Runaway Chicken and Salsa

The Lord let his face upon you, and be gracious to you. Numbers 6:26

I let His face shine upon me alright…and it made me wonder if He laughed as hard as I did!  Have you ever been in a rush even when you felt like what you needed most was to just zip your lips and be still for a few minutes while you gathered your peace?  I knew that’s what I should do but I just kept charging forth like a bull in a china shop…I was bargaining with Him and telling Him I’d get to some quiet minutes with Him as soon as I finished with my stuff.  Bad idea!!  It wasn’t until I tried to unload way too many plastic shopping bags from the back of the Buick at once that I got it.  I’m not quite sure if it was the broken jar of salsa my shoes were swimming in or the rotisserie chicken that hit the driveway so hard it busted open the plastic container and rolled halfway down the driveway that got my attention, but I got the message. Luckily the salsa was on sale and the chicken was a day old discounted bird so I wasn’t out full price but I heard my Dad’s voice repeating that line from my childhood; “pay attention; it doesn’t cost anything to pay attention!”  Mostly true but on this day, it cost about six dollars to pay attention.

The thing about asking the Father to help you get better at something is He actually does.  I’ve been praying a lot lately about being more attentive to His promptings and guidance.  Now I clearly need to pray for the ability to respond properly and not keep doing things my way until I’m darn good and ready.  When I had finished cleaning up the salsa and chicken goo, I put the cold stuff away and left the rest on the counter while I made a cup of coffee and sat myself down to laugh, pray and be still.  I started that little prayer time feeling pretty proud of myself for chopping off half my to do list before ten in the morning, so I started adding things to the list instead of using the time to focus on Him.  I finally settled my mind and came across this a nugget that left me a little flabbergasted!

The thing I was reading (randomly selected reading…yeah right!) said if you want to follow Christ, stop using the word priorities.  There is no such thing as priorities…only PRIORITY!  We can’t make everything the most important thing…only the Father can be the most important thing.  I was letting that ruminate a little and began to listen to a Gospel Reflection on the Hallow App and the host, Jeff Cavins started talking about exactly the very same thing!  He pointed out that our PRIORITY in life is to follow the plan God has for our life…that’s it!  We can’t be all things to all people, only God can be all things and when we focus on that one PRIORITY and use it as a direction for all the things we do in a day, things will always be alright.  He used the example of having the opportunity to go to a big fancy pants event where he would be a big deal celebrity or go to a birthday dinner for his daughter.  If the PRIORITY was the Father’s plan for his life he knew being a dad was his vocation and the work God had given him, so there was really no decision to make.  The will of the Father was to be present for one of God’s greatest gifts to his life, his daughter.
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I’m tellin ya, this has been kind of a big deal in my mind. The Father’s plan for our life involves commitments and responsibilities but the PRIORITY is always Him and those commitments, responsibilities and tasks are what help us grow in holiness and live out the Father’s plan.  I actually had to look at all the things I considered my priorities and guess what I realized…none of them were as important as the Father and in their own unique way, each of those things were a huge, lovely part of His plan for my life. I guess chicken and salsa are pretty good attention grabbers.
 
A Seed To Plant:  Sit with the work PRIORITY and see how this idea of having only one fits with your busy schedule…and pro tip…don’t carry too many grocery bags at once!

Blessings on your day!