Hitting The High Points

"It will only take me a minute....I'm just going to hit the high points", I said to the kids this week while pushing around my trusty vacuum cleaner.  When I heard the words escape from my mouth, I quickly remembered the time I took in my much younger years to create perfect lines within the piles of carpet.  Back and forth I would work the vacuum, and once complete, I would carefully tiptoe from the room to make sure not to disturb what would shout "Perfectly Clean!" to anyone who entered. 

Not anymore.  Five children later, and I am lucky to have a 30 minute date per week with Mr. Hoover.  How much my entire life is now reflective in that statement:  "I'm just going to hit the high points".  Can you relate?

There was a time in my spiritual walk when I arranged my schedule to be at church every time the doors were open....when asked to serve on a committee, I quickly answered 'yes'....my Bible was read for a solid 30 minutes a day and prayers were kept securely in a journal.  Yes, there was a time when I carefully tiptoed through life so those around me would shout "Perfectly Clean!" whenever they saw me. 

Not anymore.  More often than not, I am simply hitting the high points! 

Hebrews 12:1 says:  "Let us run the race with endurance...the race God has set for us."

To me, this verse means that each of us have our own races to run.  At the moment, my race involves a rising high school senior who is working to obtain a football scholarship, a homeschooled teenager who has a passion to use music to bring awareness to the special needs community, another teenager who is struggling mightily from the effects of Reactive Attachment Disorder, and two little ones who are non-verbal and who have an extra chromosome.  It is quite a race.   

But my race will change soon, and yours will too.  There will come a day when I will have time to make the perfect lines in my carpet again....when I will have time to dust off that old prayer journal....if I choose.  But I don't believe I will, because hitting the high points is actually what I believe scripture teaches us to do.  How it must bless the Father when we are so busy serving, loving, teaching, helping, and experiencing life that we have no time to 'schedule Him into our calendars' or look "Perfectly Clean"!

Natalie Grace is one of my high points right now.  Through her, God is teaching me something  totally new about faith and trusting Him.  This is from a letter I recently received from her:

"Hi everyone.  I am doing good!  Something I forgot to tell you is in the morning we do a devotion and read different chapters aloud.  Yesterday we listened to the preacher of the church we go to on a disc.  It was really good.  Next, we did a 3 mile walk video and boy did that hurt.  Everyone here is really nice.  The biggest news happened at church.  They were talking about people pulling away from God.  The preacher asked us if you don't know if you belonged with God to raise your hand.  There were a few.  Then he asked who doesn't belong to God.  I raised my hand.  That day he said is the day you ask God to come either into your life or back in your life.  I went to a staff member and was crying because I really want Him back in my life.  I told her I lost God and I need Him back in my life.  We looked up some verses and I prayed for forgiveness.  I really meant it with all of my heart.  I am saved.  I know that I won't be perfect but I love God again and I wanted you all to know that.  I truly want to be a new Natalie.  I want you to know, Mom, on the phone before I got here, what you said to me meant so much.  That was all I needed to keep pushing on.  I am so glad God put me here.  It shows how much he cares for both of us.  I love you all and can't wait to call you.  We can only talk for 15 minutes but that will be better than 5.  I know that you all have forgiven me, but I want to say I am so sorry from the bottom of my heart for lying, stealing, having a horrible attitude, and everything else I did that was bad.  You all don't deserve that and I want you to know that I care for you all and love you so much.  You mean everything to me." 

Who cares if my carpet has perfect lines?  Who cares if my prayer journal is kept up to date?  This is the 'high point' stuff that matters!  I am so thankful for a God who cares so much for me and you that he would intentionally call this life a "race"....that is a word we can all relate to.  Each of us have different experiences, different abilities, and unique people who run our races alongside us.  Our job isn't to line the track....it isn't to sound the shot that announces the race has begun....our job isn't to man the snack bar or to hand out the programs.  Our job is to simply keep running.

To my 5 runners, the loves of my life:  Keep Running!  I'm going to run with you all the way to the end!

Run, Natalie, Run!!!