Watching headline news this morning I listened as one of the Minneapolis bridge survivors described the ‘free fall’ feeling when the bridge underneath her collapsed.
It made me think – What happens when the ground you are standing on seems to fall beneath you. No doubt, most of us have experienced times in our life when life seems to ‘collapse’. The things or people we were depending on left. We lost something valuable. Disappointment seems to be on every menu. What do we do when the ground under us crumbles and we are left questioning our faith and questioning our God?
A few things come to mind:
- Step back and breathe. When in crisis our emotions begin to play a more active role in our thinking and actions – while normal it can be dangerous. When we respond to ‘collapsing’ moments of life based on our emotions, chances are we will make bad decisions. It is important to step back and take some time before reacting.
- Deal with it. Some people choose to ignore the fact that things are collapsing – the seemingly can find the silver lining in a septic tank – but sometimes those personalities are actually in denial – dealing with hurt by refusing to deal with it. Problem is, given enough pressure – any dam can break and cause mass destruction
- Understand Biblical Faith for what it is. Some see faith as spiritual muscle – If you pray hard enough, long enough. If you believe enough – good will happen. That’s wishful thinking, often misunderstood to be faith. According to Hebrews 11 faith is simply being confident that God is who He says He is, and will do what He says He will do.
- Remember God sees what we cannot see. When my parents would discipline me for trying to stick a fork in an electrical outlet – I didn’t ‘feel’ it as love at the time. Today however, I know that the 120 volts of electricity would have hurt much worse than the spanking.
- Don’t assume everything to be God’s Will. God’s sovereignty is often misunderstood to mean that God ’causes’ everything to happen. The limited intellectual capacity of our minds make it impossible to fully know the mind of God. True, God has the power to stop any evil thing for happening, but free will is a gift He gave to man. The children of God don’t always accurately represent the image of their heavenly father – therefore it is unfair of us to judge God based on their actions.
The thing about ‘collapses’ is that they can happen anytime. The good news is this: God will be there every time.
– Brad
bradraby.com 
Lets be honest Dad’s woopings may be as bad as 120 volts at least when you bash out 6 car windshields of grandpa’s car that was never used…..