[Wednesday's Devotional] - Sometimes you win...

Occasionally, well quite often actually, I like to play Pinball on the computer.  I always enjoyed playing Pinball, they used to have the games in pubs when I was a younger.  You needed to use a bit of skill, and luck, to get a good score.  I was not too bad really, though often someone would do better than me.  Now I play by myself – against the computer.   You get three balls and see what you can score.  It often seems that the computer is playing the game and the ball is not going where I expect it too.  Then just when I think this might be a good one the ball doesn’t go where it should and next second it’s gone.  There seem to be quite a number of poor games before I get a good one.  I know with the first ball when it’s going to be a poor game, so I cancel and start again.  Sometimes there are 7 or 8 rubbish games before a reasonable or good one.

 

Life can be like that, can’t it?  Some days nothing seems to go the way you want or need it to.  You get interruptions at a vital moment, or are wanted to do something else NOW!  You just can’t get the job done as you know it needs to be done, try as you may.  So frustrating!  It’s like a slap in the face with a wet fish, you feel like screaming.  Finally you get it done, it’s taken much of the day.  Then you are told they want it done a bit differently, a change of style or something needs adding or removing.  I know just how you feel, believe me.

 

Moses must have felt like that quite often when the Israelites were on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land.  He got nothing but moaning and complaining about one thing after another.  Then they wanted a god they could see and worship rather than the real God they couldn’t see.  I wonder how often he felt like saying, “Here you take the staff, you lead us where You think we should go, and you can be the one everyone moans at because things aren’t the way they want them to be!”  But he didn’t, but he did get frustrated and lose his temper now and then.  Ultimately he didn’t get to lead them into the Promised Land, but maybe he had done the job he was asked to do and it was time to rest.

 

I remember the MD of a company I worked for asking me how things were going in my department.  I told him, “We’re doing alright, but we’re really overloaded and we’re struggling a bit.”  He replied with a smile, “Keep struggling!”

 

I say the same to you, “Keep struggling.” God is with you all the way.

 

Jim Finch