stevecuringtonministries.com

Good Morning!  Have you ever spent the day giving it your best only to find that no one was satisfied with your efforts on their behalf? 

Have you ever dedicated yourself to thinking right or maybe to doing right only to have something go wrong that quickly slid you right back to your former fleshly position?

Have you ever thought to yourself "Boy, I'm really getting somewhere now!" only to find yourself regressing over circumstances beyond your control?
 
If those statements appear to be true for you, your Christian life may best be described as "three steps forward and four steps back!"  When that is the case for me, and it sometimes is, I find that my focus is off. 
 
If I could see my"whole path", I could prepared for the disappointments of the day.  Don't misunderstand.  I have a great life.  It is full of daily delight.  But every day I run into something or someone that jolts my whole being.  Even though it happens every day but because I don't know when it's going to happen, I find myself  less than prepared.  When unprepared, I usually fail to respond properly to the disappointment. 
 
I have learned the answer to my problem is focus.  Here is my occasional wrong focus:  When something goes wrong, as it is wont to do, in my optimistic view I see it as a bump in the road.  Now, if I see the bump coming, I can prepare for it.  Before it hits I can brace myself.  Surely I won't get frustrated when I have advance knowledge of an upcoming bump in the road.  I can slow down. I can even steer away from the bump.  Goodness, if it's a big one, I can take another road!
 
But I have learned that we are seldom given advance notice of impending bumps.  Rather, we are speeding along at a break neck pace and then all of a sudden "WHAM!!!"  Next thing youknow we've bit our tongue, hit our head and mad at the whole world.  How does that happen?  We didn't see the bump in the road!
 
The reason that we don't see it coming is because we fail to recognize it's not a bump in the road.  It's a bumpy road!  When my focus is on this fact, I am seldom moved by any measure of madness.  If we are traveling down a road and hit an unexpected bump, it can be quite jolting.  This usually leads to driver frustration.  But if the driver knows that his whole road is bumpy, he will slow to a crawl and navigate the bumps with ease.  Goodness, have you ever navigated them as a parent well enough that the kids giggled at every bump on the road.  Of course you have.   When handled properly the bumps ARE the blessing!
 
But we had to respond properly to the bumps for the family to be blessed by the bounce.  Yet, we won't respond properly to those bumps unless we focus on the quality of our road.  Ephesians 3:13 promises we will ride life on a bumpy road of tribulation.  But it is intended to make us "look good to the kids"!  Paul says it like this "Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory."
 
Don't reject the bumpy road of tribulation.  Expect it.  The only way we change our focus from rejecting bumps to accepting bumps is to realize in advance each day that there won't be a difficult bump in the road.  But rather, we are riding a simple bumpy road.   
 

Have a wonderful day IN the Lord,