Well lately I've had to deal with my earthly Father in a non-fun way. My Dad is a great father and I'm lucky to have had him as my own. But he like all of us is mortal. He has some health issues and I ended up dropping everything and with my Aunt in tow head out to make sure my Father would be OK.
In the midst of meeting up with my Aunt for a drive out I forgot something. I was enraged. I had been trying to get out of my house and on the road for several hours. Now I had to turn the car around and head back. With all my Dad's health problems going on briefly I thought, "God this is kicking me when I'm down. That is BS."
Big thoughts from a little mortal against an omnipotent, omnipresent 100% righteous and just God...but there they were, even a little bit darker than that.
My wife said, "Hey, it could have been worse. You could have remembered [the item] after I already had dropped you off and you would have had to come back after you and your Aunt were on the road."
That calmed me down. "OK God, sorry. My wife is right. You were just reminding me that I needed what I forgot. And that isn't your job. You are not my Stewart. But thank you. I am sorry."
But it got better. Not only had I forgot the thing that God had most likely reminded me to turn around and get...in my haste to leave, the thing I had forgotten...I realized I had forgotten something way more important, something I could not sleep without and would have been miserable not having (medical deal). It didn't even originally occur to me to bring this item.
So the just of this story is that God knows what He is doing. Even though some of the time life throws little curve balls at you that are irritating, and it seems like at least God is the pitcher...or worse God appears to be the ref laughing as multiple pitchers beam you with fast balls this is never the case. God loves you. He loves me. Everything is working towards the good of those who love Him. Sometimes that may not even be your direct good in this life, but maybe for the good of someone else. But I KNOW God doesn't allow hurtful things to come our way to enjoy watching His creation get beat down. Never. God allows big things and small things (like my little irritant) to work for the good.
This is a good reminder because a lot of things that are potentially huge, painful, and difficult are coming my way soon. The next time I have to this same trip will be very trying I think. Without getting into the issue I could get resentful to a lot of people, people that are really close to me, for what is happening surrounding my Father. But my heavenly Father has got this. If I can take this little object lesson in the small and apply it to the big and keep faith that God is working not only will I not let things that I don't understand cause me frustration, but I can take them with grace and not get angry, trusting in that God is at work even though sometimes it seams like He is just standing by or even making things worse. God never does that to His children, but His ways are not our ways, and sometimes we need to have faith and wait for things to unfold and trusting that God is a good God and loves us and others. We need to be patient and not freak out even though we may not understand what God is up too regardless of how it appears.
I write this so this to remind myself in the coming months of this little event. A story to help me keep things in perspective. I hope this story helps you too.
Keep the faith.
Romans 8:28
