Just keep walking..

"Why won't you tell me that it's almost over?" (quote from "The War" by Angels and Airwaves)

Have you ever looked up into the heavens and wanted to just shout this at the top of your lungs?
I have.

We spend our lives trying to do right. We get up every morning, take our showers, brush our teeth and head out into the world thinking that maybe today will be different. We keep our heads focused on the ground making sure that we don't take any missteps. We sit in our offices, vehicles, restaurants, retail shops, schools and try to do our best. It is like we are all in one big kindergarten class and we have been promised an extra fifteen minutes of recess if we will just be good for a little bit.

Then we turn on the TV or open the newspaper and the reality of the world that we live in becomes very apparent. We hear stories of children being shot by adults, entire countries being shoved towards civil war, destructive weapons being developed, disease, famine and that is all in the first five minutes of the program.

When I played football I remember how if one of us made a mistake the entire team was forced to do laps around the field. It was suppose to build team unity...I just remember being really tired. It is very easy to feel as if our fellow teammates on this planet keep making mistakes that we all have to pay for. We walk out into the world each day and try to put our best foot forward and then a milkman decides that children are just targets...........all of a sudden our best foot doesn't seem to matter that much anymore. It is enough to make you want to run out into the street, look up into the heavens and just scream:

"Why won't you tell me that it's almost over!!!"

We are taught from the beginning that when God comes back to the world we will either be on the right side of the fence or the wrong one. There is a deep, unconscious fear that we will not be ready when that event happens. We try so hard to be good and the pressure can sometimes be just maddening!!

Peace my friends.......have peace.

I will not debate the fact that our world looks to be in a period of confusion and pain.....it is. What I can do is take you to a reference book that shares some great insight into this problem: The Bible.

"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you might be overjoyed when his glory is revealed."
1 Peter 4: 12-13

Take a moment today and just look. Take a look around and really watch all of your teammates that play in this game with you. We all play so hard and want to succeed so bad. We don't want to disappoint our Father and there is this underlying fear that we will. So I will let you in on a little secret:

God loves you.

He is a parent who just wants His children to do their best and learn from their mistakes. This world maybe out of control but it has been that way since we decided that a piece of fruit looked tasty. Keep putting your best foot forward....because each step we take gets us closer to our goal.

Just keep walking and remember who walks with you.