He Leads me by Still Waters

Today has been a busy day. My husband invited some people over for supper and I have spent the last two days preparing for that. Not that I’m doing some fancy dinner party, but more that I have been having to clean an entire summer’s worth of clutter and mess. I haven’t had any guests inside my house in a couple months and it shows. We only have AC in the bedrooms so our house isn’t the best place to entertain in the summer, and fortunately it’s been a cool summer so I’ve been able to do get-togethers out on my back deck without being miserable. Also, my kids adopted the living room as their playroom this summer and I’ve got a lego city set up on the coffee table and have had various block houses with all kinds of interesting characters scattered all over the living room floor. We have several different building sets and they’ve all been used and then not put away properly. Then one of my teen boys gave his younger siblings his lego collection that he doesn’t use any more and it has been a lego bonanza all over the downstairs. (Which doesn’t really make sense. The kids have AC in their bedrooms, why don’t they want to play with their toys in their bedrooms?)

All that to say, cleaning up was a project. I am happy to announce that I now have all the building blocks sorted into their own containers, legos are put away (except for the city on the coffee table), random bits and pieces have been sent upstairs to toy boxes and my house is wonderfully clean. I have been snapping left and right as my whole family tries to undo all the work. That doesn’t go there! Put it away! Don’t leave that there! Don’t eat that in the living room! Just give me one day with everything clean!!

I was standing by the kitchen sink later, peeling ten pounds of potatoes and I found myself humming the old Sunday school song, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I’ll follow him always, he leads me by still waters, I’ll follow him always. Always, Always, I’ll follow him always, Always, Always, I’ll follow him always…” And I thought about the line, He leads me by still waters, and I felt very much like that was what Jesus was doing for me right then. Leading me by still waters. My house was clean. I was preparing food for my family and friends. We had all worked hard and now I could move at a leisurely pace as I prepared a meal. It felt very peaceful. Restful. Fulfilling.

I know the last time I wrote about “He Restores My Soul” and how that happened through having a vacation that wasn’t always comfortable and relaxing. And I find it funny that “He leads me by still waters” also has nothing to do with peaceful inactivity and leisure. But rather through meaningful hard work that benefits me and a whole bunch of other people.

So often I interpret God blessing me to mean that he is going to remove me from this human experience and transport me to paradise. And instead he invites me to enter into this human experience more deeply. See the good and the beauty that is tangled up with the bad and the ugly. Find joy in experiencing all the emotions, joy and pain, instead of keeping everything sterile and safe, and deadened. Get restored by facing some challenges. Find peace by doing a job well and blessing others with the work of your hands.

I love how God does things so different from how I imagine it should go. I love looking up from peeling potatoes and realizing that Jesus is taking care of me and has unexpectedly gifted me with peace.

He leads me by still waters, I’ll follow him always.