I'm what is generally referred to as a drama queen. It's a fact, albeit one I do not own proudly. My spirit tells me that it is a bad, bad thing! I tamp down these tendencies for the greater good....of my marriage, my relationships with my sons...other people's sanity...you get the picture.
This status is rooted in a couple of personality traits I was, quite simply, born with! I am always bored. As in, ALL OF THE BLESSED TIME. The only time I am not bored is when my life is in danger. I wasn't bored when I went off-road with my family in a jeep on a steep mountain in Colorado. I was SCARED OUT OF MY MIND! I bailed out of the jeep at one point when the tires started slipping and we had what seemed to me to be a six-inch margin of error. I wasn't bored a few years later when I hopped out of an ATV in California and walked down a desert incline, sandals in hand. I was afraid to ride in the ATV for fear it would tip over, yet had no qualms about rattlesnakes. My kids shot video as they RODE down the little hill with their dad, laughing loudly. I did not care. BUT I WAS NOT BORED! This abnormally high propensity for boredom leads to my reading and relaying too many high-drama news stories (which I am sure leave people thinking, "Gosh, I didn't know that depressing thing. Thanks so much, Laurie") and talking about people when I should be quiet.
The second personality trait that gives rise to high crimes and misdemeanors in the drama department is my tendency to worry about those I love. I try to fix everything for my sons. Early in their lives, it became my personal mission to protect them from life. Turns out that was a bit of a tall order. I'll let you imagine how it went.
A lover of drama and hater of boredom, I am a sucker for all stories of God's miraculous intervention. That's not a bad thing, by the way. I will never tire of them. I will always be inspired by them. However, I have found, somewhere along way, that most of the work He does in our lives, while certainly dramatic, certainly sweeping, and definitely life-altering, is performed incrementally, in the quiet of our dutiful moments as much as in the ardor of our praise and prophecy chapters!
When I am slogging through a rainy day washing the 1,000th dish of the week, I am being improved upon by God. I'm learning to hold His hand. I'm identifying more closely with Him. I'm walking more deeply in his giant footsteps. He does go before me, after all. I am inhaling the truth that all that matters is my relationship with Him. I'm (hopefully) pushing the world further away. That's pretty dramatic, and I like it.
