ARGHHHHHH! That Bump in the Road Appears Again!

Well. this is an interruption to our regularly scheduled program. Note...the EMS is activated! Beep! Beep! Beep! Sometimes, when you have finally realized your spiritual gift, and you try to use it for the Glory of God, you have a tendency to get so involved in that area that you forget a few things. Like, #1, you are a human being, and you are going to stay a human being. Well, I feel very human today. VERY human. I'll bet you can relate. Ever have a problem, a bump in the road that you drive over, get on the other side of it, and lo and behold! The same bump is in the road just a little way down the road. I have a bump like that. A thorn in my flesh that God likes to find glory in. A bump that no bulldozer or other 'road equipment' can fully get rid of. A situation where God teaches me each time about how I should be more like His Son. A burden He hasn't lifted from me. though trust me I have tried to convince Him to! Begged Him to. Every time I drive over this bump, I am driven in desperation to Him. I do pretty well as long as the road is smooth. But when the bump appears, I RUN to find comfort in Him. I recognize fully my need for His shelter. I search the Word to find the peace that diminishes a little bit in this experience. And maybe that is God's idea when He says "No, not now" to my petitions for relief. In Second Corinthians, comfort is spoken of in the KJV: Blessed [be] God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) The NIV states it this way: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. Same thing just a little different words. The word 'comfort' comes from the Greek 'parakalesis' which means consolation, exhortation. This is what He gives us. When we are to pass it on, the word is 'parakaleo' which means to provide comfort, call for, beseech, pray for. SO, that tells me if I find comfort in Him I am to comfort others who have trouble. To pray for them, call for them, beseech them to find the comfort I have found. See....even that gives us a purpose for those stinking bumps in the road. When we are having a hard time, and run for the comfort found in Jesus, our purpose for experiencing that is to provide us a background necessary to help others. Do I consequently like that bump. Uh.....NO! I don't. But seeing a purpose for it helps. I know it will probably appear intermittantly on that road, but after the experience of the up and down travel over it I can look on the side of the road and see if someone else needs to hear how to find comfort. And it helps. It really does.

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