No Good Thing Will He Withhold

While I’m here with my Washington family, I’ll admit it, paying a great deal of attention to this Lenten season hasn’t been easy. We go from early to late at this house — not unusual for busy, active schedules with school-age kids. I love it here because it’s such a departure from my easy-does-it lifestyle back home in Tulsa. Though I’m always active and busy at home, it’s sure not the same pace. But yesterday, I found time to think about my Lenten journey in the midst of a multitude of kids at the Boys & Girls Club playing basketball. With my computer on my lap, basketballs bouncing and sailing through the air, kids screaming, coaches blowing their whistles, I’m thinking about my Lord. Yes, it’s possible in a world of activity.

During Lent, we tend to yearn for quiet spaces and places where we can be attentive to an “inner” focus & cleansing inside AND out. And that’s a good thing. But, I’m here to tell you — we can still go there in the busyness of our lives. Even if it’s a quick steal-away to a bathroom stall (there, I said it), a closet, a quick walk outside, or EVEN right at our desk at work or a kid’s basketball game.

Yesterday, right smack dab in the middle of Lent and when I’m desiring to be the cleanest vessel I can possibly be so that He can flow through me to others, I realized God has His own agendas. I realized that whatever God is urging us to clear away, cannot begin to be compared to what He ultimately wants to bring TO US that is so much greater. This last week, He brought to me full-of-energy and full-of-life boys that bring me so much joy and delight. Conscience clear, heart clean, and delighting in God….has so many benefits. Psalms 84:11 says “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”