“When I said, "My foot is slipping," your love, O LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.” - Psalm 94:18-19 NIV
Our week did not start out so well yesterday. What has already been a pretty stressful financial time of late just got worse. The car's power steering decided it was too pooped and popped. Simple part to replace, but only available from a dealer (and they had to get it from Texas) and it's labor intensive. Bottom line is we got hit with a car repair bill on a week where we really didn't need anything to go wrong!
Funny how that works out. Dave Ramsey talks a bunch about how Murphy shows up at your house (or car) at exactly the worst times. That's why he suggests an emergency fund...and too bad we've had to use ours over the past couple of months but hadn't yet replenished it.
So, it was already going to be a tight week and it just got way tighter. Nobody would blame us for reacting poorly to the situation, right? I mean, it would be socially acceptable at this point to whine and cry and throw things, don't you think?
Yeah, it's been a long, hard road but we don't react that way around here anymore. We did for years. We'd get all stressed out about it and start pointing fingers at each other and slamming around the house. Pretty much no fun for anyone. The thing is, we realized that we can't go acting like that if we truly have God's love because to have God's love means to understand that it's a setback but also that God is in control and things will be fine. It's a bump in the road, not the end of the world.
After all, we'll still get to work and school and have food to eat and shelter over our heads this week...and the car will be fixed today or tomorrow. Maybe we just haven't tightened our belts enough and put the priority on getting that emergency fund built back up so that the next thing doesn't cripple us. It's the perfect Murphy repellent!
It's easy to praise God when things are going great, and it's just as easy to decide that maybe we can do it without Him. But when things go wrong, and when our week goes sour in a hurry...well, that's when we can learn something about our hearts and about our character. We can learn something about just how much we really trust God with everything, regardless of the circumstances, by our actions in times of hardship, stress, and pain.
Will you remember your Creator in those times? Will you realize that He is still your provider and the bringer of joy to your soul even when things seem the bleakest?
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