April was a Downer

Do you ever struggle with life? Are some days or months worse than others?  I didn’t write a blog in April due to travel, issues in my ministry with many people struggling–couples, business associates and the homeless men seeking to know more about God. My back and ankle hurt and blah, blah, blah…I alternated between glimmers of hope and feeling lower than a skunks belly…old farm boy saying.

As a counselor and spiritual mentor I am supposed to have my act together but have come to understand that some days and even a month can bring a struggle as April was for me.  Whether big issues or minor there can be a sense of suffering attached to our lives when our expectations or plans are not met.  It is my belief that God designed suffering to bring us closer to Him.

For me I chose to back off work and ministry, not write a blog, no tweets, and focus on prayer, reading the word and seeking God’s direction. Jeanne and I worked through my “downer” together, praying, talking and some physical work like finishing the back yard flower gardens and building a deck (with a great friend and prayer partner, Colin).

The bible says that the cares of the world will bring us down and that we are to focus on things above.  I emerged at the end of April renewed having given thanks for what I have, confessing a bad attitude to the Lord, and using a favorite phrase, “And this too shall pass.”  I counsel people to anticipate that God is going to act.  Jeanne exhorts the women she mentors with, “PUSH”- Pray Until Something Happens.  Sometimes such results in something that doesn’t seem to help, but God is always there to direct and lift us up. Do you really believe that? Or do you think that is for other people?

attendees

May is a new beginning for me. Today I attended the first annual National Day of Prayer Breakfast in Sisters, Oregon.  Jim and Sonja Horsley have lived there for a year and thought this would be a special event for this small and beautiful Oregon community.  Jim is a decorated Vietnam era A-6 pilot and former Blue Angel, with a heart to see people live for Christ.  Living Perspectives became qualified as an Oregon non-profit to provide support for the breakfast. Inspired by the music, the prayer and the message of God’s definition of success by H.D. Weddel, principal of Bend High School and chaplain to the Oregon State football team.  God saw fit to help me today start May on a note of hope and love.

Speaker H.D. Weddel

God will never tempt you with more than you can stand, as He will show you the way out-loose translation of 1 Corinthians 10:13.  If you are struggling with tough issues, spend more time with God, find a trusted believer who can love you through the rocky parts and begin to anticipate that God will lift you.