warning... severe addiction has begun!

Tonight, my 14-year-old and I were hanging out and decided to take our dogs for a walk.  We had no agenda.  No time frame.  No expectations.  We just thought getting out and walking for a while sounded fun.  (Let's pause right there... How blessed am I that my FOURTEEN year old son thinks hanging with me on a Friday night sounds like fun?  Man I relish these moments in time!.. okay, unpause!).  So we are walking along and CA-BAM!  Right there in our face is a pile of trash for pick up tomorrow at the end of a driveway.  But... this wasn't just any old trash.  It was "stuff"!  Like, good stuff!  We looked at each other and without saying a word, it was clear we were on the same page!  JACKPOT! 

Over the past few weeks a lot has changed around here.  Our youngest finally got brave enough to let go of the training wheels and head out on her own.  With that has come the purchase of a bigger bike to celebrate her conquered fear and her constant desire to "head out on the highway" so to speak.  Problem... I don't have a big-girl bike to ride with her.  It's back home... in storage.  BOOOOOO!  So we have been tossing around the idea of getting me one, but just haven't made it priority because there are other more pressing things to do with money. 

So to improvise, I have been riding one of the older kids mountain bikes that is from their younger years.  In order for it to work, the seat has to go all the way up so my legs aren't scrunched up and then I have to lean over a lot more than I should because the handle bars are then too low from the seat being too high. (Does that sentence even make sense, really?)  Let's just say it isn't the most comfortable ride and I am sure not the most comfortable sight for anyone watching. 

So back to tonight...here we are enjoying our walk ...or our drag down the street by our bloodhound, whichever way you choose to see it... and there they were....(imagine angelic, choral singing in a climbing scale of "AHHHH- AHHHHH-AHHHH- AHHHHHHHHHH) .... two adult size bikes just sitting there waiting for the garbage man to come in the morning.  I looked at Seth, he looked at me, and it was clear, we both were hearing the music! 

I said, "Seth, go ring their doorbell and ask if they are broken or why they are throwing them away.  If they aren't broken, ask if we can have them."  Seth smiled and started towards the door, then... screeechhh... he stopped dead in his tracks. "Wait a minute.  Why do I have to go to the door?  Why don't you go to the door?"  I said in my most "duh, isn't it clear?" tone of voice, "Because I have Fred (the bloodhound!)."  He strated towards the door.... my heart was pounding with excitement.... then... screeeechhhh... he stopped dead in his tracks again.  "Okay wait!  I can hold Fred.  That isn't a reason for me to have to go!"  (He is a QUICK one isn't he? LOL!)  I said, "Seth, pleeeeeaase!  Just go ask.  They won't care!"  He rolls his eyes and sighs knowing I had him at please, and heads towards the door.  He can never refuse my "pleases"!  I am training him well for his wife some day!  It is my job!  She will thank me for this!  And so will he! :) 

He disappears up the walkway, their porch light comes on, and I hear talking.  Momentarily, he comes back down the drive and I can tell by the smile from ear to ear, the bikes are not broken and they are no longer trash... they are our new treasures!  One is a mountain bike... just my size.  I probably wouldn't have chosen Kelly green were I shopping in the store, but hey, it was free so we will just see that green as a reminder of the color of money that I saved by rescuing this bike from near-death in the trash truck just 12 hours away.  The other bike I was leaving there.  It was an old 10 speed, kind of like I had when I was a kid.  The kind with the handle bars that curve around almost like goat horns.  I said to Seth as he was grabbing it, "Seth, that one is an older one, we don't want it.  I had one like when I was a teen... only mine was a snazzy metallic blue color of course...!"  Seth said, "I know mom!  It is OLD...  like antique... that's what makes it cool!.....ummm... ouch! 

Anyway, so we walked our new found treasures home to our backyard feeling like we had just one the lottery and then headed back out for our walk.  Suddenly, it was no longer a walk though.  We were on the search for more garbage piles.  Just like that, we were trash digger addicts.  We found another good find and came home with a perfectly good luggage dolly in mint condition.  (I have no idea why we would need that as little as we travel, but hey... it was MINT condition).  By the time we got home with that, it was ON.  We loaded up in the truck and headed out.  We didn't find any other good piles.  We aren't really interested in left over banana peels and the such and everyone else seemed to just have the normal garbage.  But the thing is, we will never forget to look a little closer the night before trash pick up again.  Trash to treasures... just waiting for us to find them.

