I got home from work pretty late this evening. I installed some movie poster frames at a friend's theater and figured it should only take a few hours. After eight hours of grief, frustration, and intermittent anger, I felt really really good about how it all ended.

This job had been a headache from the beginning. These simple frames should have been easy, but they took forever and were oddly complicated. Everything from beginning to end took twice as long as they should have.!

At 8:30 pm I stood back, took a look at the finished product and smiled. Feelings of accomplishment, pride, and satisfaction pushed all the negative stuff aside. I thought of the verse in Romans that says, "we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." This verse never popped into my mind when I felt like throwing things...and that got me thinking!

Why do I always seem to wait until I'm 'outside' the suffering to rejoice? I know that God is faithful and that he always works things out, yet I set my sights short and focus on the problem at hand. Verses 4 and 5 tell me that 'because' I know suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope, my response when life gets miserable should be that of excitement and anticipation.

Father, teach me to look at you when life gets tough. Thank you for your promises and how you are constantly working on my character. Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may know you and continue to find favor in you!

Rubiks Cube

In the early 80's, some Hungarian guy named Erno Rubik came up with a multicolored plastic cube puzzle. This cube has been the number one selling toy worldwide with almost half a billion sold to date.

For the last two days I have been trying to figure this thing out. I managed to match one side on the first day and thought I was doing pretty good. I thought I had a system down and was on my way to completing all four sides. I soon realized I was nowhere near complete. I spent hours trying to get two sides and just got myself more mixed up.

Then I had an epiphany - it was simpler than 96 mixed up colors! I broke it down to three types of pieces: centers, corners, and sides. This helped me to see it completely different and got me a little farther. After another couple hours at it I realized that its complexity was even deeper than I could grasp.

I was humbled as I sat there trying to solve Rubik's cube with its 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 permutations. I was humbled because I tend to see God like that. He reveals a little glimpse of himself and I think I've got him all figured out. Then I go deeper and realize how complex and magnificent he is, and that my new understanding of him has only opened my eyes to one small dimension of his limitlessness.

Conversations

Last night I had an amazing conversation with someone. Do you ever get that feeling that you are in the right place doing the right thing at the right time? Like you are in your element and the Holy Spirit is there working right along side you? Last night felt like that to me.

There was this guy who wanted to tell me about a 'spiritual awakening' he had that had revolutionized the way he thought about things. He opened up about his struggles and questions concerning God and the bible. But these questions and struggles came from a deep and sincere desire to know the truth. In Proverbs 2 verses 3-5, it says "if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God."

God wants us to search for truth! Sometimes, even although that path seems to bring us away from God, His word promises that he will reveal himself! Please, search for truth, for in searching for truth you are searching for God who says that "I am the way, the truth and the life!"