Spiders!

Apologies to those who like arachnids. (Anybody?)

Nearly every night, at least one very large spider is found lurking in our shower. I resist the urge to squash or hoover, and call Don to pick up and eject out the window. The window is rarely open. It’s a mystery how these guys get in night after night, unless they somehow dive through the stagnant water in the U-bend in order to reach what they may think of as Nirvana, only to find themselves turfed back outside into the cotoneaster. (Although I’m sure some of them succeed in slipping from shower to bedroom and who knows where else!)

I’m trying an experiment today. I’ve covered the drain, so we’ll see if any of my 8-legged friends revisits the shower. It isn’t that I grudge spiders space in the shower: it’s the potential of them moving into my clothes or bed which compels me to throw them out where they belong.

Paul wrote that God transforms our minds so that we can have the mind of Christ. I fall so far short of that goal, struggling with the same old bad thought patterns. Every so often, I sense I may have made some progress, only to have an unhelpful thought swim through the murk and take over my thinking yet again.

I’m covering the drain in my brain, again today: covering it with the blood of Jesus, covering it with the power of Scripture, covering it with the indwelling Holy Spirit, and every time I see a wee leg of nastiness trying to squeeze back into my brain, I think I may be justified in just SQUASHING it. (In spirit, of course.)

Because once that nastiness moves in and settles down, it has a way of derailing the mind of Christ in me and skewing all my thought processes. So grateful that in Jesus we are always given another chance, and in him we always have the victory.

The Star

Visitors last week who belong to a sect which focuses on matching current world events to Biblical prophecy. Their attitude was fatalistic, as they believe that God has a pre-ordained plan and all we can do is try to read the signs of the times and distance ourselves from the world. 

Their focus  is on digging into Scripture in order to identify its correlation to world events; mine is to dig into Scripture in order to deepen my relationship with Jesus. I don’t want to get hung up on the scenery and staging and miss the star. 

I recently took a cookbook out of the local library which is full of recipes to combat the onset of dementia. (No signs of it so far ... but dealing with it in loved ones makes me aware.) The writers prefaced the recipes by going into great detail about each food and vitamin which either nurtures or shrinks our brains’ cognitive capacity. I nearly fell down the rabbit hole of thinking I needed to learn it all to apply it to every meal I prepare from now on.

For me, that would drain the joy out of cooking and eating.

I stepped back and picked out a few recipes which appealed. We have just eaten a very delicious spicy lentil soup, followed by a Moroccan couscous. I can just about cope with learning four or five new dishes and adding them to my repertoire, hoping that they, along with a greater intake of fish, fresh fruit and veg ... and that daily glass of red wine and bit of dark chocolate ... will keep the little grey cells connected.

Food is for enjoying; life is for living; Jesus came so that we could have life to the full. Joy to the world, the angels sang. The Lord has come!