automobiles, your girl is knocked out!) The bible says quite clearly that I have no need to fear, no need to worry about my life, what I will eat or drink or wear. God is my provider and tonight, I am (literally) going to rest in that and wait (patiently) in eager anticipation of what’s to come. For a perfectionist control freak stand point, I have to say that it is amazing to let someone else take the wheel while I just sit back and ride….

Peace Y’all

B

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