Partly Fair to Cloudy Monday

My Monday devotion was late in coming today.  I was so busy catching up from being away from school on Thursday and Friday that I just did not have time to deal with posting a blog or reading my devotional.  I did however, take time this morning to have my Hwy 22 prayer time on the way to and from work.  When I got home today we grabbed a quick photo for my Project 365, ate, then went to the funeral home to pay our respects to Mrs. Willene Towler.  I am finally sitting here poised and ready to write with a cup of coffee....I will probably regret that choice this late at night. The word today comes from I John 1:5-7.  I love devotions by Jim Crosby. I just felt like sharing his devotional with you today.  Anyways, the scripture tells us that  "God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. So we are lying if w say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we are living in the light of God's presence, just as Christ is, we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin." 1 John 1 5-7  If I have learned anything during my almost 57 years on this earth it is that we do not live in a black and white world.  Nothing is ever all black, except maybe for total darkness at Desoto Caverns... nor is everyday, bright, sunny and happy from start to finish.  Be honest with yourself....it is not going to happen.  But, inspite of those odds we can rise and start our day with a determined attitude. I am a morning person and most mornings I get up and am delighted to face a new day.  Somewhere between 4:45 and 7:30....that attitude can change.  If I don't have prayer time on Hwy 22....then bad seems to slip in.  If I do....then things are sunnier....that is until I let the darkness overtake me.  "Could be a news story in the morning paper or on television. Perhaps, a phone call or conversation at home with a family member. Could be bad news or maybe just something that is troubling or aggravating. Soon that bright cloud...that sunshiny day...is not so sunny any more.The sunny day has become partly cloudy. There is still hope. All is not lost, but it is hard to spot the rainbow at the end of where things are headed. There is also the prospect that the day could turn dark and stormy.  The sunny day has become partly cloudy. There is still hope. All is not lost, but it is hard to spot the rainbow at the end of where things are headed. There is also the prospect that the day could turn dark and stormy. The reverse could be true. You could wake up feeling troubled. Maybe you have a difficult task to tackle that day and you don't feel prepared. Could have had a bad dream that lingers. Something just hits you wrong in a conversation or on the news. Then all that changes. You get some good news. Maybe it's an unexpected check in the mail. Positive news from a physical or blood test. An all-night headache is gone. You could be catapulted from troubled to happy or despair to joy in moments.  It is possible to go from partly cloudy to fair in your attitude and remember your "attitude determines your altitude" in a heartbeat. How many times have you heard the weatherman on radio or TV say that day's weather would be "fair to partly cloudy?" Ok that leaves them some waggle room. But, the weather is constantly changing. It's never stagnant. Sometimes it may seem that it takes longer to change than at others. I'm turning that around and saying "partly cloudy to fair" to emphasize positive change. Partly cloudy to fair means things are starting to clear up. Like the weather they are getting better. There may have been a few dark clouds up there but they did not darken or black out the whole sky. There were a few lighter gray ones present that gave us hope...the promise of the sky clearing. And as it clears, a little at a time, it moves to the status of fair.  Seldom does it jump directly from partly cloudy to nothing-but-sunshine in seconds. There's usually some kind of transition period. A period when things are fair. They are improving and the outlook is good. Not that you couldn't have an immediate change from bad to great. It could happen. With God all things are possible. But, if you are like me you've probably noticed that God sends these good things in small doses. If He sent them all at once we might not be able to handle it. He does, however, send lots of these" small-dosed-good things" to us that we don't recognize as the blessings they are. In fact, He sends so many that we just take a lot of them for granted. We don't even discern their true identity as a gift from God.  We may be living partly cloudy lives most of the time. There are enough things we do that we shouldn't or enough things happen that we don't like that we have a little cloudiness in our lives. Things seem to be going below expectations more times than not.  Sometimes we have some really good things happen or we do some great things that we just know have to make God smile and we move into the fair range. On occasion something so great comes about that we move on out into full sunshine. Happy days are here.
Depression throws us into darkness. Small things that we feel are holding us back keep us partly cloudy. Sometimes we can see a silver lining around the darker clouds or despairing occurrences. And it is possible that tragedy could deal a stomach punch that takes all the air out and plunges us into deep, dark despair. But God never leaves us there. You see God doesn't like the darkness all that much either. Our scripture lesson says God is light. There is no darkness in Him. So we might wonder why He created darkness in the first place.  I think it was because He knew that we would need a time frame to understand and put our lives in perspective. Time means nothing to Him because He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  But, we need to grow. We didn't come here perfect. We are on a journey and the way we measure progress, the way we are able to tell how far we've gone and can anticipate how much of the road is yet to be traveled is to put a time table to it.  So, God made light and he made darkness so as they superseded each other it would mark the passing of one day. These days continue to pass becoming years. We can look back over the years and see where we were, how far we've come and determine where we want to get to.  So as these partly-cloudy days pass on and we move in and out of the cloudiness and back and forth through fair weather. Sometimes we will make it into brilliant sunshine in our lives as God rewards the things we do. At others deep despair will visit us and we are plunged into darkness. But, for the most part we'll carry on in partly cloudy situations and find ways to move into fair territory. And as we make those moves we will better understand God's plan for us that will one day enable us to always operate in full light. 
Monday Prayer: Lord, we know that even in dark or partly cloudy days, Your Light will expose all the evil darkness and turn these into blessings in our lives."
My prayer for you all today is that all your partly cloudy days turn fair and may you  be exposed to brilliant sunshine this week.