Crack Smokers and Repentance

What do they have to do with my day? Everything!!

Tonight, I did my taxes for writers talk at Words for the Journey, which was awesome. Beforehand, Sharen and I went out for dinner. I arrived at the restaurant early, and while I was waiting, I noticed an interesting sign on the door: "No crack smoking allowed." I, of course, had a heart attack, because those of you who know me know that I frequently accuse people of smoking crack. I rummaged through my bag to take a picture, because you all know I was going to blog about it. And then the light changed and I realized the sign said, "no CIGAR smoking allowed." Oops.

Today was an interesting, but odd day for me. You need to know that I began my day mired in sin. You know the day is not a good one when you wake up knowing your thought life is full of sin and you just don't have the strength do anything about it. I finally kicked myself in the butt around 1, realizing that I had too much to do to be doing the stupid stuff I was doing and I had to get into gear. So I put my day back on track, did what I had to do, and moved on.

God ended up really blessing me tonight. So many prayers were answered, and yet... I had a sense of unease. On the way home, I cranked the worship music and just worshipped my little heart out. Then, this song came on, Sorry by Paul Wright. Wow. It brought me to my knees. Not a very good thing when you're driving. Fortunately, I ended up in my driveway in time. God spoke to me so clearly about my need for repentance. We just sat there in my driveway talking, and I felt so awful for a day gone so wrong.

His words of love whispered back... my day had been redeemed and ended with incredible blessings. Not because of anything I'd done, but because of His incredible love for me. Wow.

Tomorrow is a new day. I'm going to mess up. Not because I want to. Not because I mean to. But because I'm me. It reminds me of a couple Joy Whitlock songs: Don't Look Down and Testify. And yet, God is so amazing, because He's here, supporting me as I continue down the road. I just have to keep looking ahead. At Him.

Oddly enough, tonight's journey with God made me think back to when I thought the sign said "crack smoking" instead of "cigar smoking." We misread a lot of things. My original sin today began with misreading something in my day. I kept misreading until I found myself mired in something that only God could rescue me from. As we look out and read the signs in our life, we need to focus on an important fact I forgot about until late tonight: God's character. If everything reads contrary to God's character, we're not reading correctly. Like tonight's sign... of course a restaurant isn't going to have a sign about crack smoking. That's just silly. I should have known better.

I'm so thankful for a God who's patient with my illiteracy.