Stampede

Has anybody ever seen the movie, "The Lion King?" If you have, recall the scene where Simba get's caught in the stampede. Right before the stampede starts, all you can hear is this low rumble. And it's not the good-towels in the dryer-low rumble. It's more like the-here comes the death star-low rumble. And like an idiot, he just stood there confused. Not until he saw all those animals barreling down on him did he take off running. Then of course, daddy had to come down and save his butt, and we all saw what happened from there.

I don't want to be ultra-revealing about my life or anything, but I think that pretty aptly describes the last few months of my life. I heard the rumble....oh....I heard it alright. I knew something was coming. I vividly remember sitting down and telling Andrew Schaefer that I heard it. I guess I was just hoping that maybe that low rumble was a more of a-when the furnace kicks on-low rumble, rather than a-when all the kids go running for the dodgeballs at the beginning of the game, and you're the fat kid-low rumble. Well it happened, the stampede came rolling down the hill, and I was too late. I was stuck in the middle of a gigantic swarm of bad news. Call it satan, call it the consequences of my actions, call it bad timing, call it whatever you want. Bad news from all angles friends. I went to Steak and Shake tonight at about 1:30 in the morning, and just sat there, looking out the window at nothing. Why didn't I get prayed up when I felt it was coming? Why wasn't I ready? How could I let this happen? I wasn't mad at God. It's not His fault I wasn't ready when the hard stuff came. I had nobody to blame but the guy who was staring back at me in my bowl of soup.

---BUT---

I came home, sitting in my chair, wondering how in the world I was going to get to sleep tonight with everything I had on my mind when God decided He'd clear his throat a bit. He reminded me of a verse that I was so focused on at the beginning of this summer, and forgot all about. Jeremiah 2:13: "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." When all these things in my life were falling away from me, it felt like my life was falling apart. God reminded me in that moment tonight that He is the number one focus of my life. I let all of these side things take priority all too often, and it get's me into trouble. I need to always be mindful of the fountian of living water, and be focused on God; let Him always be the center. And when I hear the rumbling, I don't have to be worried. I can just hold tight to that knowledge. I can know that life can rumble and shake me up all it wants. God's ultimatly in control of all of it.

I know it sounds corny. I know you've probably heard it before. But sometimes, the simple things don't ring true until you're forced to realize it on your own. I can wake up tommorow knowing that what I thought was a mess really isn't a mess at all. It's just God shifting my course a bit. And sure, it'll be a little weird, and it'll take some getting used to where He is taking me. But there's so much hope in knowing God is taking me wherever I'm going. So bring on the weirdness. I'm ready now...