Your pick of thorns

Have you ever noticed that we all have some area of life that is just always a catch point. For some it may be illness, for others career problems or finances, relationships, temperament, or many others. Why is it that we all just have a particular area that always causes us to struggle?

The Apostle Paul writes about this when he talks about his “thorn in the flesh.” I'm so glad he never named his thorn but simply stated that it was a problem. Otherwise we may be tempted to say, “I'm so glad I don't struggle with that.”

Instead of criticizing yourself or others for the difficulties we all face in life, rather offer empathy, caring and love. When we do that we fulfill God's commandment to carry each others burdens. If you are facing difficulties right now, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Cappuccino

Today was a personally difficult day for me.  Coming home it was wonderful to just be able to sit down and enjoy a good home made cappuccino.  Taking a short walk around the complex this evening under a clear dark sky while the kitties chased between garden beds reminded me of all the wonderful things in life to be grateful for.

Have you ever seen images of a rock climber climbing up or down a crevasse?  They will often push against both sides of the crevasse wall to gain leverage.  That is what gratitude does.  Gratitude gives you wall to wall leverage when you feel your faith is slipping. 

Another climbing tool, the rope hook will also assist the climber in get out of the crevasse but it needs something to hook into, that would be hope.  When we hook our hearts into hope and use the tools that God has placed in our hands we will be able to pull ourselves out of danger and back onto a safe landing.

When you feel like life is slipping away, use God's tools of gratitude and hope to push and pull your way out of that situation.  God's word is powerful, allow it to guide you through these difficult moments of life. 

An unbelieveable resume

I decided it was time to start challenging myself with my writing and have started work on my first fictional piece. Without giving away any trade secrets I can divulge that it will have a space theme. Being a big fan of all things space related; Star Wars, Star Trek, Batelstar Galactica and Stargate just to name a few, I am totally pumped. I do need to do a little research into my ultimate favourite space hero's the moon landing crew of Apollo 11.

Wow, Neil Armstrong's resume reads like unreal fiction but it is all true. I'm no where close to finishing my research on him, but wow this guy had a lot of bad landing and narrow escapes. Despite all this he made into space but only ever completed one EVA, you guessed it, that famous moon walk.

In all honesty my life has had a ton of crash landings but Neil's story gives me hope. It only takes one great achievement to put you on the global map, never to be forgotten. A well known preacher used to say, “Don't take a step back in your set back because God is already preparing your come back.”

Knowing all this, it is time to set my heart at ease and know that God is in control of everything and that on that one great day it will all have been worth it. If you have been feeling downhearted, wondering how to make sense of the difficulties you might be facing, join me in saying:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

With God all things are possible!

Our God is a great and mighty God!

Amen!

Switch

We hear that word thrown around a lot lately. Switch from your bank to our bank. Switch from your insurance to our insurance. Switch from your super market to our super market. Companies know we spend our money somewhere and they will do anything to try and persuade us to make the change to their organisation.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, at what cost? Large companies spend millions to keep their products and services foremost in our minds and they do this by advertising. They entice us with special offers, good deals and wonderful bargains.

Do we do this with our faith though? In some instances we do. In some regions it is even acceptable to have multiple gods that you worship. Our God is a jealous God. He covets our hearts and attention above all else. If He didn't, He never would have sent His beloved Son to die on a lonely cross for our sins.

God does however give us the choice to make for ourselves. I'm going with Joshua. “Choose you this day whom you will serve, but for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Where you can't go

There is a quote from a now rather old movie 'Paycheck' that often pops into mind. Ben Affleck's character finds a clue that reads, “If you only look where you can't go, you will miss the riches below.” He looks down and lifts the floor of the bird cage to find a winning lotto ticket.

How many times do we get so preoccupied with the things in life that we cannot have that we miss the true riches in life that lie right before us. That is how affairs are started. A man or women looks at the partner they have with boredom and consider the new person they have met with longing eyes. It all begins with innocent flirtation. Flirtation leads to confiding and confiding leads to intimacy and the damage is done..... for a lifetime! There is no recovery from that. Yes, there may be forgiveness but there will never again be trust.

But we do this in other areas of life too. The job we have sucks and we imagine that somewhere out there awaits our miracle career that will bring us wealth, fortune and fame. We forget that these are often wrapped up with the soul destroying traps of drugs and alcohol.

What are some of the treasures of life that we do have but often overlook? The gift of life, family, and friends. The gifts of nature and the companionship of pets. But far above all of these the treasure of Salvation, the power of the Holy Spirit and love of God our Father. God longs for us to treasure the simple things of life that make life less complicated.

Are you willing to look at the treasure that lies before you and give thanks to God for His love, grace and mercy?

Ripped out

On Saturday I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of gardening. What I have figured out is that I seem to have a small injury to the tendons in my right elbow. It doesn't hurt during normal daily work but once the spade hits the ground it sends a shock wave to the affected area. Ouch!

After only managing to make small progress on digging open the new bed, I decided to start cleaning out the herb garden of all the beans and lettuce which were just giving me grief and then I pulled out all the marigolds from the other beds. I did so to check on the condition of the soil and also to help get some weeding done. I can easily reseed the marigolds once everything is checked.

While doing so I found some disturbing grey stuff around the roots of my roses and am guessing it was root rot. After all the grief I've had with the roses, I decided they needed to come out. I grabbed slips from my scented geranium to fill the gaps and also planted some elephant ears.

What did I learn from all this? There are times in life when we need to go and do stock taking of our situation. There may be areas of our lives where weeds have taken over or even others that have developed an unhealthy fungus. In those cases we need to be brave and dig in an get rid of the areas that are not producing the desired result.

I'm not saying it won't be painful, I have a long scratch under my arm to prove it. The result however will be a far healthier garden of life. If you need to do some cleaning out, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and to give you the strength you need to make the right decision.

They don't just come in three's

Have you ever heard the saying, “problems always come in three's”? I beg to differ. That would just be the farthest thing from the truth in my life. I usually find that the boulders just get thrown at me constantly for a good period of time.

James 1 tells us that we should count it all joy when we fall into various trials and temptations because the testing of our faith produces patience. Huh????? Excuse me Sir, please explain!

I think that what this means is that when our faith is tested we learn to sift through the nonsense of life and learn to see what is truly valuable. God, family and good friends round up the top three for me. What's important to you?