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Mar 05, 2023 06:00am

Bring It On!

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When our children were young, we spent a lot of our time with a family from our church — Butch and Doris and their children, Skeeter and Stacy, who were about the same age as our kids. Many times, while the four kids were playing, my husband, Pat and I would join Butch and Doris in a rousing card game called Canasta. No gambling was involved, just having a good time.

One night, as soon as Butch walked into our house, bad things started happening to him — he ran into a door frame and hurt his toe, he dropped something and broke it and the list goes on and on. We were almost afraid to get close to him because we were afraid his “bad luck” would rub off on us!

Finally, we sat down at the table with large glasses of soft drinks, ready to start the game. Doris began telling us something, and she loved to “talk with her hands,” gesturing wildly to punctuate what she was saying. Wouldn’t you know it, her hand and Butch’s glass came into close contact and spilled — of course, on Butch’s side of the table.

As the brown liquid spread out and began pouring into his lap, we all held our breath — afraid it would be the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back” and he’d be angry. Instead, he simply cupped his hands and began to, slowly and methodically, pull the liquid that was still on the table directly into his lap with the most pitiful look on his face I’ve ever seen.

His actions were saying, “Bring it on!” Seeing his reaction, the rest of us broke into uncontrollable laughter before helping him clean up the mess.

Have you ever been where Butch was that night — so many things are going wrong in your life that you just give up and say, “Bring it on”? That may not be a bad thing if you’re giving up and submitting to God.
I’ve been through about three months of “bad things” — from the death of my friend since the fourth grade to a roof leak in my attic to problems with my car to a bad fall for my husband and another one for me. For a while, the list of “oh nos!” kept getting longer (15 things!) and I finally submitted to His will (good or bad) and literally started writing the problems down — not so I could say “woe is me” but so I could see how God was going to work each one out. And work them out, He is. It wasn’t immediate, but the list is finally getting shorter, slowly but very surely.

I truly believe my submission to God’s will — regardless of whether it was good or bad — made all the difference. I finally said, “Bring it on… I know God will work it out.”

Since I became a Christian when I was a child, nothing has happened to me by chance. I joked about “bad luck” a little earlier, but luck has nothing to do with it in the life of a Christian. Will bad things happen to us? Of course, we’re human just like everyone else. The difference is that God has promised to walk through our problems with us, regardless of our circumstances and we can trust Him to work everything out “for our good.” Will everything be good — no! But will everything “work together for our good” — absolutely! (Rom. 8:28)

Are you facing difficulties right now? Do they seem to be piling on top of you? If you’re God’s child the best thing you can do is submit to His will and trust Him to work everything out. Don’t stay up all night worrying about your problems. Let Him worry about them — He’s going to be up all night anyhow!

If you haven’t accepted Christ as your Savior, now would be a great time to do that — right in the middle of your chaos! Simply admit that you’re a sinner, ask God to forgive you, believe that Jesus paid the price for your sins on the cross over 2,000 years ago and ask Him to save your soul and take over your life.
Will He solve all your problems immediately if you do? No. But will He walk with you through the problems and use them “for your good?” No doubt about it! Then you can join Butch in saying “Bring it on,” but you can also add, “God’s got this!”