Glen Eyrie Castle – Colorado Springs, CO

I will be going back in June for a writing workshop, but that keeps me so busy I don’t have time to enjoy the awesomeness that is Glen Eyrie. So this year, a bunch of my favorite people and I get to go up a little early.

I will be replenishing my store of photographs too. =)

I fully intend to keep posting, but in case they come a little later over the next few days, now you’ll know why.

Thank you all for reading and for all the encouragement you bring to me!

~ Amy

Of course, no one in Wichita has free air anymore. So $.75 and a dust stain on my dress pants later, I had all of my tires are pressure, and I was driving home. The tire hold the air just fine all the way home. No big deal. Got home. Sort of slept (not really; I think I’ve forgotten how) and went back into work the next day. The tire was low but not desperately. Even so, I decided to make an appointment with my local dealership to have it checked out.

So yesterday morning, I took my beloved car into the dealer. And surprise surprise, I had a rather large nail pierced right through the sidewall. To make a long story short, I had to buy a new tire.

And I spent a good half hour pondering exactly how a rusty square nail could cost me $150.

Wheat close up – Safe Haven Farm, Haven, KS

Today’s verses are Matthew 13:31-32.

Here is another illustration Jesus used: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”

This verse is a positive verse, but I’m going to take a negative spin with it. Jesus used the illustration of a mustard seed to demonstrate how God can take something small and do something awesome with it, turning it into something great.

Well … you know that can work a different way.

Things that start off small can eventually become big, whether they’re good things or bad things. A nail in a tire is a bad thing, but if you leave it alone and don’t fix it, it can lead to a blow out … which can lead to deaths … possibly even more than one.

Can a petty, rusty square nail really cause someone to die?

If you don’t fix the problem before it becomes unfixable, yes.

Seeds are pretty spectacular little things. They’re so tiny, but after you plant them and take care of them, they become such big things. Trees or wheat crops that feed millions. The law of sowing and harvesting is incredible!

A virus is a spectacular little thing too, but even though it’s tiny–microscopic even–all it has to do is start multiplying, and pretty soon that tiny little microscopic annoyance has become something huge and out of control that can do a lot of damage.

I guess my thought this morning is that we have so many opportunities in life to fix problems before they grow beyond our means to control, but so many times we choose to let them go. We convince ourselves that the problem isn’t that big of a deal or that it will all work itself out. Well, yes, it probably will, but if you would take the initiative to fix it before it spirals out of control, maybe you can reduce the damage.

Everything is a seed. Everything you say, everything you do, everything you think. You’re planting seeds every day, and one day you’re going to watch your crops grow into something much bigger than what you planted. So if you planted something that’s too big for you to control, you need to take steps to control it before it starts controlling you.

It’s like that nail in my tire. I didn’t have to get it fixed. I could have just kept filling the tire up with air and waiting for it to deflate. But eventually that tire would have blown.

Most problems can be fixed while they’re still small. No, it’s not fun. Fixing problems is never fun, especially when it’s your fault. But it’s better to suffer a little and fix the problem while you can before it grows beyond your capabilities.

Believe me when I say if you wait until it’s too late, the suffering is far far worse.

When I’m looking for help, I try not to look like I’m looking for help. That’s probably silly, and it’s probably a pride issue. But I don’t like to look helpless even if I am. But there are some times when I know I look utterly and completely lost, but even at those times not everyone around me is willing to offer help.

There’s a big difference between recognizing that someone needs help and choosing to stop. 

Sun over wheat – Safe Haven Farm, Haven, KS

Today’s verse is Nahum 1:7.

God is good, 
   a hiding place in tough times.
He recognizes and welcomes
   anyone looking for help,
No matter how desperate the trouble.

God is the sort of person who will help anyone who comes to Him. Satan wants us to think that God will eventually give up on us and that if we screw up too many times, God won’t help us anymore. He’ll wash His hands of us.

That’s not true. Nowhere in Scripture has God rejected a living, breathing person who turned to Him and asked for help. No matter what kind of trouble we get into in this life, no matter how badly we screw up, no matter where the consequences of our actions have taken us, God is always waiting to welcome us home.

Not only does He recognize that we’re in trouble. He is also willing to help us, eagerly anticipating the day when we get our heads straightened out and come to Him. Like the story of the Prodigal Son. God symbolizes the Father. He’s out waiting in the road, watching for the crazy kid to come walking back.

