Enjoying the roller coaster ride

The Descent
Originally uploaded by gwENvision.

A wise person is one who at least survives and at most enjoys it. -- anonymous

If I updated my blog yesterday, I would have written a completely different thing. I would probably have started with a question: How do you survive a roller coaster ride? By that of course, I meant the proverbial roller coaster of life.

I am just plain tired. Physically and emotionally. Workload has been crazy. The health of our kids have not been too good. There is no medical facility in this country that can diagnose the strange nosebleeding of our little girl... Blah-blah-blah...blah-blah-blah... I can rant and rant.

But then again, is life really that miserable? How miserable can it get when people you don't even know suddenly calls out of nowhere to say they are praying for you or your family? Or angels disguised as either friends, family or total strangers sending in help of different kinds?

Isn't it just too myopic to see beyond the here and now?

Everything is about points of view, Pastor Ed Lapiz tells our Bible class this morning.

Try looking at another direction and you'll see a different view. A sailing ship may look smaller and smaller to the sight of a man on the wharf. But to those on the other side of the ocean, the ship gets bigger and bigger.

And so also with the challenges in life. You can either fight the tide and be miserable, or flow with it and enjoy every moment. I would rather chose the latter.

Why does God bring you to difficult situations? Surely, it is not to punish you. God is a loving God and He never desires for you to suffer. In fact, it grieves Him to see His children suffer.

But why? Maybe because He knows you are most likely to do something to turn your situation around. Or maybe because He wants to show you once again that He is the God of your lives. He is in control of everything. He is the source of all things. In Him and through Him, all things are possible.

For indeed, how can you see the good things when you don't see the bad? How can you experience His miracle when you still have something to cling on? How can you experience healing when you are not sick? How can you bask in His grace when you don't feel any need? How can you rely on His strength when you are not weak?

As the Wise Man once said, "there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven..."

Really and truly, this too, will pass. In the meantime, enjoy the ride.