My friend, may I ask you a question? When life’s situations and circumstances cut-in on you, what is a Christian to do? Is there a way you can get that rhythm back, recapturing the flow that you so badly need?
My friend, life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I’m Mark Brunner.
If you’ve ever run competitively you know the feeling of being cut-in. There’s that moment when your pace is developing a good rhythm and you’re just cruising along; when another runner not only pushes into the lead but brushes you so closely that you literally have to fall back to prevent yourself from tripping over your own two feet. Up until that moment you were hardly aware of them. Now they’ve become clumsy and burdensome. There can be no more critical time in a race for a runner than that. Every runner strives to develop a rhythm in a race. In sports it’s is called flow. Flow is when you're really feeling it—it's totally natural, you're not even trying. You're just dialed in. All the elements must be working together in harmony. Some find it early, others later. But no one wins a race without a balanced pattern of running, breathing, and concentration. All of these things can be disrupted by a cut-in, and even the greatest of runners can be distracted, even interrupted by a cut-in. When that happens, it is often difficult if not impossible to win a race as it is so dependent upon timing and rhythm. When you are thrown off stride it can take precious moments to recover the pace. In many cases it’s difficult to recover at all.
When life’s situations and circumstances cut-in on your race to the finish line and your stride is thrown off, what is a Christian to do? Is there a way that a Christian can get that rhythm back, recapturing the flow that he or she so badly needs?
Here’s a story: In the Tate Gallery in London there is a masterpiece painting by Fredric Watt’s of a young, beautiful, female figure seated upon a globe. She is blindfolded, and in her hand she holds a lute, of which all the strings are broken but one. The blindfolded girl is touching that one string with her hand, and her lovely head is bent toward it in the closest attention, earnestly waiting to catch the note of that one wire. The title of this haunting painting is simply, “Hope.” (unknown)
Watt’s portrait of that young woman speaks volumes of what a Christian must and should do. A Christian always has one good string to play, one harmonious note to take possession of, the hope of righteousness that can only be obtained through faith in Jesus Christ. Life will constantly be cutting-in on our fast lane, doing its best to break our rhythm, making us trip over life’s obstacles, ruining our race every time. Our flow may be stumbling and tortuous at times, but recovery is always a valid option for a Christian.Troubles and sorrows will attack our faith, but a strong faith calls forth hope which soon catches the “cut-in” and overcomes it once again, reintroducing the flow. This conquering restores our joy and confidence and gives us the will, the ability to go on and face another lap in life’s race. When we make Jesus Christ our one, last string of hope, there is no amount of “cutting-in” that can cause us to lose the race. We may loose our pace, become frustrated with our effort, even trip over life’s circumstances, but the race is still our’s to win. For a Christian, there’s always one good string to play.
We pray. Heavenly Father, we value so much the rhythm of life, the times when things are moving along smoothly and we seem to be getting where we want to go. Then something happens, and we break rhythm and struggle to get back in the race. Forgive us Lord when we feel like giving up, calling it quits, and just becoming numb to the brokenness of life. Help us to find the one string of hope that will put us back on track. In Jesus name we pray. Amen
Therefore my friend, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry for itself; each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matt 6:34) This Passing Day. May this passing day honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and be a blessing to you and everyone you meet. Find a stranger and say hello. Don't let another day pass without your day blessing someone else.
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<markcbrunner@thispassingday.com> From Beech Springs, God bless you for Jesus sake.