Pete tells the story of his dad cooking an egg in the microwave.  His dad cracked the shell and poured the egg onto a plate and placed it in the microwave.  All the boys were gathered around the table and his dad was so proud as he brought the cooked egg out of the microwave.  It cooked up beautifully.  His dad sat down after showing the egg off and joined the rest of the family seated at the table.  Everything was good at the family table until his dad touched his egg with the fork.  It was all downhill from there.  When the egg was touched the yoke exploded all over everyone and everything.  Even the ceiling had egg yoke on it.  This experience took the saying “egg on your face” to a whole new level. 

 

Sometimes we don’t know what is beneath the surface until it is touched.     

 

 

We are just like that egg and the old wine skin when we try to combine tuff stuff with the new stuff.  Life is filtered through a faulty lens leaving us vulnerable to faulty assumptions.  Let’s go ahead and name the tuff stuff:  It’s the wrong that was done to us that we can’t get past, can’t forget, the not being chosen or included, the never being good enough, the being on the other end of an adulterous relationship, or maybe being the adulteress, shame, guilt, condemnation, pride, the being lied too, the physical or verbal abuse, the lack of love and support, the inability to forgive, the mindset that continues to tell us “don’t trust anyone” and the list goes on and on and on.  We hear, we see, we evaluate and calculate through the tough stuff.  I hope that as you read through the list that it stands out to you that:

 

God’s signature is not on any of that

 

Not one thing in the list, left to itself, will ever propel you forward 

 

     

 

In fact, if you choose to hold  on to those things you will continue to cycle back through them over and over and that will become your normal.  You will be so friendly with them you no longer even notice them.  I know that in real life if I continue to go over those bumps over and over and especially at a high speed, my vehicle is going to be affected and will need to go to the shop and be fixed.  The way around the bump isn’t to deny it ever existed and push it down deeper, it’s too recycle it.  Until a bump in the road is recycled through God’s love, for His glory and our good it will always be a threat ready to explode leaving a mess and stains everywhere.  So how do we recycle the bump?

 

 

Let’s just pick something.  You can pick what you are dealing with and go through the same exercise as this.  In this exercise we will say that someone has hurt us.  That is something we can all relate to.  It wasn’t dealt with at the time, which is often the case, so now it has sat and festered and is a bigger problem than it was to begin with.  But here we are at this crossroad and we are choosing to smooth the road and stop hitting this same bump over and over.  

 

 

The first thing we are going to do is:

 

Give the person that hurt us and the hurt  to God. 

 

You do that by getting alone with God and honestly pouring out every ounce of hurt until there is nothing left.  It will probably take more than one time.  If you are still dwelling on the hurt then go back and pour out again and again and again until it no longer has a hold on you.  Those that hurt us are not ours to seek vengeance on, get even with, judge or condemn.  We can say the behavior is inappropriate based on God’s Word but the person is God’s to judge and deal with not ours.  The people that hurt you don’t belong to you and you can’t change them and you can’t fix them.  Give them to God and don’t take ownership of them.  They belong to God just like you and I.  We are told to pray for them.  That is our role.  

 

 

Ask God to forgive you for allowing the hurt to control you and give Him control of your life. 

 

Find a trusted friend and share with them and get accountable to someone.  You need friends to pray over you.  If you don’t have friends that are comfortable praying over you, find some.  You will find it difficult if not impossible to experience lasting life change by yourself.  

 

 

Ask God how He would like to use your hurt to make you more like Christ. 

 

Share His answer with a friend and get accountable for carrying that out.

 

 

Ask God how He would like to use your hurt to bring Him glory. 

 

Share His answer with a friend and get accountable for carrying that out.    

 

This isn’t an all inclusive list but it will certainly get you traveling a smoother road.  I hope that you will tune into Friday Friends this Friday to hear the conclusion of Saundra’s story of how she was able to smooth out the bump.

 

This is a journey with God and He has the answers and He supplies friends to partner with us in the journey.  Ask God for wise God loving friends that will help you grow deep and produce much fruit for God’s glory and your good.

 

 

R e S e t