This passage out of Nahum is pretty interesting. If you have a chance, I’d suggest reading all of Nahum 1, but I’d recommend reading it in the Message (which is the version I used this morning). Nahum is one of those minor prophet books that you need to understand the context before the translation will make sense.

Nahum was a prophet that God sent to Nineveh. Nineveh was a pretty evil place. I’m not going to go into details, but Nahum wasn’t the only prophet God had sent there. And the reason God sent Nahum was to warn the people of Nineveh that judgment was coming and if they didn’t repent, they were all going to die rather unpleasantly. If you study ancient history, in all honesty, losing aspects of Ninevite culture wouldn’t have hurt the world that much. But God doesn’t take anyone for granted, and He doesn’t want anyone to die without giving them a second chance. That’s what Nahum was for.

In the Message, Nahum 1 starts out with the phrase, “God is serious business.” And that’s very true. That statement is followed by a long list of what God is capable of doing. How powerful He is. How mighty He is. How strong He is. The Creator, the Sustainer of everything. What happens when He turns His rage on people who defy Him?

And then we get to Nahum 1:7. “God is good, a hiding place in tough times. He recognizes and welcomes anyone looking for help, no matter how desperate the trouble. “

What other god would give the people who’ve betrayed and hurt him a chance to come home? Not only a chance to come home, but the opportunity to be safe. Nahum 1:7 tells us just how deeply God cares about us, that He recognizes when we need help, that He welcomes us into a safe place no matter how much trouble we’re in. Even if it’s facing consequences of our own stupidity, God is waiting to welcome us.

So whatever trouble you’re facing, don’t hesitate to take it to God. And if you see someone who is in trouble, stop and help them. And don’t beat them over the head with their troubles. Welcome them into a safe place, like God does for us.

But even when I’m trying to expand my boundaries and get out of the church mentality, I sometimes slip back into a nasty habit of using common religious words and phrases that confuse people. It’s the same with any other culture. Groups of like-minded (or not-so-like-minded) people who spend a lot of time together create words and phrases that mean something to them, and when they try to communicate outside their little comfort zones, no one else understands.

I’m a copywriter for a marketing team. I and the other writer in the team often discuss the merits and disadvantages of comma usage, and we quite frequently use terms like nonessential and clause and reductionist. And if you aren’t a writer, or if you aren’t interested in grammar at all, those won’t mean anything to you.

It’s the same with the church. Baptism by emersion. Sanctification vs. Justification. Passing the plate. Fellowship. Giving your heart to Jesus. Terms and phrases like these make little sense outside the church.

Ladybug in the wheat – Safe Haven Farm, Haven, KS

Today’s verse is Psalm 143:11.

For the glory of your name, O Lord, preserve my life.
    Because of your faithfulness, bring me out of this distress.

I’ve always loved the phrase,For the glory of your name. There’s just something moving about it. And it fits nearly any situation that you’re going through.

If you’re happy, it’s for God’s glory. If you’re sad, it’s for God’s glory. Whether you’re gainfully employed or not, it’s for God’s glory.  And so on and so forth. But let’s be real about it; no one really knows what it means. It’s just one of those churchy phrases that is great to tack on to any sentence to make you sound like a better Christian.

What does it mean to live for God’s glory? To suffer for God’s glory? To rejoice for God’s glory? What is glory?

Glory is placing value on someone or something by your actions.

If you own an expensive vase or a rare portrait, you’re going to want to display it in a way that brings attention to it. You’re going to want set it up in a place where the light is just right, where people see it and recognize how priceless it is. That is bringing glory to that object.

If you are given the opportunity to host a famous person in your home, you would give him the best room, feed him the best food, make sure he had everything he needed. And you would introduce him to people with the utmost respect, making sure they know who he is and what he means to you. That is bringing glory to that person.

We don’t hesitate to bring glory to priceless objects or famous people. But when it comes to bringing glory to God, we usually find something else to talk about.

Maybe we just don’t know how. Because it’s easy to bring glory to something other people can see. It’s easy to bring glory to a person who can prove their great works. But bringing glory to God is kind of a different story, isn’t it? How can you glorify Someone who nobody can even see? You can’t very well put God on a shelf and shine a light on Him. You can’t very well take Him to a party and introduce Him to all of your friends. Not literally at least.

But what you can do is recognize Him as your motivation.

