My Yo-Yo Life

Up and down, up and down.

I could never get the hang of a yo-yo when I was growing up.  I could do it a few times but invariably, it ended with the yo-yo just hanging there, hanging on by a thread.

This past week, my life definitely seemed like a yo-yo.  Monday started off fairly normal, then I went to work.  It seemed as if all hell broke loose.  Over the next three hours, it seems I used every management, pastoral and counseling tool in my repertoire.  When it was all said and done, I was exhausted.  I felt empty inside.  I came home to just veg and 20 minutes after walking in the door, the power went out for the next 6 hours.  

Tuesday morning I felt like I was operating on vapors, but throughout the day, the Lord continuously strengthened and encouraged me.  Wednesday, my wife and I experienced a fairly embarrassing incident and it seems I quickly crashed to earth.  By Thursday, it felt like I was hanging on by a thread.

"I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."  (Galatians 2:20)

My wife gave me a quote that said in part that "Christ did not want to be our helper, but rather our Life.  He wants us to experience His life in the heat of the moment."

In the heat of the moment, I was not letting Christ shine through.  Heck, to be honest, by Thursday I was questioning God's goodness.

Now I know He is good, but in the midst of the storm it is hard to see clearly.

Yet He did bring us through the storm.  A friend reminded me of Romans 8:35 which says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?"

Romans 8:37-39 answers that question:

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Nothing can separate us from His love.