WELL ISN'T THAT JUST SUPER?

It could be my imagination but I almost think I can remember my own joy at gluing things together as a kid. It seemed like a small miracle that those two things somehow bonded and stuck. Little clipped papers, collages, ribbons, pompoms, whatever your imagination wanted-- you could be successful as you made it stick.

I'm not so skilled anymore... but I have some of the most amazing friends who have incredible crafting talents. They manage to make things out of their ingenuity that are pretty much held together with  imagination and glue.  They make set designs and props and crafts for kids that look AH-MAZING on a small budget but look so professional. Their skill with glue absolutely blows my mind. They've shown me the difference between foam glue and spray glue and other adhesives I've never heard of before and through them I've seen what is possible when an artist has a glue gun in their hand.  But the thing that really strikes my heart beyond their skill is who they are.  

They are pure joy to me. Their attitude is so positive. They laugh right through their glue gun incidents. And they make me laugh till my asthma starts me coughing and  my belly hurts from all the exercise it's getting. I know they are good for me. I feel good just being around them. Those glue gun incidents have had a way of bonding us.  (BAHAHA.)
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But back to my glue skills. I'm not sure where you sit on the craftiness scale -- but my success and talent with glue kind of ended in those early years and they aren't near where those glue gun artists are. In fact I've managed to glue a few things I shouldn't have more than a few times in my life. I've glue gunned my fingers so the layer of glue took a pretty serious layer of skin off and left a scar.  And I've crazy glued my fingers shut so that it took another person to help me get them apart.  But my experience a few weeks ago has topped the chart of my sticky situations for sure.
 
You see I was on my way to a meeting and after putting on my boots I suddenly discovered the little flap on the  heel of my boot was coming off. AGAIN.   I had found some beautiful brown genuine leather boots in the fall for under $10.00 and that made me pretty happy. I LOVE thrifting!! But the little piece of leather that covers round the heel to make it pretty just keeps on falling off. I've tried all kinds of glue. So when I'd put them on that morning only to notice it had fallen off again I decided to end the problem then and there and went with crazy glue to fix it quick . I got the flap to stick with my pointer finger and held it on for a while in place. And then ta-da! I took my finger off the heel and... well... most of it was actually stuck to my finger. But that wasn't the funniest part of it. When I went to lift my boot up and go...my foot stayed put. I had crazy glued my boot to kitchen floor.

I wanted to get upset because my quick fix on the run to get somewhere had now turned into something that was quite possibly going to make me late and yet I couldn't stop laughing. I guess my friends have taught me to laugh when situations with glue go awry.  Or life has taught me to laugh at myself. Or.. well... probably both.

So I yanked that boot with all my might and after some serious straining got it to lift off the tile floor.  In a hurry I left that big sticky crazy glue mark on the floor to care for later and took off jetting down the road to get to my meeting.

Driving on the way there I couldn't stop both laughing about it AND thinking about it. It was more than just a funny story I was going to share with my friends to give them a chuckle.
The image of my foot stuck--  it stuck with me.  I had unwittingly made myself stand pretty firm, pretty immovable.

What a concrete picture of "standing fast". I don't know about you but I can be swayed. I can be knocked off balance by people's opinions or words or by situations. I can be jarred aside or even fall flat because of it.

Glue is handy in an artists tool belt. And dangerous perhaps in an amateur or unskilled hand. We can get ourselves stuck to what we aren't meant to stick to.

Like that situation we play over and over in our mind thinking about how to undo or redo. Or those words from a friend that just won't come unglued from our mind.  

Those aren't firm places. Those aren't anchors. They are dead weights and back breakers.

But in the right hands the right things can get stuck in the right places. And make something beautiful.

I don't know about you but I don't want to be stuck to things I'm not meant to be. I don't want to be stuck in ruts and well worn familiar grooves that keep pulling me over again and again and leaving me stuck.  

I remember a season I had a few years back where I felt stuck. I kept asking God what to do. I thought if I knew the right move I could get MOVING.  I asked him OFTEN. And in asking him over and over I heard him press on my heart and in my spirit these words: "I love you." That made me feel loved BUT also in honest truth frustrated because there wasn't ANYTHING to DO.  And in between I heard him say "be steadfast".  Does that actually sound like action to you? It didn't feel like something to do to me... like not even a bit. It seemed like INACTION.

I looked it up.  And discovered that being steadfast could be a verb.  Being steadfast was "to be stayed fast". 

I guess to paraphrase being steadfast could be to "stay glued".  That means staying glued instead of coming "unglued" by my worry or fear or hurt or pain or the thoughts of others. Staying on His course, staying in His route. Staying in His trust. Staying in His truth. Staying in His word. Staying in His love. STAYING FAST.  STAYING GLUED.

I don't know what unglues and at the same time entangles and "affixes" you in places you aren't meant to stay in your mind or your heart or your life, friend. 

But I know that there is a really skilled artist who made us and calls us his masterpiece.  And he's a master artist even better than my glue gun friends. And his skills are unbelievable. He wants to  set your feet real immoveable on the firmness of HIS truth so you can walk ABOVE any situation and keep it UNDER your feet instead of it pressing you down and fixing you right stuck.

Being stayed fast or crazy glued means letting his words and truth be where I fix my mind. Where I  fix my thoughts. Where I fix my sticky messy situations. 

Because fixed on him.. that's where I'm free.

I'm praying for you.  Praying you can stay firm and be unmoved and together we can fix our eyes on him and RUN.  Don't let those things stick that aren't meant to stick and don't stay stuck to those things you aren't meant to stay stuck to.  STAY FAST because I hear him singing it over you too. He's quieting you with His love. He's singing over you.  He loves you. STAY FIRM!

​AND you know what???  I love ya too!