靈 修 小 品
(01/17/2009)

WEATHER WIMP                     Cindy Hong

Last Saturday afternoon, as we were in the middle of the Arctic winter that blasted its way through Houston with near record low temperatures, I had my own shiver party at home. It started with me trying to do some school reading and writing in the usual spot, the dining table. I was nursing my second cup of brewed coffee, more for the heat than the caffeine, fleece scarf around the neck, snuggled in a blanket. Still chilled, it finally occurred to me to move everything upstairs and work in bed. Heat rises, they say, but with the furnace actually right next to the bedroom, I hoped for some form of osmosis effect. So gathering pens and paper, the stack of books currently “reading,” I lugged them upstairs where the temp was indeed a few degrees warmer and jumped into bed, burrowing under the flannel sheets, two comforters, and three blankets. Prior to stints in Texas , Taiwan , and North Carolina , the growing up years were spent in New York , Chicago , and as you already know, Detroit , where Arctic winters are the norm rather than an anomaly. We had multiple sets of long johns and cuddle duds, with matching hats, mittens, scarves, and snow pants. I thought these years of built up hardiness would be enough for a 3-day freeze warning with wind chill in the teens. Wrong. Little did I know I had become a wimp, unable to weather such cold. Yet this thinking permeates my life, aside from the weather. How often do I think that a good time yesterday with Jesus would be enough to get me through today, and while we’re at it, tomorrow too? I know, such a wimp, right? Worse yet, I usually think this while sipping a freshly brewed cup of coffee in the morning. It seems crazy to try to live off of yesterday’s weather or fried chicken, memories or conversations. Each day we wake up, we are at a different place in life, needing new food, learning new lessons, meeting new challenges. Each day needs a fresh pot of coffee, a new sunrise, its own memories, a renewed connection with God, basking in just a day’s worth of His presence and love.

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