bring the rain

You know that saying "when it rains, it pours"? Well, I must say that has been what my life has felt like over the past couple of weeks. As most of you know, I went through the process of buying a car (well, my parents buying me a car)--which was by no means an easy task. It was actually rather difficult---I think in all it ended up being about a month long adventure from the time I found the car, to now when it has finally ended. I'll skip all the crazy details, basically it is difficult to get a large amount of money to someone on another continent---and it's difficult to prove you are a resident, when you aren't.

The car buying in itself would have been plenty to overwhelm me, but then came the past 8 days. I had a flat tire--and not just one that could be fixed, it had to be replaced. Crazy potholes. Then, my keypad went out in my blackberry, then just yesterday I had another flat tire. Same thing--must be replaced. I realize that all of this seems small, and believe me, writing it now I almost feel silly, but at the time you could only describe me using two words--completely overwhelmed.

It was just the combination of many different things--the busyness of school and different situations with people in my life--added on top of trying to figure out how to deal with all of these things when I didn't know where to go to get my tire fixed and couldn't call verizon to fix my cell phone.

All of this to say---do you ever just think we get way to overwhelmed with the things of this world? Obviously I do-----In the Word, God tells us that these are "light and momentary trials" which I see now, but at the time--they seemed anything but light. I just wanted a break. I couldn't help but cry and just feel like giving up. Then while driving down the road sunday afternoon, it hit me---it was like God just spoke and said "Courtney, when was the last time you cried like this over someone's salvation." And there it was. Here I am crying about an overwhelming situation which I can do nothing about--it is what it is. Life happens--things mess up, tires go flat...BUT on the other hand, I have a world around me that is dying and going to hell because I am too busy crying about my struggles to stop and tell them about Jesus!

I'm not by any means saying that we won't have difficult days--we are human, they will come and they will affect us. However, when I begin to allow the momentary trials of this world overwhelm me and affect me more than eternal matters, something is desperately wrong. My focus is not where it should be--my priorities must be straightened out.

I pray that God reminds all of us to keep our focus on Him--to not be overcome by the things of this world. Yes they are difficult. Yes, we will have difficult days. Yes, it's ok to cry about them. But it is not ok to worry so much about things I can't control that I forget the real reason I am here......