Monday Morning Memo: Life Happens

From the mountaintop…to the valley…they say that is what usually happens.  Something occurs in your life that is amazing and maybe even miraculous and you have what they call a “mountaintop experience”.  Oftentimes it is a result of a spiritual experience from a meeting or a retreat where you felt the Holy Spirit working in a very powerful way.  Your heart is full of praise and overflowing with joy.  Your spirit and emotions are flying high and you can attest to the fact that your God is alive and well and still changing lives.  You are ready to face the world and there won’t be anything that can happen that will dampen your spirits.

Then…you come home.  You return to a job that you hate…the kids get sick and you are emptying buckets and taking temperatures…and your spouse is stepping on your last nerve.  Even the dog is irritating you.  Unfortunately it doesn’t take you long to realize that you are no longer on the mountaintop…you have plummeted into the valley of despair.  How in the world can you go from feeling like you have the world by the tail to feeling like God is no where to be found?  Where did you go wrong?

Let me tell you my friend that you didn’t go wrong; you are just proving that life happens.  We live in a fallen world and God never promised that we would always be on the mountaintop.  Life is made up of detours and unexpected hiccups and sometimes it just isn’t pretty.

I shared with you a few weeks ago that I had attended a weekend retreat that was so inspiring.  I saw God work during those days in ways that just blew my mind and I came home feeling like I could take on the world.  My spirit was refreshed, my relationship with Christ was strengthened and I felt peace like I hadn’t felt for a long time.

Then life happened.  My Dad became ill and I had to rush him to the ER and he has been in the hospital ever since.  Our furnace quit working and we were told that it couldn’t be fixed…so Merry Christmas to us we got to purchase a new one.  This past week, my dear friend’s husband lost his battle with cancer and went home to be with the Lord at the age of 62.  And Thanksgiving is this week and because of the unexpected detours of these past weeks I’m nowhere near ready to have 33 people in my home on Thursday.

I don’t know about you…but when I’m in the middle of everyday life I sometimes struggle to see the mountaintop because I’m face down in the valley.  My head is so buried in the troubles swirling around me that I forget to turn over and look up.  You see, whether we are in the valley or on the mountaintop, we can look up at the same heavens but we have to be intentional on looking upward.  Keeping our eyes focused on the One who knows our today and our tomorrow can make a huge difference on how we react when life happens.

I’m determined to not let the events of these past weeks deter me from shouting from the valley that our God is alive and well.  I told my husband this weekend that God knew every detail of my days way before I did and I’m going to let Him do the worrying.  I’ve decided that instead of just saying that I’m thankful this Thanksgiving…I’m going to do my best to show Him how thankful I am by trusting Him to orchestrate my steps.  If He can turn water into wine…He can surely help me get meat on the table for those whom we can’t wait to welcome into our home.  He alone is worthy to be praised and I plan to do just that whether I’m in the valley or on the mountaintop!

As you go throughout this week, I challenge you to join me in showing God how thankful you are that He is a God that can be trusted…even when life happens!

“You will keep in perfect peace

all who trust in you,

all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”

Isaiah 26:3