Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see. Hebrews 11:1

If it weren’t for the fact that I’ll have to start all over again tomorrow, I’d be exceedingly relieved that this weekend is nearly over. Just hours left of this day as I try to write something coherent for this week’s E-blast. And since the problems we’re facing aren’t going away anytime soon, I hope, maybe I can find a message in them.

The good news is that Saturday, Ken ran all over our little town of Clever checking out the offerings at our city-wide garage sale and making some new friends along the way, while I stayed home, puttering in the yard, reorganizing closets, and catching up on laundry. And just when I was about to label it a pretty good day, I failed in my attempt to set up our new printer, and suddenly our ice maker made a ferocious sound that signaled it was giving up. “Why now?” I thought.

I’ve no idea why the printer is being so ornery…it works just fine with my MacBook, but the iPad and phone are a very different story. The devices recognize the printer, and the printer receives the order to print and displays it on the touchscreen, but it does nothing except buffer. The Wi-Fi connection is strong, and I’ve checked all the recommended settings. I cannot find the problem, so I suppose I will have a conversation with a Geek Squad member tomorrow. Isn’t that a lovely prospect for a Monday morning? Sometime before or after that call, one of us must contact Whirlpool to see if they can enlighten us regarding the ice-maker issue. If that is unsuccessful, the next call will be a local repair service. And to top it off, another service call needs to be made to our stove manufacturer. And these are all either new or nearly new appliances. I dare not ask, “What next?”

In the grand scheme of things, these are all fairly minor issues, but when they came all at once and I’m running on very little sleep and we had a church meeting Sunday afternoon that made it a very long day, it’s kind of caught up with me, or maybe overtaken me would be a better description.

While our mundane problems are, hopefully, short-term, there are much bigger things at stake in our lives. Our culture is trying in very inventive and seductive ways to divert our attention away from Jesus, to shove our faith into obscurity. No sooner have we suffered through the memory of a crucifixion and then praised God for the resurrection of His son, than we hear horrific news stories about how God’s children are behaving toward one another. It seems we had little time to embrace the enormity of the gift we were given when evil slipped right back into our midst.

I often wonder how God tolerates His children, but I’m so very grateful that He does. We can’t control the things that happen in life, but we can control our responses to them. I’m the first to admit that I have “occasionally gone a tad overboard” when troubles seemed “to pile on.” When I reflect, it hasn’t been that many years since I didn’t have an ice-maker and certainly never heard of a thing called the internet. We forget sometimes how blessed we are. And we may even wonder how a heavenly being could possibly assist us with everyday maintenance issues with products that should seem foreign to Him. We forget that He has the master plan for everything, and His wisdom can lead us to the answers to what we need and keep us calm as we seek those answers. We can’t do everything alone. Sometimes we possess the necessary skills to help others with their problems, and sometimes we require the skills of someone else to help us. But we always have Jesus at our side to help in ways no one else can. Detours in our daily lives often become opportunities to strengthen our bond with the One we should always turn to first…if I could just remember that.

Today’s inconveniences will pass, perhaps they’ll even become tomorrow’s opportunities, and I need to keep my eye on the prize. Jesus died that I might live eternally with Him, but also to offer me peace and understanding along my life’s journey, in the good times and the not-so-good ones.

He did it for you, too.

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG)