Morning commute

I have about a 40 minute commute to work each morning and as much as I dislike the time it takes to drive to work, many mornings I find myself having my morning chats with the Man upstairs.  I use this time to pray, to reflect on scripture and to ask any pressing questions I may have.  It is amazing what God can reveal to us when we take the time to ask, meditate, and be still.  We constantly keep our minds and bodies so busy, no wonder it is hard to feel anything but stressed out.

In our Sunday night bible study class, the question keeps arising "Why does God allow bad things to happen?".  This is not an easy question for anyone to answer, but it is something that is human nature to ponder.  After all, many bad things happen to each and every one of us to varying degrees.   Why do some of us get off "easy" while others are facing turmoil after turmoil.  I wish I knew.  Naturally this topic comes up on my morning commutes to work.  I was pondering what our pastor had said about Joseph.  Joseph, son of Jacob, was sold into slavery because of his brothers' jealousy.  He ended up in Egypt, where he is able to interpret a dream for the Pharaoh, and receives a position in the Egyptian government.  This position allows him to store up food for a famine that God reveals is coming.  His brothers end up coming to Egypt, looking for food.  Joseph is then able to save his family.  He has no resentment toward his brothers for selling him into slavery or hatred about their jealousy.  He actually credits everything to divine intervention and is happy that he is able to go ahead and prepare a way for them to survive the famine.  Genesis 45:7-8 "And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God:".  I'm not sure about you but if my brothers sold me into slavery, I would have a hard time not keeping all the food for myself and sending them on their way with a few choice words in between.  Joseph, however, was able to take a step back and realize that this was God's plan all along.  And even if he had to suffer short term, he was happy to be able to preserve his family. This somewhat made sense that God may allow bad things to happen for the greater good.  After all, He did allow his son, Jesus, to die on a cross for all of our sins.

 So I moved on to other topics on my morning commute and I saw a dog in a fenced yard.  This dog seemed pretty bored but to keep entertained it would race each car that would pass by. The dog had no chance of winning, because each time it was stopped by the fence.  The fence was preventing it from reaching its full potential.  I felt a little sorry for the dog being caged up, but I knew that without the fence, something bad would  happen. It wouldn't be a matter of  "if" but a matter of "when".  I mean there are only so many cars you can chase, before one might run you over. I immediately felt God telling me, "I love you enough to set you free...even if that means bad things could happen." And then it was all so clear to me..God could have kept us caged up and place all these boundaries in our lives, but He wanted us to have free will.  And sometimes with freedom bad things can happen.  But sometimes in those bad situations, God can be glorified and a plan for the greater good can be carried out.  And then I could not help but to laugh..God just used a dog in a fenced yard to answer my life questions. Oh how I love my morning commutes.  He does tell us "ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.." and when we ask I truly believe He will find a way to give us those answers if we take the time to listen.