Wildfires

It's been anonymously brought to my attention that I haven't blogged in a month or so. My sister...I mean my anonymous commenter...speculated that not much has gone on in my life lately. Of course if there were a sarcasm font, it would have been the typeface she'd used.

Yesterday when I left work I was assaulted the moment I stepped outside with an intense burning odor. I would have guaranteed you a house was on fire within two blocks of where I stood had I not been told by a co-worker that the stench was actually from wildfires in Minnesota. As in above Wisconsin. Over 400 miles away. I didn't really believe it until I experienced it first hand.

I pondered it all the way home.

My day to day life has been a lot like a wildfire this past month spreading over miles of terrain, burning hot and fast and requiring urgent attention. In fact so much of how I've been spending my energy at work has been determined by the biggest fire that it was getting a little hard for me to see the forest through the trees.

And I work in a church.

It's been all hands on deck and a flurry of activity as we have launched a new ministry year that just happens to coincide with the new school year bringing extra urgency to my need to master the circus that is my calendar.

It actually feels a little hot to the touch.

I do not know how women can work full-time and take care of a family. I am more baffled by how single parents do it. And I am outright bewildered as to how I have become the mother of a high-schooler and two junior high students already.

I do know God has given me the strength to manage sickness, school activities, band, football, parades, hospital visits, assorted clubs, work, family, mid week church activities, cooking, cleaning, shopping, and a multitude of meetings.

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:11-12

Today the air was a little clearer.