Cleaning Ears and Facing Fears

Last night I spent a few strained minutes trying to clean out Caitlyn's right ear because it was draining thru her tube. As she kicked, cried, and squirmed I tried to use the safety Q-tips to clean out the gunk. After successfully cleaning out the canal, a thought occured to me...

How often do we kick, cry, and squirm as God cleans up the messes that we make? How many times do we make a big stink about God disciplining us (for no good reason)? Aren't we better off after the cleaning?

Then this morning I read another chapter in In a Pit and found Mark's take on facing fears quite refreshing. I remember a time when a project I was working on failed miserably and I was fearful of going to my senior pastor to talk with him about it. I was literally shaking. When I finally mustered up the courage (two days later) to talk to him, he was understanding about the whole thing and told me that I had just learned a very valuable lesson. Mark said it this way, "Your fear is worse than the actual thing you're afraid of. And if you learn from every mistake, then there is no such thing as failure anyway."

Thank you God, for the times when all I can do is face my fears and come out ahead on the other side. Thank you for cleaning me up when I gunk up my life. And thanks for putting up with my kicking and crying as you disciple me. Amen.

Grace&Peace