Everyone has dealt with suffering, disease, accidents and the pain of life’s struggles. “Why me? Believers in Christ, like me, tend to blame the maker of all things for these things.

I have gone down that path many times. Frustrated and feeling my enjoyment clock got set back, again. The inescapable ups and downs. “Spring forward and Fall back” Again. That universal clock setting which we all have memorized for the absurd WWII effort to Help production is here again today (March 8^th) and it fits our dilemma perfectly. I was doing so well too.

Now a setback and I have to deal with….a problem. Thanks for nothing comes out of my lips. If it’s a really tough one I am tempted to use ‘bad language’ and curse. I have learned new curse words to supplant the bad ones. “Styx and Hades!” and a bit of humor to alleviate the situation.

A very short time ago I was given a way out of this cycle of blame and anger which of course was a meal I ate many times in my life. As I was reading one of my favorite books by Mark Buechner, I began panning for the gold, the refinement impetus. Plato, Augustine, and Solomon prepared me to ‘listen’ for the rattle and the sparkle sounds. A baptism of sentences that rippled and waved the wisdom of gold I could now see.

I am not worthless, bringing down judgment upon myself! The self pity and condemnation. Almost along the lines of ‘who sinned?’ Biblical Pharisee stuff. I looked again at the precious and grabbed a hold of it with the Golem in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. My precious indeed.

I had ‘fallen back’ and had almost undone progress. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s progress rings true with the burden on our back. I quickly sprang forward and with an audible sigh dropped failure at the feet of my Savior and listened to Him. My precious indeed.

We go round and round the speedy carousel at 80 mph and attempt to grasp the gold ring of reward for being first to succeed at the race of life.

There is no red flag, there is no race and as you jockey in the inside corner, whipping your self to go faster and further, the finish line is indeed the finish. With a dressage bounce in your step, walk again as the prodigal and be embraced by truth and love lost then gained in the joy of the Father that waits for us to spring forward and embrace Him, the truth of life itself. Welcome to the winners circle.

It’s pretty good. Norm Peterson / Jack Gator