Today started out like any normal day. It was time to get the oil changed in the mini-van. So I took the van down to the local garage. While the mechanic was changing the oil, he commented that the tires were worn down to the belts. Well, that was not the kind of news I was expecting. I’ve been around long enough to know that tires and an alignment was going to cost some money today. The good thing is we had the money for it. The other side of me was depressed because we had good plans for that money. The long story short is we got the tires replaced and did the alignment as well.
The thought that kept running through my head today is “what happens when life doesn’t turn out as planned.” One of the things is that we have to keep it in perspective. This was not a terrible tragedy. I have an aquaintance who is facing a much more difficult week than I am facing. Several weeks ago I posted about a new CD my wife got for Mother’s Day. The CD is from the band Casting Crowns and it is titled “Lifesong.” The theme of the CD, in my opinion, is worship. How do our lives reflect worship to our God? One of the songs has been getting some airplay on the radio is “Praise You In the Storm.” How do we continue to praise God when we are going through trials of life? Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (The Message)
“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever. “
What a way to put things back in perspective. Another song that God uses to remind me of this is Matt and Beth Redman’s “Blessed Be Your Name.” The name of the Lord is blessed in our good times – when the “world’s all as it should be”, and the name of the Lord is blessed in the desert times, “on the road marked with suffering.” Job writes, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be stripped of everything when I die. The LORD gave me everything I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” Remember that life will not always work out as planned. We may have our share of disappointments. We may even have more than our share of disappointments in our own eyes, but let’s remember to praise God even in the storms of life.
