I don’t know why we have to endure struggles in this world. Why we have to go through heartaches and many tears. I do know this that I have a God who has promised me a life after this that is without the pains that come in this world and all I have to do is follow him. There are so many things that I love about this world my family, friends and all the blessing God gives me here but the times when I’m hurting so much is when I am so thankful for the hope of heaven.

(This post is not intended to make you feel guilty but feel blessed)

This weekend while I was doing some laundry I came up with this thought. It actually came to me while I was putting some clothes in the dryer. I put the clothes in and then I put in one of these.

Do you recognize what this is? Of course you do it’s a dryer sheet. Could you image your laundry without one of these. All that static would make your life miserable. For some reason this made me think of all those who live in third world countries or that are homeless in our own backyards. What they would do for clean clothes or more than one set of clothes none the less drying their clothes with a dryer sheet. Wow we are truly blessed above and beyond!

Can you think of some other things that we are blessed with above and beyond?

Pleiades star cluster, NGC 1432/35.

 ” Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm, He said….Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?  Cn you loose the cords of Orion?  Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons … Do you know the laws of the heavens?”  Job 38:1,31-33.     

A week or two ago, my 4 year old daughter sat down to pray for her food.  So she bowed her head and folded her little hands and said “Dear God, thank you for this food, thank you for Mommy and Daddy, let me get married someday and have my own babies, and let me get everything I want… Amen.”   You can imagine my wife and I’s reaction.  We were busting out laughing at first.  But explanations had to follow on perhaps a better way to talk to God, and expectations in life.  But in reflecting back on this event, I had wondered how our daughter views others praying including her parents, as there may have been something missing in our prayers which might have had provided a better example to our young people.      

The work of God is all around us.  Do we not take it for granted?  To see a newborn baby is to gaze upon perhaps the greatest of all of God’s creations.  A lesson from God at the end of the book of Job stresses the vast difference between God and man, to serve as an answer to the outcries from Job on unfairness and his feeling of abandonment by God.  A understanding of God is not possible, for us.  We are to trust him, even in suffering.    

As to the majesty of our Lord God, do we really respect that today?  An author Jerry Bridges wrote a devotional thought that one of the great shortfalls of Christians today is the somewhat irreverant manner we often approach God’s throne.  Reading in how the early godly men of the Bible approached God,   they typically did not adopt such casual mannerisms in talking with God, but as there was a very real sense of fear of God in them, they adopted much more reverent means of speaking with the Lord.  Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemene in great anxiety over his impending suffering on cross showed a great example of his great sense of reverence as he stated “not my will, but yours be done.”  Matt. 26 36-46.     

As Bridges stated, it seems that Christians have focused in on the Love of God almost to the exclusion of the fear of God.   God’s love is vast, greater than we can imagine, but that does not escape the infinite gap between the Creator and us, his creation.  We must not lose the sense of awe of God, and his everlasting love and mercy, and never forget his majesty.  As we approach the throne of God, we should remember his holiness and not take for granted the great gift he has given us to approach him directly.    

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”  Heb. 12:28-29.

I’ve faced some very difficult times in my life.  Times when I just wanted to go to sleep and not wake up the next day.  I can’t say I have a lot to complain about compared with many who face such great struggles that my own frustrations could not be more benign.  My youngest girl had the worst eczema I’ve ever seen, on a child.  It was heartbreaking to see a child, so innocent and yet be in so much pain and irritation all over her body.  We were able to get it turned around for the most part after a long, agonizing year and a half of trying different things and God’s many blessings that pulled us through.  It was one of the most difficult times in my life.

I don’t have a lot of close relationships at work, but I have come across a few with which I work fairly closely who are in their late 30s and experiencing the early stages of their own midlife crisis.  Having never experienced it myself, I cannot relay exactly what is going through one’s mind at this difficult crossroad, but I notice it is significantly worse with those who do not have a close relationship with God.  In nearly all cases, I have noticed their level of despondancy being catapulted into full force in their lives after the loss of a close relative, especially a parent. 

A coworker of mine mentioned, today, how he really did not care about living anymore.  He loved his wife and kids, and realized he needed to take care of them, but it was almost to the point where he was not concerned about them anymore.  He did clarify that it wasn’t like he was planning on ending his life, but that he was simply not afraid of dying. 

This caught me off guard, because he did not seem like he would have too many worries and was a fairly upbeat guy.  I did try to level with him on some things and give him some encouraging words.  I also mentioned that I would pray for him to which he responded appreciatively.  I’m hoping I can continue to be a source of encouragement for him. 

I’ve been reading through the book of Job the past few days, and there can be a little learned about suffering from the book of Job.   A preacher once said that probably the worst thing that Satan did to Job was not kill off his wife in addition to his children, and his friends were of no help either– a great example of how not to help a person in suffering.  The greatest lesson that can be learned from Job, is that while Job did not understand why such tragedies were happening to him, he never belittled the blessings he had, and knew he would not be able to keep them forever anyways as he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”  Job. 1:21. 

Don’t give up in this world, for there is much that can be learned from it, and you never know what you may be able to offer, or what wisdom you can confide to make this world a better place.  Also as author Joseph Bayly said “Don’t foget in the darkeness what you’ve learned in the light.”  Many of us have been blessed beyond measure.  Keep Pressing on!

-TK

The domino effect doesn’t have to be negative. Go and do something nice for someone and who knows how many “positive” dominoes will fall. 

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

¹⁶May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, ¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

From Wikipedia

The domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on

I’m sure you have seen those cool videos where thousands upon thousands of dominoes are knocked over just because one domino was knocked over.

Have you ever tried it?

Have you ever pulled into a parking space to realize that the person beside you has parked all crooked. After you stop yelling, you will need to decide do I park beside them which will make you park crooked too or do you park farther away and walk.  If you decide to park by them than you are a part of a domino effect because when they leave someone will come along and wonder where you learned how to park.

My lovely wife was telling me a story about a phone conversation that she had at work. The woman that she spoke with was very rude and my wife could tell that this person was having a bad day. This is when my lw decided to try her hardest to be kind to this grumpy woman. The woman explains to my lw “that their computers had been down all day” which my lw replies ” it sounds like you are having a day like ours. Our computers have been down today too.”  At that point it happen. The woman changes her attitude and starts talking to my wife with a nicer tone of voice. The domino effect had been stopped.

When you are sitting up dominoes they have to be set up in such away that the one in front affects the next one in line.  You see my wife could have let the grumpy lady affect her in such a way that it could have made her grumpy which could have effected me,a co-worker, our children or anyone in her path.

Have you had any domino effect experiences lately?

What did you do?

Do you have any advice on stopping the domino effect?