Bloop...Bloop...Bloop

Kids are often a great inspiration for all sorts of craziness. Yesterday was my oldest sons day, and our conversations grow more and more intriguing as he gets older.

While heading home last evening, I asked him if I was still going to be cool enough for him to hang out with after he grows up? 

His reply was: “Nope. In just a few years, you are going to go – bloop, bloop, bloop. 

Hamburg St - Federal Hill
(Baltimore, MD)

You may have no idea what this bloop word is, but I understand it clearly. What he meant was that when I get old, I’m going to die. He was joking around and we had a good laugh over it…but it did get me to thinking about things.

On this journey of life, we all experience the highs and the lows. When happy things happen to us = we are happy. When bad things occur = worry, doubt, and concern fill those places where happiness used to be. 

We have all heard that happiness is derived from the root word happenings. When good things happen to you…naturally, you are happy. But what about the moments when those happenings are not so good?

In our flesh, we do not enjoy this part of the process. As part of our human nature, we do not like for things to have to die. A natural death on this earth is something that not one human being has control over. Scripture tells us that it is appointed…our time is set.

Wall Painting - Federal Hill
(Baltimore, MD)

But there is a death that we do have control over – this death is one of the most difficult events that any of us have to face. We even learn from the Apostle Paul that this operation has be done daily. It is the death of our will.

Salvation in Christ is a gift freely given to us by our Lord and Savior…but a death still has to occur. With death comes a separation. A separation from our wants and what we feel is vital to our existence. It is an actual war against our thought processes and what we think of the daily happenings in our lives.

When we die to our flesh, we are proving our dependence on Jesus. When worry, doubt, and concern engulf you in the middle of bad times, what you are actually saying is: God, your way is wrong.

(II Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and 

self-discipline. 8 … With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News.) (NLT)

This journey with Him is not all about suffering. But we cannot get caught up in the mentality that Christ followers will not go through difficult moments. Life is a tough teacher. When you make the choice to say, “Not my will, but thine be done”, the process is only beginning. There are some things that have to die. His thoughts are not my thoughts; and His ways are not like mine. It is in the Romans 8 experience that I begin to understand that all things work together for the good. And once I begin to grasp this principle, JOY takes the place of the trivial emotions that once held me captive.

Bad happenings…this is only a season in my process. 

Something needs to bloop, bloop, bloop … for it is working together for my good. If your present is difficult, find JOY in knowing that He’s going to finish what He has begun in you.