That’s what it means to live for God. That’s what it means to glorify God with your life. If He is your motivation, your purpose, your reason for living, that brings glory to His name. That makes people stop and listen up because if you can live and suffer and rejoice and maintain that God is your motivation for living the way you do, people will pay attention.

Some people live for money and material wealth. Some people live for people, social interaction and political influence. Some people live for themselves. But if your driving factor for living is give God the credit for everything, not only will other people notice a difference in you, but you will also experience a satisfying life. Because all the money and all the friends and all the selfishness in our culture can’t bring you peace like God can.

And we’re centrally located in the heart of the Heartland, where wholesome old-fashioned values are still worth something. Some have called Kansas the buckle of the Bible belt. And cost of living is probably the lowest of most other states. Life is harder here, though, than in other states; you have to be tough to deal with the climate and other aspects of living in a state that’s 90% sky. But overall, Kansas is pretty much bubble. And Wichita, though it has its moments, is the kind of place you can live and shut out the rest of the world pretty easily.

Meerkat at the Sedgwick County Zoo – Wichita, KS

Today’s verse is Ephesians 6:18.

Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

Being alert is an exhausting task. It’s difficult to accomplish in simple communities, but if you try to stay alert in our world today? With governments and the threats that are active today? Yeah, not so easy.

But I find it ironic that in the Age of Information, where even toddlers know how to operate an iPhone, we are less informed about life in general than ever. It seems to me that the more we have the ability to know, the less we actually learn. Maybe it’s because we take it for granted that the information will always be available to us at the click of a mouse. I don’t know.

But I do know that if we are lazy and don’t take the initiative to be aware of what is going on around us, we’re going to be in a world of hurt, especially as believers. As followers of Christ, we are called to know what is happening in our life, in our family, in our country, and in the world as a whole. Why? So that we can participate the best way we know how, so that we can help people who need help, and so that we can pray specifically for the needs of others. And if we don’t know what others need, how can we pray?

I’m guilty of the generic “God be with so-and-so” types of prayers, sometimes because I’m too emotional to pray out loud what I’m really feeling. But mostly because I’ve been too indolent to find out what’s really happening in the situation.

And I’ll admit that I don’t pay as close attention to local or world news as I should. I don’t watch television. I don’t read the paper. As a journalist, I can hardly bear to listen or read anything that’s out there, mainly because I know the way it’s supposed to be done. Unbiased and true. Reporting the news instead of manipulating it. But every news organization in the world has become a marketing organization. There’s no truth reported anymore. It’s all spin. But even in all the spin, there is a grain of truth. And it’s my responsibility to know what’s happening.

I need to be alert so I know how to pray. Specific prayer is better than generic prayer for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it demonstrates how much you care about what you’re asking for.

Ephesians 6 is one of those iconic chapters that has been quoted in just about every topic and subject in study, and if you have the chance the read the whole thing, you should. Actually, I recommend reading the whole Book of Ephesians. it’s not long. But Ephesians 6 is where you find the text about the Armor of God, though in the Message version it doesn’t actually reference it as armor.

It’s easy in the types of lives that we all live right now to forget that we’re in a war. Living in the bubble of the Midwest where we still have plenty to eat and cars to drive and clothes to wear and entertainment to distract us, it’s easy to forget that the world is in chaos.

As believers, it’s our responsibility to be aware. Because even if we can’t do anything about it, we can ask God to take care of it. And God has proven that He responds to the prayers of His people.

Ephesians 6:13-18 (The Message)

Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

Don’t bury your head in the sand. Wake up. Open your eyes. And get ready.

Now if we can just hold on for a few more weeks with no major storms, no major floods, Kansas could have a very good year. And about time too. It’s been a while since we’ve had a good harvest in these parts.

I think farming and writing are very similar in some ways, especially when it comes to harvests. Because in both professions you can pour your heart and soul into what you do and never see a positive financial return. You can farm and farm until you’ve planted acres and acres of every crop, and (at least in Kansas) one bad storm can wipe it out. It has nothing to do with your dedication; it’s just life.

Writing’s the same in some cases. I realized the other day that I’ve been writing for almost 20 years, and I have yet to see an actual return on any of it. Granted, I only started letting some of that writing out into the public eye in the last five years. But still. If you run the numbers, you can get discouraged pretty quickly. And then you stumble into a verse like today’s?

Wheat almost ready – Safe Haven Farm, Haven, KS

Today’s verse is Luke 6:38.

“Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

How does that work? I can honestly tell you that I’ve worked my fingers to the bone writing since I was a child. My dream since childhood was to be a published author. And I haven’t cut corners. At all. I’ve never expected a free ride, and I’ve dedicated every free moment to it. Even my vacations have been an opportunity to pursue writing.

So according to this rule, the rule of sowing and reaping, I should get back what I invest. And I should get back more of it. This is a law of nature that God created when He made the world. Newton figured it out too; for every action there is a reaction. Cause and effect.

So where does Jesus get off telling me this today?

Farmers plant fields and harvest crops, unless you live in Kansas. Then, generally, you plant crops and harvest dust. Much like writers write books and harvest disappointment when no one wants to buy their work. Am I wrong?

I’m only being partially facetious.

I would be right, yes, if Jesus were only talking about financial returns. I can’t really speak to farmers because I don’t farm (unless you count weeds), but when it comes to writing there is something more satisfying than being paid for your work. And that is when your work touches someone else.

No, I haven’t published a novel yet. But you’re reading this blog post, aren’t you?

No, I haven’t received a financial return on anything I’ve written, but I didn’t really start writing to get rich and famous. I started writing and telling stories because it was an outlet where I could share what God has done in my life. And so much more important to me is communicating that truth to other people, whether it’s in blog posts or articles or short stories or novels. And maybe I haven’t written anything that’s made money. And maybe I never will. But if you count up the people I’ve been able to share my story with through words, that vastly outweighs a paycheck of any kind.

I’ve invested 20 years of my life in writing, in learning how to tell stories, in sharing what God has taught me through words. And I can tell you, the returns I’ve seen, while not financial, are greater than what I originally invested. I’ve given my life to writing, and I’ve watched God take that and make it into something bigger than what I could have imagined, not only being a blessing to people but encouraging others to start sharing their story too. And that’s worth more to me than almost anything.

So whatever you’re doing in your life today, remember that the whole principle of sowing and reaping applies. It really does. It just may not pay off in the way you’re expecting. If what you’re doing in your life honors God, you will see a return. That’s a promise. So don’t give up.

Who needs a paycheck anyway, right? … Like I said. Partially facetious. =)

Slowly but surely, it feels like things are starting to brighten up again. Sort of like what happens when spring really hits and little flowers burst out along the lines of the dead branches of trees. It’s that little reminder that life goes on and everything has a purpose and God has a plan.

But that’s not to say the difficult times won’t come again. On the contrary, with the world in the state that it’s in, dark moments seem to hover constantly, just waiting for the opportune moment to drop on all of us. And on those days, I need more than a few happy little flowers to brighten my perspective.

Apricot blossoms – Safe Haven Farm, Haven, KS

Today’s verses are Romans 11:33-36.

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.

If you have a moment, you really should read all of Romans 11. One of the things I love about Paul is that he references existing Scripture, and Romans 11 is a great example of how the Old Testament and the New Testament complete each other. Just in this passage alone, Paul quotes both Isaiah 40:13 and Job 41:11.

Can we really know what God is thinking? Can we really grasp what He’s doing?

Well, to a certain extent, I think we can understand His motivation. If you are a follower of Christ, you have the Holy Spirit living in you. So you have direct access to God, which gives you an inside track to what God is planning (as long as you’re listening, mind you). But even if you can understand God’s motivation, I don’t think we can ever grasp the fullness of what God is doing in our lives. Because even though we’ve been made right with God, we are still human. We’re still flawed. We’re still limited. And God isn’t any of those things, and many times His decisions won’t make sense to us. So we just have to trust His heart.

If you think you know enough about what God is planning to tell Him what’s what, I’ll leave that up to you. But I can tell you that I don’t know enough to be giving God advice. I don’t know enough to be giving anyone advice. That’s why this blog is all about the Bible instead of just what I think about the world in general.

And even though I feel like I’ve sacrificed a lot for God, I haven’t given Him nearly anything in comparison to what He’s given me. So I don’t dare get into the mindset that God owes me anything. How could I even think that when He’s done so much for me?

For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory.

Can any one of us claim something like that? No.

I get so wrapped up in my daily life that I forget what really matters. I get so discouraged by my failures and my flaws. I get so disappointed by people and the way they treat each other. But here’s the deal, guys: That’s life.

