Wheels Off

That picture pretty much describes how I’ve been feeling lately. Yep…ever been there?

I want to say that everything is going wrong, however, I know enough to realize ‘everything’ is all too encompassing of a word. Besides, I’d rather focus on my blessings.

But can I be honest? (please tell me you’re nodding) Sometimes focusing on those blessings is really, really hard! Especially when it feels like everything is going wrong. Can’t a girl catch a break?

Umm...nope. Leastwise not in the immediate future.

So I guess this is where the rubber meets the road. I can either go with how I feel, or go with what I know—and let my feelings follow. I choose going with what I know.

And can I keep being honest? That’s hard to do, too.

I mean, why is it so easy to focus on what is wrong? On unfulfilled promises. Even when we know God fills them in His time. Even when we know so much more is going right than going wrong. Why is it so hard to keep rolling along? Sometimes you just need a little push.

I love what Hebrews encourages us with. Hebrews 10:23 tells us to “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promises is faithful.” Later in that chapter we are admonished to “not throw away our confidence; it will be richly rewarded” for “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.” (vs.35 & 39) But my favorite is the beginning of chapter 11, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

See, I can sit here with my feelings all day long, and wrap myself into a pretzel with them. But bottom line is—I’m a Christ follower. And I know my God. I may have never seen Him, but I know “He is faithful in all He does” (Psalms 33:4) and that His “unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him” (Psalms 33:5). I know that I can do “all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). That includes holding to my faith when things around me try to shake it.

No, it’s not easy. But good things rarely are.

So though I’ve yet to see an answer to what I’ve prayed for, and the wheels have spun away from my cart, I need to keep on keeping on. Guess it’s time to pull a Fred Flintstone, pick this baby up, take a little more advice from Hebrews and “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and…run with perseverance the race marked out before me…with my eyes focused on Him”—not all my problems.

No swerving. No shrinking back.

Care to race with me?