Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Monday, September 17, 2012
Monday, February 21, 2011
A Focused God on an Unfocused Child
Have you ever been to a point in life in which you are not sure which direction to turn or who to talk to? Have you ever got to that point in which you wanted to throw your hands in the air and just cry out, “Seriously???”
A few years ago, my wife and I dropped all of our trivial stresses in life when we found that our son was legally blind in both eyes at 20/400. We worked closely with an eye doctor that was able to assist him up to a certain point but that quickly came to a plateau and we were referred to a Behavioral Optometrist. After just a few visits with the specialist, we begin to see signs that our son did not just have eye problems but was also struggling with multiple Sensory Integration Disorders or what is also referred to as Sensory Processing Disorder.
During our son’s first year in school, we found kindergarten to be a disaster. Between a teacher who admittedly was not used to handling kids with SPD and his quiet challenging behavior at times, we begin to wonder if our son would have a life beyond SPD. We had not taken him to a Occupational Therapist or any other specialist that could officially label him with SPD so the school district, while trying to be somewhat helpful, was hands off on their approach to my son. In other words, if he ‘acted out’ or had a ‘melt-down,’ they would just write him up as a bully or a hyperactive kid that needed to be medicated.
After somehow managing to survive kindergarten, we breathed a sigh of relief. Our thoughts were, “maybe it was just the teacher.” “Maybe our son is actually normal and all those who judged us for saying he had SPD were right in their attack.” Well, first grade came. The teacher had knowledge of SPD and was very open armed to our son. “I can handle him” she quipped. However, here we are nearing the backstretch of first grade and we are now at that stressful state of mind and aggravation that we had with the kindergarten year. Because the state and school have their hands tied, they refuse to accommodate his disorder or assist him in adaptive learning unless we officially label him.
The labeling is bothersome to me. I know, I know, it is a hang-up that I need to get past. But I also look at my son and know he is a bright young boy. He loves math, he loves school and when he applies himself, he gets A’s on all his papers. The problem though is that applying of oneself. One of his downfalls is being easily distracted and the inability to focus. Due to that, his grades are quickly declining and his love for school is waning.
In the very near future, my son will officially be tested. He will be ran through the battery of sessions and tests to find out where he stands and what we can do to help him cope with his SPD. There is a big unknown of what is to come from this testing. Will insurance assist us this time or will they be a large headache like they were with the Behavioral Optometrist? Will this ‘labeling’ hurt my son in the future? Will he ever be able to obtain a normal job or get a drivers license? Will he be looked down upon as if he has some type of mental illness? Many thoughts run through my head and the stress is ever present.
Thankfully, my wife and I know God. Between our faith in God and our close walk with Him, we are able to carry on spiritually even when our emotions are a wreck. We have learned that regardless of our emotions or stresses, we can never allow them to dictate our worship to God, so even when we are crying on the inside, we still give God our all.
This has helped tremendously as we walk down an unknown path with our son’s SPD. God has given a peace that passes all understanding and allowed us to handle the ups and downs of life with our son. Do we get angry or frustrated at times? Obviously, yes, we are after all, mere human beings. However, God has given us a balance to weigh our problems against Him. When God is in the scale, he outweighs ours or our son’s bad days every time. He is the lifter of the head and provides a place to run to when all the battles seem uphill.
For us, God has been the constant focus when our son has lost his. He keeps us from wringing the neck of the uneducated person who thinks a pill is the answer to the problem. He helps us stay calm when people blame our son’s personality on his upbringing. He holds our hand as we navigate through the ugly red tape of health insurance. He reminds us everyday that even though He is a miracle working God that could remove the disorder from our son at anytime, He also is a God that allows us to privilege a walk down the path of the unknown so we can learn and lean on Him.
We do not know what tomorrow may bring. We do know that our son has made strides and has come a long way already to this point. His social interaction is widening. His vision therapy assisted greatly, and he is beginning to learn how to cope with the moments in which his senses get out of whack. Whatever tomorrow does bring, we know that he is a unique boy and no disorder, no red tape, no uneducated person will be able to hold him back from fulfilling his full potential.
A few years ago, my wife and I dropped all of our trivial stresses in life when we found that our son was legally blind in both eyes at 20/400. We worked closely with an eye doctor that was able to assist him up to a certain point but that quickly came to a plateau and we were referred to a Behavioral Optometrist. After just a few visits with the specialist, we begin to see signs that our son did not just have eye problems but was also struggling with multiple Sensory Integration Disorders or what is also referred to as Sensory Processing Disorder.
