Have you ever just felt like singing the blues? You know when you have a flat tire, the cat throws up on your new carpet and the baby has the flu. Sometimes we have a bad day and just feel like singing the blues.
So what do we do when that bad day turns into a bad week or worse yet, a bad year?
In last week's YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL, I polled the readers the following question: "What is most likely to cause you to "sing the blues"? The top 3 answers this week were...
1. 60% of those voting said that financial stresses would cause them to sing the blues.
2. 40% of those polled said that they would sing the blues over family issues.
3. 20% of the readers voted and said that frustrations at work have them singing the blues.
Wow. What an incredible result from this weeks poll. Sounds to me like some of us are having not only bad days, but simply bad situations in our life that got us down.
Have you ever had someone say to you, "I know what you are going thru!" Maybe someone has gone thru the same illness that you are struggling with right now. Possibly you have just lost your job and someone comes along that had been laid off and can relate to the stresses you are experiencing. Whatever your situation, when we hear the phrase "I know what you are going thru", probably mixed feelings run thru our mind.
On one hand, it is great to know others have also experienced what you are going thru but sometimes when people say they know what we are going thru ... we wonder "do they, do they really?" Even though no two people can experience the same exact thing, we often place ourselves in a pity party and feel like our pain is isolated and NO-ONE can know how we feel.
PSALM 22:1 "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from My deliverance and from My words of groaning?"
FORSAKEN. Sometimes in our moment of singing the blues ~ we feel forsaken. We feel like nobody cares. Nobody understands. But Jesus knew exactly what the feeling of abandonment felt like, He can empathize with us when we have these similar feelings.
I once heard a story of a tightrope artist who had strung a rope across Niagara Falls and he then took a wheelbarrow back and forth over the falls on the rope. Those watching cheered and cheered. Then the tightrope artist asked a bystander if he thought he could do it again. The bystander said, "Of course I believe that you can! I have seen you do it many times!" Then the tightrope artist told the bystander.."Then get in the wheelbarrow!" The man quickly changed his mind about what he believed.
Wow.
The question today is not "When you cry out singing the blues ... do you wonder if God is there", instead I ask you "When the times comes, do you have enough trust to put yourself in the wheelbarrow?"
Amen, speak it sister.
ReplyDeleteGosh, that is something to ponder. Actions speak louder than words. When it comes right down to it, do we trust God even when we don't always feel Him?
ReplyDelete