Does life defeat you as regularly as it does me? My best laid plans are thwarted, and rarely do my good intentions come to fruition. Goals are not met, resolutions are not kept, and wishes are not fulfilled. The good deeds I vow to accomplish are left undone, while unimportant but somehow urgent tasks consume my time and energy.

Every morning I vow to do better than I did the day before, but by evening I find, in reality, I have not. The frustrations that attacked me the day before continue to pelt me. My bad habits, faulty thought patterns, inefficiencies, and proneness to messing up remain.

I think about this quandary often. Did God design us, we who were created in His image, to live lives of frustration? Did He program the things of the earth to annoy, discourage, and defeat us at every turn?

No. God created the world to serve us and to provide all our physical needs. Frustration, discouragement and defeat were not “created” by God at all. Our current disappointing existence came about because of the Fall.

Within the past week I have misjudged, misplaced, or mishandled just about everything in my world. I move from one mess-up to the next, and I suspect you do too.

This continual messing-up takes its toll on our lives. We get ulcers, we get depressed, we get cranky, and we get mean. Our hearts scream, “We can’t take this kind of pressure forever!” Our brains ask, “Is this how life was meant to be?” Our souls cry out, “Why, God?”

Life is hard. Fender benders, hail damage, and rained-out picnics visit all of us.  However, this sad state will not last forever. God will deliver us. He will give us new bodies, a new home, and a new way of life. In the world to come, we will be free from suffering and failure.

In the meantime, clean up your messes, get your car’s dents repaired, and choose a new date for your rained-out picnic. The One who planned perfection for you in the first place is determined to give it to you still.

Debbie Scales                    358 Words                    April 3, 2016