Out of the Wilderness

In the Bible today, I read Psalm 78, the number reminding me of the year I was born, 1978. The chapter, although maybe not familiar, covers an idea or a pattern that is familiar to you if you’ve every heard any stories about God’s people in the Old Testament.

Basically their story goes like this: They screw up over and over. Then they screw up some more. Just when you think they’ve got it under control, they screw up. Here and there they get it right, but then they mess things up again.

So this particular chapter in Psalm rehashes some of the history there. How God reaches down to rescue them from slavery, deliver them from enemies, the parting of the Red Sea, He feeds them, gives them water to drink from rocks, basically takes care of them. They are thankful for a second, then guess what happens next? They screw up!

They get to wondering where God is, why He isn’t helping them, doubting His ability to help them when they think they need it most even though He literally brought water from a rock. Or food from angels. Or split a giant sea.

So then I get to verse 38. “Yet He was compassionate…” It jumps out at me. After all the doubt and what I would call disappointing behavior, God has compassion.

I find so much encouragement there! Gosh, He’s so much better than me. He is amazing for relenting on His anger, for having patience with people that have such short memories. He must’ve felt like He was walking on egg shells with them! But hello, only a couple of chapters before it says, “Your arrows flashed back and forth. The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; lightning lit up the sky.” So I don’t think God recognizes egg shells anyway.

He will do what He wants, when He wants. And let’s be grateful a lot of times that includes having compassion! My prayer today is that He will yet be compassionate. In all our messiness, in the moments I choose anything other than trust, Lord, I beg you to have compassion on us, on me, and love us still!

Happy December!

-Out of the Wilderness

 

I don’t normally cross promote between this blog and the one I use for my book stuff, but I’m just too excited not to right now. As some of you may know, I published my first children’s book last January. You can find it on Amazon here.

But today, this very day, I’m announcing my second book… The Brave Bamboo and well, the excitement level is just bubbling over, I can’t help it.

So to tag along with going public with The Brave Bamboo, I want you to have a chance to win the very first signed copy. Now, it won’t be out till early 2017 so for the entire month of this month, you can enter as many times as you want to the drawing which will be held the first week of January. All you gotta do is purchase my first book. See what I did there? Shameless promotion of both books! 🙂 But in all seriousness, I value anyone and everyone that buys my book because hey, it’s your money and if you’re willing to take a chance on something creative I’ve done, well that just makes me so happy inside and out. It’s a big deal.

So for every one “Big and Small” book you buy, you get one entry to The Brave Bamboo signed copy drawing. Buy two books, get two entries. Three books, three entries… and so on. Feel free to comment with any questions and most of all, have a super Christmas season! Here’s the video promo about this…

-Out of the Wilderness

If you’re like me, saving $5 can feel like a win! Check out the link below and we both can save $5 on Amazon…

Use my link to get $5 at Amazon for signing into the Amazon App the first time: https://amazon.com/mpr?referralcode=BEN6405N&ref_=mpr_tr_ss_wl83857_T1AP

No, this isn’t a post about the recent U.S. election. If you’re somehow still hungry for that sort of thing, just scroll your Facebook feed and you’ll be plenty satisfied.

This post won’t be as heavy as all your friends’ opinions on the impending doom/bright future of the United States. Not as heavy, but SO MUCH MORE SCARY.

Have you ever ventured out to an estate sale? If you haven’t, you must this very weekend. Even if you don’t buy anything, you’ll still be glad you went, once you get past the possibility that you might be BUYING A DEAD PERSON’S BELONGINGS.

Dun dun dunnnnnnn!

That’s not even the scary part! We’re getting there…

Estate sales can be full of entertainment, wonder, and insightful conversations. Chat it up with someone there, or the people running it, and they usually know a lot about your city, items you see in the house, or they somehow know your cousin. Funny how even big cities can feel like small towns sometimes.

Get to the point, man! OK, sorry, once I get to talkin’…

Over the years I’ve seen some extremely unique, eclectic items. The most recent that I picked up was this lamp.
Cool, right? But unfortunately, for every amazing discovery, there’s a frightening one. Now we get to the scary part!

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN!!!!!

Behold, exhibit A.
Need I say more? This was from a recent estate sale and no, I did not ask anything at all about it. I even tried to avoid eye contact.

I’m sure there’s a cute and harmless story about it and it’s not a Chucky-like doll that, when the night falls, turns into a freaky, big-foreheaded,chaps-wearing, plaid-shirted, killing machine.

Also, hey, you gotta share this post within 24 hours of reading it or else the doll will show up at your house TONIGHT!!!

-Out of the Wilderness