I had a surprise party at my house this weekend. No. It wasn't a birthday party. My neighbor was supposed to have an in-house progressive dinner at his house. When a friend of theirs passed away they had to leave and go to the funeral.
Since we lived next door, I volunteered to have it at our house. I cleaned my house in one day, a task that usually takes two or three days. I was exhausted by the time the party started!
As if that wasn't enough, that night, our toilets overflowed onto the floors and backed up into the tubs. At ten that evening, I was scrubbing out tubs and washing a dozen towels we had used to stop the water from pouring all over the house. So how was your weekend?
Life just has problems. It's part of living. I could have said, "God, I was doing a good deed by taking over the progressive dinner for my neighbor. Why did you let my toilets overflow, especially this night." I could have said that. I didn't. I've lived long enough to know I am not immune to trouble and the timing of it is never the RIGHT time.
Why shouldn't I have trouble just like everybody else? Just because I'm a Christian does that mean God has to wrap me in bubble wrap so I'm insulated from the world? I think not.
God wants me to experience what the lost world experiences but with a different mentality. How I handle difficulties can say to them that there is something to this God thing. It can show them I have someone who helps me deal with whatever life throws my way. That is a very attractive draw for those who are going through difficulties.
So, the next time you're going through difficulty, ask God how he's going to use you to be a testimony to others of how sufficient God is during those times. It actually changes the dynamic of the difficulty when you look at it that way!
Hoping I always perceive difficulty as a way of being a testimony of God's care, Gloria
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