Despite the Obstacles

When life gives me lemons, I make a lemon meringue pie with a side of orange sherbert.

Ever have those days you didn't want to get out of bed? Maybe your exhaustion is too great. Maybe you have too many tasks to do. Maybe depression is choking the life out of you. It could be any number of factors holding you under the warm blankets. It is okay to feel these things once and awhile, but chronic fear, panic, and lethargy are detrimental to our health. Changing perspective is necessary.

Adaptation - willing to consider another alternative and pursue it.

Life isn't always candy and flowers. Life goes sideways when we were planning a straight path. Consider this tree out on the Standing Stone Trail.

At one point it was seed floating in the wind and probably hadn't planned a rocky landing. Yet, the seed was deposited here and something natural occurred. It sprouted and began to grow. Imagine if you will, a seed being able to reason and talk. Imagine the little seed spending hours, days, weeks and months, and maybe even years crying over its unfortunate destination on the large cold hard mean rock. "Woe is me." it would wail. Instead of embracing its potential, the seed lamented the deplorable conditions of its destination and never ever realized any worth. That's silly, right?

When I first saw this specimen, I thought of the toughness of the seed to sprout and the arduous process of digging in and having its root system begin seeking firm ground in which to anchor. Winds and storms most likely battered the little sapling. Apparently, the seedling didn't know it wasn't supposed to grow and thrive in this setting. Oh well, so much for giving up before you start.

Maybe we are fighting the urge to get out of bed this morning. A glance out the window makes us shudder and sink a little deeper into our bed as we consider the harsh situations we face. Once again, it is okay to feel this way occasionally but long term paralyzation leads to dysfunction. Our life isn't being lived with a worldview that God has our best interest in mind. The apostle Paul believed God and Christ Jesus are always surrounding us whether in good or bad times. Take a moment to read these verseS. Select them, cut them, and paste them into a document. Print them out and tape them to your fridge door, your bathroom mirror, and on the dash of your car. Live into this truth that God carries us even on our best days and we are able to grow even on our worst days because of this divine presence.

More Than Conquerors

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39, NIV)

PS: "GO LITTLE TREE! GROW LITTLE TREE! YOU CAN DO IT!"

PSS: "GO BELIEVER! GROW LITTLE BELIEVER! YOU CAN DO IT!"