The Post I Should Write
I’m sitting by the side of Cedar Creek. Barely 12 feet wide, a little creak in Allentown PA. Somewhere down the line I believe this feeds into the Little Lehigh, which feeds into the Lehigh, which feeds into the Delaware before heading out to sea. I love how things are connected. On the other side of the creek, I see a red and white bobber caught in the bushes. It reminds me of canoeing with my Dad, when we would paddle around Calyer lake looking for little treasures… shoot, there is another one. That one is blue and purple.
I wouldn’t be sitting here right now if it were not for a positive covid test. I wouldn’t have this stillness, this aloneness, this clarity of purpose, if it were not for God weaving everything together the same way he's weaved this little insignificant creek into the mighty waves of the ocean. And I’m a knuckle head that it took me so long to realize.
See the whole family was supposed to be going down to my wife's folks for the weekend for them to watch the three girls while my wife and I went to her friends wedding. But when we all took our Covid tests, the rest of my family tested negative and mine came back positive. I was the only one that had to stay home. I hope this concept of the "staying-home-because-of-COVID" doesn’t age poorly, but for now, you all get it.
So I cheered up and decided to catch up on some projects in the woodshop and chores around the house. Little did I know that… a squirrel just walked down to the edge of the creek and is drinking from the water. I’m sitting really still so he dosn’t see me. So little did I know that God had a greater plan for me than tidying up the house. I started crushing podcasts while in the shop and one of them pointed me to the idea of getting an hour and a half of undistracted time to myself as the best thing I could do all week. The lightbulb went off that that was the best use of my time that night regardless of how clean I got the house. So I set aside the evening to do just that.
Before heading out for the park, I hopped on my master-mind’s website to connect with a few of the leaders. It turns out that one of them was on a live call that he had me join where we talked for 15 minutes about the already-better evening I was having as a result of a perspective shift on my positive COVID test. That guy's name was Alex, and we got to talking about what we wanted to happen as a reinforcement for making things happen. He asked me about what was on my mind and where I was posting content, and that led to his suggestion of a blog. After that conversation that I knew this would not have happened if I had been helping Corrie put the girls down for bed. I felt excited to head to the park to find out what was going to come about due to my hour and half of silence and reflection.
The park was supposed to be closed from dusk to dawn, but with the full moon out and countless stars, I had to go see what this new park had to offer. What I would find was that the large field that comprised most of the park was bordered by trees that had been maintained with little trails winding around them and down to the creek's edge. So by moonlight, I get to walk along and find these hideaways of park benches, bridges, gazebos and paths that had just been waiting for the right night to welcome me. I believe God had been preparing them for me to find at just the right time to remind me of his involvement in my life and plan for me.
Now I’m sitting here working on my blog the next day in the daylight. I'm writing about the iconology of a lighthouse and a light keeper's job in another blog, that I had to write but didn’t know it till a friend pointed it out, that I would not have spoken with had I not listened to a podcast, that I wouldn’t have been listening to had I not been working in the woodshop, where I wouldn't have been had it not been for a positive COVID test.