Our lives are broken. Stuff happens. And God is bigger than any of it. He’s big enough to take all that bad stuff and turn it into something beautiful. Because it’s all for His glory anyway. And that’s why we live: for His glory.

So don’t let the darkness of this world get you down. And don’t let the shortcomings of people around you make you doubt that God is working. (If nothing else, that should be a confirmation of it.) And if you need more than a few cheery flowers to help you remember that God has everything under control when your world is spinning, remember why we’re here.  

We’re here to praise Him. We’re here to acknowledge that He is the One who matters, that He made everything, that He will be until time doesn’t exist anymore. Earth is just a stepping stone, a temporary stop on the road. And when our time here is done, we’ll all move on to something else.

What is interesting about knives is that you can’t expect to sharpen them using a material lesser than what they are made from. Anything less than the material they’re made from, and the knife will cut through.

Two tea cups in the cabinet – Old Towne Hotel, Wichita, KS

Today’s verse is Proverbs 27:17.

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

I’m a pretty independent person, and I’m an introvert to boot. So I’m not one of those people who runs around looking for new friends all the time. I’m not against making new friends, but it’s not my first priority.

And although there are times when I love to be alone, I recognize fully that I need people around me at other times.

No one person is an island. We weren’t created to be on our own all the time. God made us with the concept of community in mind. We need each other. We need each other to keep each other honest, to help us stay accountable to the promises and the choices we’ve made, and to help us get up again when we fall down.

There’s another verse that I blogged on some time ago about how two people are better than one because when one falls down the other can help them up. And that’s very true. But what kind of people are you choosing for your friends?

That can make a major difference in how you live your life. Friends are a huge influence. The people you spend your time with will determine a lot about you and about the choices you will make.

Friendship is just like trying to keep a knife sharp. If you choose a friend who is at a different place in their walk with God than you are and you decide to make that friend the closest one in your arsenal, you’re going to struggle. I’m not trying to be snobbish here. This is just a fact.

If you have one knife made out of steel and another knife made out of wood, what’s going to happen to the wood knife? The wood knife is going to be destroyed, and the steel knife will only get duller.

But what happens when you put a steel knife with a steel knife? They sharpen each other. They turn out better than they were before you started sharpening them. That’s what happens with friends who are walking with God the same way you are. You can point out the places where you’re struggling. You can help each other understand (or at least deal with) the things God is doing in both your lives. You can encourage each other to keep going.

Iron sharpens iron. Steel can’t sharpen itself. It will just get duller and duller. And it will cut through anything of a less quality material, but if you match it against more steel, it will be stronger than it was before.

If you want to maintain a solid biblical walk, get yourself a solid biblical friendship and hold on to it. There will be times when it’s not fun, especially when you need to admit you’ve done something wrong, but more often than not, you’ll build a relationship with another believer that will last through your lifetime on earth.

There is nothing more awesome than staying out with a cup of coffee and a friend you know you can trust, encouraging each other and reminding each other that God is still working even if you can’t see it right now.

But this is the “road” to Esfuerzo II, one of the Kekchi villages I visited on my last trip to Guatemala. You can kind of see one of the buildings at the top of the hill.

On the road to Esfuerzo II – Peten, Guatemala

Today’s verse is Proverbs 15:13.

A glad heart makes a happy face; a broken heart crushes the spirit.

I’m talking about perspective again this morning. I know I talked about it yesterday, but yesterday was more about focusing on the solution instead of the problem.

This morning, I got to wondering about how exactly you’re supposed to find the solution to think about in the first place. How can you be cheerful when nothing is going the way you think it ought to be?

Well, much like choosing the settings on your camera before you take a picture, you have to choose what parts of your life you’re going to focus on before you make a decision to be grumpy or glad.

I had an exciting experience yesterday that taught me a lot about focus. I woke up at my usual time 5:45 a.m. and rolled out of bed, but as I rolled over and sat up, the room kept rolling. It was truly the most disorienting sensation I’ve ever experienced. The room just kept spinning and spinning. Finally I got into a position where it stopped, but I still felt light-headed and weird. So I made it downstairs and sat down, but the moment I leaned back in a chair, it flared up again. So I leaned forward instead, and that made it worse! I was pretty sure I was going to throw up.

So I did what any self-respecting, independent woman with a high-profile corporate job would do. I called my mom. =)

So mom came out and got me, and she took me to the doctor. And it turns out I managed to catch a virus that attacks the fluid levels in my inner ear, which is what controls my balance. So I got a great big steroid shot (yay) and some motion sickness meds, and I feel much better today.

