Reach Higher ("The Extra Inch")

As you sit there in your chair reading this reach your hands as high up into the air as you possibly can...are you reaching?  Are you reaching as high as you possibly can?  Ok, now that you're reaching as high as you possibly can, reach one inch higher. 

You did it, didn't you?  It still amazes me that we can always go another inch.  We were MADE to go another inch.  God doesn't mean for us to ever think we've landed in a place or situation that isn't going to evolve...that isn't going to stretch.  Can't you look back on your life and just see one situation after another where you thought it was the most confusing or stressful or dangerous or overwhelming or happiest or perfect...and then something happened.  The extra inch.  You perservered, or else you passed your joy forward to others...but the extra inch happened and things either got better or even more perfect.  

I really think "the extra inch" is what prayer is all about.  I mean, let's face it - God already knows our needs and desires.  He knows the situations we're in.  He's in them with us.  He's everywhere all the time.  He's present every moment.  And yet He wants us to come to Him with our needs.  He wants us to confide in Him.  He wants a relationship with us.  We're not meant to take for granted His presence...we're meant to live the best life that we can and in the midst of living to turn to Him and ask for help, for blessings, for grace and mercy.  

• We ask Him to help us get OVER that mountain that's causing us such stress or grief;
• we ask Him to bring the right people into our lives to get us to where we're trying to go; 
• we ask Him to help comfort us; 
• we ask Him to continue to bless us with financial peace;
• we ask Him to create new opportunities and possibilities for us and the ability to recognize those;
• we ask Him to help us not to disappoint ourselves or others
• we ask Him for a shield of protection and for safety and good health

All of these prayers we lift up are "the extra inch" in our lives - the needs we have.  And when we look back on our lives we can always see God's hand...little miracles...

• Somehow we got over that mountain
• Somehow the right person showed up at the right time and the right place to get us to the "next level"...
• Somehow we receive an amazing letter, email, phone call, visit...just the right thing at just the right time from someone who cares
• Opportunities and possibilities start to surround us

So in as much as we can physically, socially, and emotionally REACH HIGHER at our own will and with our own strength, let us not forget to REACH HIGHER spiritually and ask God each day to help us achieve that "extra inch" - He's just patiently waiting to surprise us.

A Penny Saved

Well, I promised some more every day miracle stories so I thought I'd share one today from a few years ago.

I was visiting a friend in Mansfield, OH which was about a 40 minute drive from my home in Bucyrus.  I had a youth ministry event later that night, and when we were done visiting I went to the Kroger grocery store - just down the street from where they lived - to buy some soda pop and chips to go with the pizza we were having at the event.  I left there to go home and take the kids to my husband, turned around from home and went straight to my event in Crestline which was about 15 minutes from home.  I realized that I had forgotten to buy ice for the pop, so I stopped at a gas station nearby the church.  When I went to pay for the ice I had a very harsh realization.  My wallet was not in my purse.  My heart started pumping and immediately I began to think of what I had done that day.  I went to my car to look and see if it had fallen out of my purse. It had not.  I began to pray, pray, pray that it had not been stolen, that God would protect my identity and all that the wallet held.

I promptly called my husband to tell him my wallet was missing but I had to go to this youth event and couldn't go back to Mansfield...could he? 

The rest is the story he told me once I got home from the events of the evening. Apparently he decided to call the Kroger store first before driving out there. Indeed, they had my wallet.  So he drove there to get it.  When he arrived the woman in the office told him this story...

The cashier saw a woman in line take the wallet from the little counter top provided to sign checks.  The woman who picked up the wallet just seemed to have a strange look on her face as if deciding something, so the cashier asked her if that was her wallet.  The woman admitted that it was not.  

To me the miracle God provided was the cashier's boldness  to ask.  How many times have I let something get past me because I felt it was none of my business, or because I feared a bad reaction, or because I assumed the best in a person?  The cashier prevented someone from making a poor choice...it was two miracles in one.  I got my wallet back without incident, and a woman was saved from taking the wrong road at that crossroad. 

I admire bold people...I hope when or if a time presents itself to me that I can be so bold as to help someone make a better choice.