During our son’s first year in school, we found kindergarten to be a disaster. Between a teacher who admittedly was not used to handling kids with SPD and his quiet challenging behavior at times, we begin to wonder if our son would have a life beyond SPD. We had not taken him to a Occupational Therapist or any other specialist that could officially label him with SPD so the school district, while trying to be somewhat helpful, was hands off on their approach to my son. In other words, if he ‘acted out’ or had a ‘melt-down,’ they would just write him up as a bully or a hyperactive kid that needed to be medicated.
After somehow managing to survive kindergarten, we breathed a sigh of relief. Our thoughts were, “maybe it was just the teacher.” “Maybe our son is actually normal and all those who judged us for saying he had SPD were right in their attack.” Well, first grade came. The teacher had knowledge of SPD and was very open armed to our son. “I can handle him” she quipped. However, here we are nearing the backstretch of first grade and we are now at that stressful state of mind and aggravation that we had with the kindergarten year. Because the state and school have their hands tied, they refuse to accommodate his disorder or assist him in adaptive learning unless we officially label him.
The labeling is bothersome to me. I know, I know, it is a hang-up that I need to get past. But I also look at my son and know he is a bright young boy. He loves math, he loves school and when he applies himself, he gets A’s on all his papers. The problem though is that applying of oneself. One of his downfalls is being easily distracted and the inability to focus. Due to that, his grades are quickly declining and his love for school is waning.
In the very near future, my son will officially be tested. He will be ran through the battery of sessions and tests to find out where he stands and what we can do to help him cope with his SPD. There is a big unknown of what is to come from this testing. Will insurance assist us this time or will they be a large headache like they were with the Behavioral Optometrist? Will this ‘labeling’ hurt my son in the future? Will he ever be able to obtain a normal job or get a drivers license? Will he be looked down upon as if he has some type of mental illness? Many thoughts run through my head and the stress is ever present.
Thankfully, my wife and I know God. Between our faith in God and our close walk with Him, we are able to carry on spiritually even when our emotions are a wreck. We have learned that regardless of our emotions or stresses, we can never allow them to dictate our worship to God, so even when we are crying on the inside, we still give God our all.
This has helped tremendously as we walk down an unknown path with our son’s SPD. God has given a peace that passes all understanding and allowed us to handle the ups and downs of life with our son. Do we get angry or frustrated at times? Obviously, yes, we are after all, mere human beings. However, God has given us a balance to weigh our problems against Him. When God is in the scale, he outweighs ours or our son’s bad days every time. He is the lifter of the head and provides a place to run to when all the battles seem uphill.
For us, God has been the constant focus when our son has lost his. He keeps us from wringing the neck of the uneducated person who thinks a pill is the answer to the problem. He helps us stay calm when people blame our son’s personality on his upbringing. He holds our hand as we navigate through the ugly red tape of health insurance. He reminds us everyday that even though He is a miracle working God that could remove the disorder from our son at anytime, He also is a God that allows us to privilege a walk down the path of the unknown so we can learn and lean on Him.
We do not know what tomorrow may bring. We do know that our son has made strides and has come a long way already to this point. His social interaction is widening. His vision therapy assisted greatly, and he is beginning to learn how to cope with the moments in which his senses get out of whack. Whatever tomorrow does bring, we know that he is a unique boy and no disorder, no red tape, no uneducated person will be able to hold him back from fulfilling his full potential.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
When God Speaks
Ecclesiastes 8:4
Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
WHEN GOD SPEAKS
“God said” appears 46 times in 46 verses of the Bible
The Lord said... 233 times
This does not include the several instances in scripture that contain:
God spoke
The Lord spoke
The Word of the Lord
Declares the Lord
Says the Lord
But thru my studies, every time I noticed God speak…..it was done.
He spoke in creation and power went with his word to call all things out of nothing.
Nothing.
He created everything out of nothing by simply speaking into it.
God spoke any many ways in the Old Testament.
1. God spoke through angels when he spoke to Hagar in Genesis 16
2. God spoke through dreams to Jacob in Genesis 28:10
3. God spoke through visions to Abram in Genesis 15
4. God spoke through symbolic actions of a potter in Jeremiah 18
5. The Silence of God spoke in 1 Kings 19
6. God spoke through miraculous signs of flies of all things in Exodus 8
7. And of coarse, God spoke directly Himself in Genesis 3:9
Hebrews 1
In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son
Side by Side, Old Testament, New Testament, God speaks, at sundry times and in diverse manners…and as we are about to see….He still speaks in the New Testament and even speaks today!
