Imagine for a moment that you're standing at the entryway to a large maze - the largest and most complicated one you've ever seen - with hedges so lush that you can't see through them and so high that you can't see over them. At the entryway is a guard who hands you a piece of paper with some instructions: There are clues within the maze to lead you straight through to the exit. Follow them and you won't get lost. There are "goodies" placed at random throughout the maze - these may be big or small. You're free to pick them up as your see them. If at any point, you're lost and you need help, raise your hand and I will come get you. Until then, you're welcome to explore the maze as much as you want. You pocket the instructions and then enter the maze. A few steps ahead, and it feels as though the maze has closed in around you, but you don't mind, because further ahead, you see a little arrow, half-hidden in the wall of leaves to your le
I was having a tough day, today. I was being coaxed into making a huge decision that would impact the rest of my life, and it was a choice that I didn't even want to make. I came back to my room the first chance I got, and let all the emotion out. And after I had relieved some of that buildup in my chest, I remembered John 13:8, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me". I had remembered it a few weeks ago, when I was praying, and again today. And by the time I washed my face and blew my nose, this entire thing fell into place. As God says in Isaiah 48:10, "See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." The fact of the matter is: God allows trouble in our lives, and although that might sounds rude or harsh to some, it's not very different from a mother allowing her infant to touch the outside of a hot cup of tea so that the child will learn what "hot" means. The experience, although painful, te