Today a Crisis, Tomorrow a Good Story

We often think of our lives big events. I went to college. I graduated from college. I was engaged. I was married. I went to graduate school. I became a mother. The truth is life is what happens in between all of these big events. Life is your every day. Life is your routine. Life is waking up and doing your devotional. Going to work. Having breakfast. Your commute home. Cleaning the kitchen. These little mundane tasks that get us to the next “big thing” is where life truly takes place.

My pastor once did a sermon on the 'Sacred in the Mundane' and it was such a mic-dropper. Hearing it once is never enough. I need reminders for things like this. In my new book, "The Best Yes", Lysa Terkeurst, she writes “Never despise the mundane. Embrace it. Unwrap it like a gift.” The mundane isn't always fun or exciting. In fact, the mundane is sometimes a nuisance. It is some event or obligation that has gotten in the way of our hustle, our ability to get things done.

This week, Young had a virus. It was the hand foot mouth virus. He was pitiful. Wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink. Only wanted to be held. He would only sleep in my lap. My husband was out of town. Of course this is the week before Spring Break. The perfect storm. This is not the mundane, people. The mundane is my normal life of going to work each day, coming home, etc. This is a full blown crisis. I see God all the time in the mundane. I work with 975 children, and I see God in all of them. But, I’m over here with binoculars like “where God at during this crisis?” Marco…..Can I getta Polo?

Here's little Jordy Beasley trying to get things wrapped up at school, the house ready to go on the market, getting things packed and sorted and girl still gotta eat and workout. I have a lot of things to do, and I cannot do them with a 35 lb toddler on my hip. I may sound like the worst mom ever, but for about 24 hours, I viewed Young’s virus as an inconvenience to me. “I’m not sick, I’m fine, but I can’t go to work!” “I guess I’ll be eating cereal for dinner with Young in my lap.” “The house is a disaster and I can’t even bend down to pick it up.” I told you, worst.mom.ever.

Then, in the 25th hour, I began to just feel grateful. Please do not misunderstand me. I would never, ever wish an illness on my child. To see such an active, happy boy so lethargic and puny was the most heartbreaking thing ever. I am not grateful that he was sick. I am grateful that I was able to be his mother while he was sick. Young loves his dad. LOVES his dad. Mom is just an added bonus that feeds us and makes sure we don't die. He also doesn’t “cuddle.” Dude is busy and independent. It hit me, maybe Young’s very non-threatening, not serious virus was a tiny blessing. For 48 hours, he just wanted his Mama. He only wanted to cuddled. With absolutely no other obligations, I could just be his mother. No cooking, no cleaning, no work. Just Young’s mom. At one point, we were laying on the couch. He was curled up in my arms looking up at my face, like the way you would hold an infant. He looked at me and smiled SO big. I smiled back, and he reached up and put his hand on my cheek. STAHP! This is maybe the sweetest moment of my life. The next day it was nice out, so we went for a walk around the neighborhood. He reached up from the stroller and grabbed my hand. He held my hand for 10 minutes while sitting in his stroller. I could've melted right there on the street. There have been 100 tiny moments like these in the past couple of days. What a blessing to my soul. (There was also one epic Target meltdown. Do NOT take sick children to run errands. Ever. No matter what.)

This is a perfect example of how there is something sacred not only in the mundane, but even the crisis if you look hard enough. The silver lining if you will. This ‘inconvenience’ showed me what it means to serve. Serving is not just volunteering your time or signing up to do something. Although, that is how I view service. What can I do for others? Let me look for something big and spectacular that I can dedicate myself to. I need to change the course of someone’s life here. No, no. Sometimes to serve is just to fulfill our role. I was chosen to be Young’s mom. When I fulfill that role, when I do what I am called to do, I am serving.

Life is like that you know. You can choose to make life complicated. You can choose to get bogged down by your obligations. You can let stress get the best of you. Or, you can just look for God in all of it. You can ask “what is my assignment here?” When you choose to do that, you’ll find a blessing every single time.

I wish I could say that this story has a happy and blissful ending. Around the 49th hour, I entered a bargaining stage with God. “Please Lord, only bless me in moderation. Let’s spread this blessing out a little. 3 days in a row is making my cup overfloweth.” Then I googled “Exorcists in Greenville.” I set a countdown timer on my phone for the exact moment when Aaron’s plane lands. Then, I almost needed an exorcist when Aaron hinted that he may need me to stay home Friday. OH NO HE DIDN'T. I mean, my head spun around. But today, I'm back at work. Praise be.

I was once on a near death experience vacation, when this French guy in St. Marteen who we rented our sailboat from said to us, “Today a crisis, tomorrow a good story.” (I'll tell you that story some other time.) Dude, that is such a truth bomb. That is a little nugget of wisdom that I received 5 years ago, and I'll never ever forget it. Truly, every crisis comes with a really good story. I try to remember that when I'm teetering on the edge of a meltdown.

I wrote a future blog about what would happen if I became a permanent Stay At Home Mom...here’s a hint, it ain’t pretty.