Hose

It had been spraying for a couple of hours...the hose broke in one of our upstairs bathrooms and not only was the bathroom flooded but so was half of the adjoining room. Wood floors and rugs and all....and the only way we were even notified of it was that water was not just dripping but flowing down through a vent right inside the backdoor. You just never know what is around the corner!

We wake up each day....without having a clue as to what this day might hold...it might be an ordinary one filled with no unexpected events and other times it might be sprinkled with brush fires that have to be immediately put out....and sometimes they are tackled with hardships that require a great deal more
attention and are filled with overflowing emotion.

Today is all that we have got.... we are not guaranteed anything more that what we have right now. But all too many times, I don't know about you, but I take it for granted.. I take people for granted, I take my blessings for granted....and I take the opportunity to seek God and his ways for granted. We don't know what this day has in store for us but God does. And he, if we let him and if we seek his guide and leadership will equip us to handle whatever it is that comes at us.

When whatever it is comes at us...it comes unexpectedly...and at first glace spays us with indecision, remorse, overwhelming concern and then as it sinks in...we have to get to work and try to identity the root of the shock and go about handling it with the tools that we are equipped with. But the deal is ...the more tools that we have gathered from God along our journey the more equipped we will be in handling situations...God's way.

For he teaches us through experience and through hardships be they little or grand...HOW to calmly and patiently take one step at a time to trudge through the calamity that is before us. We can approach a situation through only our eyes and our limited resources , or we can use the resources that God has graciously offered to cinch the flow of a chaotic situation.

It is hard sometimes to THINK GOD...when we are confronted with the unexpected but it is just like anything else...the more we practice it...the more ingrained it will become....and the more confident we will be able to stand in the midst of anything. God's bag of resources is filled with His grace, His strength, His calmness, His gentleness, His courage, His wisdom, His perspective, His experience, and most of all His loving interest in who we are and in everything we do.

2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

All we have to have in our bag....is FAITH in God's bag. It is that simple....well it sounds simple but we get muddled up in so many distractions that sometimes God's bag that is right in front of us is overlooked or sidestepped becasue we are too busy focusing on the situation that we forgo the solution...The solution in all things, and all situations lies in the hands of God Himself. We can try as we may to substitute and take on a crisis ourselves...but it is God who has the long term, long lasting tools to help us solve and soothe whatever has come our way.

It was a flailing hose that left a huge mess..but we addressed it calmly and diligently and with God's help...got it cleaned up. Sure, there are remnants, there will always be remnants...of a tough situation...but... God will continue to work through the remnants. We just have to continue to have faith in God's bag of resources and remember that they are always available to any of us who ask...and pretty soon, if we ask often enough, they will not only be God's bag of resources but they will live in our pockets as well.

Dear Lord, How blessed we are to know that we can come to you anytime for anything and you will give us the tools that we need for a given situation. Help us to have faith and focus on the solution instead of the circumstance. Amen

Praise God wherever you are or whatever situation he has allowed you to be in...for His glory will shine through.