Problems: Take Your Lap

Everyone has problems.  Things come up in life that we have difficulties dealing with.  Why does this always happen to me?  Why do they rear their ugly head at the worst possible moment?  While I won’t profess to say that I know why they come, I have identified 3 types of situations that I believe are common to everyone.  I hope something that I say will help.  

In the next few installments, I want to address a few things about these 3 types of circumstances.  The 1st is what I call, “Take Your Lap.”  Number 2 is “Square Peg in Round Hole.”  The last is “Sheep in Wolves' clothing.”  

Take your lap

In many schools, if you act up in gym class, the coach/teacher will have your run a lap around the track or gymnasium.  If you are bad, you take a lap.  Isn’t that the way life is?  We get punished for doing the wrong things.  Some type of punishment follows making bad decisions.  Now I won’t say that happens for all bad decisions.  Often, we get away with things.  Admit it.  We do.  Still, I believe that life has a way of balancing things out.  

Have you ever noticed some things in your life seem to repeat themselves?  Certain themes reoccur in your life.  I believe it is God having you take a lap.  Some of you may be thinking to yourself, “Yeah, God has it in for me.  He likes playing with me.”  

Let me ask you something.  What is discipline for?  Why do parents discipline their children?  It is done so they will learn right from wrong but more than that.  We want our kids to grow up and be productive members of society.  Discipline helps mold character.  These are simple answers but I like to keep my entries brief so I’ll move on and trust you get the idea.

If you want your child to learn something but they aren’t learning it, you need to repeatedly discipline them and show them the correct way.  Granted, you also need to do it with love as any good parent should.  We want what is best for our children.  

After God led the Israelites out of Egypt and they crossed the Red Sea and received the Ten Commandants, they rebelled against God.  They didn’t believe God could get them into the promised land.  What did God do?  He had them take laps around the desert for the next 40 years?  After that time, they got another chance at it and they were faithful.  

If you repeatedly have the same problems, maybe God wants you to learn a lesson you have been refusing to learn.  Find out what it is, do it right and go into your promised land.  God wants you to learn your lesson and He is patient until you do.