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
We now see that same God of the Old testament, manifested in the flesh, walking amongst mankind.
Some called him John the Baptist
Others Elijah
Others called him Jeremiah
A Prophet
Some say he was just a good man
Some say he was a philosopher
But Jesus is…..
IMMANUEL
He is Wonderful
He is Counselor
He IS the Mighty God
He is Eternal Father
He is also the Prince of Peace
Before Abraham was born, Jesus said He is the I AM
Thomas got it right when he said, “My Lord AND my God”
When you see Jesus work miracles,
when you hear Jesus speak…you ARE hearing God speak.
John 10:27 says My sheep listen to my voice.
Proverbs 8:34 tells us:
Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favour from the Lord.
The sheep knew to list and watch for Jesus.
We see the miraculous Word of Jesus working throughout the new Testament.
Matthew chapter 9, Jesus speaks and heals the two blind men
Mark chapter 7 he simply speaks “Be opened” and the deaf man was able to hear again and at the same time spoke normal.
In Luke 17, he speaks healing unto the lepers
In John 4, Jesus speaks life into son of the father he was with.
In John 8, Jesus speaks unto the sinner lady and saves her from a certain death….telling her to GO and sin no more.
Mark chapter 8, he cleansed the leper.
He verbally rebuked the fever from Peter’s Mother in Law in Luke chapter 4
In Luke chapter 5 he spoke unto the paralyzed man healing.
In Luke chapter 8 he spoke life into the ruler’s daughter
In Luke chapter 7, he spoke life into the widow’s son
John chapter 11 he cries out “Lazarus come forth” and rose him from the dead.
In Mark chapter 5, he spoke against the demons
And on and on it went…
Jesus spoke…and miracles happened.
Jesus spoke…and it was so.
In Mark 4:35 We find Jesus telling his disciples to get into a boat
A Storm of hurricane proportions begins to ravage the boat after while.
But after a long day at work, we find that Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat.
Some things to note about this particular boat trip…
This was a boat trip ordered by Jesus, not the disciples.
The focus was from point A to point B but the focus was no longer on point B, but survival of the storm.
There Faith, or lack thereof, was now facing uncertainty
And the whole time…….Jesus was asleep
How many has ever been in this situation…
Here you are, in a storm, struggling to survive, and Jesus was asleep!
How could he sleep during such a storm?
The Word might produce emotion in us, but the Word itself does not get emotional because a circumstance is present. The Word does not shift with circumstance, circumstance shifts with the Word!
So here we are….in a storm we did not ask to be in…
I didn’t ask to be in a storm of sickness
I didn’t ask to be in a storm of disease
I didn’t ask to be in a storm of a broken or failing marriage
I didn’t ask to be in a storm of that addiction
I didn’t ask to be in a storm of anxiety or panic attacks
I didn’t ask to be in a storm and now JESUS, the person who ordered me IN this boat is sleeping????
I know you had to hear that thunder Jesus!
I know you had to feel the rain!
I know you had to feel the tossing of the boat to and fro!
Don’t you care? Don’t you understand?
I want to reiterate that……Jesus was on the boat!
I would rather be in a boat with Jesus, than to be on a boat without Him.
So the disciples go down and nudge Jesus awake.
Verse 39 say And He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush now! Be still! And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
That’s enough Wind….Stop!
Make a note right here though….
If you do not get anything else out of today’s sermon, get this….
Jesus walked right past the disciples and spoke to the storm!
Jesus walked PAST the disciples…did not speak to them.
Jesus spoke to the storm directly.
Sometimes the Word will not come to you!
Sometimes it is spoken directly to your storm!
40 He said to them, Why are you so timid and fearful? How is it that you have no faith (no firmly relying trust)?
If God says something then it means that it is unquestionable….and totally believable and it is assurance that you are already provided for!
2 Corinthians says tell us
For all the promises of God in him is yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
God’s Word is either yes or no….but regardless, God still speaks today!
So my friend…it’s time..
Time to run to the stern and get in His presence…
Time to quit trying to solve it, fix it, change it…It’s all on Jesus now.
Time to stop crying and start praying
Time to stop being frustrated and start getting into His presence
It is time to give the Word a nudge!
When God speaks...there is power,
There is power in the word of the King!
Friend, you carry the presence of that King....your Lord, your God!
You carry the Word!
