It seems that locally rain as been coming regularly for a bit over a month now. For one of the first times in my life I am excited about that, because I am trying to grow grass in my backyard. My grass seed needs to be watered and get into the ground, instead of laying on top of the ground like it over most of the winter. I seed in November and December with the idea that the snow will take some of the grass seed into the ground, yet this idea has not been as successful as I would have hoped.
Over the last few years I have learned that cold hard ground is not ideal to grow a lush summer lawn, but I have to get that grass seed in position early where the snow and the rains will take it into the ground. Due to the slope of my yard it has been a three year, and several HUNDRED pounds of grass seed, effort to get the yard growing, but now it is beginning to get established. Of course, this effort has been hindered by the fur covered children trying to help me with maintenance by tearing up the yard. Long and short, without help grass seed will just not go into sloped hard rocky ground.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you today to make us all think about how many times we really seem to miss a blessing because we are too busy trying to avoid it. Lets at rain once again to find a example of my point.
We do everything we can to avoid the rain. We try to stay out of the rain, and sometimes we may even pray to stop the rain. The majority of the time, rain is a bother too us. It is inconvenient, it interferes with our plans, it is messy, and it is annoying. The issue is that we are so focused on the problems that the rain causes short term, that we miss its long term impact. Many times we miss the point that the inconvenience, the problems, and the annoyance of today, allow things to be better and/or prettier in our world later.
Many times, we do the same thing with God. When times are tough we complain, we whine, we moan and we worry about how bad our life is. Yet if / when we look back in our lives, we can see that similar times in the past have lead to better times, or at least more blessings, or more abundance today. This is not a wealth and prosperity message, but one that is designed to remind you that after a testing and trying time there is typically a time of blessing and rest. Another way to look at it is to say that the crop of today was watered by the yesterdays rain.
My point in all of this is that many times our blessings are sometimes hidden in our trials. Trials today will probably lead to blessings in the future, but sometimes the trail itself actually contains the blessings. Maybe it is a job change, lay off, or firing (all trying and tough times) that makes us finally think about what we are doing with our lives, and question if our chosen career path that is the right one for us. The trail of the job loss may really be a blessing because makes us see what we missed before. Maybe the trail or trouble comes in the form of a unexpected pregnancy for a struggling couple. Such a time may be the thing that finally makes them re-prioritize, and focus on the important things of life. In a situation like this, the emotional, economic, and various other forms of trials, the pregnancy brings results far more then just the blessing of a child. Such a time can also result in the blessing of really deciding where they are going as a family. It can result in the blessing of learning how to really focus on the importance of their marriage. Another such blessing could be learning what things are going to be priorities for them in the future. We may even learn what our lives are suppose to be about. Through all of this they may even learn what is important to pass along to their future heirs. These are just two, probably bad, examples of trails - a job loss / change and a unexpected pregnancy - that can be blessings in disguise. I am sure that you can think of probably 100 other examples of blessings disguised as trails if you think about it.
Sure it is hard to see the blessings in the trials, and the tests, and I am certainly not saying that I want more trials or tests, but I am really trying to learn to see God in all the things in my life. That means seeing God in the hard and tough times, not just the easy and blessed times. God is in control, He is blessing all of us, He is mighty and most of all He is leading us to be the people that He calls us to be.
Our trails are sometimes blessings in disguise, and our trails usually lead to future blessings. The lesson God is showing me via the recent rains is that He is looking out for me and He has a bright future for me. I have to trust Him enough to not work so hard to avoid the trials and tests that I miss them entirely. To miss the trials would mean that I never get to learn the lessons or reap the blessings that He has planned for me. A temporary inconvenience is not worth missing a lifetime of blessing for. I just have to trust God enough to wait long enough to find out what He has planned for me in a situation.
I hope today you can find a few blessings in some past issues, inconveniences, trails, and tests I don't wish you any current issues, inconveniences, trails, and tests in your life, but I do wish / pray today that you can and will see God in all the things in your life, even if those things look to be bad at the moment.
