Dear Friends,

Have you ever had those times in your life where you had more than you could handle?  If you are human, of course you have.  Well recently I had one of those times myself.  I had written something on my computer and saved it to a file.  As wonderful as computers are they can be very trying.  As much time as they can save, they can add countless hours and many frustrations.  This is fine when we have plenty of time, as if that is the case very often, but when we don’t it is enough to push us over the edge.  Well later when I wrote something else and thought I was creating a new file to save my work I was actually over riding a present one that had a deadline attached to it.  One that I needed to have right away.  There was a sickness in the pit of my stomach when I realized what I had done.  Now what?

I thought about shaking my computer until the file fell out.  That wouldn’t work.  I thought of saying God where are You, but God really doesn’t have much to do with computers.  A very smart God.  What could I do?  Not write the piece over again because I was too busy.  But my compulsiveness wouldn’t allow me to do that, so somehow I had to fit it in.  Well as my oldest daughter Sara said. “Why don’t you make lemonade out of the lemons?”  I decided to use this opportunity to improve on that which I had originally written.  In addition I am writing this because I thought it might speak to your life too.  Where is God in the midst of our busy lives?  Where God always is – right in the middle of what we might consider a mess.  Does this remind you of the Post Resurrection Time when Christ was with His disciples?  Their lives had fallen apart and God was still there!  Not in the way they expected, but God was there bringing new life out of the lemons of their experience of Jesus’ death.

Does this not speak to those times in our lives when things simply are not going the way we would like?  In fact, when we are rushed or hurried or possibly looking for more things to fall apart,  God is still there in spite of us and our thoughts and actions.  As I was rushing back to my office today before I had to get onto the next big responsibility, I became frustrated with the traffic and the slow drivers.  In the midst of one of  the stops in traffice God spoke to my heart and said, “Look at my beauty.”  I started to look around and you know what I saw? – flowers and they were gorgeous.  As I reflected on their beauty I remembered something.  Even though I have had a lot to do other times in my life it always got done somehow.  What a great reminder of God’s Presence for who really helps us do everything?  God!  God helped the first disciples to spread the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection in spite of the despair they had felt with Jesus’ death.

I would like to say I am totally calm and collected now, but I am not.  Because I am not God knows I still have some spiritual work to get to that point.  At least I have gained some insight for the next time my world seems to be falling apart.  I have also discovered when I have lost something that seems important God maybe using that experience to help me to laugh as my world falls apart.  That is when I learn again, a bit more deeply, God is still in charge helping me to live life abundantly.  How about you?

Peace,

Gary