That same Word that spoke the Heavens into existence
The same Word that told the water where to start and where to stop
The same Word that spoke to Noah
The same Word that spoke to Moses
The same Word that made the waters split for the children of Israel
Than made Manna to rain down from Heaven
That made Fire to light the way
That made Enemies to fall by the wayside
The same Word that healed the sick and raised the dead
The same Word that was hung on a cross for your salvation…
You carry that Word!
That Word is inside you if you are a child of God today!
Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
God wants to speak to you
He wants to speak into your sickness
He wants to speak into your marriage
He wants to speak into your circumstance
We need to open our hearts today…
Open your eyes
Our your ears
Prepare ourselves to receive the Word that He has for us today!
You said….it can’t happen
God said, it’s already happening
It’s already coming
BY your faith….it is done.
God still speaks today!
Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
WHEN GOD SPEAKS
“God said” appears 46 times in 46 verses of the Bible
The Lord said... 233 times
This does not include the several instances in scripture that contain:
God spoke
The Lord spoke
The Word of the Lord
Declares the Lord
Says the Lord
But thru my studies, every time I noticed God speak…..it was done.
He spoke in creation and power went with his word to call all things out of nothing.
Nothing.
He created everything out of nothing by simply speaking into it.
God spoke any many ways in the Old Testament.
1. God spoke through angels when he spoke to Hagar in Genesis 16
2. God spoke through dreams to Jacob in Genesis 28:10
3. God spoke through visions to Abram in Genesis 15
4. God spoke through symbolic actions of a potter in Jeremiah 18
5. The Silence of God spoke in 1 Kings 19
6. God spoke through miraculous signs of flies of all things in Exodus 8
7. And of coarse, God spoke directly Himself in Genesis 3:9
Hebrews 1
In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son
Side by Side, Old Testament, New Testament, God speaks, at sundry times and in diverse manners…and as we are about to see….He still speaks in the New Testament and even speaks today!
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
We now see that same God of the Old testament, manifested in the flesh, walking amongst mankind.
Some called him John the Baptist
Others Elijah
Others called him Jeremiah
A Prophet
Some say he was just a good man
Some say he was a philosopher
But Jesus is…..
IMMANUEL
He is Wonderful
He is Counselor
He IS the Mighty God
He is Eternal Father
He is also the Prince of Peace
Before Abraham was born, Jesus said He is the I AM
Thomas got it right when he said, “My Lord AND my God”
When you see Jesus work miracles,
when you hear Jesus speak…you ARE hearing God speak.
John 10:27 says My sheep listen to my voice.
Proverbs 8:34 tells us:
Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favour from the Lord.
The sheep knew to list and watch for Jesus.
We see the miraculous Word of Jesus working throughout the new Testament.
Matthew chapter 9, Jesus speaks and heals the two blind men
Mark chapter 7 he simply speaks “Be opened” and the deaf man was able to hear again and at the same time spoke normal.
In Luke 17, he speaks healing unto the lepers
In John 4, Jesus speaks life into son of the father he was with.
In John 8, Jesus speaks unto the sinner lady and saves her from a certain death….telling her to GO and sin no more.
Mark chapter 8, he cleansed the leper.
He verbally rebuked the fever from Peter’s Mother in Law in Luke chapter 4
In Luke chapter 5 he spoke unto the paralyzed man healing.
In Luke chapter 8 he spoke life into the ruler’s daughter
In Luke chapter 7, he spoke life into the widow’s son
John chapter 11 he cries out “Lazarus come forth” and rose him from the dead.
In Mark chapter 5, he spoke against the demons
And on and on it went…
Jesus spoke…and miracles happened.
Jesus spoke…and it was so.
In Mark 4:35 We find Jesus telling his disciples to get into a boat
A Storm of hurricane proportions begins to ravage the boat after while.
But after a long day at work, we find that Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat.
Some things to note about this particular boat trip…
This was a boat trip ordered by Jesus, not the disciples.
The focus was from point A to point B but the focus was no longer on point B, but survival of the storm.
There Faith, or lack thereof, was now facing uncertainty
And the whole time…….Jesus was asleep
How many has ever been in this situation…
Here you are, in a storm, struggling to survive, and Jesus was asleep!
How could he sleep during such a storm?
The Word might produce emotion in us, but the Word itself does not get emotional because a circumstance is present. The Word does not shift with circumstance, circumstance shifts with the Word!
So here we are….in a storm we did not ask to be in…
I didn’t ask to be in a storm of sickness
I didn’t ask to be in a storm of disease
I didn’t ask to be in a storm of a broken or failing marriage
I didn’t ask to be in a storm of that addiction
I didn’t ask to be in a storm of anxiety or panic attacks
I didn’t ask to be in a storm and now JESUS, the person who ordered me IN this boat is sleeping????
