God is Amazing

Last week was crazy for me. I worked every single day but Wednesday and clocked a total of 48 hours. Then, in the evenings I had "Hello Dolly" rehearsals until the performances began on Wednesday. The show was almost 3 hours long and I always had to be there a half hour before curtain. On Tuesday, in order to polish some trouble spots, the orchestra was asked to arrive at 5:30 instead of 7:00. Total time put in for the show was approximately 30 hours, including Saturday's two performances and pit strike. That is 78 hours total! Whew! I was exhausted. I still am pretty tired but with a renewed spirit and energy!



I go to many bible studies and read many books about the bible and about Christianity and all things God. I pray and I have "spiritual" conversations with other believers and even blog about some thoughts that come to me as I read other Christian blogs. I have been trying to get closer to God by doing all these things and at times it seems in vain. I am already close to God! But, I work to keep my relationship going strong with Him. Sometimes I feel so drained. Life had drained right out of me with all my staffing issues at work and just the amount of work I am expected to get done. The kids here at home can drive me crazy. Life gets so hectic. Money runs short. I sometimes am on the verge of just "giving up", not literally, but I get so tired of "being good" and doing the right thing sometimes, especially when life gets overwhelming.



What's so amazing about God? Well, the fact that He used one of the busiest weeks in my life ever, and a cute musical called "Hello Dolly" to speak to me.



Katie says "All the bible reading you do, all the studying, and God chooses to use "Hello Dolly" to speak to you! Isn't it just like Him to find us right where we are at!?"



Dolly, in the musical, is a widow and sets her eyes on a widower name Horace. He is rich, and Dolly eyes that money...not for herself, but to "send it circulating among the people like rainwater". In her efforts to ret her that husband, she ends up natchmaking the other characters in the story. "Hello Dolly" is "an ebullient and irresistible story of the joy of living, glittering with happy songs, shining with loving scenes, alive with the personality of one of the most fabulous characters on the musical stage...Dolly Gallagher Levi!" It's simply fun!



The scene that keeps replaying in my mind, (well, sort of...I was under the stage in the pit, so I couldn't see anything), but what I heard was Dolly "talking" to her late husband about an oak leaf that fell out of her bible. She compared that flattened, brown leaf to her life, that it was colorless and lifeless. She wanted to be free to live life and enjoy it again and "asked" her late husband to let her go. Life is meant to be enjoyed! It's a wonderful world!



I thought about that and how I, in some ways, have become colorless and lifeless. I have let myself get run down. I am that oak leaf falling out of a bible. God gave us life to glorify Himself. He gave us life. Life is a gift! He put many wonderful things into it, and He desires for us to enjoy it! He doesn't expect us to take the gift He gave us and not even remove the price tag and stick it in the back of the closet! He expects us to wear it! He wants us to shine! "I want to be in the light, as You are in the Light, I want to shine like the stars in the heavens."



Life is meant to be enjoyed. Sure, there will be hardships, but there is no hardship God has not gone through with us. And like Katie said in a blog earlier, if "God is before us, who can be against us?" I used to know that...heck! I have always known that...but there was a time that I felt it too. There is no reason not to believe it is still true, whether or not I feel it!



So, God is amazing. He spoke to me through song and stage this week, during a time I had very little time to myself. He showed Himself to be Sovereign. He showed Himself to be real. He showed Himself to me and in the process even used me in the life of another believer in a profound way. I can not go into details due to confidentiality, but GOD IS AMAZING!



Wooooooohoooooooooooo! If you have been keeping up with my blogging throughout the "Hello Dolly" show, sporadic as my entries were, you also know that God gave me a little taste of heaven as well! HE HAS LIT A FIRE IN ME! WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO! \o/