When the Ride gets Bumpy

There will be days when you feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.  You will wake up one morning to the sunshine pouring in to greet you.  You will get up, have your cup of coffee and read your Bible.  All will seem right with the world.  You will get together with a friend and they will start telling you tales that make you wonder if you should pinch yourself.  You are listening and smiling and wondering if an alien has taken over your body, or your friends.  You may sit in a group of ladies and hear about a situation that you are familiar with, but what you are hearing sounds so absurd to you that you start to wonder if it is all a dream.  It's OK.  Life gets really weird sometimes.

I know I have written about this many times, but the same scene can look very different from different angles.  That's why instant replay is so popular.  Twelve different camera angles can make a play even more difficult to call, and in the end some well paid guy in a black and white shirt is still going to get death threats.  So it is with our lives.  A situation which I may think I see so clearly may look completely different to someone from the other side of town.  And usually it is not a fight that we actually have a dog in anyway.  We are hearing one person's perspective, or maybe one person's perspective of one person's perspective and really, who knows what actually happened.  Well, God knows.  He knows and He is not mocked.

What do we do when we are feeling whipped around and close to hurling?  We pray.  We find solace in the Word of God.  We remember that He is our shield and our sword.  His Word is the light to our path.  We remember that we are small and limited, and He is big and wild.  He is not finished with our story, if we are still sitting in the middle of it wondering what in the world is going on.  We must trust Him.  We must not put too much faith in men, no matter how wise or godly we believe them to be.  They are still men.  They see things from their angle.  They may have heard more of the story than we have and we may have to submit to decisions that we really don't agree with.  Keep praying.  Keep looking to God.  Moving to Nebraska or even Italy is not going to make the world seem less topsy turvy.  By the grace of God there are nuts in all countries and all times.  We get to live with the nuts in our own bowl.  I am a nut too, don't think I am looking down on nuts.  Read some good  books.  You will find that this story line is all too familiar.  Love your neighbor.  Don't start trashing your friend.  She sees what she sees, you see what you see, and praise God, He sees what is.

It is is all too easy to start attributing motives to people.  It is easy to let fear take hold, causing you to distrust everybody.  Don't get off the ride you are on, just to get on a bigger harder ride.  Run to your Father.  Cry out to Him.  Sing psalms.  Go for a bike ride with your kids.  Remember that God takes time.  He lets the wicked build their own gallows to hang themselves on.  He is long-suffering, and he calls us to join him in that.  Sometimes this story line will come back to you in waves.  You will think it was dealt with, and it will roll in years later.  Buckle up, look to the Lord and love the people around you.  I am so very grateful for people who see things I don't see.  I am grateful for answered prayers, and unanswered prayers.  I am grateful for hard times that cause us to cling to the Lord and to cling to one another.  Father forgive me for forgetting how frail I am and for not trusting you to protect the weak.