Now before I go any further, let me assure you, I will not become a hoarder.  I have too much of a need to organize and purge along the way.  We will bring the treasures home, but along the way we will be purging trash as well.  Matter of fact, I cleaned out my closet again just earlier this week and I have 9 large trash bags for donation ready to go.  So please don't get visions of me buried alive.  I will maintain control of the addiction.  But I can tell you, I am going to have to watch Seth like a hawk.  His eyes were WILD.  At the second find he said, "Mom!  They have those big plastic containers right here... and they are FULL!"  I wouldn't even let him look.  I said, "No Seth!  Only BIG stuff!"  Yes, I will have to watch him closely, I'm afraid.  I am already thinking now of how I can hold an intervention if necessary... :)

Okay, so how in the world can this have any value for any of you reading?  You must be thinking that, right?  Well, that got me to thinking....

You know, sometimes we get so busy asking God for the big things, we really do forget how much He wants to bless us even in the not so big things.  I really needed a bike.  I am loving riding with my little one and she wants to go and go and go.  Between my bootie and my back, the youth-sized mountain bike was defeating me.  And without even thinking to pray and ask God to provide a bike, He just threw it in my path tonight.  Some might miss the reality of that truth if I didn't point it out... but I didn't miss it.  I was thinking as we parked the bike in the garage, "Wow God!  It's the little things that really make you shine as a God who shows up!"

So many times we are looking so hard for God to answer the big things in life... the painful, scary, worrisome, tall mountains-to-climb type things, that we can so easily overlook a small blessing that came out of nowhere that was just what we needed.  I could have walked right by those bikes.  I could have talked about how wasteful people are to throw away a perfectly good bike like that.  But instead I stopped and gave God the chance to bless me. 

But that's the key... I was an active part.  I stopped, took notice, and acted and therefore I have a great green mountain bike that didn't cost me a dime until I can get mine from back home and Seth has an "Antique" that he wants to see if he can fix up and have some fun with (That may require a whole different blog... I am feeling a bit bitter already that my teen stuff screams "cool antique" to my son) .  God provided but we had to do our part.  What a HUGE lesson in life is found in that.

So many times we sit around complaining about what we don't have or isn't going the way we want it.  And so many times it is because we are talking and complaining instead of getting actively involved in the opportunities that are out there.  We miss our blessings because we weren't looking at the opportunities from the right angle.  We see the "I can't believe they are so wasteful" rather than, "I can't believe God had them sit them out here on the very night we would be walking by so that we could be blessed."  All we had to do was choose to act on it tonight.  The neighbor was thrilled for us to take them!  They were perfectly good bikes, they were simply tired of them collecting dust and they just didn't want to bother doing anything with them.  For us to find them useful thrilled them.  Therefore they were blessed too!  All because we acted.

That's how life is.  We always have a choice.  We can wallow and complain about just about everything if we want.  Life is flat not fair and hard off and on all the way through the journey.  But if we can just lift our eyes from the "muck" in front of us, we will find so many hidden blessings.  My sweet, sweet Eathan did it all the time even in his sickest days.  I learned from the pro just how to look past pain and find joy... and when I remember to live like he did, the blessings are astounding! 

Best part of tonight... my youngest doesn't know.  She is having a sleepover with her "sista from anotha motha".  I cannot wait until she gets home and realizes how much more eager I will be to ride and ride and ride because I have a bike that won't kill my bootie and my back in the first three minutes!  She is going to FREAK (in a good way of course!) 

I love Jesus.  He cares about EVERY single detail of our lives.  Never doubt it.  If you feel like He isn't blessing you, ask yourself the tough question I have to ask myself a lot.... "am I really looking for Him in ALL things or am I just looking for the answer I want?"  Some would say tonight was a chance find.  I know tonight was my Savior saying... "Here Robin... have some fun on me!"

Going to go ride off into the sunset... (well okay go to bed because it is well past dark and past midnight... but the riding off the sunset just sounded like such a better closing!)

Would love to hear how Jesus has blessed you in small things too!

Robin