Really? That was it?

So...I am here in Ohio visiting with my family and enjoying every minute of it. Now if you have read one of my other recent post, "Rough Ridin'" then you would have read about the ten hour trip my friends and I just took up here less than two weeks ago...good times! This is like a sequel to that one, so if you have not read it, you may want to go back...more so for ending of that story. Basically, I was unexpectedly flipped off a 4wheeler in a deep crik in the middle of the night; it was quite the mud-slingin', flip-flop loosin' adventure. But today as I ventured out into the woods to check on my long lost flip flop and see the site of our sunkin' troubles...I was a little shocked at the site of the crik....

Ummm......it didn't seem that big.

Now when I was flipping around under freezing cold water in complete shock to situation...it seemed as if i was drowning in the deepest ocean, but now to look at this lil' spot that I was catapulted in to...it did not seem like such a hyper-ventilating big deal as it did that night.

Isn't that how problems seem on the flip side of things?

When we are in the middle of the mess it seems...well...messy.
When we are in the center of the storm...we see nothing but stress.
When we are in the tough of the turmoil...we are tired and ready to give up.
When we are in the panic of the pain...it is nothing but pitch black pits for us.

But yet...the moment, the circumstance, the sorrow, the storm, the battle does eventually come to an end. Then we are left looking back.
Now I have found most of the time I can look back at these battles and think the same thing I thought standing before that crik today...."Really? That was it?"

Once we are finished with the fight, the fight does not seem to be as big as we thought (most of the time). We see that we made it through, we had strength to survive something that seemed impossible. Here we stand. Victoriously. Watching the rainbow appear after the storm. And we've become a stronger, wiser person because of what we have gone through.

My thoughts: why can we not remember when we go into a battle, or when we are caught off guard by a circumstance that God is in us, and He is our strength, and with Him nothing is impossible; therefore we are already equipped for the battle, and have no reason to fret, and fear, and hyper-ventilate like I did on my dark night in a ditch.
After repeatedly screaming, "Get me out of here!" my friend Danny pulled me out and put my feet (one bare-footed...sorry had to throw in my flip flop loss yet again) but he lifted me out, and put my feet on solid ground and at that moment I knew I was OK....

Well...Christ is our solid rock/our stable ground, and He is with us always. We can always know that we are OK. But yet, we find ourselves screaming in a panic or begging in frustration to our Lord, "Get us out of here!". Now, I am not saying this for you to feel any condemnation for how you react in a crisis, we are human...it is OK; even Christ asked in agony "Father, take this cup from me". I am just offering a helpful reminder that we need to know that no matter what we go through we can conquer it with His strength, peace, and wisdom; knowing that nothing is too big for our God to handle...so we can take on the "BIG ISSUES" confidently in Christ.