When The Dog Bites...


Only two months old and already injured in the line of duty.   Today I found a minuscule crack in the windshield of my little red Nissan Rogue.
One of the things that make me go... arghhh!!! 
Seems there's been a lot of them lately...

The visit to the tax man that ended with the gut punching revelation that instead of getting cash back, we owed good old Uncle S. this year.

Remembering that it's my turn to do the week long graveyard shift at work. 4 and a half hours of sleep followed by ten hours of piecing together an hour long early morning newscast. Swigging coffee through the night to stay alert then driving home in a zombie daze at 8am when the shift ends.
The soul sucking reality that I don't have ten thousand dollars in my rainy day fund  so my kid can go away to college.   Turns out her scholarship covers tuition not room and board.
Apparently they think parents who can't afford to pay their kids way through college, but can handle the ten thousand  dollar need for books and board.

These are the disappointments, let downs, slights, all of them woven into the fabric of my everyday life.   
It reminds me of one of my favorite songs, "Favorite Things"
The line goes, "when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling saaaaaad".
It goes on, "I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel soooo baaaad."
That may work for Maria and the children but not for me.

When my life gets rude with me, when my circumstances seem to work against me and sneer in my face, when I feel like I'm in a six feet deep hole with no way out.
I look to the hills,  not the ones in the Sound of Music.  I look to the hills from whence cometh my help.  (Psalm 121:1-5) I look to my Father in heaven, my Savior and friend Jesus.
He has me even when life lets me down.
Even when things are bad, God is good, Jesus is with me. I can rest in him, lean on him, walk in his strength, guidance and peace.  He will help me, he will walk me through it or help me out of it.   
"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be removed he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold he that keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper, the Lord is your shade on your right hand."  

When the bee stings, and the bills are unpaid, and the dog bites, and the jobs drives me nuts. 
I Look up!  God is never far away, I talk to him, I lay my burden at his feet.

My problems don't disappear, but his presence and peace appears.    He lifts me above my circumstances.

He is there when life gets ugly and hard. That is enough.