No Other Rock

“My grace is sufficient for thee.” ~ II Corinthains 12:9

Let me tell you about yesterday. I got to work late because snow on the roads were forcing me to drive slower and I had to first follow my wife to the car repair shop and bring her home before taking my daughter to preschool.

Then, I had to leave work early because there was a major water leak at my house. The Water Department had to turn off the water because there is no universal shutoff in my house – meanwhile, water is filling my back room as my wife frantically tries to make it stop (or at least control the path of the water).

Then, we have to go buy new hoses and washers for the washing machine. After those are installed, I throw some clothes in the washer and start it up. Great, it works . . . or so I thought. It fills with scalding hot water but it won’t agitate. I check the tubes and sure enough, the drainage tubes had frozen too. I use the hot water to clean them out but still not agitation (unless you count the agitation on my part).

I start a space heater in the back room to dry some things out, hoping that it is simply a matter of a little water getting in the circuitry. Thankfully, that was the case as I learned several hours later.

Then, after we eat dinner and I go to a meeting at church, I come home at about 10:30PM. My wife tells me that the hot water heater is not working. I go out and check, sure enough, the pilot is out – despite me knowing it was in fact on after all the dust – er, water – settled. I call the Gas Company and they come light it. In bed by midnight.

Now, why do I tell you about all this? It’s not to say “Look at me! I had a bad day.” In fact, my day was quite good compared to my wife’s day. She was the one on the battle field for most of this.

It just strikes me that the very day after all this happens, I just happen to be on a devotion about God using trials to build up our character enable triumph through adversity. Again, God’s timing never cease to amaze me.

I could harp and cry about how much what I am now calling “a thousand dollar day” and have the woe is me syndrome. But that is not what God wants. At one point, I was wondering if God was trying to tell me that me and my family should sell everything we have and go live in the desert because it seemed that all our worldly possessions were turning against us anyway.

But I think the message is much simpler than that. Life happens. It’s the way in which we respond to it that matters. That is the truth in all trials.

Today, my prayer for you and I is that we will learn from our trials and turn them into triumphs for ourselves and for our Holy Lord.