You know that stuff's not good for you...

Is this for you? The clerk asked, lifting the twelve-pack of sugar-free soda out of the grocery cart and placing it in the back of my Toyota 4-Runner. You know that stuff's not good for you, don't you? She continued as she finished loading my groceries into the car. Studies have shown that diet drinks actually make you gain weight, she added, reaching up to close the hatch door.

Stunned by her audacity, but not gifted with an ability to construct a witty or sarcastic response, I simply thanked her for her help, got in the car and began backing out of the parking space. Did that really happen? I thought. 

I'm sure it's true – the sodas aren't good for me – but we aren't friends or even acquaintances. Why would she think it's okay to share that piece of information with me or that I would be receptive to hearing it?

I watched in the rear-view mirror as she returned the empty grocery cart to the store – the one that sold me that pack of not-good-for-me sodas, and I wondered if I'd just been captured on Candid Camera.  

I may have been taken aback, but the conversation was so surreal that it made me laugh. And truthfully? I was grateful for the help. It had been a long day, and I was only two days past my last Rituxan infusion (to treat my rheumatoid disease). I didn’t feel well and I was exhausted. I don’t normally ask for help with my groceries, but she had noticed my weariness and walked across the parking lot to help me. When I wrote in my gratitude journal that evening, I counted her help as a gift.

But it also made me wonder, have I ever been that bold? 

Scripture tells me that when I speak into the lives of others it should be, only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear (Ephesians 4.29), and in a spirit of gentleness (Galatians 6:1). And I have to admit – my words are sometimes neither gentle nor do they offer grace.

I need to remember: Is what I want to say appropriate? Have I earned the right to be heard?  Do I have a relationship with this person that is loving and nurturing? Am I being sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s promptings or am I just wanting to share my opinion? And if I'm speaking truth for all the right reasons, am I doing so with gentleness, and will my words build up and give grace? 

Bucket lists and a precarious clinging...

I'm not a fan of bucket lists - but I do have a mental list of moments or scenes I hope to capture with my camera one day, and a falling leaf is one of them.

It would appear that I could scratch that capturing off my list, but these photos are deceptive.

Difficult to see, the leaf had apparently been snagged by the thin line that anchored a spider web to the ground, and as the leaf twirled in the breeze, it appeared to be falling from one of the deciduous sweet gum trees in my back yard.

Eventually, a strong gust of wind freed the leaf from the spider's spinning - ending my falling leaf photography session.

As is often true about what I see in nature, an analogy began to take shape as I captured the leaf spinning in the wind - like the cypress trees that circle our pond and are the first to sprout new growth in the spring is a picture to me of the trees planted by a stream of water in Psalm 1.

This falling leaf reminds me of friends - good friends - who appeared to be happily married, but were apparently only caught up and hanging on by a thin thread that was easily broken. And their marriage tumbled.

I think of other friends - close friends - who appeared to have an unwavering faith, but when God didn't answer their prayers the way they thought He should, the fragility of what they had been clinging to was revealed. Their beliefs cracked open were washed away in grief, and my friends wandered from Truth.

I think of me - when I'm self-assured and looking good, but clinging to my own abilities and strength. Is it any wonder when I fall flat on my face?

Be careful what you cling to these photos tell me. You might look pretty twirling in the breeze, but when the inevitable gusts come around, you'll wish you'd been standing on the rock.

And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock..."  ~ Exodus 33.21 

They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer. ~ Psalm 78.35