Just doing the work this year

I'm going to have to make a tag on this blog for George MacDonald, I think, if I'm going to keep quoting from him.  Anyway, one of the things that he was adamant about was the importance of being obedient in the smaller tasks that God sets before us, throughout each day.  That is where faith and love are (or are not) made manifest in action.

Elisabeth Elliot, also, taught "Do the next thing." (And then the next, and the next....)

Sometimes it is hard to think of what to do, while at other times it is hard to decide what to do first. In either case, one can ask God for direction and wisdom.

Once you get moving in the little things, bigger things mysteriously start to happen. There are testimonies of this all over the place, from MacDonald to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  I had an example or two of it in my sabbatical book, even. A family member, who felt creatively stuck, recently started sorting through old boxes of stuff, and found in them enough of what he needed to get going again.  "Shop at home", Myquillyn Smith says; you may already have everything you need.

A secular book, The Lemming Conspiracy, said there were basically four methods by which one could succeed:  manage the details of your work well, manage the big picture well, be good at brainstorming new solutions, or copy someone else's successful work.  MacDonald said that if you do your daily work (the details), God will take care of the grand plans (the big picture), and provide solutions to the problems that arise.

My work at the moment, besides the usual routine, is to work with a box of fabric that I received for Christmas. It's from some old lady's fabric stash, and contains mostly polyester fabrics, in one- or two-yard pieces. It's a challenge, because usually I strongly prefer natural fibers. But some of it would work well for recovering the couch cushion--the old quilt that I have been using as a cover has worn right through in the middle. I've been doing some sketches and studies of how to put a pattern on the fabric, since it is plain woven. I am also trying to not hurry, but to take the time needed to do it well. (Not perfectly, just well.)

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Edited to add:  Sometimes the Next Thing is to rest...!!!