stay strong – ramblrWrites.com

It Will Be Okay.

Imagine if you lost. Everything you thought you could never live without.

That is a terrifying thought for many of us, but what if we did? What would we do?

It’s easy to look at someone who is not okay and give them advice on what they need to do. Then we think or talk out of their hearing: “Man, that is hard, but thank God it’s not me!”

Now, my issue with such a sentiment is this: does God allow good things to happen to some and bad things to others? Sometimes when we say the above, it seems as if we are somehow exempt from going through certain trials, but we are not.

I spoke recently to a colleague who is undergoing cancer treatment. I had not seen her at work for some time, and then I saw her back out at work. Though she had lost some weight, she seemed so calm and was laughing and smiling, which made me pause and think about how I overreact to some simple things at times. After all she has been through lately, where did she find the courage to get up and live each day as it comes?

As she pointed out to me, it is not easy, but she does it because the alternative is death.

I am realising that the problems I see as insurmountable or really not impossible to overcome. I am in the process of reconstructing my mindset regarding the outlook I have on every situation I face. If I can be devastated at the thought of someone else’s diagnosis and surprised by her ability to get up every day and smile and be pleasant, then maybe I need to change how I view my own problems. Are they really that serious or require the reaction I sometimes have?

Would I be okay if I lost all the things I fear losing, that have nothing to do with the life I have been given by God?

I remember a point, as I got older, that I feared losing my grandmother, and so I used to pray every year that she would live one more year and that God would make it ten or twenty years-or forever if he could. It has been 15 years since my grandmother died, and I still have not forgotten how important she was in my life. Since then, I have made some terrible decisions and some good ones, but the most important thing is that I have been able to continue to live.

An article I recently read, entitled, In Haiti, the Art of Resilience, comes to mind. The article was written in 2010 by Bill Brubaker, after the earthquake which devastated the country and killed 230,000 and displaced approximately 1.5 million others. The writer highlighted a series of stories concerning the impact of the earthquake on the Art community. One that stood out to me was about 87-year-old Haitian artist Préfète Duffaut, who lost family members, friends, his home, and most of his artwork. What was so inspiring about his interview was the hope that Brubaker noted was “shining from his eyes”. The hope is to build from the rubble something new and vital. There were other stories of gallery owners, whose galleries had not escaped the devastation, who provided money and art supplies to artists who had lost everything. Duffaut, at 87, having experienced crisis after crisis in Haiti, along with his countrymen and women, was able to affirm this particular event: “My future paintings will be inspired by this tragedy”. How many of us would be able to create something meaningful and inspiring from the rubble of our own tragedies?

We all have the potential to take ourselves out of the dark abyss that life places us in. All we need to cultivate is a vision of possibilities in the face of adversities.

Though it may be hard for us to keep the faith when things go wrong fast, it will be okay. Just keep telling yourself this until you believe it.

Like many Haitians, let us adopt their attitude when faced with difficulties: ‘Let’s get on with it! Tomorrow is another day.’

Image result for bible verse i know the plans

Taking Stock

I was walking
going bout ma business
when the devil
interrupt me
threaten me
try to kick
away ma feet
but a shift
swing 
and counter him
the ol' serpent try
but belly flop and die
humilation his only success...

Do Not Stumble

In Numbers 13-14 the story of the Israelites journey out of Egypt to the Promised Land hits a roadblock. The people of Israel after seeing how powerful God is, parting the Red Sea so they could go through and not around it, providing food that sustained them in a wilderness, disobeyed God out of pure fear and faithlessness. You see God had promised Moses that He would give the land of Canaan to the people of Israel but the land that He had promised them was already occupied! What made things even worse was that based on a report brought back by some who had been sent to spy in this land their cities were fortified and the people were strong and fit able to defend their land . Here was the testing of their faith! Guess what they failed. Like many of us today who use what we see and not our faith in God to solve our problems they failed.

They had been promised a land that “flowed with milk and honey” but this time they had to overcome a people that seemed stronger than they were and guess what those people were stronger than them. We have to remember that the Israelites had been walking in the wilderness for quite some time now, while they people of Canaan had been comfortably secure in their land enjoying this milk and honey. Along this journey many Israelites had lost faith, complaining about the lack of comfort, lack of food, even proclaiming that they had been brought out of Egypt to starve in the wilderness! Yes if many of us were in that same position we would have probably done the same or worse, who knows; we have never been in such a position.

So, based on the reports brought back going to Canaan as they Lord had said was a no go. Here again many would have thought that God must have been mistaken, “don’t know what him talking bout” and so they agreed among themselves to take a hard pass on this plan that God had come up with. Maybe He needed to go back to the drawing board because that was not it! These grasshoppers as some of the spies referred to themselves just would not survive such daring.

So in fear the people rebelled against God instead of unitying to complete His will for them. They rejected God like a leading there encouraging His people they tuned Him out completely. They decided “oh well after coming this far and realising that Moses mad let us pick another leader and head back to Egypt, might as well”. They were willing to go back through the wilderness to a place they could no longer prosper in because they feared trusting in God and the plans He had for them. The milk and honey could not tempt them saving themselves was much more real and important.

At this point Moses is distraught he knows that punishment is near, God will not allow this rebellion to go unpunished. Can you imagine how vexed God was at this point? What an ungrateful set a people!

God was ready to give the people what they wanted, their wilderness. However Moses interceded and God relented because of one man. Of all the spies sent out Caleb was the only one who came back and encouraged the people that the occupiers of this land could be defeated. However, in a sea of doubt his reassurances were drowned out. For his sake God did abandon His promise to give the Promised Land to the Israelites. However, this gift was delayed as an entire generation could not enter the Promised Land but had to wonder the desert. Yes, so close yet so far.

They stumbled and many fell. Today there are many things that prevent us from experiencing our promised land; at the point when we are about to have that experience we allow fear to run the show. We expect life to be smooth sailing and when it is not, we promptly grab our hearts which have fallen out of our chests and we run for the caves. We need to take heart when we are faced with challenges and remember that we are never alone in our distress. It may be hard to imagine but there is always something better waiting for us beyond the problem we now face. God is faithful to us we just need to return the favour.