lemonade

I am sure that you have heard the saying, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." I know I've heard that many times over. Here's the deal, though. I don't like lemonade. I never have. I've heard people say, "Oh, a large glass of lemonade just quenches my thirst." It really doesn't quench mine, it makes me thirstier. And, it makes my mouth feel dry.

As I was contemplating this random thought that had popped into my head, I was drawn to that idea......that it makes me thirstier. Isn't that why God allows lemons into our lives? I know when life has handed me a bowlful of lemons, I have become thirstier for God. So, it stands to reason that He allows things to happen so that I will want Him more.

I think about the trials we have been through simply in the last few years. If not for His grace, I simply couldn't have made it through. I've sought Him more, and when I turn around, there He is. It's not about turning the lemons into lemonade for me. It's about the thirst that they create. What tastes sour when first experiences turns sweet after He has quenched me. More like, in my case, drenched me......because I am a slooooooooooooow learner!

There is no better example for me than when during our first year in KY, I was working at a small private, christian school. I loved those students and the faculty that was part of that school. I didn't love the administration of the school, however. I tried to love him. I tried to please him and make his job easier by piling more work upon myself than I could ever complete. By Christmas that year, I was depressed and sad. Disgusted and fed-up. By the end of January, I gave up and told him I needed to leave my job. That experience left a sour taste in my mouth. Little did I know, but that God was using that situation to create a sweet experience that I will never regret having.

That January, my very first nephew was born. That May, I was able to take my dad, who we knew was sick....we just didn't understand how sick.....to PA to visit my brother and his new little baby boy. How sweet a memory that is to me....especially when I see the three generation picture that we made of daddy, Billy, and Sam that week. We didn't know that daddy would never see Sam again. Had the situation at the school not happened, I would have been unable to spend that time with my dad nor would he have ever seen Sam before he left us.

You may be thinking, well....one sour moment turned into another when he died. Sorta. Kinda. But not really. Because although, six years later I still grieve deeply, I rejoice and have since the day he left us that he never suffered. I never had to watch him lose himself to that awful disease called Alzheimer's. God turned a perfectly horrible, no lemonade making, experience into a wonderful rejoicing. Because now, when I think of daddy, I think of him at the feet of Jesus where, for most of my life, he longed to be.

You see, God quenches the thirst better than anything else. So, when life hands you lemons, remember this verse from John 4:14 (The Message)

Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst - not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life."