Third Blog

Today is Monday; well I guess I am already getting my blog off to a depressing start. The weekends are always filled with so much fun, and the girls hate when I have to go back to work. It is even harder for them this week, since they have Spring Break from preschool and BSF. They are still a little confused why daddy does not get a spring break.

My men's Bible study took last week off, because most schools had Spring break right after Easter. We are studying the book of Nehemiah, and I just finished re-reading my lesson. I usually talk with my wife about what I have learned and it was amazing how her studies of Daniel and Matthew coincide with my study of Nehemiah. Something profound stuck out to both of us this week.

In Matthew 8, Jesus leads his disciples into a boat. In Nehemiah 2 we see the beginning of opposition. Both Nehemiah and the Disciples were clearly doing God's will. They were both following what God / Jesus called them to do, there is no doubt about that. Yet the Disciples suffered through a storm, and Nehemiah is threatened.
So why is it that Christians think that when trouble comes it is because they are not doing God's will? Why do we think that everything will be peachy for us, when we see that Jesus was persecuted his entire ministry and then beaten nearly to death, then executed in the most horrible way? And he is God's own son! If anyone should have had an easy life, it should have been Jesus.

So why are authors like Joel Osteen making millions of "christian" dollars off a false testimony of God wanting us to have a posh life? Why do we try to comfort our "brothers" by trying to help them find out what they did wrong. Why do we not get on our knees and pray that we will learn the lesson that God is trying to teach us? Since I am not God, I cannot judge whether people are in God's will or acting on their own selfish motives. But why are we so quick to think that tough times are always a punishment?

Don't get me wrong, I know plenty of people that have made bad choices and they are paying the consequences. I am one of them, I am still going through tough times because of decisions I made more than five years ago. But I have also recently been through quite a few things that were just "part of life". If you have read my wife's blog #1 you know that we lost our son only 15 weeks into the pregnancy. The doctors tell us it was a chromosome thing, and there is nothing that we could have done to prevent this.
I will get to my point and close what may be my longest blog ever.

Just because Jesus asks you to get into the boat, and you obey; don't expect a Carnival Cruise. We often learn the greatest lessons, and gain the most inner strength and wisdom through the darkest times in our lives.
If you are stuck in a time like this, take time to thank God for every breath you take, and ask that you keep your spiritual eyes open for an opportunity to turn your darkness into a light for someone else.