Sink Full of Curve Balls and Wild Cards (pt 1)

"How quickly we forget God's great deliverances in our lives. How easily we take for granted the miracles he performed in our past." -David Wilkerson

I just got home from a long day of hard work and came home to a sink full of dirty dishes. This is symbolic on how life can feel sometimes. Like you can't get a break and there is such a pile of messy situations that you don't know where to start and it seems to creep up on you when your drained of energy and the ability to think clear. I know how you feel. Life can throw its wild cards and curve balls when you least expect it. I can get tempted to get frustrated, angry, depressed. Have you ever felt like things just don't add up and just happen and you have no idea as to why these things happen? I am there with you, I can feel your frustrations and pains. We are all human and have desires and needs to be understood. Anything can happen at any given moment. You can have a whole week planned out and something comes into the sealed cracks of your well thought out plan and throws it off. Everything gets thrown up in the air like dust being shaken off of a dirty rug making everything unclear until you wait and wait for the dust to clear. You don't know where to start and you don't know what to do...

It can be anything you think. It could be a trial, tribulation, your sin from your past that was planted as a seed and is now in harvest, an attack from one of the fallen angels, generational curses, or a test from God. It remains a mystery. It stresses you trying to figure it out. You just want to escape. You want to get away. So you try to distract yourself with things such as friends, the internet, books, movies, TV, some activity and so on. At the end of the day you come back to your problem just waiting there for you to face it, but you keep living the same cycle over and over and over until you have a mental breakdown. People you love and trust try to help you and in their own eyes have good intentions to share their advice that they think will help you, but it some ways it can be disheartening. You don't know why they just don't get it. Other people who aren't your friends seem to find it enjoyable to take a stab at your name, or personality or how you do things. Everything in life all juggled while there is this never ending overwhelming feeling of distress. Is this speaking to you? Are you wondering if there is a solution? Do you feel alone and your the only one going through this? If so there is hope for you as you will learn later on in this blog...



I remember when I was in Junior High I was in band and more specifically percussion. Percussion is a section of the band that plays instruments that you beat on to cause a rhythm that is the foundation and backbone of the band as a whole, without this section there would be no order in the band and everything would be chaotic. My band instructor's name was Mr.Polera. At first he intimidated me because he was very smart and strict. He was hard on us and I always felt overwhelmed. One day he told us a story that I will never forget. He told us the story about how diamond are made. Once you hear this story you too will see things in a new perspective because this story has a hidden message in it that can be applied to your life.

Coal is a dark black thick rocky shape this feels like a round piece of black chalk yet not as breakable but breakable nonetheless. Coal under years of intense pressure from outside forces such as water starts to transform over time into a clear shiny beautiful new creation called a diamond! Isn't that amazing? So what does this mean for you? Well picture yourself being the coal.You were born dirty and were thrown into a life of overwhelming obstacles and pressures. One day you encountered a message of hope. You responded to this message of hope and things seem to be better for a little while until you started facing trials, tribulations, attacks, your sin coming back to you, you feel like you you can never get a break. Just know that all of this pressure will pay off in the long run, you just don't see it right now.
I can relate to you and so can others. Lets take a look at a few examples of people in the Bible that can relate to different circumstances and some scripture to reflect on:

"There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil." Job 1:1

 Later on in a future blog article I will explain what perfect and upright means because it isn't what you might be thinking as I have found out. More importantly take a look at the last part. He feared God and eschewed evil. I will go into detail in the future on those two things and what they mean and how if you apply those two things to your life it will reap an amazing harvest.

Later on Satan came before God and God knew that Satan was up to no good as he always is so God said:

"...the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?

 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD." Job 1:8-12

Imagine that! God said to Satan "Have you considered my servant Job?" What an honor that the Almighty God would say such a thing about someone. As you later find out God allows Satan to attack Job in several ways. Satan does what He does best, He kills, steals and destroys everything in Jobs life; Everything except one thing and One Person. That thing is Jobs faith and that person is God. Job loses his children, his wife, his way of life, and his friends offer what they think is good advice and in their minds think Job did something wrong to deserve his current situation. Job faced trials, tribulation, attack from the devil, and so on but he didn't give up on his faith in God and even said:

"Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." -Job 1:21

He did question God and God answered Him in the most epic way possible. If you want to know what God said I will share that later because it deserves its own blog entry but basically in a nutshell God showed through numerous examples that He is in control, He is all knowing, He is all powerful, and He is Omnipresent. Job realized that without God he is nothing and deserves nothing. He repented of his ignorance but still put his faith and trust in God. God knew Job's heart and because of Job's faithfulness He restored Job. The lesson you learn from Job's life is that everything was all a test to see if he would trust God or not. Do you trust God? Romans 8:28 says:

"...we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."