But while the world was spinning, there was only one thing I could do to get it to stop. I had to focus on a point straight ahead of me and keep my head level. That was it. Nothing else would stop it. No other movement or position would allow me to walk straight. I just had to focus on one point and not move from it.

I’m sure you probably see where this is going.

Our world is spinning out of control. No politician or political party can stop it. No congressional initiative can stop it. No educational grants or school loans can stop it. We’re all walking around in a culture that’s circling the drain, and we lose a little more of our future every day. And it’s no wonder we’re all grumpy and sad and bitter. Because we keep focusing on things that change.

When I was in the middle of these dizzy spells, if I tried to focus on something that was moving, it just made the dizziness worse. When I was clinging to the back of that Guatemalan-sized horse, if I tried to focus on the destination, I wouldn’t have been ready for the road under the horse’s feet, which was rocky and uneven and threatened to dump me off if I weren’t paying attention.

You have to focus on what you know isn’t going to change. You have to focus on the person who is going to figure it out.

In these instances, I had to focus on the butt-ugly wallpaper in my living room. And in Guatemala, I had to focus on the horse, when he gathered his muscles, when he relaxed, when he climbed, when he descended.

It’s the same way in our lives.

When everything is falling apart, focus on what the Bible says about God. That’s He’s good. That He has good plans for us. That He knows what He’s doing, that He never makes mistakes, and that He always keeps His promises. He doesn’t change, and He will be the one to figure it all out.

That’s what you focus on. And when you can focus on that, the gladness will soon follow. You’ll be glad because you don’t have to worry about taking care of everything. You won’t have to worry about things you can’t control anyway, and that’s a tremendous weight off your shoulders. And when you’re glad in your spirit, it won’t be long before the rest of you is glad too.

We need 25 stories written for the upcoming magazine issue at my company? No sweat. Give me five days, and I can get it done. You need them proofread and copy edited to be flawless? That’s where I may have trouble. Details are difficult for me because I can get bogged down in them very easily.

Details overwhelm me. If there are five major problems staring me in the face, I might get a little stressed but it’s nothing I can’t handle. But if you throw 30 little things at me simultaneously, I will shut down.

And I think that’s what happens to me in life. As long as I can focus on the big problems, I’m okay, but the moment I start focusing on the little problems I get overwhelmed with how much there is to do and how inadequate I am to the task.

Little purple flower – Safe Haven Farm, Haven, KS

Today’s verse is Psalm 42:11.

Why am I discouraged?
    Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
    I will praise him again—
    my Savior and my God!

The world is full of details. Tiny little details that if you miss just one, you can make a terrible mess. That’s just the way life is. But if you start focusing on those details, you’re liable to end up living with a very narrow-minded view of the world.

When I start focusing on all the tiny little problems I’m facing, that’s when I get discouraged. When I start focusing on the minor, petty issues that can absorb all my time and energy, that’s when I have trouble waking up in the mornings.

Maybe that’s not you. Maybe you are a detail-oriented person. Maybe it’s the details that you live for. And if that’s so, that’s great. But I bet the big picture intimidates you.

No matter whether we prefer to focus on larger problems or smaller problems, the issue remains that we all have problems. And we all usually have more than one problem we have to deal with in a day’s time. So how do we get past the point where our problems are all we can think about?

Well, it may be difficult, but instead of focusing on the problem, focus on the solution. No matter what problem you’re facing, there is a solution to it. And you can either choose to focus on how much you have left to do or you can choose to focus on how you are going to fix it.

Similarly in life, you can choose to focus on your inadequacies or all the things you’ve done wrong or all the details you’ve missed or all the mistakes you’ve made. Or you can choose to focus on the fact that God never makes mistakes and that He’s big enough to turn your screw ups into something that will glorify Him and bless you.

No, I don’t know how He’s going to do it. That’s for Him to know and for us to find out, but one thing I’ve learned is that God is both a detail person and a big-picture person. And He loves both perspectives because He’s the only Person I know who can work everything out to the best benefit of everyone involved.

So if all the details in life have you feeling down this morning, don’t focus on them. Or if the major problems in your life have you discouraged, don’t focus on them. Instead, put your hope in God. Lean on God and let Him take care of it. Do what you need to do to get through today, and God will provide an answer for you tomorrow.

That’s kind of the way He works anyway.