Jen’s Gem: Tell the Big Bad Wolf to Move Along!

It’s not often, dare I say, downright rare for me to stare at an empty page with writer’s block when I pen my weekly blog post. I usually have at least three ideas percolating all week and as Sunday approaches, one jumps to the front of the line. Not this week.

What to do? Do I skip this week? Do I repurpose an old post? Lord knows, there are plenty to choose from! What will my readers think? To paraphrase Chris Messina’s (Eric) line from the movie “Julie & Julia”, “They will survive…your readers will somehow survive.”

Perhaps my stuckness is a result of a busy week and not enough quiet time to reflect on the lessons that came my way. Or, maybe it’s because my sleep has been majorly interrupted and I’m running on two cylinders. Or, it might be that as each day passed, I saw my favorite season coming to a close and that simply made me sad.

I typically write my blog on Sunday morning. I wake up by 7:00 am, enjoy a cup or two of coffee and set off to my trusty laptop. Usually within thirty minutes I have a finished piece that’s ready to share. It flows out of me like water. Sometimes it flows so quickly that my speedy fingers can’t keep up. 

 Coincidentally – or not, the check engine light came on in my car this week. A trip to the dealership revealed that some oxygen sensor was broken. When I heard how much it would be to fix it, my eyes glazed over. I asked the mechanic to explain what this sensor thing did. All I heard was. Gas. Engine. Emissions. (Guess I had a listening block this week too!)
 
Turns out, that it’s not life threatening but if left unrepaired, I will fail my upcoming Connecticut emissions test. Since that is not until January, I decided to let it be. A first for me. Never in my life of owning a car, have I ever ignored the mechanic’s recommendations. Ever. But the cost was just too high and given no imminent danger, I took a road less traveled.
 
I have over 100,000 miles on my car. I’ve never owned a car this long and have never experienced the myriad of problems of an older car. Brakes, tires, axels, spark plugs – you name it, I’ve replaced it. On the inside – it’s very much like a brand new car.  But it seems like no matter what I replace, within a few months, something else breaks and boom. My bank account balance takes a hit.
 
I began to feel that I couldn’t catch a break. I was ready to sell my car and make the very poor decision to purchase a new car. Clearly a several hundred dollar repair was a more prudent decision than spending tens of thousands of dollars on something new. But this “wrench” coupled with all the other wrenches in my life, had me on the brink of throwing in the towel. Does this happen to you? 

 This week I started a new journal. As I perused the first few pages of the completed book, I saw the scribblings of the words, “Trust”, “Faith”, “Patience”. This trust thing has been a recurring theme for me in the past several months. Shifting my old patterns of trusting unreliable things to trusting God has been a test like none other.
 
Like many, throughout my life, I have placed my trust in things that I shouldn’t have. I trusted my employers to have my back and keep me in a well-paying job. I trusted the economy to keep my retirement nest egg safe. I trusted mentors and coaches to guide me in my endeavors.Suffice it to say, none of these things are trustworthy – because they are fallible. Their intentions may be good and their hearts may be in the right place but at the end of the day, they will fail me. So what’s a girl to do?
 
Shift. Slowly shift my focus and my trust to things not outside but inside. Yes. That’s the ticket. But when the insides have been scarred and torn apart for a 100,000 miles or more, it takes time and resources to rebuild. Without a strong foundation, I was unprepared for the Big Bad Wolves of my life. So when they huffed and puffed, guess what? I was blown away, just like the houses of the first and second Little Pigs. 

 But now, I’m taking a cue from the Third Little Pig. He learned a few lessons from his cohorts and made a different decision. Like him, I too am choosing a better foundation and more reliable raw materials. Because there will be many Big Bad Wolves that want to destroy my progress and  I want to be able to laugh in their faces and say – “Move along. You have no power here.”
 
So – to the writer’s block that attempted to trip me up this morning, I say, “Move along.” To the check engine light that remains illuminated in my car, I say, “Move along.” I’m putting my trust in God and He’s bigger and stronger than all the Big Bad Wolves that threaten to steal my joy, my power and my faith.
 
I want to encourage you this week to examine the foundations of your faith. Is it cracked? Is it buckling? Is it made of perishable materials? Maybe it’s time to rebuild. Cast out the brokenness, the falsehoods, and doubt and replace these with faith and trust in a God who adores you.He’ll never let you down. He’ll never fail you. Ever.

Even when a Big Bad blank page threatens to prevent a blog post from being published.