Dealing With The Unexpected...

Oh the mystery of the unexpected and the unknown. I recently encountered something 'unexpected' that, by many, was seen as unfortunate and unpleasant, but I chose to have different view on the matter.

My family had been planning a beach gettaway for a week, using a relatives timeshare in North Myrtle Beach. All packed up and ready to go, we began driving, excited for the week of relaxation and tanning ahead! My first piece of advice, do NOT EVER rely on a GPS to take you the fastest way to your destination...that was our first mistake. We found ourselves riding in the back country, surrounded by corn fields and limited to a 35 mph speed limit. Anyway, we finally made it to our resort and came to find that the timeshare week we had available to us was not the week we got there...but for the week after. So what did we do, we packed up the car and headed right back home, this time not listening to the GPS and taking a better route.

If you've ever been in a situation like this, you were probably angry, upset, on the verge of tears...who knows, but feelings like that are only natural after you take off a week from work to relax in the sand and find your plans to be ruined. I could have very well become overwhelmed with anger and frustration, but instead, for some strange reason, which can only be explained by God working in my heart, I was rather at peace and grateful for what had happened. Yeah, it was rather tragic that we drove 3 hours to then turn around and drive back another three hours, but I am so grateful for the fact that we didn't miss our vacation, we only just arrived a week too early!

All I could think about, while driving back home, was the fact that God is in control of all things, has a plan for all that happens in my life, and knows what I can and cannot handle! We can't live life expecting things, events, plans to go our way and end up perfect. If we did, how would our faith grow? How would our dependence on God get stronger? Our faith wouldn't grow and our dependence on God would only weaken. We wouldn't need to turn to God in our times of need and wouldn't rely on him to get us through rough situations.

I know a simple ruined beach vacation isn't necessarily as important as say choosing which college to attend or deciding who you're going to spend the rest of your life with, but for each and every one of those decisions and events, God knows the final outcome and planned it according to his perfect will. So the next time you find yourself in one of these aggravating times, decide how you are going to react before you let your emotions get the best of you.

 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

~Kel

Trust in the Lord...

Trust: (n) reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; a person on whom or thing on which one relies on.

Trust is a part of life that one cannot be without. Everyday, we trust that the chair we are about to sit in holds us up and doesn't fall, that our car will start up and drive us safely to work, that the locks on our houses will keep us safe from any intruders and burglaries...but let me ask you this, are we trusting God with our lives everyday? Do we trust that He will provide us with all our needs, wants, and desires? Do we trust that He will protect us from harm and evil? 

I don't know about you, but I sure have a harder time trusting God than say, the chair at my desk. Why is that? I'm not at all saying that my chair is all powerful and deserves more worship than God. But I find that the reason it's easier for me to trust my chair is that I can see it. With my two eyes, I am able to watch myself sit into that comfy rolling chair whereas with God, I don't physically see him next to me but have to rely and trust that He is with me. Now don't get me wrong, I know God is there! I look at his beautiful creation every morning when I wake up and see him working in my life constantly throughout the day.  It can be difficult handing God my life pen but the fact that I know he has a perfect plan for me that is better than anything I could ever dream of makes me want to trust him with all my heart!

From experience, when you put all your faith and trust in the Lord,  it will feel as if the weight of the world has been lifted off your shoulders! God will make something beautiful out of our lives, but he needs us to trust the fact that he can do it! Yeah, there may be bumps and roadblocks along the way, but God knows what we can handle and will be with us every step of the way.

I like the way this person put it, "Learning to really trust God in the way that He wants you to fully trust Him is an all-or-nothing principle. You are either going to fully trust Him with every area of your life or not. The minute you start waffling and trying to straddle the fence post with Him on this issue, you will then become what the Bible says is a wavering and double-minded man who will become unstable in all his ways." (James 1:8)

Bottom Line - fully surrender and just "Let Go and Let God". To have peace, joy, fulfillment, and happiness in this life, we need to trust the Lord completely! Don't hold back...after all, He's got our back, could anything go wrong?!

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straights." -Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

Until next time...

~Kel