80% of your job success will be showing up for work. So began a clever, possibly somewhat desperate, employment listing in a newspaper. This very day, I considered not showing up for my volunteer commitment at our elementary school. The roads were fine. I was not sick. During the night, though, Pain had showed up, visiting me for the second night in a row, causing me to lose precious, energizing sleep. Mid morning, Temptation showed up, sympathizing with how weak I felt, suggesting that I inform the teacher of my inability to meet with her class today.
Fortunately, Faith also showed up, telling me that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, reminding me that when I show up, willing to bless others, I have His help. Considering that the students have shown up today, the day when Mrs. Frisch comes to their room, and that the teacher has assured me that the Winners Walk Tall program is important and effective, I made the decision to show up, puppet in hand, to urge the boys and girls to Read! Read! Read!
A second challenge showed up. While my tired mind struggled to focus, my seventy-ninth weekly blog post was begging to be written. Hoping that a salad and some tea would bring a boost of energy for my school visit and a topic idea for my blog writing, I ate lunch while another Great Courses lecture on sentence-building played on my i-pad.
Having learned that some readers of Thoughts Collected by Lisa anticipate each week’s post, I didn’t want to procrastinate or disappoint. Experience told me that reaching the two goals of visiting the kids and completing a post today, trusting God’s strength in spite of my weakness, would result in a sense of satisfaction, a heart full of gratitude, and, hopefully, a peaceful night’s sleep.
Blessings showed up.
- When I looked out the kitchen window this morning, there were six gray squirrels, one of them white, scurrying around our yard and enjoying sunflower seeds from our bird feeder.
- A purple finch, enjoying a visit to our neighbor’s feeder, carried his pretty song to our roof and sang into our chimney, delighting me with a fireplace serenade.
- The idea of writing about Showing Up came to me between lunch and my school visit. I had time to jot down my ideas so this could be prepared and posted today.
- As I was waiting for the first graders to return from their computer class, an eleven year old girl popped into the classroom and shared her excitement about dance classes with me.
- I made enough soup last night to have it for dinner again tonight, allowing me to finish this post as my husband was arriving home from work.
- I remembered Pastor Wayne Ickes’s response to a question about ministry success, “Show up for work.”