My 50th blog post! I really enjoy blogging. Sometimes it's hard to start a new article, but once I do start, I'm in my element! But just before my fingers flit over the keyboard, I often wonder what I have to say. Whether I have anything to say at all this time. I pray, look out the window, search what's in my heart. Suppress the temptation to watch an inspiring YouTube video when I'm sitting in front of the computer and can't think of anything. (I only allow myself to do that after my writing work for the day is done.) I like to be creative. That makes me alive. It's exhausting, but it's well worth it! Where does God work in my life? What have I experienced lately where God wants to tell me something? What is on my heart? What am I grateful for? Where am I currently growing? Where does God correct me and show me that there is a different way than I previously thought? Which people and stories inspire me? What Bible passages are haunting my head? What worries are difficult to let go of? Where can I be a blessing? What makes me happy and enthusiastic? Writing helps me to perceive what is there. To meet God in my everyday life. To recognize the little things.
My husband and I have just been at a beautiful lake in Salzburg while the children are on camps. A friend invited us to stay with her at her rented apartment. Matthias and I went hiking in the nature reserve park and explored the lake with our kayaks. Reeds and moor, overgrown streams, birches, vastness, peace. It was beautiful! But we also found a lot of plastic bottles in the water. Matthias got the first one out of the water lilies and then we made a challenge out of it: Who collects more bottles out of the water? That was also a good paddling exercise! Due to the heavy rain the week before, many bottles have probably been washed into the water, or people have simply thrown them overboard. We collected 14 pieces, 7 each, so it ended in a draw. 4 wine bottles and 10 small and large plastic bottles. Now that part of the lake where we have been, is more beautiful and natural. That's a nice thought! I have often enough admired the beautiful landscapes and only complained about the occasional garbage lying around. But I haven´t done anything about it and just walked on. I would never leave garbage in nature and I don't understand how others can be so reckless. But it's much better to do something about it than just complain! Sure, you get your fingers dirty. And get spiders in the hair when you fight your way under the branches to get to the bottle. But it makes the world a little better. And who knows where sometimes unintentional garbage from me ends up, which someone else clears away for me?
I'm also wondering how it is with verbal or emotional garbage in our environment. People are unjustly insulted or treated unkindly. Unhappy people often leave a trail of garbage. Sometimes I do too, when I'm not well at the moment. Maybe I can also help to collect garbage if I go through life with open eyes and an open heart?
I could help a young mom who is stressed out. Praise the maintenance man, who is unjustly scolded by a tenant because the lawnmower noise disturbs him at nine o'clock in the morning. Be kind to the cashier who does her best, even if the other customers are impatient. Make up for things that I didn't screw up myself. Because I know that often others do the same for me. I'm no better than others (the splinters and bars from the last blog still keep my mind busy) but I can try to do good where I see it. Whether it's my own garbage or someone else's. I want to help God make the world more beautiful.
I want to see the good and the beautiful, but I don't want to ignore the bad as if it weren't there. Maybe I can be part of the solution with small things. Maybe we all have more power to change the world than we think.
So let´s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don´t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all.
Galatians 6:9
God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don´´t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that´s how freedom grows.
Galatians 5:13
