Whoa....Dude!

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching our ducks here at Rapha this week. The cold weather has created ice over the pond and, as such, the ducks are having a hard time adjusting to it. Early on, they came flying in to land on the water only to find it solid. Talk about rude awakening! They skidded, and went into spins. They did face plants right into the ice. It was hilarious to watch because you could just hear their little duck "minds" saying, "Hmmmm. This has never happened before. I fly in. I put out my feet to break myself. I land on liquid. What's up with all this hard stuff?" After a while, they got the hang of it because they did not quit or fly away never to try again.

Life with God is kind of like that.
We become comfortable in our walk and we have a tendency to think that it will always be like this. But then something happens, an outside influence, that changes everything. Just like the cold turned the surface of the pond into ice. We may not recognize the change or even be aware of it until we try to walk or live according to the way we've always done. We suddenly find ourselves spiritually doing face plants, spinning wildly out of control, thinking to ourselves, "What happened?" All the while God has been trying to tell us to pay attention and not get comfortable in the way we have approached life. When we encounter times like this, it leaves us disoriented and with a helpless feeling that everything has changed and we cannot continue. It makes us want to give up and quit. Like the ducks though, we should keep trying to land and learn from each attempt. This is the most important question I have found that God asks of me when I fail or mess up. "What have you learned?" What did I put in my heart that will aid me next time I try to "land on the ice"?

It's about learning as we walk through life, realizing that every day is different and situations and circumstances do not remain the same. The problems and situations I face today, are a lot different that the ones I struggled with back in 1969. This is the beauty of this relationship I have with God. He is ever teaching me, showing me and instructing me on how to learn from mess ups and mistakes. Some people have a problem because they refuse to learn. They keep doing the same thing over and over and over again, hoping for a different result (by the way this is the recovery definition for insanity).

Keep your spiritual eyes and ears open for the changes that come to you.
Learn to "slide on the ice" if you will!
God on you......
mb