Bam… Life Happens

Sometimes life comes at you with unexpected events. We are just walking through life and BAM life hits you fast and hard. There is a death in the family, you lose your job, you discover your spouse is cheating on you, or that your child is addicted to drugs.

 

What do we do, how do we react? Life happens, but it’s always suppose to happen to others, not to me, not to you, not to us, but to the others we see on TV, read about in the papers, pray for at church.

 

I know what to tell others, I know how to react when it’s not me, but what do I do when it is me? Who do I turn to, whom do I trust? Whose words will comfort me?

 

I am sure at one point in our lives we all have asked the above questions, experienced the confusion, and utter hopelessness in such an event in our lives. I know I have, I’ve had moments where I have said:

 

“Wait, this is not how my life is to go, I’m not the one who is supposed to have issues, turbulence and strife, my life is to be one of smooth sailing, easy going and life is grand, it’s “the others” who have issues, not me”.

 

But we all know that’s not realistic, nor is it set in reality. Reality is life happens, we all step in it every now and then, and we all have to learn to deal with the mess we stepped in to.  We may not have created it, it may not even be our mess, but we stepped in it, so now we have to deal with it, such is life.

 

Jesus tells us not to worry, God will provide for us all that we need, and he will and does, but when we are in the middle of the mess, we just don’t see it.  Our eyes are covered with it, our souls are wrapped up in it and our hearts and minds just can’t deal with it all. We seem to lose the connection to God, we unplug our faith, it may be for only a moment, or it may be for a life time, we fail God and ourselves by not turning to Him in our times of need, by not giving it over to him, allowing him to hold it, to take it on, and to relive our burdens.

 

This is a lesson we all need to learn and relearn constantly, one that we can never claim to truly know, one  that we all would fail if it where a test. I have taken that test, and I have failed, I may have come close, I may have been right there on the edge of it all, but in the end I failed.

 

Why do we all fail, why would God give us something we can not achieve, something we will never pass? God didn’t, he gives us all we need, it is our own human nature that fails us, not God, it is our own inability to remove ourselves from the situation, it is our own ego that tells us it is all on our own shoulders, that we are above it all, and how could this happen to me. God didn’t create that, God allows it, but he does not put it on us, we do that all on our own. Freewill is a gift and curse, one that we use daily for both, Gods glory and Gods dismay.

 

Life happens, BAM, its all there, nothing you can do about it except to deal and to offer it up to God, and allow him to help you, allow him to be the one you turn to, allow him to be the words you need to hear, the hug you yearn for and the love you crave. Allow God to be God, and allow you to be what you are, human, nothing more and nothing less, human just like the rest of us.

 

Paul