Potholes

I was driving my normal route to school, singing and praising God, when all of a sudden my right tire went into one of the deepest potholes ever. It was so bad that I had to pull over. My drink had spilled and my hands were shaking. Not only were my pants messed up but my mood had changed. Just a few weeks ago I drove down this same road and there was just a small little hole but this time it shook the balance of my SUV.

This incident made me think about my life. Every day I wake up and go about my daily routine. Most days are good days and are pretty uneventful. But there are days when I get up and I'm not feeling like myself. My spirit is down. The tears start to flow. I have no idea why. Today was one of those days. Ever had a day like this? This day, for me, represented a pothole.

What is a pothole? A pothole is a type of disruption in the surface of a roadway where a portion of the road material has broken away, leaving a hole. Most potholes are formed due to fatigue of the surface. The formation of potholes is exacerbated by low temperatures, as water expands when it freezes to form ice, and puts greater stress on already cracked pavement. Once a pothole forms, it grows through continued removal of broken chunks of pavement. (Now you know everything you ever wanted to know or didn't want to know about potholes) Why is this important?

I sat there and tried to figure out what was wrong with me today. I thought about the past month. I hadn't been sleeping, people were tugging on me left and right, finals were coming up. I had just recently decided to submit to the tug of God on my heart. While I was excited about the task at hand, I was a little worried about what it meant. My mom had knee surgery, I missed my grandmother and on and on. So the already cracked pavement of my life now had more stress added and the pothole was growing. Sound familiar?

Now if you don't fix a pothole and it continues to grow it begins to do damage to other things - alignment, suspension, etc. Compare that to your marriage, your friendships, your prayer life, your very livelihood. So how do you fix a pothole? The good thing about this repair process is that you can fix it with tools you already possess. What do I mean by that? You can do what I did - I dug down deep into my tool box. What did I find in my tool box? The Word of God! I began reciting scriptures like:

'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.' Psalms 23:1

'For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' Jeremiah 29:11

'That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurable great glory that will last forever. So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now, rather, we look forward to what we have not seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.' II Corinthians 4:16-18

'Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes you way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.' James 1:2-4

'If God is for us, who can be against us.' Romans 8:31

"But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary; they will and walk and not faint.' Isaiah 40:31

I could go on and on. I begin quoting those scriptures and focusing on God, realizing that I have twenty-four access to my Heavenly Father and the fact that His Word will not return void, and the pothole begin to fill up. I filled it up with the things necessary for me to get to my destination `the Word, Prayer and Praise!

This life we live is one big road trip and as we travel along we will come across some potholes. But thanks be to God that as we travel along, we can make pit stops (quiet time with God) and fill up at the service station (with His Word) and continue along our journey.

As a footnote - you will be happy to know that after I cleaned off the soda pop and checked my tire, I got back in my SUV, put it in drive and went off to school, turned in my homework and aced my test. You can do the same!

Dear Lord,

Today has not been a good day. My spirit is weak and I'm tired. I need you. I know that I can trust you, for you always have my best interest at heart. Thank you for my renewed spirit. Thank you for your Word. Help me to remember that whenever I am weak I can turn to your Word, for you can be trusted to keep your promises. In Jesus' Name Amen.