Hey, so God wanted me to share something about my day today. Today's Saturday. A day I'm normally super stoked about and really look forward to. No work, chill out, maybe hang out with family, work on cars or motorbikes or build something and most definitely have a skate (of course!). Well, today wasn't that day... I had a problem at work this week - a pretty small mistake on my part - that effected a client in a big way and it meant I had to work this morning to make it right. Like I said, it was no ones fault but mine. A small oversight which ended up becoming a huge problem for them. I'm the type of guy that doesn't like to leave things unresolved especially if I had any part in it being that way. It meant I'd have to make it right and it meant I wasn't getting paid a single cent for it either and I knew it was going to take up at least half my saturday. To make it worse I came down with a really sore throat and a cold last night so I knew Saturday morning wasn't off to a good start. I went to bed early like a good boy but barely slept at all and woke up feeling like a freight train had parked on top of me.
But, I had to fix this. There was no one else to do it and it was my problem so I prayed and asked God for the strength I needed and headed out the door. It was absolutely pouring rain outside and it took me a good hour to get to work fighting slow moving traffic the whole way. On the way there because there was so much rain flooding the road combined with an oil slick I spun my car 180 ending up backwards facing the traffic. Awesome...just awesome. Thanks to God I didn't hit anything and was able to just turn around and get back on the road. When I got there to work things went from bad to worse really quickly. The small problem became an even bigger problem and the more I tried to resolve it - it became even worse! It was like the opposite of that story of the King Midas with the golden touch - except everything I was touching turned bad. So I'm there at work, sick as a dog with barely any sleep and the client decided that today was a good day to be an audience the entire time for hours. Watching my every move, my every reaction, seeing if I'd sweat under the pressure, cave in and look for a way out, or someone to blame to take the focus off me.
About 2 hours in it was looking really, really bad and it meant that the client would have lost everything and all my work was for nothing. Hope was fading fast but I prayed quietly "please Father, I really need your help right now... really badly..." Immediately He told me what I needed to do - something really obvious but something I didnt think of before - and as soon as I did it the problem started working as it should have all along. Things started flowing and actually working. Thankyou God. I didn't care any more if I felt like I'd been pummeled by Mike Tyson, things were actually coming together and working. I wrapped everything up and was able to get in the car and head home to get some lunch. On the way home I was praying and thanking God for helping me because I really had no hope without Him and this is what He told me... "Mark... there's always someone watching... Everyone has bad days. No one is exempt. What people are looking at is how you respond in those bad times... Do you run and hide and try to escape the bad? Do you cave in and give up? Do you swear and curse letting all your emotions get the better of you and your good character get thrown out the window? Do you throw a tantrum or a pity party and then take it out on someone later?
Do you look for someone else to blame for your problem? Do you long to run to that thing of addiction to ease the pain? ... Or do you stop and pray, ask for help from Me then stand up and move forward believing I will help you? Todayyou chose to believe in me. You made the right choice and they saw it too. You showed them what faith looks like." Long story short, today didn't start off good at all but God was with me. I chose not to let my client see my problems but instead believed that God was for me and with me and made it my mission to resolve theirs despite how hard it was. I asked for God's help and He gave it to me big time. I was truly stuffed without Him but with Him it all came together. Funny thing too, the client wants me back there next Wednesday to do some more work :) There's always someone watching. They're watching to see what you're made of. What's really inside you comes out under pressure - not who you are on the good days. God is good. Trust Him. He loves you.
[ Hebrews 12:1 - Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.]
But, I had to fix this. There was no one else to do it and it was my problem so I prayed and asked God for the strength I needed and headed out the door. It was absolutely pouring rain outside and it took me a good hour to get to work fighting slow moving traffic the whole way. On the way there because there was so much rain flooding the road combined with an oil slick I spun my car 180 ending up backwards facing the traffic. Awesome...just awesome. Thanks to God I didn't hit anything and was able to just turn around and get back on the road. When I got there to work things went from bad to worse really quickly. The small problem became an even bigger problem and the more I tried to resolve it - it became even worse! It was like the opposite of that story of the King Midas with the golden touch - except everything I was touching turned bad. So I'm there at work, sick as a dog with barely any sleep and the client decided that today was a good day to be an audience the entire time for hours. Watching my every move, my every reaction, seeing if I'd sweat under the pressure, cave in and look for a way out, or someone to blame to take the focus off me.
About 2 hours in it was looking really, really bad and it meant that the client would have lost everything and all my work was for nothing. Hope was fading fast but I prayed quietly "please Father, I really need your help right now... really badly..." Immediately He told me what I needed to do - something really obvious but something I didnt think of before - and as soon as I did it the problem started working as it should have all along. Things started flowing and actually working. Thankyou God. I didn't care any more if I felt like I'd been pummeled by Mike Tyson, things were actually coming together and working. I wrapped everything up and was able to get in the car and head home to get some lunch. On the way home I was praying and thanking God for helping me because I really had no hope without Him and this is what He told me... "Mark... there's always someone watching... Everyone has bad days. No one is exempt. What people are looking at is how you respond in those bad times... Do you run and hide and try to escape the bad? Do you cave in and give up? Do you swear and curse letting all your emotions get the better of you and your good character get thrown out the window? Do you throw a tantrum or a pity party and then take it out on someone later?
Do you look for someone else to blame for your problem? Do you long to run to that thing of addiction to ease the pain? ... Or do you stop and pray, ask for help from Me then stand up and move forward believing I will help you? Todayyou chose to believe in me. You made the right choice and they saw it too. You showed them what faith looks like." Long story short, today didn't start off good at all but God was with me. I chose not to let my client see my problems but instead believed that God was for me and with me and made it my mission to resolve theirs despite how hard it was. I asked for God's help and He gave it to me big time. I was truly stuffed without Him but with Him it all came together. Funny thing too, the client wants me back there next Wednesday to do some more work :) There's always someone watching. They're watching to see what you're made of. What's really inside you comes out under pressure - not who you are on the good days. God is good. Trust Him. He loves you.
[ Hebrews 12:1 - Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.]
