The woman met me at the door of the church building. Dressed in red, she was beautiful but “sad”. She seemed a little miffed that I had taken so long to get there. She barked at me “you are wearing sandals?” I looked at my feet and said “hmmm…I guess I am.” She continued to block the door.

I had just crossed the meadow from our dormitory at the church property. I had no pressing engagement.

Finally she relented and let me in. It was clear than it was just my few minutes of lateness that had her frustrated as she had watched me walk across the meadow from the other buildings (We had no appointment-she had simply shown up). She soon began to cry. “My life is falling apart” she said.

The Lord shared with me some things and I broke those open for her. She cried some more. The big question on the table was would she get it and do something with it.

I meet a lot of people in the course of a week. Not as many “new” ones lately as my life has me pretty well confined at home seeking employment, creating business. But a lot. Some of these new ones will change. Some will change because circumstance or situation dictates it. (Illness, divorce, job loss or gain, etc..) Others because they want to. Some, simply because they can.

The woman in the dream had an opportunity before her. To change or not to change. “To be or not to be.” She approached me in a harsh manner because she felt I should have seen a car and run across the meadow. But she was not my priority. My time with God was. What He was saying to me while I checked in on the young people in the dormitory. What He said about the flowers and the plants as I walked. (All of creation is crying out for the mature sons of God, but it is also whispering daily, “please”.) Not the car that had raced into our parking lot. (How many cars just turned around, took a picture and left?)

There will come a moment shortly after you awake, where you will be faced with a choice. “Good day or bad day.” This morning a friend goes to the hospital for surgery. He does not need me or others choosing a “bad day” but me choosing life, rest and prayer.

Urgency does not make God “move” any faster I have learned over the years. Especially when our “crisis” was known before the foundations of time.

You can be frustrated with others in your life. You can choose anger and belittle another. The woman did not intimidate me. She stirred compassion in me. The Lord handed me tools to help her.

So will you have the opportunity to be the answer to someone’s difficulties. Do not disqualify yourself with anger and frustration. Allow God to work His peace and joy deep into your being. The bigger things.

I like Twitter and Facebook and such and while the occasional tidbit of 140 characters can rock your world from time to time, it is the deeper work of the Spirit that usually changes you. God is not shallow in your life. You may “feel” that way because of your own approach to Him and to life, but He is unfathomable. Too deep to ever fully see.

Many were the ones who followed Jesus(John 6), gleaning from His times with them. But to the disciples these were but the “tweets” and Facebook posts of the day. The fast food of the moment. Today we might see a child with a McDonalds bag of fish filets turned into food for the multitudes (Would the multiplied food be as unhealthy as the original meal? Just curious…) and we could still never catch the lessons of carrying the baskets of left overs. Oh, you may well receive, but in this case, it was in the service to “family” that life got deep. It was in the moments later those just served, those just received and those who had heard walked away because the depth of the real Jesus was too much. (John 6:66)

And you will quickly move to the next step. Will you grow or will you go? Jesus had people that realized His way was life and they “hung” in there. It would have been easy to be the crowd to hear a “good” message, eat free food and move on to the next event.

Are you changing? Are you letting the depth of Jesus reveal to you His goodness, even when it connotes change? There are simply things I did not “want” to let go of. Fear, not understanding His love, trusting more in me. Those are all real things that happened to me.

Or are you “holding” off and finding if you were honest, there was more to your walk a year ago than today? Relationships and situations approached from the depths of life will cause you to be better, honing your skills, not walking off at the first sign of a “storm cloud”. (It is easy to be hungry after “fast food”.)

Consider this today. Am I allowing myself to be equipped to be a mature “Son of God” or am I just coasting?

Pretty sure this will not be tweeted!