I know you had to hear that thunder Jesus!
I know you had to feel the rain!
I know you had to feel the tossing of the boat to and fro!
Don’t you care? Don’t you understand?
I want to reiterate that……Jesus was on the boat!
I would rather be in a boat with Jesus, than to be on a boat without Him.
So the disciples go down and nudge Jesus awake.
Verse 39 say And He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush now! Be still! And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
That’s enough Wind….Stop!
Make a note right here though….
If you do not get anything else out of today’s sermon, get this….
Jesus walked right past the disciples and spoke to the storm!
Jesus walked PAST the disciples…did not speak to them.
Jesus spoke to the storm directly.
Sometimes the Word will not come to you!
Sometimes it is spoken directly to your storm!
40 He said to them, Why are you so timid and fearful? How is it that you have no faith (no firmly relying trust)?
If God says something then it means that it is unquestionable….and totally believable and it is assurance that you are already provided for!
2 Corinthians says tell us
For all the promises of God in him is yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
God’s Word is either yes or no….but regardless, God still speaks today!
So my friend…it’s time..
Time to run to the stern and get in His presence…
Time to quit trying to solve it, fix it, change it…It’s all on Jesus now.
Time to stop crying and start praying
Time to stop being frustrated and start getting into His presence
It is time to give the Word a nudge!
When God speaks...there is power,
There is power in the word of the King!
Friend, you carry the presence of that King....your Lord, your God!
You carry the Word!
That same Word that spoke the Heavens into existence
The same Word that told the water where to start and where to stop
The same Word that spoke to Noah
The same Word that spoke to Moses
The same Word that made the waters split for the children of Israel
Than made Manna to rain down from Heaven
That made Fire to light the way
That made Enemies to fall by the wayside
The same Word that healed the sick and raised the dead
The same Word that was hung on a cross for your salvation…
You carry that Word!
That Word is inside you if you are a child of God today!
Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
God wants to speak to you
He wants to speak into your sickness
He wants to speak into your marriage
He wants to speak into your circumstance
We need to open our hearts today…
Open your eyes
Our your ears
Prepare ourselves to receive the Word that He has for us today!
You said….it can’t happen
God said, it’s already happening
It’s already coming
BY your faith….it is done.
God still speaks today!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The Rearview Mirror
On my drivers license I have a 'B' in the restriction column. When I flip the license over, the explanation given for this restriction is that I am required to have a outside rearview mirror. The restriction is probably due to me being legally blind in my right eye. I laugh about this particular restriction though because for the most part, the majority of vehicles made today have that required mirror.
When I get into my car in the morning, my first thought is not "I better check for an outside rearview mirror!" For that matter, I rarely even notice anything about the car except if it started or not when I turn the key in the ignition. When I drive down the road, my main focus is normally on what is going on in front of me and rarely what is behind me.
Do not get me wrong though, I do use the rearview mirror! It is just that I never really give the mirror that much of a second thought....that is...until today. Four months into the year 2009 and I finally sat down to think about the past year. The events that unfolded. There was moments of excitement, moments of tears, times of pain, yet many positives.
I sat down to look into life's rearview mirror to glance at what was behind me. In a nutshell, 2008 was a year of awakening. It was the year I felt I had finally arrived at a new horizon in my ministry. It was a year of drawing closer to my wife and kids. It was a year of many exciting journeys. It was also sadly a year in which I felt like a knife had been driven in my back by people I placed much trust in. It was a time in which people I called friend for so many years, were in reality, not friends at all. I was tossed carelessly to the side of the road to die, or so I felt.
To say today that it did not hurt would be a lie. It hurt and it hurt badly. I felt like the very thing that God had given to me, man was trying to destroy. I was to the point of almost being convinced that they were right. I wanted to just give up though I knew that giving up was exactly what the enemy wanted me to do.
Thru it all I had friends that were real and genuine, come to my aid. I had a wife and kids, who were also hurt by the same people, hold me up in the time of need. I was being ministered to by God thru people who probably did not even realize they were being used in such a way.
I looked in the rearview mirror today and saw the happiness, joy, pride, yet even the anger, disappointment, hurt and pain of 2008. I learned that the people who tried to destroy me are all behind me now. Even the many fun moments, and bright spots of life in 2008 are behind me. I learned that while the objects in the mirror might be closer than they appear, they are still behind me. I can learn from them, I can build on the experiences and I can even steer away from them if necessary, yet, those things which occured in 2008 will always be behind me.
