SLOW DOWN

A favorite song of mine from the 80's.
Please take the time to listen to the song if you have never heard it before.

Yesterday afternoon my mum calls me frantic. Her heart is irregular. Her ankle hurts and has trouble walking. She broke a glass. I said to her do you feel bad enough that you need to go the the E.R.? She said no. But, in my spirit, since my mum is 86 and lives alone, I decided to go over to her place to make sure.

It has been awhile since my mum's operation that she has called me in a panic about her health. I have to weigh my mum's "panic button" because she over-reacts out of fear.

Joyce's devotion today talks about slowing down. Normally I am fast with everything in order to get it over with. I rush. And when I am myself in a panic, I rush even more.

So, yesterday I had the opportunity to see how much I have grown this past year when faced with a possible emergency.

I did think to go to prayer first. My biggest challenge, which I knew ahead of time, was driving to my mum's. I am NOT a patient driver. Emergency or not. And wouldn't you know it, every obstacle that came up to slow down and block my arrival quicker happened. Waiting at traffic lights seemed longer than normal. I was stuck at the bridge (ten minutes) that crosses the intra-coastal waiting for a yacht to go through. Then having to be behind a bus who decided to stop at every single bus stop picking up and letting off passengers before I arrived at my mum's place.

During this time of waiting, I found myself still going the fear, anger and frustrated route. But, also at this time, I found myself remembering "Who is in charge," "centering my focus on God and not the circumstances." A draw.

When finally arriving at my mum's, yes she was having an irregular heartbeat. (She gets this here and there) Has meds for it. She was panicking and thought she was dying. I prayed with her and calmed her down. Her ankle turned out to be that she stepped the wrong way. The broken glass, accidentally hitting it from the table earlier in the day. But, when my mum first told me all these things over the phone, she strung them all together sounding like they all had something to do with the other.

Speaking with my mum today, she is okay. But cautious.

Jesus desires for me to have peace in the midst of calamity.

Slow Down
by Joyce Meyer - posted March 13, 2012
Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.] —John 14:27

Hurrying affects our spiritual life. Jesus wasn’t in a hurry. We can’t even picture Him jumping up and saying to His disciples, “Come on, boys, get up. Up, up, up, up! Get this camp meeting cleaned up. Come on, we have to get to the next town. We have some preaching to do. Get the camels packed up, boys. Let’s go, let’s go!”

When we think about Jesus, we picture peace. He went slow enough to hear from God all day long. We should set our pace with His today.