When It Doesn't Go Right

Sometimes, it seems that things are not as they should be.  People let you down, expectations do not come to fruition, something small and just a little disappointing breaks your heart. These things happened to me this week. 

However, the truth remains that God knows what He is doing. These things which I am writing about are all small, and He had full control over them, but they are part of this world and cannot be constant like He is. It's times like these, when I have been let down and disappointed, that I remember that He is the only one who will never let me down.

I have walked some bitter paths with the Lord, paths that I would rather not have walked. Places that, only in looking back, I can say I'm glad I've been. Never has the Lord let me down. 

Some cups are bitter, and some are sweet. I've had more than my share of the sweet in my life. But it doesn't matter what I'm drinking. God never changes, even when I do, and I do. 

When it didn't go right, I used to start out by freaking out and trying to think of what I should do. I was thinking today about a line from Elizabethtown which I often quote: "If it wasn't this, it would be something else." Jesus said it another way: "In this world you will have troubles, but take courage, I have overcome the world."

Those words blow me away. There is a promise there, a promise that the world is screwed up by the fall and that perfection will not herald our lives, but there is a deeper promise, "a deep magic that came before the witch" that Jesus has overcome the world. 

On days like today, after weeks like this week, I shrug a little, and think that if it wasn't this little trouble, it would be something else. There are moments in life where everything is going just so. And that is what they are: moments. Very seldom are there many of them strung together. That's just this world for you. But don't worry, Jesus has overcome this world...