Pressure Cooker

I admit I am old enough to remember my mother using the kitchen pot called a pressure cooker.  It was a big pot -- we were a big farming family and oh could we eat.  The main thing I remember about that pot was the little circle thing on the top that would whistle and wiggle when it got going.  And every single my mom got ready to open that pot we would all have to stand back -- just in case the contents would blow up.  My mom knew the precautions to take, what to do and what not to do. 

And one guarantee --- everything that came out of that pot was good!!!  Really good!!!

This morning was Bible study.  Pastor Martie's topic was "under pressure."  Sure hit home with me.

Why?  Well, let me give you a quick overview . . .

With nearly everything done at Michael's, but not everything and with no more funding coming in we need to schedule a House Blessing!  Maybe that doesn't seem like pressure but combined with the rest of life . . .

My neighbor lady continues to lose her strength due to the cancer being everywhere and her son's car isn't fixed yet and today she was being moved to a nursing home.  Her son is still here and trying to run his church and his family -- all of which is 2 hours away.  I am trying to help all I can but . . .

Don's house still sits day after day with nothing being done but a day every now and then.  No ones fault -- it's life and local people just do not volunteer for local work.  I am beginning to think that's a fact of life I am just now learning!  With so much work still needing done it's pressure . . .

I am trying to plan and put together the upcoming mission trip to Maui.  People laugh when I tell them the location.  We don't have much time to plan.  They want to be open by September 1st.  I don't have the funding to go ahead and purchase a plane ticket.  Neither does anyone else who wants to go.  I am standing in faith but . . . still pressure. 

I need to get a newsletter out to let people know what we have going and what we are planning to hopefully raise awareness and funding.  But the cost of just the stamps alone is a tough one.

The local Community Organizations Active in Disaster organization is on my heart and there is so much I want to bring to it.  I need to invite more of the faith based community and I need more of those who have already requested to be a part of it to come to the meetings.  The problem?  This organization is dependent upon volunteers and so . . .

I just received an urgent prayer request that one of our friends in church who has been battling brain cancer for a couple of years now has just been admitted to the hospital and might have had a stroke.

Our music worship team leader at church just learned his cancer has returned.

My dear friend, Carla, continues to lose her battle with cancer and has missed church the past couple of weeks.

My youngest daughter continues to reject me, her sister and her brother as family!  That is painful for all of us.

And my father and brother are in danger of loosing all their crops to this draught.

Am I being a pessimist?  No, just telling it like it is. I like to think of it as being "human" and having a bunch of emotions going in all directions!

So . . . when Pastor Martie taught on pressure ---- I thought of that pressure cooker from my days of being a little girl.  And I thought of the good things that came from it.  Which made me think of God.  Just before King David became King he had the toughest time of his life.  The blessings were right behind the pressure.  The good food was just behind the pressure of the cooker.

It is my prayer that the blessings are just behind my feelings of pressure.

I know God is God and I know the calling He has placed on my life and I intend on continuing in that calling --- pressure or no pressure.  I stand on His promises of provision and protection and the rest of the long list He give us.

But . . . I am still a woman with alot of things going on and I still feel alot of pressure at this moment!

Just being honest and just sayin' . . .

Until next time . . .  2 Corinthians 12:10 "For when I am weak - then I am strong."   Susan and Monty
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