Lefty Life Lessons

I am constantly amazed at how a change in perspective can teach you a lesson.

 

Today, as I was working on my Malachi study, but the fabulously hilarious Lisa Harper, I was given this fresh outlook on why God makes us wait for things.  Things that take a long time to be created and even in the end of the wait, don't come out looking like what we'd hoped for or expected.

 

The activity was to write Romans 5:1-5 out on note cards.  Eh, that's easy enough.

 

 

Except you have to write it out with your non-dominant hand. So for me, left.  (I now have the mark of the lefty for the rest of the day-pen smudge on my pinky) Huh, well isn't this going to be interesting. I knew it would be difficult, but I didn't expect it to be so time consuming, and even more surprising, painful.

 

Writing 5 Bible verses with my left hand was legitimately painful. My neck was cramped from the tension of forced concentration (right hand writing is natural, left is forced), I was flushed in the chest (common symptom of mine that relates to stress, frustration, or anger), my hand was sweating and beginning to ache, my lower body started to feel funny as I realized my posture was completely out of whack because I didn't know how to hold my body, let alone my hand.  Then my feet started tingling! Don't ask me how my feet relate to my left hand, but somehow they did. Or maybe God just wanted to throw in the extra tingle for dramatic punch. (He's good like that) When I finished, I looked up at the clock and it had taken me 16 minutes to complete! Woah!

 

As I was writing I kept thinking, I wonder how long it will take me to write it out with my right hand?

 

So after a bathroom break (hey, Baby Hall is the boss) I returned to try it again with what is comfortable for me.

 

5. FIVE. Did you hear me?! FIVE minutes later I was finished! My hand didn't ache, my chest wasn't flushed, my feet weren't tingling, but I was finished. Why on Earth would a righty ever attempt to write something with their left hand? The truth is, they wouldn't. I wouldn't. You wouldn't. Why? Because it's too time consuming. It takes extra effort. Concentration. Posture change. 

 

Ah hah.

 

It was so clear to me (unlike the letters on my left handed verse) that God intentionally takes us out of our comfort zone so that we can learn something about ourselves, about Him.  He knows we need a slow down. Something that allows us to take the attention off the prize of perfection and realize that it doesn't always have to be pretty, or perfect, or legible. It just has to be real. My normal handwriting or my lefty handwriting neither one change the words of the verse. They have no effect on God's words. Just like the wait doesn't change the fact that God loves us and that His best intentions are for us. It just means that sometimes, we need to slow down to appreciate the process and know that when the ending isn't our idea of perfection, that God's Word and his word are still true for us. 

 

Sometimes God makes us sweat. Makes us tingle. Cramps our lifestyles and changes our focus. His intentions are never to hurt us, but to strengthen us.

 

Romans 5: 1-5

Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we ahve peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.  Because of our faith Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved priviledge where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.  We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthen our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disapointment.  For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.