God is a Good Father

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

A God Story

   So, when to me it is obvious that God is intervening in my life, I for lack of a better term call these events "God Stories".  Here is one.

   My wife and I have gone through a lot.  In April our marriage almost collapsed.  So about two weeks ago I was really down on my marriage.  I spent a lot of time thinking about what I was going to do.

   Lately I've really struggled to attend Church regularly.  I'm consistent with a Bible Study that is every other week, going on Sunday morning is a struggle for whatever reason.  Last week I felt that I needed to go to Church and I didn't really have an excuse not to.  Of course that Saturday night, in possibly an effort to self sabotage my effort to go, I stayed up past three.  So I prayed, "Lord, you are going to have to get me to Church or else I won't make it." or something like that.  I don't believe in giving God ultimatums but I know myself and what I was saying was true.

   So I woke up figuring it was about noon and I had slept in.  I lazily got out of bed and looked at the clock.  It was only a little after 8!  Now where to go.  The Church that sponsors the Bible study I go to wasn't till 11:00, and to be honest I kinda dread wading through all the people there (it is a good Church but it is kind of a mega church).  So I elected to go to the local Calvary Chapel instead.

   I went to that Calvary Chapel once when I moved to my new town and wasn't too impressed.  Right when the wheels came off of our marriage I went back to this Calvary Chapel and the message the Pastor delivered was right at the time what I needed to hear.  I wasn't sure if that would repeat.

   I get to the church, almost late, and the parking lot is full.  I circle around and a parking spot opens right up about as close to the front door as you can get in the lot I was in.  I go in.  The message was on 1 Corinthians 7...the part about marriage.

   The message was exactly what I needed to hear.  It is amazing that I was drawn not only to Church, but this specific Church to hear a message that I absolutely needed to hear.  I needed to have God's opinion, hope, and also practicality injected into my thinking.  Now I have my marching orders so to speak.  To love my wife as Jesus loves his bride, the church.  And to let the chips fall where they may.