What I Hope My Facebook Shows (Col. 1:27)

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Almost five years ago I wrote a post titled “What My Facebook Posts Won’t Tell You.” As a rather new FB user at the time, I was rather disconcerted at the extremes I found there—consummate happiness or maximum dissatisfaction as well as people’s willingness to either pretend (by only posting happy moments) or rant publicly (posting moments I didn’t feel appropriate for public dissection). It was and still is rather off-putting—both extremes--and when I do put "pretty" pictures on FB, I don't want it to be for praise as that is rather disconcerting as well. Just enjoy the pictures. :)


All that to say that below you will find my four-and-one-half-year update on life inspired by a day that did not go as I had planned. 


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As I write this, the acrid stench of spilled-over and burned-on hot pepper jelly overwhelms my kitchen. The smoke, however, is now gone (because I had to take my smoke detector off the wall and put it on the back porch to get it to stop going off). 


[Disclaimer #1: No harm came to my home and there were no flames . . . ]


In a probably futile attempt to make the house smell better, I plugged up my “spirit machine,” in as my husband calls the diffuser, which currently has the Young Living stress free blend that Hanna gave me brewing in it (not sure if it’s helping or hindering at the moment . . . ). 


[Disclaimer #2: Did I mention Greg is convinced the smells give him a headache? Today's smells left unchecked will also give him a headache. It's a toss-up.]


I also am attempting a batch of fresh bread, which will make the house smell better.


[Disclaimer #3: Trying. But the rate my morning went, I have few expectations of success]


And NOW I am finally getting to the point. Let me explain.


You don’t hear much from me on FB, but you do see lots of pictures, which are my way of appreciating God’s beauty and decompressing. The picture below should be rather self-explanatory. 





I tried a new recipe for jalapeño pepper jelly and failed to account for the extreme amount of foam that arose suddenly and burst over the top of the pan as the mixture began to boil. I turned off the heat and attempted to remove the pan from the eye, but the boiling mixture really prohibited it leaving the stove. Thus, colossal mess (see picture above for reference). Sigh. And then I started over in a new, larger pan after I cleaned as much of it up as I could while still in the process of canning, which consumed an hour of my day I hadn’t planned on donating to my kitchen. 




Here’s the frustrating part: I spent years saying that once my children left home, my house would stay clean. (Maybe you can hear me ROTFL hysterically . . . hysteria . . . men-take-pause . . . but that’s another story.) Needless to say, that hasn’t automatically happened.  No children live with me now (Josh and Rachel both got married and Caleb has an apartment in Montgomery.) The floor still gets dirty even without extra tracks coming through daily because life happens in my house. The dishes still need washing because I cook and make messes as I do so. Clothes still get soiled because we wear them every day and get them dirty in the process of living. We put things down where they don’t belong, and mess just appears. Life is messy!


[Disclaimer #4: I still really don’t dust, not sure I ever will.]


Now, this is the rub for today. I spent all day Saturday getting my kitchen like I wanted it to be. Three-hour stove cleaning cycle; the top eyes scrubbed to shining; air vents washed out above the stove; a kitchen both swept and mopped (as well as the whole house swept to keep the kitchen floor from getting dirty); junk drawers cleaned out, etc. You get the picture, right? I ended Saturday tired but in a really good way that only comes from being really industrious in the home God provided.


So here I stood over my now somewhat sad looking mess, but ironically I wasn’t really even upset. 


[Disclaimer #5: My floor got dirty again. Did I mention that?]


All I could think was this is like my life spiritually speaking. At salvation, God took a sinful mess like me and justified me once and for all. The problem is that sanctification can get messy and involves daily cleaning and maintenance (my time in the word). I am not lost because I sinned again (which BTW I do daily, just ask Greg Pate—he lives with me!). I am not hopeless simply because my junk spills over. I am just reminded that I am a work in process. I AM BEING sanctified. Honestly, I really want my spiritual life to be like my dream kitchen—no work required. But that is NOT reality. 


[Disclaimer #6: Reality is, sometimes my life has the scuzzy foam I couldn't completely skim off fast enough because the new pan was too deep for me. The clarity I hoped for just isn't present at the moment.]




None of us knows what the future holds, especially in this crazy topsy-turvy coronavirus filled world full of the unknown. But I DO know who holds my future, and day by day, He speaks peace into my soul as He quietly counsels me through His word and His spirit. He patiently cleans up the messes I make (both intentional and unintentional ones when confessed) and brings lessons learned and opportunities to share that I could never imagine. 


My jelly will taste okay. It may not be pretty. It may have cost me time I didn't imagine having today, but that's okay. The cans that didn't want to seal after the interruption will simply be shared and consumed earlier than expected. This is life.


[Disclaimer #7: My bread is rising, and my kitchen is already smelling better.]



In a few hours I will have my last session of my summer discipleship group. This group of young ladies get the real me, the flaws, the successes, the neediness, the insecurities, the not-so-young woman growing in Christ. And I will share the successes and failures of my day as part of my testimony. And I will listen to theirs. And we will pray together in thankfulness for another day to live and learn and walk out our faith.


This is what I hope you see when you see a FB post by me. Not just pretty flowers with few words mentioned or happy family pictures or new job announcements or even “churchy” stuff. 


Christ in me, my hope of glory (Col. 1:27). That’s what I hope you see. If you’re not seeing it yet, remember God’s still working on me, and in a few more years, my story might look different, or I might not even still be here, so please be patient with me. My prayer is that my life will be a testimony of the goodness of God and that as a result, you will want to know Him more.  

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