What do you do when…?

So we have been in Mbeya for 6 days and found that life here brings challenges in so many different ways. We have found our house not ready; Liz has got a problem with her eye; we’ve had all our stuff locked in a room and the key break…

So sometimes life throws a few things at you at once. Like you’re a juggler and someone is standing at the side throwing in more and more balls! To begin with you keep going, trying to keep up, however after a short while something happens and you lose it – they all come tumbling down to the ground in one big mess. Life can feel like that. Sometimes, without us even knowing it, it all becomes too much and we feel like giving up. We feel like life is unfair, that it’s too much to cope with, and that we don’t want to engage with it anymore.

At this time there are a couple of questions that come to mind. Firstly – why me? Secondly – God why? In some ways neither of these questions are really answerable by us, here and now. However, as one of our friends said the other day, the one thing we do know for sure is that God wants us to trust in him – and nothing else – at this time. The question is: are we willing to do that? Are we willing to trust that he knows what is going on and he will not leave us regardless of what else happens? So often that question leaves me wishing for more… he knows, so what?! That doesn’t make the frustration, the anger, the sadness, the disappointment go away. I want the situation to change!

And you know it will change. But that is not the point is it? So often our lives are centered around us – how we feel, how well our plans are working out, how happy we are. God doesn’t want us to be sad, or unwell, or frustrated… however he does want our full attention! What does it take for us to look at him and trust in him? Sometimes quite a lot of ‘what do you do when…’ moments I reckon!