Something Down the Road…

• January 23, 2017
• Journey

Currently, I’ve been studying 2 Timothy. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, it’s a book in the Bible that was a letter written by Paul, nearing the end of his life, to Timothy. This morning I happened to be breaking down verse 12 in the first chapter of 2 Timothy.

Trek with me for a second because I’m going to jump around a bit.

Verse 12 talks about suffering and not being ashamed. Studying a bit, I landed on 1 Peter 4:12-16 and something jumped out at me. Verse 12 to be exact. It says:

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you.”

‘as if something unusual were happening to you’. Have you ever experienced that? You’re cruising along through life and all of the sudden, out of nowhere, something happens that you didn’t see coming?

I don’t know about you, but this has most definitely been the case for me. Every time. And most of the time, it’s not pretty. I’d love to say I handle struggles in stellar fashion, but that would not be true.

For about a year, I’ve been studying a lot and really looking in to some areas of my life that could use some fine tuning. And for about six months, I’ve really been turning some things on their heads. It’s good, but it’s hard. Praying, truly, that God’s will be done in your life is scary. You have no clue what’s going to happen. Really.

I get asked a lot about our plans, our decisions, our future, and I can safely say- I have no clue.

GENIUS! (not really)

I have truly learned (beyond knowing because I read it in the Bible a million times), that God really has His own plans for us. We can squirm around trying to look for signs, make plans, pray about stuff; but really, He has His own agenda.

So, how do we not squirm around?

I didn’t land here immediately. I tend to squirm. Even though I’m easy-going (most of the time), I like some sort of a plan. A destination. Just a little clarity, please.

But, that doesn’t always happen.

“When we run into great difficulty or pain in the journey of our calling, we’re prone to either cast blame or jump to the conclusion that we must have done something wrong or landed somewhere wrong in our attempt to discern God’s will. But sometimes hardship will come because you got it right. As hard as this is to grasp, sometimes suffering bubbles up from the well of God’s immeasurable affection and devotion to us. He is not unfeeling. He is all-knowing. Something down the road depends on your present stretch of pavement.” 1

I zoomed in on ‘something down the road depends on your present stretch of pavement’. Every time I’ve been through a rough time, a struggle, a time where God seemed silent, there’s been something that I was able to use down the road to either help someone or tap in to for my own journey. Every time it’s made my faith stronger. Every time. Hear me- Every time.

My past, current, future sufferings and trials; life experiences (good and bad), all have a purpose. They are all part of God’s design. Part of the plan. God is not up in heaven scratching His head wondering what you did wrong. He’s not up in Heaven tossing out punishments every time you step out of bounds. I do think He shakes his head at me a little (or a lot) and possibly throw in some eye-rolls too. But, He is completely aware of everything that’s going on- always.

He knew I’d go through that business failure, He knew I’d miscarry that baby, He knew I’d deal with marriage issues, He knew I’d lose my mind a few times, He knew I’d doubt, He knew I’d almost lose both of my children to a random disease, He knew I’d face financial struggles, He knew I’d lose loved ones, He knew I’d have to hold someone’s hand as they walked through sickness, He knew I’d be lonely, He knew I’d struggle with body image,… He knew.

He knows.

And now, I can see the growing pains. I can see the silver lining. I can help someone who’s going through those seasons in their life. I have a stronger faith.

Did I like it when I was going through it? Nope.

Did I act as a ‘good Christian’ fully relying on God? Only sometimes.

In Corpus Christ, we have a little ‘challenge’ with some of our roads not being in the greatest of conditions. They need some work. When I drove Logan to school every morning, we had to drive on some of these roads. It was pothole after pothole, bump after bump. As I became more familiar with the streets I had to drive on, I learned ‘how’ to steer in order to miss many of those potholes and bumps, but I’d still always hit some (or many) if I wasn’t paying attention. Frustrating. Hard on the vehicle.

Maybe our current stretch of pavement in life is full of potholes and debris. Maybe it’s rough. The first time you head down that road, you hit every pothole and run over all that debris. You hit every bump. But, the second time, maybe you only hit a few potholes. By the third time, you remember where those potholes were and you can swerve around them. And you miss the debris. Every time you are more knowledgeable. Every time you remember to do something different so you don’t hit that pothole you hit the last time.

It’s a little like that with our faith journey. Every experience we go through makes us more knowledgeable. Grows our faith. We remember that God walked us through the last time, so we start having a little more confidence that He’ll do the same this time. We start to pay attention to the moments He shows up during the struggle. We start seeing Him more. We can dodge some of the potholes while navigating that rough patch.

I’m learning to not squirm. I’m learning to live through the seasons of life and not worry as much. I’m learning to look for God when things are out of my control. And I’m seeing Him more and more. I’m learning to listen. The more I listen, the more I hear.

And that means that it’s OK not to know what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s OK to take one small step at a time and know that maybe that’s all you get to see right now. Take that step, and the next one will appear. Even though we’d like to run, it may be a crawl.

I hope you and I will crawl. Even if our knees are hurting.

Take on your current stretch of pavement. Take on the potholes. Run over the debris. There are precious lessons to be learned.

1- Beth Moore, “Entrusted”, page 68.

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