“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1 NLT
“What the heck happened?” I asked my grandson. He’d just brought me his tangled fishing pole when I suddenly had a flashback to the time when MY kids were little and I took THEM fishing. The #1 rule I learned then was to not even bother taking a pole for myself, since there wouldn’t be time. As I untangled, my other grandson brought HIS pole over with the same problem! “Grampa…..!”
With grandkids visiting, the ideas for “fun things to do” kept popping into my head. Boys LOVE to fish and there’s a big lake at the end of my street. Doing the math, it was common sense that found us sitting on the bank having fun… which started immediately with the first cast! “Papa!” I was glad I had a knife in my truck, because untangling THAT mess was going to be impossible! Ah memories!
I have lots of old fishing gear that’s been unused for a long time. Having dug it out, we made our way to the lake. It didn’t take long to remember that we WEREN’T going fishing… we were going ‘untanglin!’ A thing I had forgotten about since I’d put the gear away long ago. It’d taken years to realize that the cost, frustration, tangles and lack of fish weren’t really worth the idea!
Fishing makes me cuss! It gets me irritable and frustrated too. It’s like volunteering for a broken heart… repeatedly! I don’t like that feeling and I certainly don’t want my grandkids to witness that in me. So when a 7’ alligator made his way to one of the kid’s bait… we naturally switched purpose! NOW they have an even BETTER story to tell than the one about the fish that got away!
Today is a day that is bringing frustration, sorrow and grief to friends of mine. Galen and his wife started off thinking that their marriage was going to be fun… even better than most! Soon into it, Doctor visits became normal. When they amputated his leg years later due to infection, they thought the problem was over. But today they are going to the hospital to remove his other one!
Having known Galen and Paula for a long time, the one thing that I KNOW is normal for them is… they just keep moving with Jesus. Tangles and all! When they hit another snag, it’s normal for them to get discouraged. But then we all KNOW it won’t be long before they’ll be back to giving God glory for the victory that very few people have the ability to see! But Heaven is recording them!
What do YOU do when you, expecting to be ‘living,’ find yourself ‘tangled and confused?’ Do you crumble? Or do you lay aside the frustrations of unmet expectations and apply Faith in God to your circumstances? Are you patiently enduring HIS-story in you like He expects? Because there are a LOT of people watching you! Please join me in prayer for Glen and Paula.