The rearview mirror of life is there for a reason. It lets you reflect on the things behind you but all the while knowing that your focus should be on that which is in front of you. If one was to drive with just using the rearview mirror as a guide, they will soon wreck. The mirror might help you drive backwards but driving backwards on a road is not only dangerous but illegal. Driving backwards also brings you back to areas that you might otherwise not want to be at again. Those roads have already been traveled. The accidents have been avoided or have occured, the potholes missed, the lesson learned...put the car in drive, look out the windshield and proceed forward!
Take the lesson from the roads you traveled and use those lessons as you proceed down the road of life in front of you. Sometimes those lessons teach you that you were on the wrong road to begin with. Maybe it reaffirms that you are indeed on the right road. Other times it alerts you to adjust your course. Even then, those lessons also help mold you and shape you to become a better driver. They help you to be more alert to the signs in front of you.
I looked in the rearview mirror of 2008 today and reflected. I also looked to that which is in front of me and smiled. God has great things in store as long as I follow the law of His road. He has many great things in store for you as well, if you follow the signs. Those potholes, speed traps, potential accidents that the enemy placed in your way, were meant for harm, but God allows you to reflect on them in your mirror and use them for good.
Enjoy your drive but remember, the focus is on the road in front of you!
When I get into my car in the morning, my first thought is not "I better check for an outside rearview mirror!" For that matter, I rarely even notice anything about the car except if it started or not when I turn the key in the ignition. When I drive down the road, my main focus is normally on what is going on in front of me and rarely what is behind me.
Do not get me wrong though, I do use the rearview mirror! It is just that I never really give the mirror that much of a second thought....that is...until today. Four months into the year 2009 and I finally sat down to think about the past year. The events that unfolded. There was moments of excitement, moments of tears, times of pain, yet many positives.
I sat down to look into life's rearview mirror to glance at what was behind me. In a nutshell, 2008 was a year of awakening. It was the year I felt I had finally arrived at a new horizon in my ministry. It was a year of drawing closer to my wife and kids. It was a year of many exciting journeys. It was also sadly a year in which I felt like a knife had been driven in my back by people I placed much trust in. It was a time in which people I called friend for so many years, were in reality, not friends at all. I was tossed carelessly to the side of the road to die, or so I felt.
To say today that it did not hurt would be a lie. It hurt and it hurt badly. I felt like the very thing that God had given to me, man was trying to destroy. I was to the point of almost being convinced that they were right. I wanted to just give up though I knew that giving up was exactly what the enemy wanted me to do.
Thru it all I had friends that were real and genuine, come to my aid. I had a wife and kids, who were also hurt by the same people, hold me up in the time of need. I was being ministered to by God thru people who probably did not even realize they were being used in such a way.
I looked in the rearview mirror today and saw the happiness, joy, pride, yet even the anger, disappointment, hurt and pain of 2008. I learned that the people who tried to destroy me are all behind me now. Even the many fun moments, and bright spots of life in 2008 are behind me. I learned that while the objects in the mirror might be closer than they appear, they are still behind me. I can learn from them, I can build on the experiences and I can even steer away from them if necessary, yet, those things which occured in 2008 will always be behind me.
The rearview mirror of life is there for a reason. It lets you reflect on the things behind you but all the while knowing that your focus should be on that which is in front of you. If one was to drive with just using the rearview mirror as a guide, they will soon wreck. The mirror might help you drive backwards but driving backwards on a road is not only dangerous but illegal. Driving backwards also brings you back to areas that you might otherwise not want to be at again. Those roads have already been traveled. The accidents have been avoided or have occured, the potholes missed, the lesson learned...put the car in drive, look out the windshield and proceed forward!
Take the lesson from the roads you traveled and use those lessons as you proceed down the road of life in front of you. Sometimes those lessons teach you that you were on the wrong road to begin with. Maybe it reaffirms that you are indeed on the right road. Other times it alerts you to adjust your course. Even then, those lessons also help mold you and shape you to become a better driver. They help you to be more alert to the signs in front of you.
I looked in the rearview mirror of 2008 today and reflected. I also looked to that which is in front of me and smiled. God has great things in store as long as I follow the law of His road. He has many great things in store for you as well, if you follow the signs. Those potholes, speed traps, potential accidents that the enemy placed in your way, were meant for harm, but God allows you to reflect on them in your mirror and use them for good.
Enjoy your drive but remember, the focus is on the road in front of you!
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