This morning, after promising my kids that we could do school at McDonald's (because homeschool HAS to get out of the house once in a while), the morning rapidly went downhill. I had a hair mishap which had me in the shower washing my hair, which meant I had to leave the house with a wet head. I rarely leave the house with wet hair because I don't favor the "drowned rat" look on myself. Drowned rat = irritated. I was hungry and had not had even a single ounce of caffeine yet (which meant I was functioning at half speed). I had something on my mind (which had been there for the past few days just bugging me) and that made me even more irritated. We were under a time constraint because we had to be back in time for the kids to get picked up for gymnastics. And I forgot to put deoderant on.
(Can't you just feel my mood at this point?!)
Now McDonald's is not very far from my house. Nothing in this town is very far from my house. Maybe a little over 5 minutes. But on the way there I got stuck behind not one, but TWO Sunday drivers!! (If you don't know what Sunday drivers are, let me help you out: in this small town, the stores, restaurants, and streets used to close down on Sunday. On Sunday mornings after church, people took their sweet beppy time getting home because THERE WAS NOTHING TO DO!!) Back to this morning: because I was stuck behind a little Sunday driver, I missed not one, but TWO green lights! Which is really hard to do because we don't have many lights in our town. And half of them are useless. I think it took us double the time to get to McDonald's this morning - 10 whole minutes!
I know it's a simple and somewhat silly example, but I think this situation is indicative of bigger things in our lives. We have so much pressure put upon us, as parents, spouses, children, community members, being employees or employers, volunteers (or someone like me who just struggles to say no to people), that it sometimes feels like we could explode! And then, at that point something more gets put on our backs and we wobble beneath the weight of it all.
But let me share with you the picture I see when this happens:
I do a little weightlifting. Yes, skinny little me, I lift decent amounts of weight for my size. It's a funny mental image, picturing me with a barbell slung over my back to squat or me holding it above my head in a press of some kind, but I do it, well, because I can. Sometimes, I will lift to see what my maximum amount of weight is for a particular lift. For example, a deadlift (which in simplified terms is picking up a weighted barbell from the ground to a standing position, using correct form, mind you!) In order to find my max weight, I start with a manageable amount. And I continue to add a little each time I lift until I feel I can no longer lift without losing my correct form. (For those who worry about me doing such crazy things, I do this under the watchful eye of my trainer, my husband). At the end of this process, I am usually amazed at how strong I have become, as well as the amount of weight I can handle!
(Do you see where I'm going with this?!)
Life, my friends, will always pile up on us. Sometimes it is for a season. Sometimes it feels like it might last your entire life. But it is making you stronger. When you go through the heavy stuff and emerge a stronger person, you now have the gift of knowing just how much you can handle. So when you get thrust into another heavy part of life, you can look back and see how strong you were last time and KNOW that you will come out again, stronger and more amazing on the other side.
That God of ours, He's pretty smart.
He knows how to grow us.
He knows our limits.
AND He's right next to us to help us carrying the weight when it seems like it's too heavy.
But I still hope I don't get stuck behind any Sunday drivers tomorrow.
KC
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