My warm car

On Mondays and Tuesdays we have street cleaning from 8am - 10am.  When we first moved here I thought of it as a major pain.  Our other street had cleaning from 12pm - 2pm which meant that we were definitely up and about by the time those dreaded parking attendants made their way around to hand out small pieces of monthly household budget menaces.  But at 8am, my brain is hardly functioning if even really up and out of the bed yet, so the discipline it takes to get out there by 7:50am is rough.

But I have found a way to count it all joy.  (I say that with a small bit of cheekinesss as this is hardly a major "trial" or "tribulation" that needs spiritual justification, but thanks be to God to find the lesson in it!)  On these days I am forced to get out of my bed at 7:30am, to shake the grogginess and grumpiness off, and begin my day.  I bring my Bible to the car, with my notepad, and at first the car is FREEZING.  When I get into the cold car the grumpiness tries to make its way back into my psyche uttering such things as "why am I out here?  Why couldn't I have done this last night?  moan. groan."  But today I reminded myself that the car will warm up.  If I do what I'm suppose to do, turn the car on with all of the right knobs and just be patient, the car will respond.  It will create an environment that I won't want to leave, if I just give it a few minutes.

As I reminded myself to be calm, breathe, and have patience in the cold I likened it to what I am learning at church these days.  We're spending time in Romans 12, discussing how we are not to be "conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our minds..."  Sometimes I am frustrated that I don't wake up feeling all spiritual and one with God.  But we discussed the fact that our natural response to the world around us is in fact carnal.  It's based on our natural instinct to protect ourselves, keep ourselves fed, and to reproduce.  But to get spiritual, to get on a higher plain of worshiping and honoring a God you can't see, you have to turn the right knobs.  You gotta get your engine going by reading the word, praising and worshiping God, meditating in His presence.  It won't  just happen automatically, you've got to put in the effort.  In 2 Peter 1:5 it states "...giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge self-control; and to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love."  This scripture reminds us that it takes effort and discipline to go to a higher spiritual plain, but oh how warm and cozy it will be as we ascend, creating an environment from which we won't want to depart.